Tenleyitis

Okay, so I had plans to go up to New Haven for the weekend and see Tenley. She had time off from her grad school orientation, I desperately needed a break from studying for comps. It almost went completely south Thursday night, but we ended up making some adjustments and I drove up Friday, spent Saturday there, then came back Saturday night. It was a great visit, but that is, in fact, not the subject of this post. The subject is that, well, I think I've got Tenleyitis.

The thing about Tenley is that weird stuff always happens to her. Her parents' place has been struck by lightning. Twice. Her toasters constantly catch fire. Just after she moved to New Haven, she took her car through a car wash, and it ATE HER CAR. It would actually be the biggest problem if we were to get serious with each other in a long-distance relationship. I'd never be able to feel confident that, on any given day, she might not just spontaneously combust or something. It would be like dating someone who was in active-duty armed services -- you'd just never know if they were safe.

Anyway, since I left Connecticut, I've been getting this feeling like maybe whatever it is that she's got has passed on to me. On the drive home, one of my tires EXPLODED. As in, it didn't just go flat, it had been rended asunder. Since when does THAT happen? And right now, there's a thunderstorm going on outside. No big deal, but then I hear this weird gurgling from my sink. There's water bubbling up from the trash compactor, like something is living down there. Think Ghostbusters 2. So I decide to retreat to my room, only to hear an incesant dripping sound. Turns out that water is leaking through UNDER my window. Uh... I don't know what to do about that. Anyway, I'm going to stay on the lookout for any other Tenleyesque occurences in the next few days, and if there are many more, I'll start surfing around the internet for a witch doctor or shaman.

Back from vacation

So I just got back from a 4-day vacation with the fam out in southern California. Here are a few things that I learned:

1. Apparently I've gotten so completely socialized to e-culture that spending a weekend without cell phone or e-mail access drives me slightly crazy. I think maybe I should become a buddist or something to get over this. Bad scene.

2. My niece Shoshana remains the cutest being on the planet. Ever.

3. I remain petrified of babies. My new niece, Rachel, is cute and all, but I was definitely keeping a one foot-radius between us at all times. My argument for this is simple and clear. I am, at times, quite clumsy. Thus, anytime I'm around something that is both a)fragile and b)difficult to replace, I get kinda nervous. So long as a baby is still so young that you have to support their head when you hold them, I consider them plenty fragile and they're, you know, REALLY difficult to replace. By Thanksgiving, I think we'll be ready to interact with each other.

4. I am astoundingly good at Monopoly. My sister (Jess) and I used to play it a lot when we were kids and we have a joint memory of me winning something like 200 times in a row. There was a Monopoly board at the cabin where we were staying, so she declared a rematch. And another. And another. And another. I swear, it just ain't right. Why can't I be unearthly talented and something, er, useful? Anyway, if anybody wants to take me on, apparently I am The Great Monopoly Champion. Either that or else Jess ain't cut out for real estate.

On another note, in what has to have been my dumbest decision in the last couple of weeks, I spent all day today flying back to Philly just so I can turn around tomorrow and fly out to Seattle for the week. There's a reason for that, involving buying the tickets at different times and the Seattle trip being on the Sierra Club's dime, but it nonetheless is one of those things that a non-lazy human being would have worked around. On the bright side, it gives me more time to read things for my comprehensive exams, which are now 30 days away and counting. Please don't expect me to be any fun during the month of August. Please don't expect me to be sober during the week following comps. That is all I ask. Good night.