2004-03-10 - 5:10 p.m.

grande decaf nonfat cappuccino please..

"grande decaf nonfat cappuccino please.."

And that's pronounced with an accent over the 'e' in 'grande' thank you very much. This is what the woman in front of me just ordered at the coffee shop. I ask you, what could possibly be GRANDE about this drink? I ask you furthermore, WHAT IS THE POINT? DRINK WATER, MY DEAR.

I am currently consuming a cappuccino with a double shot of espresso (only way to make the coffee strong enough). The staff already recognize me and know to do this automatically.

Hello my dears! Life here remains in its constant state of excitement. For example I was standing naked in my bathroom this morning, putting hair gel through my wet hair, when I received a knock at the front door. It was my landlord reminding me that he was going to help me move boxes to my office today. After a moment of blushing he realized that I was indeed running a bit late (you'll be happy to know that I was wearing a bathrobe at this point).

A half-hour later we were in the car on the way to Queens College with carload of office boxes. These 10 boxes are now stacked neatly in the corner of my office, as a happy reminder that there are now 10 FEWER boxes in my stuff-laden apartment (currently decorated in "Early Modern Warehouse").

The boxes are full of A4 hanging file folders....we are back to this again. I would love to tranfer them over to letter-size folders. Now, there are a number of problems associated with completing this activity (no time, no department money for pens, pencils, staplers, staples, paper clips, or folders until end of MAY). But these problems are SOO WAY FAR DOWN on my list of my priorities that I will just stick with the happy flutter in my heart, knowing that these boxes are no longer in my apartment.

In other news, I will go to my second rehearsal of the Queens College Choral Society this evening. The average age is 55. Before I joined, the average age was 60. There are 120 members. Now, I didn't really mean to give you a math story problem here (good lord, see what two months of teaching will do to a person)...but you get the idea that this is kind of your blue-haired, talk-about-regularity kind of crowd...not really a place where I'm going to find a partner for a night out on the town. But it is refreshing to have two hours per week of focussing on something other than lectures, tests, grades, office politics, research, and administrative hurdles.

I bought a roll of twine last week in order to bundle up the cardboard boxes that I am discarding on a regular basis (going for that "Early-Modern *Empty* Warehouse" look). I discovered something that cats have known for generations: twine is the BEST TOY ever made. I have spent the last two nights spinning the twine in circles around my bed - very thrilling for little kitties. Miraculously, they have both slept through the night for the past two nights.

Okay, I now have two hours to finish tomorrow morning's lecture...I have endless amounts of news, but this is sufficient for now.