Sunday, September 28, 2008

Staging

So my nomadic saga of moving, packing, repacking and repacking again continues. From a week in Seattle, to a week in Philadelphia sleeping on my brother's floor, to finally a room at the Holiday Inn- Historic dist. in Philly. Will be here till Tuesday morning. I do have my cell on me but I may be too busy to actually talk so it'd be a quick hi/bye.

I'm feeling a bit lazy/tired tonight so I will list some random highlights of the past two weeks:

- my computer died and Apple's genius bar didn't fix till the day I left for philly even though they had it in their custody for a week, and they had promised it back in two days. Very stressful. Their excuse? Sure it would only take 3 hours to actually fix it but their queues are backed up and there are other older wait times that need to be attended to. Totally makes me feel guilty about those users I let stew in my opens for a week when their problems were actually quick and easy fixes.

-Philly! Family! love them, heart them. So happy we all got spend a whole week together. It was a really good and cozy time.

- New York for a couple days included tasty tasty cookies from Levain, boat cruises, and Broadway. Speaking of family, isn't mine pretty?


- Liberty bell, Independance Hall, and Ben Franklin's non-existant house when we got back from New York

- Lots and lots of tv and couch chillin'

- Parents went home. very very sad.

- Brother drops me off at Holiday Inn. Also sad.

- No longer Peace Corps Invitee. Now officially Peace Corps Trainee. very cool

- Meet training group. Very cool kids. Like them bunches. Plus they're fun to hang out with.

- Maria ( my room mate) and I found a mouse in our hotel room. It looks like a pet that got left behind by a family. Holiday Inn concierge very unalarmed and unconcerned when we let them know there's a mouse in our room. Basically just shrugged their shoulders and said, "So?". Well so, Maria and I have decided to name the mouse Shadow, since I didn't want to believe there's a mouse in the room and almost convinced Maria that it was just a shadow... and then the darned thing scurried right past as though summoned.

- sleepy, tired, want to go to bed but must call mom. Good night!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Let's get the logistics out of the way

While I'm lounging around in my mud hut not using the outhouse for fear of a snake jumping out of nowhere and biting my ass (k, my expectations on living arrangement are perhaps a bit exaggerated), I will not have internet. In fact if you email me, I wouldn't expect a response till about a month and even then it'll probably be unsatisfactorily short because of time limits on internet usage. And so I welcome you all to rebuild your cursive muscles and become my pen pal. For those of you too young to remember what a pen pal is/forgot what the heck it is, wikipedia is your friend, you ignoramus. Bonus for you, you get real live mail in your mailbox addressed to you, with stamps, paper and ink galore. Bonus for me, when someone offers me some fried locust I can gracefully bow out with a "ahem... I .. uh ... have some correspondence to catch up with. thanks anyway". Alright fine I admit, I'm just super psyched to reintroduce the word "corresspondance" into my vocab. Could it be the tipping point that sends me down the slippery slope of "pip! pip!", "cheerio!" and all that other "balderdash"? Perhaps, but at least you won't be around to hear me sound like an obnoxious nitwit.

So here's my address during training:

Bureau du Corps de la Paix - ATTN: Nandini Jayarajan
B.P. 12091
Post Zoom Ankorondrano
Antananarivo 101
Madagascar

Don't forget to add "PAR AVION" somewhere on the envelope so that it goes by airmail.

The Matt Fernandez Plan:

For those you creative writing types, feel free to join in on the Matt Fernandez Plan. As it takes about 6-9 weeks for me to receive mail, you can plan on having a story or sample of writing done ever 6-9 weeks. By the time you send your new work you'd have received my edits and comments on the last sample plus a sample of my work. The plan is genius cuz 1) I'm a great editor (just ask Matt), 2) you'll have a defined but flexible deadline by which you need to have something finished, 3) I'll waste precious stamp money on you asking where your writing sample is and you'll feel so guilty, the shame will fuel your creative juices (ahem... Ryan).

As far as other telecommunication methods, I'll probs get a phone soon after I land and you guys can send me drunken text messages for free, and I'll save the best ones, for example:

From: Matt
Aghh' ask drunk right now' ur my fav dry jk wperson! I live u why can't I hit the tight keys !& woooooooo
Feb 9, 12:13 am

From: Jeff
Wow, I like Indian men... can be very hot!
Mar 1, 7:42 am

And the cutest...

From: Morgan
Im sort of drunk but i love you!
Mar 7, 10:59 pm

(omg matt, jeff, and morgan please don't kill me for re-posting these!!)

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Omigod, fine already! here's the blog you all insisted on. jeez

Alright blog time, finally.

I am completely knackered from the past week. Quit Facebook Thursday 4th, 2008. Holy crap. Pretty sure on some level it's the stupidest thing I've ever done. sigh, *shrug* and oh well on that I suppose. Then of to Portland from Friday to Sunday for some Morgy and Jeffy time which happily turned into Cora, Gretchers and others joining in on the reunion. And then Palo Alto again for a two day intense nauseating packing and cleaning session of the apartment. Ugh I say, ugh. I have glimpsed hell folks and it's being trapped packing up and cleaning an apartment that refuses to be packed and cleaned. Finally Wednesday, I turned in my keys, folded myself into my car turned sardine can on wheels, and had Krista drive me to Portland. Zoning out for 12 hours gazing out at the largest trailer park in America (or what certainly seemed like it) and pretty winding mountain scenery was glorious. Oh and watching Krista's face as she chomps down on a Jelly Belly she thinks is birthday cake flavored but is actually booger flavored; priceless. Everyone should feed that girl gross flavored Jelly Bellies. It's a gift to yourself that keeps on giving. Crashed at Morgan and Cora's, and wrestled with Tobias the cat last night, drove up the rest of the way to Seattle suburbia, with a stop to drop of Krista at the airport. Came home ate glorious mommy food, unpacked car with dad and cousin, and am now writing the world's worst blog entry ever, which makes me realize I should've probably started this thing when I was more awake. But maybe it's better this way. Keep the bar low, that way no one will expect more out of me until BAM i wow them all with the awesomest blog entry the world has ever seen. K, now I'm just talking to myself. Typy-typy later.