Gray/Grey

Today is one of those days that is certainly "gray" in the sense of it being the American spelling of a color, but really it seems more "grey" to me, in the sense that it's dreary and cold but not bitterly cold, much like London in the winter.

I just got back from IU's rather excellent art museum, where I had to see an exhibit entitled "Faces of Congo Art" and prepare to write a feature story about it. Even on a cold, dreary Saturday afternoon, there were several other people there. Bloomington rocks. This place is truly an oasis. I interviewed three people and will perhaps call an art history prof on Monday for some supplemental info.

Michelle and I went through our pictures last night and boy was it weird to see all those things I haven't thought about in so long. We all looked like we were about 12 our freshman year. Right now they're spread out all over my bedroom floor and I'm too intimidated to try and organize them. I also bought a bookcase at Goodwill, so now I have a place to put things other than the floor or on the extremely limited surface area of my desk.

My parents sent me my final Christmas/birthday present: besides the Target giftcard and the sheets, they got me an MP3 player. =D It's a Rio Carbon, about 2 x 3 inches, with about 5/8 inches in width. It holds 5 GB and is priced more for real people, so it's reasonable in more ways than one. And it's frickin cute. I named it Sparky. Not only does it make work go by even faster, but it makes road trips waaaay more bearable. It holds the perfect amount of music for me--5 gigs represents all of my MP3s plus my favorite CDs. Anyway, it's awesome beyond words.

In bad news, I was turned down from the Courier-Journal internship, officially this time. Pretty disappointing, but Mom said she thought they avoid hiring local people. Well, I'll just have to win a Pulitzer now, so they'll know how dumb they are. This entire past week was really pretty horrible. I'm sick yet again, so I've honestly just been unable to think straight. Monday was crappy because I had gotten in at 2:15 the night before and had to get up early to finish an assignment. Wednesday I was confused in LitJ because the professor was apparently assuming we knew exactly how to do our next assignment without telling us anything about it. When I asked her, she said she was assuming we knew how to find interview subjects because we'd all had experience or taken boot camp (introductory graduate level reporting class). So I pointed out some of the differences in rules between her class and the previous, and her comeback was, "Well, this is literary journalism." Exactly! So why didn't you fucking explain the assignment?!?! I swear this woman is on drugs. The argument was so convoluted and lackadaisical that I probably would have been confused even if I hadn't been doped up on cold medicine. Also, and this one was definitely my fault, she only read about half the assignment I turned in (I stapled the second page backwards). So the jury's still out on that one, but she had already marked it an A. Hmmm...

All that and just generally feeling like utter crap made the week seem long and muddled. Now it's over, and I have some extra time for relaxation, so at least I can eat a lot and catch up on the sleep. I got the big thing out of the way already, so now I just have to actually write the story, which is of course the best part.

Ack. The weather is much wetter than I originally thought, and the trail I was planning on running my 12-miler on today is probably a mess...so I think I'm going to do that tomorrow instead. I'll take the day off today and just do some stretching and ab/hip stuff. And eat some carbs. =D On a lighter note, awesome Michelle's birthday present to me was a t-shirt that says "I Love Carbs" and shows a monkey eating all manner of carbolicious food. Perfect. Speaking of which, Mark's was really, really nice: a silver/amethyst necklace with two dragons facing each other curving into the shape of a heart. Although it's gorgeous and badass with the dragons, we agreed it's kind of too big and bulky to actually wear out, so I just hung it on my lamp on my desk so I can look at it. And Margaret got me a hot 80s-looking sports bra. And Thomas, eventually, will get me the Snow Patrol CD. Yaaaaaaay.

No word on Baloo yet, and Margaret/Mark/Tim's visit next weekend is still not for sure. Hopefully I'll find out more about these within a few days...