Krazy

Hurray, it's February! This month brings much joy for the following reasons: my birthday (the 21st) and subsequent presents, Dena's birthday (the 4th), my trip to Kenyon (13th-16th), the day after Valentine's Day (candy on sale!), a federally mandated holiday (President's Day), and it's the shortest month (which means that spring will seem closer that much sooner).

See? February is the best month there is. Obviously.

For me and many others, these past couple weeks have seen a phenomenon return to its unrivaled dominance of our lives: LOST. It's back, baby! And more confusing than ever! At this point I've pretty much given up trying to figure out what's going on. Instead, I'm just enjoying the ride and the plethora of "WTF?!" moments this show brings me every Wednesday night at 9pm EST. I've also come to realize that I'm in love with over half the characters, men and women. There are so many awesome ones to choose from! But you can keep Jack, Kate, and Charlotte to yourselves. I couldn't care less about that trio of duds.

I've seen Dylan twice in the past two weeks, and I'm absolutely amazed at how quickly the little guy is changing and growing. He can now speak (kind of), run, jump, make funny faces, dance, understand English, sing the alphabet, and name things around the apartment. He's 1 1/2. It's insane! I love seeing the new things he surprises me with every time I go over there. He's an actual (tiny) human being now with a full-blown personality, instead of just a cute human-shaped blob that makes noise and poops. Although he still does that, too.

This past Saturday I went ice skating for the first time since Yuval and I had our first date. We went with some folks from our kickball team (another reason I'm looking forward to Spring) and had a blast. I tried skating with rented "hockey" skates (they're really called "recreational" skates because they're not as nice as hockey skates), and that made a huge difference in my ability to stay upright. Plus, they didn't hurt my ankles at all since they have more padding than figure skates. After the first shaky 10 minutes, I was skating around the rink all by myself at a moderate speed! And the only time I feel was when Yuval made too quick of a turn while holding my hands and I slid onto the ice in slow motion. No harm done! I really enjoy skating--I just wish I lived closer to somewhere I could skate more often!

Hip Hop class is tons of fun. My knee was bruised completely black by the end of the second class, but I got kneepads for today so I should be fine. It's a great workout and Henry, our instructor, is really funny. Chinese II is also going well, mostly because there's a lot more emphasis on conversation in this class than there was in the last one I took. I was 30 minutes late to class last week thanks to a snafu in my grocery delivery time, but I still got a solid 1 hour in. It's dorky, I know, but I've always loved learning languages.

This Thursday I will be meeting with the Dean of the Children's Literature program at Simmons College. I emailed her asking, essentially, if an MA in Children's Lit would help me secure a position at a Children's/YA publishing house. She told me there's no short answer to this question, so I should come in and speak to her. So, I'll be using my lunch hour to meet with her. I'm looking forward to it, but also a bit scared. What if she says no, this is not the way to go for publishing? I want to enroll in this program so badly, but I'm having trouble finding "real world" applications for the degree. Sadface. :o(

Read
Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston
Maus by Art Spiegelman

Seen
The Darjeeling Limited
Planet Earth: The Complete Series