orichalcum

It's been a while since I've posted, and this'll stay pretty short, cuz I've got less than 24 hours till I leave for The Big Life-Changing Job-Interview Conference in Boston and have much to do. But here are some of the highlights of the past two weeks:

1. Skiing! Skiing with julianyap and fajitas and A. and WisdomlikeSilence and ebs98 and jacuzzing afterwards and fondue and great talks and going down blues with fun. _Such_ a needed break. I hope that WlS's stepmother has given birth safely and that Fajitas' extended family are all well. Most memorable line at the moment - fajitas, pulling a Playboy magazine out of his backpack, "I bought it for the articles! No, really!" As it turned out, he _had_; his best man Eric Lichtenfeld's just had a new book on action movies published, which just got reviewed by Playboy. Still...

2. A nice quiet Christmas with A.'s family, and oodles of cool presents, including 12 discs of LOTR-Extended, 860 minutes of Blackadder, new ski boots, lovely jewelry, an incredibly chic black apron with my _name_ and relevant herb embroidered on the front from Israel, "time" from ladybird97, cool new games, clothes, and, best of all, Airport Express and an Ipod named Quicksilver. I wonder already how I survived the commute without it.

3. Upcoming: 5 interviews, at least. Johns Hopkins, U-New Mexico-Albuquerque, U-San Diego, Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, and the Richard Stockton College of NJ.

4. A conference paper on Roman married women's fondness for pornography which I have ruthlessly hacked down to 15 minutes (8 pages, 12 pt font.)

5. Ra's wedding. The most giggly wedding I've ever been to - I think she and he both laughed their ways through the ceremony and day. Her dress was beautiful and simple (It's amazing - someone must buy those hideous creations in the bridal magazines, but my friends certainly haven't) and the hair and makeup people were really good at their jobs as well. Favorite moments include Vitaly's response to my request that he take care of her for us with a nonchalant "Well, of course!" and J&R's dance to Brown-Eyed Girl. It was the beginning of a happy marriage.

And also, for me, a sort of ending. Ra's the last of my suitemates to get married, and it finishes one part of the story, in a way. With a very happy ending, I should say, but still, it is odd for me to witness and participate in that ending. There are castles that never got built, and soaring towers I would never have dreamed of. And now the storyteller smiles, and turns the page of that chapter, and tells me it is time for sleep.

I'm going to go grow up now. By the end of this year, I hope to have changed my life in all sorts of fundamental and permanent ways. To progress...