adventures in calvi land.

There are a handful of feelings in life that just can't be beat.  One of my personal favorites, and the one I most commonly forget about, is finally crawling into your own comfy bed after extended traveling.  After two delayed flights, $8.00 airport mini-pizzas, a sassy parking lot attendant and a short nap on the car ride home, I was finally able to snuggle up at 3 a.m.  Then woke up 4 hours later for class.

Theo and I spent this past weekend in North Carolina, visiting a group of his friends from college.  The Blue Ridge Mountains are truly a sight to see, and we had a really stunning view from our cabin.  Overall an excellent weekend filled with delicious food, lazing around in a river, and getting to know some really great folks.

We also saw Montel Williams in the Newark airport on the way there, which was interesting.  We had an early morning that day as well, and so when Theo exclaimed that the man standing over near the Starbucks had a famous-looking suit on I just thought it was a failed attempt at humor.  In an effort to be supportive I looked over and, in an equally surprised tone, stated "Yes, that is Montel Williams."  We were apparently speaking louder than we thought, because soon after I made this statement people started checking their smartphones for photos and confirming that it was, in fact, Montel Williams.  One lady went over for an autograph... but I didn't feel compelled to meet him.

In case anyone was unsure of who Montel Williams is, this is a pretty decent photo of him.  He didn't look quite this sassy the other day, but his suit was just as dapper.

In other news, while running today I nearly hit a deer.  I was running along, just finishing my first mile and really getting into my audiobook.  I usually kind of zone out at that point, and was mid-daydream when I saw something moving to my right.  I did a double take and realized there was a decent sized deer leaping out of the trees in my direction.  I leapt out of the way, and in true deer fashion the stupid thing swerved right where I jumped.  I came within 2 feet of nailing this thing with my body.  Physically running INTO a DEER.  You just can't make this shit up.  Everyone survived the incident, but a word to the wise- be careful when running at dusk.  Bambi isn't as smart as Disney portrayed.

Thank god the skunk wasn't there, or things would have been a lot less funny and a lot more angrily soaking in tomato bath... a good blog topic, either way.

3 more days of class, and I will officially be finished with my Master's degree.  Pretty exciting, especially since I have a job that I will start on Tuesday of next week.  Now the tricky part... finding a new apartment before I have to be out of this one!

It's been a long day to say the least, and it's time for me to get some much needed sleep.  Listen to "I Feel It All" by Feist.

employment, squirrels & swear words.

The good news is, I got a job.  The not as good, but still okay, news is that I have no place to live after July 5th or so.  In other news, I'm pretty sure my landlord has beginning stage dementia (which is no laughing matter) and will not remember when he asked me to get out... so I could probably stretch this through the end of the month if necessary.

My friend Carol from Brazil left today.  She's been living in my two room apartment with me for the past three weeks, which has made for a few interesting moments.  One of my favorite highlights is when I remembered that in Brazil they don't flush toilet paper down the toilet, they throw it in the little trashcan.  I knew I had emptied the trash the day she came, and was baffled when I found it nearly overflowing with paper two days later.  I changed it again, and much to my dismay, it filled up just as quickly.  Needless to say we were both a few shades of red when I had to explain to her that our septic systems here in the U.S. are designed to handle paper waste.

Carol brought with her another harsh realization - I swear way, way too much.  She inevitably picked up on my bad habit, and when I took her to the balloon festival and she started dropping F-bombs in front of a family, I decided I need to make a change.  I use a lot of substitute swears (i.e. "holy buckets," "son of a bee sting," or "shut the front door")  but I still use the F word way too regularly.  I'll be making more of an effort from now on... but no promises.  I am the spawn of John Calvi, after all.  Here's a taste of what an interaction with him is like:
Me: "Happy Father's Day, dad."
John: "Oh, it's fatha's day? No fuckin' shit. They all just blend togetha. Anyway, how the hell've ya been?"

There is still a rather large squirrel getting into my trash.  I would just bring the trash inside, but it fills up rather slow and it makes my apartment stink.  I'd rather pick food scraps off the porch than walk into a ripe kitchen... so I guess I'm stuck.  The neighbor is having some trouble with a family of Gopher's, though, and she's been talking about calling some guy in town to come shoot them.  If he shows up, maybe he'll consider taking care of my rodent problem as well.  Yeah right, who am I kidding?  If he showed up here with a gun I'd throw myself on the Gopher hole to protect them.  Let 'em live, and plant your cabbage elsewhere.

Not much else to report.  Listen to "Home" by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros.