circuits... shorting...

(remember that movie? short circuit?)

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might as well start with the biggest first: I FINALLY HAVE A DIRECTION AGAIN! HOORAY! cracks me up that this direction happens to be the ag college at a state school, quite a switch from private liberal arts, but what's life for if not to amuse me, right? i got my acceptance letter today for my master's program in natural resource economics and international development. *schmile!*

which means, crazily enough, that i'll be staying in the same place for another two years. funny, as i'm already starting to go stir crazy... even though, as places go, this is one of the better ones i've landed in (the foothills were gorgeous through the snow-globe snow today, for example). i just have the wanderlust. badly. anyways, hence the concentration in international development; i figure i can get myself sent to asia this way, at the very least. africa, certainly, although i'm not sure i'm ready for sub-saharan yet. we shall see. hmm, tangent much?

so, yes. i will be going to school again in the fall. yay for me. a little delayed, but not necessarily worse for the wear. now i just have to remember how to study. okay, learn how to study. and figure out a way to fund it all.

oh... and what a way to encourage my procrastination. turn in the app the day before the deadline and still get in? check.

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this, naturally, put me in a celebratory sort of mood. so i went to harry and david and bought truffles. i can stare at the harry and david catalog for hours to start with, but their truffles have to be up there among the ultimate yummy things in the universe. you need to discover them if you haven't yet. you just do. better yet, get someone to buy them for you.

and then, on a whim, i went across the road to see if francesca's hadn't magically appeared after all. and it had! this, of all things today, provoked the small happy dance. i LOVE francesca's. it's quite possibly my favorite store in the entire world, and that's counting the one in london that actually sells cute clothes that are long enough for me. it was basically the last remaining thing i missed about houston (except, recently, food... see below). of approximately three things, lest you get the wrong impression. okay, no, and the met. i still want to dance at the met. anyways. francesca's has now followed me across the country, and i couldn't be more pleased. i bought more shiny things than i could afford, and they're so wonderful. i'm going to have to find an excuse to wear real clothes soon so i can play with them. yay!

... apparently that whole "chocolate and jewelry" thing holds true after all. i'm deceptively easy, howd'ya like that? granted, i'm very, very specific about my chocolate and jewelry. but still.

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i had the strangest loss of reality at the gas station today. i pulled up to the pump and suddenly panicked -- "how the hell am i in this car? this is not my car! i didn't steal anyone's keys! what happened?! whose car is this?" you see, i had looked out the windshield and it looked like i was looking out the windshield of a sedan, something low to the ground. but i'm currently driving a nissan pathfinder, because it starts consistently in the cold while my car does not. only... i was still in the pathfinder. i have no explanation. but it was damn weird. and it made my heart beat a little too fast.

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also, I WANT SOUTHERN FOOD! oh my god, do i ever. dee, you're not helping me here one bit with your ranting, either. i want chuy's. i want el arroyo. i want juan in a million. i want pappas. i want swingin' door. i want bob's taco stand (even though they closed; i don't care!). i want la's uncle to fry something. i want all sorts of places i can't remember from new orleans (hey, it's been a decade). i really, really want cajun. hell, i want freaking taco cabana. i'm dying up here in granola land, somebody please come feed me!

i so nearly bought a plane ticket the other day just to get some dinner. swear. i wasn't even going to tell anyone i was in town, just eat and go home. i'm that bad. i am, however, planning on being in jackson in a year (mal's st. paddy's day parade!), and i'm probably going to eat myself to death. won't even be any room for the drinking and general carrying on.... oh, please. i can do it. i didn't spend 11 years in the south for nothin'.

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at any rate. that's the preponderance. i've been up since 3:30 am, and i'm exhausted. hooray, hooray, hooray for bed!