Magic Rachel.

Whoa, looks like it's been two-ish weeks since I've last posted. Guess who's been a little pre-occupied. Oh well.




I've had lots of blog posts rattling around in my head, but just haven't put them into writing yet. I thought about telling you about going home last weekend to see my parents and my dog, riding the bus to Maple Grove, about walking in the woods and finding a feather, about pecan pie and extended family, about sleeping in my own happy bed, buying new jeans, and about Omar the Palestinian at Caribou who half hit on me, but, I decided that I could just condense all that into this run-on sentence, and that there didn't need to be a full post about it now.


There.




Other things have gone down as well. The arrival of autumn is upon us. There have been several windy, gray days that make me feel all cozy inside.


But nothing was quite as cozy as yesterday. Let me tell you about that.


First off, it was one of those lazy mornings where we all eventually got going, but not before we all wished Leslie a happy birthday and ate breakfast together on the balcony. The sun was shining on the exceptionally green grass in the baseball field, and reflecting off the water spurting out of the hose on our building's lawn to try and revive the deader-than-dead grass. It was a sad effort, but whatever.


I went to my film class and we watched a rather amusing Buster Keaton film, Our Hospitality, which had that nice silent-film humor that everyone can relate to. We were all chuckling our heads off, and I ended up eating an entire bag of gummy worms in the process. Again, whatever.


After that long class, I met up with Kelly to go get some fantastic food at AfroDeli in Riverside, and we took our falafel and sambusas down to the river flats to take in the changing leaves, and marvel at the face that you don't even feel like you're in the city down there. As the daylight began to grow more golden, we walked back across the secret bridge, talked to a long-boarding guy with a crazy 'freeboard' thing that I really don't understand much about. It was pretty cool, though.


Eventually, we reached El Dorado, where we skyped ol' Pooface Biros in London and got to see a bunch of her pictures of her adventures.


And then.....Rachel.


Actually, Rachel's arrival wasn't THAT epic. We were expecting her, and all. Harnar and I gathered up our things and trucked on downstairs to pile into Rachel's car and drive to her house.
We spent the evening having fun with her and her roomies, being ridiculous, baking cornbread, baked eggplant, and making experimental but rather delicious soups. Harnar and I had a bunch of vegetables that needed attention, so we just filled a couple soup pans with all sorts of goodies. And we finally got to annihilate that darn zucchini my parents gave me from their garden a few weeks ago. It'll be nice to have that 1.5 foot presence out of our refrigerator.


The night ended with lots of tea, watching Amazing Grace, and curling up on bunk bed that I almost died climbing up into. Oh well.


I woke up this morning with music from Howl's Moving Castle in my head. Waking up in Rachel's house is like waking up in your family's house on a Saturday morning. The light filters in through the curtains with that warm morning glow, and the house smells like breakfast. I could hear the Waldemar family running around upstairs (I'm assuming it was their little girl, Piper), and Rachel was typing madly away at her computer. Everything in me did not want to get up. It was one of those perfect mornings where you just want to exist.


So here I am on the Big Brown Couch next to Harnar as we poke away at our keyboards and listen to morning music. We'll be heading back to the U soon, which stinks in the fact that it means I'll have to go be responsible. And throw pots. BOO.






Well, I should go pack up.


Good morning. And HAPPY OCTOBER.








Songs of the Morning:


U-go-girl form Howl's Moving Castle


One Summer's Day from Spirited Away


No Cars Go by Maxence Cyrin


Comptine D from Amélie