The Rest of My Week

It's Sunday morning and I'm feeling a little bit rough. Maybe it was the long exhausting week... or maybe it was the party outside my window that kept me up until two in the morning. I'm not sure.

The whole "having Sunday off" thing turned out to be too good to be true. Looks like I'll be back in the studio for probably another four or five hours today. We just couldn't get it all done yesterday. We worked hard from 9:30am to 2:30pm... and we still only got our stones editioned before the next group arrived to use the press. To be quite honest though, I was a little relieved when they showed up. The wooden handles on the leather ink roller had caused blisters to start forming on my hands, and my head was so tired from counting passes of ink that I didn't think I could handle another edition.

But enough about the litho things... what else has been going on?

Food

My biggest excitement this week has mostly been leaving the studio to get food with my fellow printers. A few times I went to fast food places nearby and the rest of the time I just came home and made lunch or dinner for myself. The biggest thing I've made so far was probably Creamy Tomato Basil Bisque. Unfortunately, I don't have a blender here... so it turned out more like Chunky Tomato Basil Bisque and wasn't as good. I also made spaghetti one night, which was the best spaghetti I've ever made. I almost regretted inviting my fellow printer, Ana, over for dinner because I wanted to eat the whole pot myself.

One of the printers is Korean and her mom was in town visiting and getting her daughter settled in. She invited everyone over for lunch on Friday and it was the best thing ever. All eight of us crammed down into the little garden apartment and we greeted with a giant feast of Korean Food. It was fantastic.

Baseball

I haven't had a lot of time to enjoy my subscription to MLB.TV. I'm usually stuck in the studio during gametimes and can't get the thing to work on the computers over there. I did watch the game vs. Atlanta yesterday and was pleased to see my Cardinals rally for a 5-4 win. I never would have believed it a few months ago, but there is still actually hope for the postseason. Crazy.

One of my fellow student printers, Patrick, is from Milwaukee and he is a big Brewers fan. This pleases me for several different reasons. First of all, I'm very glad not to be the only person in the group of eight who is interested in sports. There are three computers in the student area and one is usually locked into the Cardinals webpage and the other to the Brewers webpage. We'll run back and forth to check the scores and give updates to each other. This includes giving each other high fives or fist bumps when someone scores, and condolences when someone loses. The other interesting thing about the dynamic is that our teams are actually rivals in the National League Central division. For most of the year, Milwaukee has been in first place. But now the Chicago Cubs have taken the lead. The Cardinals trail closely behind in third place. So Patrick and I currently share a hatred of the Cubs as well and celebrate when they lose.

Of course, it's all fun and games now... but once the Cardinals creep past the Cubs and Brewers for first place in the NL Central, we'll see if it remains so friendly. The one things that we can both agree on is that we'd rather have the other team go to the playoffs than see the Cubs go. Stupid Cubs.

Packages

The first of my care packages arrived yesterday. Carrie sent me some of my mail and some magazines and some treats and a shiny new Nalgene water bottle. (I never drink enough water). It also included a new caricature drawing pencil that I had ordered shortly before I left Six Flags. We use CARAN d'ACHE mechanical pencils and mine had gotten so worn that the lead would constantly slip when I was pressing down hard. It was really really annoying. I'm glad to have a new one.

The other package was completely unexpected. It came from my Six Flags buddy Jason and included a nice letter and a nice comfortable Mountain Dew t-shirt.

Neighbors

While my guest house is in a very secure fenced in area off the street with lots of trees around and such, I try to be mindful of what I'm doing when my shades are open. The problem is that three of my windows fall in the fenced in backyard of the main house where my new neighbor Katie lives. While this hasn't actually happened, she could be sitting at her patio table and if my blinds were shut wrong, she could see into my house while I ran around naked. Needless to say, I don't usually run around naked. But the other night, I had gotten into my pajamas and was relaxing at my computer desk, talking on the phone to my pal Sabrina, and I hear this weird knock at my kitchen window. My hair was all flattened and crazy because I had been wearing a hat all day. And I just had on boxer shorts, so I was scrambling to find some pants to throw on. To top it all off, my kitchen blinds weren't shut all the way, so I'm sure I looked funny running around the house, cleaning up messes and putting on pants before I opened the door.

This was the first time that I met my new neighbor. She seemed very nice and informed me that she was having a party the next night. She wanted to assure me that she didn't normally throw a lot of parties but that she was having her fellow grad students and professors over for the evening. The party was supposed to go from roughly 6pm to 11pm and I told her that it wasn't a problem at all. She even invited me over to the party, and while I knew I probably wouldn't go, I gave the obligatory, "Yeah, I might be able to make it."

So yesterday evening, I'm enjoying not being at Tamarind and watching the Cardinals game. It started getting a little dark in the apartment, so I flipped on the lights and sat back down. A few seconds later I hear another knock at the kitchen window. This time I had good hair and was wearing pants, so I got the door and found my neighbor hanging over the fence. She invited me to the party again and offered to bring me food. I told her I was watching a baseball game and that I would come by later. Of course, I don't know why those words came out of my mouth. Because the last thing I wanted to do was go hang out with a bunch of people that I didn't know at all. So then I was trapped. My game ended and I wanted to go hang out at Tamarind or maybe go for a walk. But if I left my house, my too-close-for-comfort neighbor would see me and make me come to her party. So I just stayed inside. I was held hostage in my own house, basically. It was awful.

The worst part is that the party ended up going until two in the morning! And her patio is right outside my bedroom window, so I could hear everything that was going on. I didn't want to shut the window because that would require me to open the blinds and I didn't want to draw attention to myself. Especially after not showing up to the party. The neighbor probably would have knocked on my bedroom window and told me to come out there or something.

Today

I'm going back to Tamarind at 11 this morning and hope not to be there forever. Patrick is having a barbecue at his house tonight and I'd hoped to make something to take, but I'm not sure when I'll have the time to go the the store and make something. Maybe I can make up a big pot of Ramen noodles. (ha ha)