:: p-dog ::

I'm sitting on George's bed in Brooklyn, half under his extremely warm-and-fuzzy zebra blanket because one of his roommates hijacked his space heater so it's around 50 degrees in here. The soul of a cigarette someone smoked downstairs haunted us all night but has faded to an unpleasant smell. As soon as Bryan gets out of the shower, we'll get breakfast at the hippy grocery store across the street and take the subway to meet Allison at her place and tour around some of Brooklyn's Afro-Caribbean and Hasidic neighborhoods. Then MOMA (free on Fridays from 4-8), then dinner with Kristin (one of the boys' friends from Austin) and a show at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater in Chelsea.

Days have been pretty much this busy since we left our peaceful Berkeley home a week and a half ago, and show no signs of slowing.

Texas was fantastic. The week in Dallas was spent in much quality family time, catching up with my girls from high school, and five meals at the family restaurants, where I managed to eat all of my nostalgic favorites. We even squeezed in a day at the ranch, which was spent mostly napping, sitting by a bonfire, and, of course, eating. It was strange to stay at my parents' house without Cameron, but we successfully shared the newlyweds with their other family with a minimum of stress (because we got them for the best parts). We also spent a whirlwind 24 hours in Austin, having Christmas Eve Eve dinner with Bryan's parents and going out with an unprecedented collection of his high school friends.

We've been in New York for a couple of days now. We're staying in George's loft-room in the part of Williamsburg that's not quite cool yet (still mostly warehouses). In addition to a ceiling that fits me perfectly--it clears my head by about a quarter inch--the place has two main advantages: it's a minute away from a subway stop, and it has kittens. Kittens! It's like a whole other Christmas present. And honestly a little difficult to leave the house. Oh yes, and of course it's free, which is allowing us to justify spending oodles on other things, mostly food. We do love food.

Although we had planned to do the ball dropping in Times Square thing for New Years, we are reconsidering after reading what it entails. Namely, getting there by five if you want to be in eyeshot of the ball, standing in a pen of people for seven hours with nothing to watch but Carson Daly's hourly countdown updates, and not being able to leave the city for hours after midnight because the subway cars are so crowded they don't even stop in Times Square. And it's going to be 32 degrees and raining. So we're exploring our other options. I think that I have come close enough to doing it, though, that when I start to lose my mind later in life, I will be pretty convinced that I did.

On Monday, Bryan goes back to California and I leave for Senegal. This whole month has been such a random succession of mini-trips that I've found it hard to get excited for the next step more than a day out. So, theoretically, I am very excited to go to Africa and see Clare. At the moment, though, I'm just enjoying the hell out of these kittens. And the aggressively friendly grown-up cat called Griddlebone. (Bryan is on some serious allergy medicine.)

I'll do my best to post from Africa, but I can't make promises. Pictures of our trip are working their way online at gallery.

:: Leslie H - 7:43 AM - ::

Clearly, I have already checked out for the holidays (that's right, Bill O'Reilly, the holidays). In fact, I'm only posting now because it's better than packing for the three different climates I'll encounter before I come home.

I'll do my best to post from Dallas, New York, and/or Senegal. Maybe I'll just compose an ode to month-long winter breaks...

:: Leslie H - 8:35 PM - ::

I know--I haven't posted in quite some time. What can I say? It's exam season. I'm doing nothing noteworthy other than write papers and study for tests. (I dreamed last night of long, incomprehensible strings of economics equations.)

Actually, I did do something noteworthy last weekend, namely have a lovely afternoon in San Francisco with Peanut and Post-Hip, which has fueled me through most of this rather unpleasant week. I also decorated the apartment for Christmas (something I'm convinced that Cameron and I alone in our generation do--thanks Mom), and something about stockings tacked to the wall makes me happy. I'm resigned to not having a tree this year--there's just no room. It will be my first year without one. I've always hauled home a tree in apartments past (as evidenced by the carpet of pine needles in my trunk), and even in the dorm we decorated the fake ficus Allison had stolen from the lobby. This year I'm consoling myself by hanging the tree ornaments around the house and looking for things that smell like pine.

The very good news is that I will be done in less than one week. The three remaining hurdles include: economics exam tomorrow, final law paper (legal strategies for and against same-sex marriage) due Monday, and quantitative methods (stats) exam Wednesday. Then I'll get to relax and Christmas shop while Bryan continues his 14-hour pre-siggraph workdays. Ah, the magic of the holidays.

:: Leslie H - 10:17 AM - ::