elaine's strange little world

so, the pig roast turned out to be a lot of fun! i was invited by a friend of catachthonian's, who i've only spoken to on email and had never met before. of course, i was a bit apprehensive...had a minor freak out when i pulled up to the house and parked, due to the fact that i didn't know a single person there and didn't even know the hosts by sight! but then, i calmed down and walked in, and everyone was super nice! really friendly, very welcoming. the hosts were really great, as well, very warm and hospitable and went out of their way to introduce me to as many people as possible and chat with me and stuff. so it was really nice! i ate baked potato and dessert, but i'd had dinner before i came, so not eating the meat wasn't a problem. so yeah, it was fun and lovely, and nice to meet new people. someone said that i was brave for coming to an event where i didn't know anyone, and i thought, "no, just a bit desperate." heh. but it was good. hopefully, i'll get to hang out with them more, they were very nice people. thanks for introducing me, catachthonian!

yesterday, i went to the ballroom dance club here, and it was awesome! i felt like i was back in college in a lot of ways, with the beginner lesson and the awkward partner switches and all! but it was lovely. the club here seems like a cross between the club and the team at ucsd: lots of social dancing, but also lessons and quite a bit of focus on going to competitions, which makes me happy. no formations, but that's ok. i don't think, after ucsd, that any formation team could live up to my desires. but they seem fun and motivated, and they're trying to get a subsidized trip to ohio star ball, and they go to day by the shores (ucsd's comp) and unlv's comp in the spring, so i'll probably do that with them, which would be awesome!

when i first walked in, i recognized their vp from all the comps in college! he was even on patrick's formation team, the one that did a horrible lion king routine, if any of you remember it! i reminded him, and we had a good laugh. so that was pretty cool...and he told me that i should go to the intermediate lessons instead of the beginner ones (those are the only choices), and i was like, "well, of course!" and that was entertaining. and he's cute! i met several really cute people! hehe. i was wearing the shirt cin made for me, the one that says "dance first, think later: it's the natural order!" and it was a great conversation starter. so, all in all, a really good time. i'll go again tomorrow for a "structured practice," whatever that means, and then social dancing on thursday. happiness!

since wednesday, i had some sort of orientation every day. first the general grad student orientation, which was pointless but they fed us. then the ta training/orientation, which was mandatory, useless (since i'm not ta-ing this year) and generally boring, and they didn't even give us coffee! and then yesterday was the psych grad student orientation, and that was better. it was very, horribly long (8-5) but we learned useful things about the department and some policies and such, and we got to meet each other. there are 17 new psych grad students, with 6 in clinical, plus 3 transfers to clinical from other programs/schools. one girl, for example, is from asu, in phoenix, but her professor got a job here and relocated his lab, so she decided to transfer. amusingly, she lives in the same condo complex as me. even more amusingly, another guy from orientation lives, with wife and adorable baby, literally next door to me. we were very surprised to run into each other in the evening! there's a also a new zealander in the group, complete with cute accent. heh.

so everyone seems nice and excited about school and all. we went out to the grad student social afterwards, which was a bit boring, but not too bad, and then met up with some of the current psych grads at a random bar. not really my thing, but it was nice to socialize with people, just get things going a bit. it was too loud when the band started playing, and i was developing a headache, so that's when i went home. still, it was a nice evening, and nice to be out on a friday night. and if i couldn't understand half of what the new zealand guy was saying, well, that's ok. i could still drool over the accent.

classes start on monday. i already have homework for one class, despite the fact that it hasn't started yet. sucky, but that's ok.

yesterday was the first day since i've been here that i didn't cry, not even once. that was nice.

my calendar is packed with classes and meetings and stuff, but that's good. i'm excited to be doing things again, finally. dancing will be nice, too, i think. the club meetings start next next monday, a little over a week from now. i'd like to also go to hillel, so maybe i'll do that next week. however, they were supposed to have a booth at grad orientation, but no one was there. if that's how they feel about the grad community, i'm not sure they're gonna be useful to me. i guess we'll see.

off to do homework, and laundry, and then cook for the week, weee!

p.s. i need a new default icon. i just changed mine to the toy me, but it's too similar to several other people on my friends list, so i wanna find another one. suggestions? i can't really use my old default one anymore, it's davidturtle and me holding hands, and it makes me sad to use it.

weeeee! we've made an offer on a condo in tucson! it's beautiful, if rather too big for me (my parents decided a 2-bedroom would be easier to re-sell later, and i can have an office or a space for a roommate should i change my mind and decide to get one next year) and it's all very exciting! my dad took some pictures, but i don't have them yet...i'll try to remember to get him to email them to me so i can post. but it's got lovely high ceilings in the living room, a small kitchen and a little tiled area to put a table, brand new appliances (which is really nice), and (one of the selling points) a great big walk-in closet in the bedroom that i'll be using. so cool! now i need to figure out how to furnish it and stuff.

so, yesterday was rather exciting, made more so by the fact that there were freak thunderstorms in both tucson and phoenix, which apparently doesn't ever happen in april/may, and we ended up having to stay in tucson overnight and fly out at 6am this morning, instead of 7:so last night, like we meant to. but that was made ok by the fact that we were put on the only (!) direct flight from tucson to sfo, on united, in first class. hee. not that first class on a tiny plane for a two hour flight all that exciting, but still, it was quite nice, and really nice of them to accommodate us.