6.30.2008
Boring Post
6.27.2008
So...
6.25.2008
In Response
Thursday the 17th after Matt's show (?) we all climb into my car and head up to Ithaca. We arrive at Abby's (?) and pass out. Friday we go the the grassroots festival and twirl, cheer and sample. Saturday we
A. Go back to the festival and have a parade
B. Hike into the woods and swim under a waterfall, maybe get friendly with a crow
If we choose B, then maybe we would be up for going out to eat afterwards. Maybe so even if we choose A.
Sunday we hang, maybe walk around the commons or eat a delicious lunch at ABC (are they open Sundays?), before we start back south in the evening.
Lets all get a ticket online for Friday and leave Saturday free in case we want to do something else because if we have to go home Sunday, we might not feel like we have time for picnicing in the gorges. Can someone post the site for the festival tickets or email it to everyone? - or actually I think it is already posted in the blog somewhere.
What else.. Ok Trevor will not be coming along if that helps. If anyone disagrees with my very casual schedule, please feel free to make your opinion known.
I'm excited!
Thanks for the initiative Becca
Yay for decisions!
Departure: Yes, I am on the us bus to depart from DC on Thursday night late night and return Sunday. I think Erin and I both have to come back Sunday. Erin just got back from a week off with her fam, so she doesn't really have a lot of vacation days to spare. At my office, we recently had a meeting in which our senior attorney was like "is everybody's summer vacation on the calendar" and I said "yes" so I'd rather not take off any additional time as that would render my vow flimsy like saranwrap rather than strong like oak. I would prefer the latter. I'm going to be out of town every weekend in July (so 4 Fridays off in a row) and a week in August, so that's why I was pressuring everybody to nail down dates awhile back. If others are interested in staying until Monday or longer, perhaps we can talk about there being more than 1 group of travelers, and the two groups could leave at different times.
How are we getting to Ithaca? Neither Erin nor I has a car.
I was not planning on asking Matt to come, unless Liz wants to bring Trevor or Erin wants to bring Nick. I was also not planning on bringing dogs since it sounds like we're going to be gone all day for at least 1/3 days.
Concert: In terms of buying tickets, I'm down for Friday and/or Saturday. Can we get another voting feature Nicky so we can elect between Friday only, Saturday only or both? If its easier, if someone just posts a conclusion and says "buy tickets for Friday and Saturday" or whatever I will do that, because then I will know that I will not be at risk of going alone (though Ithacans are friendly folk and I would almost certainly have a lovely time, I would rather spend the time with you guys).
I think we should buy tickets for at least 1 day online in advance since this festival is the reason that we are visiting Ithaca at this time, so running (even a very very small) risk that tickets could sell out or whathaveyou, would be very silly.
This would have been easier if I had posted just a comment on Becca's, but I think there's a character limit.
Yay! This promises to be a fabulous trip. Looking forward to seeing you all!
6.24.2008
Happiness Parade and Dance of Peace
its getting close to that time! Lets planning! check out the schedule: http://www.grassrootsfest.org/festival/files/2008schedule.pdf
I'm talking to Abby now about what days would be best to go to the festival and stuff so we can get tickets. We thought friday would be a good day to go (the bands are good that day). [Abby also says that thursday is a really good day but we wont be there then]. Just to confirm: we are driving overnight on thursday after Matt's concert, right??? Is Matt coming?
And we could also go saturday too if you guys wanted. What time were we thinking of returning on sunday? Or can we stay in Ithaca until monday? I would love to stay until monday or even tues, but I think its up to Erica's schedule. Right now its just Erica and Liz and I in the car, right? Any dogs?
Should we all order tickets online together or buy them at the gate?
At the festival there is a Happiness parade on saturday at 3pm starting at the art barn. haha, I can't wait. And, there is a dance of peace early friday morning which sounds like fun!
I would like to propose we have a picnic and go swimming in the gorges for 1 day, what do you guys think? I would also like to go to the square and a nice restaurant such as moosewood or something. If we leave on monday, we will obviously have more time for all of this. But if we leave on sunday, then maybe we should just do 1 day of the festival??? Or do 2 days with knowledge that we could decide to leave on saturday to go do something else (this assumes someone is sober to drive since we aren't staying the night).
Lets make decesions!!!
6.23.2008
WooHoo!

We move in August 1st, so I'm going to have to soak up the pool time at the hotel until then!
6.18.2008
Mind Melt
Y'know... I haven't been looking at the blog enough. I really haven't. There's been all sortsa nifty stuff going on in all of your lives. Glad your LSAT adventure is over Erica, and congrats on the move Nicky! Miami sounds just beautiful, and that picture reminds me of when I was out clubbing in Orlando... I wore my "naked dress" - this golden sparkly thing that barely is barely long enough to avoid arrest, on top of being strapless and semi-see through - and I felt like I was wearing WAY to much material. But after a few weeks of being there, you'll have the all-year-round Miami tan that we'll all envy you for, right? :)
What's funny is that I had gotten totally confused about when you guys were coming to Ithaca... I thought it was June 17th-20th, which is why when I hadn't heard anything from you I was kinda surprised/worried. Then immediately after checking the blog, I just realized that I was just losing my mind. Which seems more and more standard at this point.
