It’s been a rather physically relaxing yet mentally stressful weekend with little doses of happy excitements/amusements every now and then.
[For your amusement, these stresses are even finding their way into my dreams: yesterday's involved me being on campus – albeit, apparently, it had been altered so that one section now contained a "maze" of rock structures (cf. Bryce Canyon) in the middle of the campus. Now, I was doing a number of things: contemplating/planning out experiments for the current research project (which should actually be happening right now); coordinating/helping people move in (to a dorm that seemed to be a mix of Allison & Shepard); and wandering through the campus to take pictures of the "recent developments" in between running various other school-related errands. What was slightly strange was that even as people were passing me by in the main lobby of the dorm, I was also somehow in front of my desk in my apartment talking to various people online. (I guess my dream self can be in two places at once). And even while all this was happening, my dream self also somehow knew it was Labor Day as I could hear, see, and smell that people were having BBQs/potlucks on the driveway down below next to my apartment (this doesn't actually exist in reality)... Yet, here I was, in my dream, trying to accomplish a zillion things, scrambling from one place to the next in a rather brisk, sometimes half-running pace. Needless to say, it felt a bit deja vu-like waking up and remembering that it was, indeed, Labor Day. Talk about confusion...]
As for the random doses of amusement, these included playing with Photoshop a little bit to create a rather silly piece [which will be shown later], making use of snail mail, and visiting Chang’s apartment – not once, but twice within the last four days. =)
Friday: TimLin rather spontaneously asked if I’d want to go downtown to Chang’s for dinner. Tempting. We eventually carried it out with Twang, Char and our bag of various groceries (Chang’s chicken from her old apartment, carrots, and potatoes [that we discovered were too sprouted to be eaten ><]). I got kicked off the Intercampus during our first attempt by a rather strigent driver; the next driver was much kinder and nodded us in without so much a glance at our cards. We got there, walked a total of 2.2 blocks, and -tada!- arrived at her apartment – so close to Ward! Tim tried to slip by the doorman, but the doorman came after us even as we (quite luckily) found our way to the right set of elevators, . After I’d stated Chang’s name, he paused for awhile and then exclaimed, “The new girl! Ah.” and let us go.
Chang’s apartment is so nice! She actually gushes about it in her recent entry “A Smooth Transition” [yes, I like plugging people :P], so I’ll spare you from any more (well, besides the next sentence). I especially enjoy the white/bright-ness of the place, the very nice ‘walk-in closet’ with shelves in addition to the usual hanging area, and the fact that her studio has both hardwood and carpet. I think I’ve been inspired by her as well as Hsin-I to have my future home have all those qualities at least. Heh.
Anyway, we had delicious curry (it lacked potatoes, but the mushrooms added a very nice touch) that night. Mmm.
Yay for self-timer (even though it looks like someone else should be between Twang and me… -__-). [Photo: TimLin's Canon SD850]
Sunday was the actual formal Housewarming party completed with pita & (4 different types of) hummus, chips & homemade guac (it contained apples ;) – personally I really liked that touch; I actually wish we’d tried to dump more in, hehe), lots of curry chicken drumsticks, chicken pesto pasta, banana bread, and chocolate fudge brownies [I think?]. (Notice a trend here in the choice of meat? :P I think Chang will be legitimately sick of chicken soon, haha.) Once again, a very good meal with everyone incredibly stuffed even before desserts. As such, quite a bit of the dessert still disappeared before we had to hurry our way to church.
Another self-timer photo, same set-up, same view – but this time, everyone is evenly spread out. :P [Photo: Chrissy's Canon SD1100]
