Killian's Blog/Website/Whatever

I went to the beach this weekend--Rockaway, Cannon, and Ecola. The Oregon coast is probably the best coast, not that I'm biased or anything.  It was 65* and absolutely beautiful. And tide pools are the way to my heart. It was a much needed break from Real Life. Ok, business: As you can see, I am still in the states. Daniel is abroad, workin' hard at his awesome new job and impressing everyone with his mighty brain. I am not going to get into why we are in two such drastically different geographical locations, because it's a long and complicated story that makes me grumpy. But  we  are fine. As a unit, we are awesome--and that's really what matters. :) Since I'm not really in a chatty mood, I turned comments off. After this, it should be back to blogging-as-usual. Thanks bros. But, back to distractions, look at this table I painted! It used to belong to my great grandparents. I've always loved this table, but th...

We leave very, very soon. Tomorrow will be a flurry of last minute laundry and errands and packing. If I think about it for more than a second, I get kind of overwhelmed. Instead, here are a bunch of pictures from a trip to the lake like THREE WEEKS AGO! It was a great day--lots of swimmin'--even if I *did* have to spend most of the afternoon on my laptop (I know! I know!) DOING HOMEWORK (OMG I KNOW). So, yep. Lots of errands to run still. I don't want to talk about this whole "moving experience" in too much detail before we get there, because, again, thinking about everything makes me want to vomit. Give me a week or two to decompress (and finish my next grad school packet). Hopefully we'll have new pictures of our flat, too! Though it miiiiiight not be furnished. We may be sleeping in a pile of blankets on the floor for a while. I'm ok with it. It's carpeted! haha. Alright. Now for the obligatory photo of my cat: More pic...

“We ate well and cheaply and drank well and cheaply and slept well and warm together and loved each other.” --Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast.  Repeat.

1. Gravity Falls . 4 Eva. I can't wait until it comes out on DVD so I can buy it and watch it as my pre-sleep lullaby while I'm far away from home in the UK. It takes place in Oregon, you understand. It is the story of my life. 2. Comics. All of them. A few I read this week (as a reward for finishing all my homework): Saga , Prophet , Marceline & the Scream Queens , and Are You My Mother?   (links are to first issues in the run--or, in the case of Alison Bechdel's book, Powell's--in case you want to read them!) 3. Breaking Bad, even though it is stressful and I sometimes have to play bejeweled while I watch because I am bad at handling tense situations (yes, even when they are entirely fictional). 4. The new F. Scott Fitzgerald story  that was in this week's New Yorker. It might be my favorite piece of his that I've read (if you read it, you'll know why). I can't believe the New Yorker rejected it the first time. Haters.* 5. These roasted pot...

Moving. It has been an... experience . Does that sound bitter? Good. It's supposed to. I'm in kind of a bad mood. Let's start with the neutral: --Our schedule over the last week was like this: Pack. Moving Truck. Train back to Seattle. Fly to Philly. Wedding. Fly back from Philly. Move the rest of the stuff to Portland. This all took place over seven days.  The negatives (or: Why I Bave Been So Angry/Tired for Weeks--the short version): --Visa trouble.  --Tons of tiny little hang-ups that have added up to Energy-Draining Pains in my Butt (ex: thinking our cat ran away the day we had to drive down to Portland with a moving van*, having important documents arrive at our old address the day after we didn't live there anymore, Comcast being butts, UPS being butts, the British Consolate being butts, butts just everywhere, SHALL I CONTINUE?) --I have another grad school deadline in 6 days. I'm not as behind as I was last time, but I'm not as ahe...

This whole moving thing has been a lot more difficult than expected, in a variety of directions. D and I have been "kept busy" by visa applications, apartment hunting, and strange piles of paperwork, all in addition to our regular work/school stuff. It turns out that grad school + moving is not my favorite thing in the world. I'm glad I started school when I did, but it maaaaaay have been a better idea to try and defer until January. Oh well! Nothing like a little extra pressure around a deadline, eh?  Yesterday I had a little weepy moment over a coat. (I think the coat was a metaphor.) Things we still have not figured out: absentee voting (important); exactly how the British government functions (confusing); how we're actually going to get everything done (mystery). Welp, I have like +100000 more packing to do, and homework due in about 3 days, and a work assignment due in a week, and a family thing this afternoon, so I guess I should get off my butt. Just wanted...

our days look like this things: 1. Daniel and I are re-reading The Great Gatsby  because we are very cultured.* It's pretty good. Some parts are AMAZING! and then other parts are like "Really, F. Scott? Really? You just spent god-knows how many words saying nothing . Homework: go read Dickens and then try again." I'm allowed to make this statement because I am in grad school. 2. I got assigned to the Celtic Myth team at work! There was much rejoicing. There was also much purchasing-of-books. Through some kind of magic boon of willpower, I refrained from buying the super expensive/hardcover ones. 3. I finished Zadie Smith's  White Teeth yesterday. It is one of my new favorites, and I highly recommend it to everyone. Everyone! I'm just gonna go ahead and call Smith brilliant right here, and I mean it. Those of you who regularly hear me yell about books know this is a big deal. I don't often make it to the end of a book and think "I would p...