I'm alive!

mood: antsy
music: "I'm Not Afraid of Anything" - Songs for a New World
random word: squeezle

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So it just hit me that I haven't posted in like, a month. I keep thinking that I'm such an active blogger because I spend 90% of my free time checking the blog, commenting on the blog, scrolling down to tally all the new comments on the blog, using babelfish to understand the language schoolers on the blog, referencing the blog, thinking up things to post on the blog, and, well, you get the idea. Anyway, here goes an actual, productive contribution.

Since last I arose from the blog-stalker shadows, I have made friends with a Mexican waiter named Andres at the Broadway Grille, seen Cirque du Soleil with Kevin and Ali, swing danced and run a 5k with Dan Kelley, run my fastest 5k of the summer two days later with Sidney at Lake Takanassee, seen Spamalot, watched the Company DVD with Kevin at his house, gone on Shannon's whalewatch boat with Mark, gone to Shannon's 4th of July block party in Maine, sung through the entirety of Into the Woods around three times with Shannon and Mark, been awkward at a second-cousins-once-removed-type family reunion, watched fireworks with Sidney in Red Bank, had a very Italian breakfast with Cata and Kevin and Sidney at Otter Creek Bakery, visited Juliana and Mario and Erik (!!!!), had dinner with said crew plus Becky at Tully and Marie's, traipsed around Lake Dunmore, written a lot of letters and journal entries, got my student visa for Chile, and seen the fabulous documentary Wordplay.

"Wordplay?" you ask, as any linguaphile should. Wordplay. The documentary about the New York Times crossword puzzle, its makers, the celebrities and superheroes who can complete them in minutes, and the National Crossword Puzzle Tournament. And its winner. The twenty-year-old RPI student Tyler Hinman. Whom I promptly friended on facebook (creepy!). Who promptly friended me back with a jolly message. Upon which joyous moment I noticed that CAITLIN IS HIS FRIEND AND WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL WITH HIM. She was basking in greatness and she didn't even know it.

Sidenote: Sidney and I have recently become crossword obsessed, if you couldn't guess.

Anyway. On a totally different note, when I swung through Kevin Tierney land around two weeks ago (this is getting cliche, but walking down Kevin's driveway is like walking into a Jane Austen novel. It's just beautiful.), Kevin did me the honor of showing me Final Fantasy (it's a video game, to all those non-tekkies with their minds in the gutter). He, creepily enough, had designed a host of characters based on...you guessed it. Us. My favorite parts were Cata's crazy boobs and the fairy wings on Ali.

Anyway, that was just a prelude to the next tidbit. You probably don't know that I have a weakness for The Sims. It's a computer game that is basically...a dollhouse, I guess? You design people, then you design their house, then you control their lives. It's really, really addictive. And so last night I followed suit, upped the creepiness level, and designed a quirky little suite-family full of...us. I made the little people look just like us (Dan even has freckles and Converse and Kevin has a goatee and his director blazer) and put a bubble machine in Cata's very pink and orange room and a giant bookshelf in Michael's and an easel in Jessie's and a big karaoke machine in the middle of the house. The most frustrating part is getting them jobs (they need them in order to make money and continue to afford such luxuries as giant bubble machines), because so far in the Sims-paper there haven't been any starting-level positions in...uh, linguistics. Or even theater. But somehow I'd rather they be poor than force them to succomb to the sports career track as a team mascot. And somehow the military and business tracks don't seem very us, either. That aside, here's the best part:

Our last name? Omniglot.

That's all for now, kids. I'm off to go hiking (yes, you can hike in Jersey, and it's pretty, too) with my dear friend Seth. Oh, and just so you know, I just set up my Chile blog last night. The URL (which I'll link to this page soon) is http://chilelaura.blogspot.com. Because, holy shit, I'm leaving in less than a week and a half. To move. To South America.

Hugs to everyone who is shaking his head right now and saying, "Wow, that girl's a spaz." Extra hugs to all who like me anyway.