I saw Becca's post too, about whether or not we have tickets yet to the Grassroots. They can be ordered online here with more information about the festival in general here. Did you guys want to go every day or just to a few of the days?
On a weirder note, I had probably one of the more bizarre dreams of my life last night. Every time I stay over at Victor's I have these strangely lucid, long, tenuously tied together dreams - and half the time, I think I'm awake on top of that. People relating the whole narrative of their dreams is boring, so to give you guys a few of the highlights (and imagine maybe ten times this many equally bizarre things and that the transitions between these parts seemed at the time very natural):
- At some point, I attended a commitment ceremony or wedding for Zach Braff, who was engaged to some sort of honeybee (no, really,) because the two of them had just had babies together which were for some reason either bunnies or puppies depending on the moment.
- I was trying to get down into this big room through this wide opening on the floor, but there were just so many picnic tables stacked up from the room all the way through the opening that I couldn't just jump in... So I slithered and climbed down and through about fifty picnic tables.
- I was convinced I was awake and had about an hour long conversation with Victor... But then I realized I was still also talking to people in the dream and that possibly I wasn't actually saying anything out loud or even awake at all. Or I could have actually had an hour long conversation with Victor about human/honeybee spawn being (naturally) rabbit-puppies. Really, I'm gonna have to hope not.
- I kept having guys I wasn't interested in walk up to me and try to kiss me (during this wedding ceremony) and even though I would push them off, I'd always turn around to see Victor somehow always standing there just looking kinda pissed off.
WTF? Nick is a mutual friend of ours that winds up hanging out with me and Victor a lot, and he's got a girlfriend that I like - and honestly, he's the one male member of my group of friends that I've never even thought of at all that way, even in passing.
Y'know, the power of a misheard word at the wrong time is pretty strong, but even if he thought he heard, "Nick," I ALSO call Victor "Vick" pretty frequently, and when things between us have actually been good and pretty peaceful for a bit, the fact that he wouldn't just mentally self-correct is a little insulting. I said something along the lines of "What? No, I just coughed," (ah, the rebuttal of the ages,) but I think both of us were a little weirded out and we didn't really cuddle again before going back to sleep.
Okay... This was post was laced with a lot of random rambling. I guess it's been a weird couple of weeks for me again. After Victor broke it off with me, we wound up hooking up again four days later. I spend the night with him pretty consistently, but it's strange that there's no real feel like this is gonna turn into anything more promising... He can be sweet (and generally is) but he's both simultaneously emotionally distant and demanding. If I'd like him to come out, do stuff during the day with me or my friends, maybe have dinner, come out to a bar or to dance, maybe fifty percent of the time he just won't respond to my text message - and then Jason will send him one, and immediately there's a response. Tied to that, if other people start hitting on me or really talking to me too much, he gets kinda sulky. (Although there is a bonus side to that, namely if some other guy is hitting on me, it increases the chances that Victor and I will go home together by a tremendous margin... Apparently, jealousy gets him interested. Who knew.)
That's about it in my life... I'm doing some math research, getting ready for this conference I'm going to in Salt Lake City for the next two weeks (I leave Saturday from BWI.) I'm back Friday afternoon or early evening if any of you lovely ladies are around and would perhaps like to go out. My flight doesn't leave Saturday until the evening, so I'd be up for some D.C. trekking.
Talk to y'all soon!
~Gwyn
6.17.2008
Ithaca and random ramblings
But lastly, this is important, especially for ABBY AND GWYN: Do we have tickets for the Ithaca grass roots festival????
Are we definately going to this?
And, who found another computer to vote on?? hahaha
Death By Logic Game
6.16.2008
The 2nd Big Move

OK, so it's official. I thought I would never leave Maryland, but here I am in Miami. I'm sitting out by a pool in corporate housing, surrounded by palm trees, looking for a job on Craigslist in a city where it is definitely preferred if you speak Spanish fluently...a little different. But, (and I'm a little surprised) I'm kinda loving it. The idea of moving away from home was not my favorite. I hated the idea of being so far away from my family, from you all, from any and all networking I had done. I'll admit, I was pretty mad at Mik for awhile, completely unfairly, because he "dragged" me all the way to the west coast. I'm not as adventurous as you all, back packing around different countries, teaching English in foreign cultures. But you know what...I'm actually enjoying myself!
