mezoszemere's cutest citizen (according to j chen)

a picture of one of nagymama's new kittens, thanks to noonie. even from thousands of miles away, i almost sneezed... but there is no denying how absolutely adorable she is!!!

how quicky september flew by!!! today was one of the coziest days in recent memory for me. i woke up at 6:30 and promptly decided that there was no way i was actually going to get up, so i curled back up in bed and slept until 10 (!!!). i talked to j in mezoszemere, for the first time since she left seattle. it was wonderful to hear about her studies, her crazy class schedule (9 hours per day!?! who does that?), and her expanding magyar vocabulary. nagymama sounded strong, but very aware of horvath iren's emotional state. it can't be easy for any of them - least of all for misi bacsi. i don't know that i could be as strong for them as j has been... i think i'm far too emotional. just thinking about what must be going through misi bacsi's mind is overwhelming.

in the late morning i went apple picking for the first time in my life. seeing all those little children and their parents was a heart-warming sight!!! the yellow and red leaves surrounding the orchard... big red apples... a quintessential new england stone wall... and it smelled soo good! larissa called this morning after i'd gotten off the phone with mama and papa, and asked if i'd go with her. i had no reason not to (haha except maybe all the work i have for monday, but whatever!) and it was a very worthwhile experience. several other groups of bowdoin kids were there, and it was wonderful to see everyone's expressions. so calm, so happy! now i have a big paper bag of perfect apples and all of sunday to imagine what to do with them! does anyone want apple muffins???

i spent much of the afternoon reading econ and day dreaming. haha bad focus problems :-) at one point,i gave up on the work and decided to rake the leaves in our front lawn. soo much fun!!! apparently though, i need more practice, because i promptly developed a blister. hehe. us northwesterners don't have much in the way of raking to do, so i'm starting from scratch. i need to work on my form. hehe. for dinner, holly, kruiky, and i went to thai food at fort andross. beautiful day!!!

ooh in other big news (it's all relative, right?) i bought two movies last night: spaceballs (wheeeeeeee!!!) and donnie darko. haha promptly watched both of them. donnie darko is awesome, but even creepier the more you watch it. hmm. oh, and last night armand-mokus, becca and taylor came over for dinner. it was a dinner long overdue - i hadn't sat down with any of them since school started! seeing how quickly you can fall back into the same happy conversations after such a long time not being together really gives me hope for post-bowdoin friendships. ach. i love them! :-)

several revolutions around the earth's axis later...

(the picture is from pre-o... my co-leader looking rather calm. hehe)

anywho i had a sad realization just now... it's been such a long time since i last wrote that i'd forgotten not only my password, but my user name as well. ooh tear. not for a lack of things to write about, and only because i'm lazy/ have oodles of other obligations, i have been absolutely nowhere near this blog since the long-gone summer months of zorba the greek and my interest in japanese bread crumbs... oh good times, those were.

i suppose i'll start this off with an update on all things life-related... j is securely off in hungary for the year (i'm so jealous!!! her grammar will be amazing in december when i'm fumbling around for key touristy phrases hehe) m&p are coming out for parents weekend in a little under two weeks. side note: mama has NEVER been to parents weekend before - since she's usually in mezoszemere by this time. i am soo excited for both of them! papa has already asked that i figure out which lectures we're going to - hehe. and by that, i'm sure he now realizes that means which lectures HE is going to - as i will invariably come up with an excuse not to go. i'm just kidding - i went to one two years ago by my art history professor. it was fun, and papa asked a very well-articulated question. i was proud to wear the requisite "yes, that's my dad" pin around that day... hopefully this year will provide reason for much of the same! (i should make a pin that says that... hmm... good idea.) so mama has her heart set on boothbay harbor, and i have no complaints about that. i'm just so happy that she'll FINALLY see bowdoin in autumn!

in other news, senior (holy crap) year is off to a good start. my classes are seriously amazing, although there is absolutely no shortage of work. hmm. i guess that's sort of a good thing, but with no friendly to do library races & cafe anti-tasking with, the semester is feeling a bit overwhelming. :-P c'est la vie. in a future entry, i'll have to write more specifically about my classes, but they are all ones that i'm excited about (for once!) philosophy, latin american history, econ, and my very own baby-of-a-project on buckminster fuller and 1960s counter culture. it's amazing how my original idea of plastics has evolved into consumer culture/ environmentalism etc... but i guess that can be (slightly) attributable to having klingle as an advisor. though i was a bit sad about not being able to write ONLY on plastics, i am thoroughly elated to be going to stanford for fall break to work at the fuller archives!!! w00t!

so basically midnight on this side of the frog pond. ivan, if you read this... congratulations on being an uncle!!! i have much to write about next time: math blasters, kent island pre-o, frisbee, MY HOUSE. holy crap. oh and tomorrow (yes, a TUESDAY!) i'm going to boston to see clap your hands and architecture in helsinki!!! probably not the best idea work-wise, but... :-)

sleep well, i love you!

ps as of today-ish late-september 2006 i am making a more concerted effort to write ... more consistently. i hope i can keep up to this wishy-washy pseudo-goal... thing. if only so that little smelly bear in hungary won't miss me TOO too much. :-)