why are you wearing that stupid man suit?

last night was so very, very entertaining... chris and i took the four italian students who are visiting fayetteville this semester out for dinner and dancing and such... we went to hugo's for dinner and beer, had some great conversation in somewhat broken english - talked about how chris and i liked rome when we were there and how they are all liking the u.s. so far, made fun of the loud, obnoxious, drunk people sitting directly next to our table, and then talked about how much claudio really likes to eat... and drink.

we went back to the house and had some vino [i finally tapped into the italian syrah that my mom and dad gave me for my 21st this summer...] and cecil [the cat] got freaked out because there were a lot of people in the house. we put on some dance music [i am the world trade center] and divide made cecil dance to the music... sigh... it was lovely.

then we went to club 716 - little did i know that there was a drag show scheduled for that evening [this was my first time to go to this particular club]... the italians really seemed to enjoy themselves, just as almost every guy in the room seemed to really be enjoying looking at the three italian guys… poor davide was hit on repeatedly by really drunk people... but all in all, it was a really funny evening... i danced my ass off and i woke up in pain [my muscles were giving me a rather big 'f@*% you'].

money, baby... it was so money...

the dreams in which i'm dying are the best i've ever had...

so, i found out that i, in fact, didn't have to start school today. today is martin luther king, jr. day... yeah, i found all of this out at about 11pm last night. i feel dumb, but that is alright with me, as long as i get to take the day off anyway. i have actually been quite productive, though: i made an appointment to get a hair cut, i've been looking for a job, i have done some laundry, i have bathed, etc... it's been quite a grand afternoon, really.

i'm actually quite nervous about school this semester. i really want to get into the terry-coker studio [in the fourth year of design school, one is given a 'choice' as to what studio one would like to take during the semester that they're not in rome... by 'choice', i mean that we write down what studio we'd like, 1-4 (the most preferred being number 1) and then someone gets to assign us to a studio. ugh.] but i doubt that i'll actually get in...

it's really strange to me to think that i'm pretty close to graduating [t-minus 1.5 years... this seems like a very short time, when one considers that my degree is a five year degree...]. it really seems like my first semester of college was just yesterday [forgive me for the trite nature of that statement...]. most of my friends are graduating at the end of this semester... but few of them know what the hell they're going to do in the 'real world' - you know, i find it kind of funny that for all of the crap that one is taught in a university setting, most of it is positively bollocks outside of the academic environment. ... c'est la vie. i say that i will probably be a career student or some such thing... that is, assuming all goes according to plan [and it rarely does...]

this isn't freaking sesame chicken.

the people at capital one credit card services are dirty rotten liars... just thought i'd throw in my opinion for the day... they kept me on hold for over two hours - that's right, i said two bloody hours [i know, i know... i'm the dumb one for staying on the phone that long, but i really must confess that i spaced out and played snood for most of the time while i listened to the delightfully entertaining staticky hold music... giggidy giggidy]- and then put me on the phone with some girl who couldn't speak or understand english and who kept just reading some absurd set of inapplicable lines off of a que card or some such nonsense...

curse you, outsourcing... curse you, i say!!!

when i asked you to be my friend, you said 'shut up'

i hurt. i hurt a lot... the bloody weight machines at the hper [for those of you who have no idea what the 'hper' is: it is the hub of physical activity on the campus of the university of arkansas at fayetteville] have made it quite difficult for me to walk today - for this i can say with certainty that i do not like those machines. they have made my day very unpleasant... no fun.

i almost forgot that i have a story to tell... so, i went down to new orleans to visit my bestest friend and her beautiful child [and to attend the aias forum] over new years... i had my first total 'maternal' moment at city park on new year's eve eve - so me and my friend's kid are playing around on this regoddamndiculously large oak tree, on a branch about four and a half feet off of the ground... well, the kid starts to fall and what do i do? do i just stand there [yes, i know, i'm stupid... i shouldn't have been standing on the bloody branch in the first place] and watch the child fall? no. i pull the kid to my chest and fall with her... but the thing that sucks is that the kid somehow ended up with a black eye anyway... as for yours truly, my ass, ribs and shoulder blade were sore as hell for three days... not to mention the guilt i felt [still feel] for letter the kid get a shiner anyway.

dara, the kid's mom, and me tried with all of our might to get the kid to say that she'd gotten the shiner in a bar brawl, but it was no good. when asked what happened, the kid would smile, point to her eye and say with pride 'i fell out of a tree'. i love [most] kids... they just say the darndest things...

la dee freakin' dah... ain't life grand, though?

home again, home again. it feels so bleeding wonderful to be able to lounge around in my house in my pj's... i couldn't be happier if i tried... maybe i'm exaggerating just a wee bit, but i can handle this for the time being. next on my state-side agenda: natalie must find a job. natalie must eat. natalie needs funding.

now, natalie must sleep...
toodles.