Seattle is a really pretty city (Erica will you still get to see it this summer?). It's incredibly well kept, there's art everywhere you turn, and once things start growing the while city is a mess of flowers and green. It probably feels the least like a city of any city I've ever been in. There are so many restaurants, coffee shops, quirky retail places, salvage yards, and bookstores and it's really intellectual. That said, I didn't fall in love. It felt like a place to stay, but not quite like home. Maybe if I'd had a job or been there longer... I would still venture back. Maybe years from now, it'll seem like the place to be. I'm sure it would be a good place to have kids. But right now, it was a good place to be for 6 months. I think Mik had similar feelings about it.
But Miami...WOW. It is another universe! It's so vibrant and alive! We've only been here for 2 days, but I feel really optimistic about it. Being here makes me want to take classes in Spanish, eat more Cuban food, and learn how to salsa (OK we all know that the last thing won't happen). I feel like this is a good place to be right now, for both of us. I'm loving the heat (even the humidity), the thunder storms that roll in at night, all the people from all over the world you meet out. It's amazing. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I'll ever completely embrace the Miami nighttime dress code, but I'm willing to paint my toenails and wear a bikini in December. It's still an adjustment, but I'm ready to jump into this head first. I think this is a good place to have fun, and not get all complacent at home every night, which is what we were doing in Seattle.
So here's to being adventurous, which is a ride I'm finally ready to join you all on! :) Love you.
6.13.2008
nicky - i hope the move went well. liz - i hope the move went well. i can't believe you're both moving. erica - again, my margarita and i will be thinking of you.
i'm in gastonia now and will be trapped with my family on a cruise ship for the next week. i might just stay in mexico. buy a bar. dance on some tables. if you don't hear from me on monday, that's where i am. you all, of course, are welcome in my shack on the beach. i'll keep a guest hammock.
hope all is well in yaponia (that's ukrainian for japan - we're so damn multicultural ;) well, at least our hair is) and ny.
i miss you guys.
love,
erin
6.12.2008
Moving Day!
Taking a break from organizing/packing around the movers (who I appreciate more than I can tell you!). Today is packing, tomorrow is loading and dropping off our cars, and Saturday is our flight to Miami! I'm already in a weird state of excited/exhausted :) Soon, the beach!
6.10.2008
Swimming in the waterfalls and the crow
I went home to change (so we could go out to dinner at ABC) and noticed a crow sitting on the handlebars of my roommate Dani's bike on the front porch. We looked at each other and he didn't seem freaked out. I talked to him and told him, "You're cool there, I'm just going inside. Don't be scared." When I came back out 20 minutes later he was still on the handlebar. He didn't fly away when I walked right up to him. I got my camera and took some pictures.
Andrew and I rode bikes up to ABC where we carried a table outside and sipped white wine (me) and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (him) at our special sidewalk location. After a huge delicious salad--it had been too hot to really eat all day--we rode home. On my porch was, you guessed it, our friend the crow! It had been like 2 hours. He was totally stuck! My roommates got home and we stood out there with him trying to figure out what to do. I got him a bowl of water and a little dish of nuts and seeds. We took a broom handle and gently lifted his chest so that he'd step onto the handle. He did. Okay, so he wasn't stuck. But then he didn't want to get off the broom either. Eventually he stepped onto the water bowl where he hung out all night. He was totally gentle and let us pet him. Jack smiled up at him like, "Hey, cool, we've got a new animal friend in the house." Andrew slept out on the porch and said that in the morning the crow started walking around, hopped onto the front railing of the porch, and sauntered back and forth. Another crow showed up on the telephone wire and they talked to each other or a while. Then our buddy hopped down, walked across the yard, across the street, and left us.
I can't get the photos on my computer right now, but I'll add a new post to illustrate later. :)
6.09.2008
i can't believe i'm telling you this on a blog
ok. now i'm just procrastinating, because while i do love the blog - it's been such a great way to keep up with you guys, especially since everyone but me has been so great about writing - it is a little weird to write "i had sex with nick" on a blog.
...but it's true :)
and as much as it's been discussed, i feel like you all have (had) joint interest in my virginity. and i'm not even getting into how odd that is.
but it is no longer :)
and yeah, that's about all i had to share (and i can't decide if that's depressing or not.)
i love and miss you all
PACKAGE
6.08.2008
6.05.2008
But also
AHHHHHHHH!
6.04.2008
Go back to kindergarten
In other news, school is out next Thursday and then I am moving in with Trevor!
How goes your second transplant, Nicky?
How are there 10 votes?
I see that there are 10 votes in our poll, and only 7 of us. Admittedly, I have voted more than my fair share. Who else figured out that you can do this? I bet it was Erica.
6.03.2008
Hello, white girl friends
When I open up our blog I see a sea o white girls. Or a row, rather. Anyway, it makes me realize how monochromatic we are. Anyway, I just got back from what Andrew described to his boss as, "A jaunt to the Cape". I guess Gwyn and Erica know this because I asked you guys how to make Cosmopolitans via text message from the Tretiak's Cape Cod house's kitchen. I'm going to try to post some pictures A) to jon the club, B) to show you guys what the trip was like, and C) to embarrass Andrew, because I love him.