catching up w/the readers

i know i know. it's been forever and a day since i've been on this blog, and i apologize to anyone who's even remotely bothering to keep up with my increasingly infrequent ramblings.

i must admit that this has been a crazy summer. lots going on and lots going on still. the summer seemed to zip by as orientation planning went full-speed ahead starting in july. half of august was spent trolling around sydney, adelaide, and melbourne. to the delight of my mind, my eyes, and of course, my tummy. ezard and taxi were personal faves in melbourne (which is now one of my new favorite cities), but there were certainly yummy eats that were had across the southeastern coast of oz.

after a few days of recovery from jetlag, CA training hit like a brick. and nailing down orientation logistics kept september in a whirlwind. thankfully, it was all worth it to have yet another successful event under my belt. CA training also wrapped up without little more than minor drama/trauma (you pick). but let's just say that i was thrilled when the month ended.

october has been a bit calmer, though i wish the weather wasn't quite so warm. it's just oddly hot and humid during the day, which is making it even more obvious that our environment is totally out of whack. much like our political system. if anything's made this month mildly suck, it's the sight and sound of political candidates who are stupid, insincere, or both. maybe some candidates are slightly less heinous, but none of them have made me want to jump up and vote. none of them. i mean, isn't that a tragedy?

at any rate, life is generally pretty good this month. now that i've nailed down a space to do interviews (or at least some of them), i feel a bit more relieved about the dissertation stuff as well. (let's see how long this lasts. think positive, think positive.)

on the movie front, i've watched everything from the sisterhood of the traveling pants to tell no one to ghost town to nights of rodanthe. and on the foodie front, i've checked out new happy hour specials at napa valley grille and yamato. i've gotten to dine at california roll factory and real food daily in the last week. on the flip side, i've also found my way back to a lot of my old favorites, including literati cafe, novel cafe, le pain quotidien, and tender greens (which i actually had 2 days in a row). and this week, i'm headed back to craft for another foodie splurge.

in the past few weeks, i've also indulged in daily iced blendz, which i thought was mostly ice, but found out was mostly ice and 400+ calories. thank goodness for nutrition website, but good grief!!

on the social front, it's been great re-connecting w/dana who's now here to stay for the year, sitting around w/eri over angel episodes, and soaking up good friend time in-person, on-line, and over the phone w/kel, dani, karen, caroline, amy, chiara and everyone else who helps keep me outside my own head and knowing that there's lots of other things going on with other people. this includes derek and his wedding, jerry and his baby, jenn and her baby, and god knows whatever else i'm forgetting.

life is simply too short to be totally self-involved all the time. why not listen to what someone else is saying every so often?