Apologies for the hiatus. I had a week of vacation and then a week of pretending to do work, both of which prevented me from posting. Since it is the day before I have a major paper due, I have waken from my delusions.

The adventure begins on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. My seminar was cancelled so I planned to leave campus in the afternoon with Liz and Tess. After attending my morning class and working an earlier-than-usual shift at the SPA, I grabbed my bags and met my traveling compandas outside of our dorm building. The GPS in Liz's mom's car sent us on an incredibly roundabout route to Schenectady, where I was dropped off at Union College. I met Geoff, who told me we'd be leaving sooner than planned.

Which we did. In forty minutes time, we were driving out of town. If it weren't for our similar taste in music, the six hours we shared on the road would have been filled with nothing but small talk. We got into town around nine and Geoff dropped me off at Julia's. Leah was at Julia's choir concert, but when they got back, we all agreed we were pretty exhausted and called it a night. The next day, Julia went to school and I went downtown to meet Tessa, who accompanied me to the Delta Thanksgiving feast. It was good to see a few familiar current and former Deltoids. Afterwards, a group of graduates went to Webster's for old times' sake and bizarre conversation.

In the afternoon, I helped mix the pumpkin pie filling and did a lot of knitting. Mia and Clara got in around eight and we ate a delicious dinner. The rest of the evening's activities were centered around preparing for the next day's feast. And a delicious feast it was. We ate in the late afternoon and watched the Wizard of Oz afterward. On Black Friday, Julia, Clara, Mia, and I went to Goodwill and then headed downtown, where we shopped at the Rag & Bone and hung out at Webster's with some familiar State College faces. Mia and I were dropped off at Emily's house and had tea with her and the munchkins until it was time for dinner.

I had been invited to during the Delta feast, a literary party that was supposed to take place on Friday night, but the event was moved to the following evening. I took the opportunity to do some school work... and by do some school work, I mean watch an episode of Dexter, do half of a reading, and watch Transamerica. The next day, we had a delicious birthday lunch for John. I spent the afternoon with Tessa downtown at the Comic Swap and Webster's.

After dinner, Mia and Clara dropped me off downtown (again) on their way to rent a movie, and I went to the Hookah Lounge to meet Will and the Chronic Town Crew. We chilled there for a while, discussing our costume ideas for Literary Party and exchanging absurd and tragic stories about Thanksgiving. Will and I went back to drop his car off and talked over a History channel program about Jackie O. and the Kennedys until Mikey G. came to pick us up. I got a taste of State College high school fun. (aka driving around rural Pennsylvania while blasting techno; conclusion: I didn't miss much... except Tokyo.)

Since he had to pick up some other people, Mike dropped Will and I off at Literary Party. Soon after seeing some pals for the first time since this summer, Emma came through the kitchen with eyes as wide as dinner plates and, in a stage whisper, informed us that the cops were in the house. Mind you, it had only been thirty minutes since the party was set to start. Turns out that the house we were in was actually the house of the hostess' friend's family, who was out of town for Thanksgiving. Anne Frank looked horrified when the authorities barged in and Ernest Hemmingway was thoroughly embarrassed when one of the police officers looked at his jam spattered face and said "I don't even want to know."

As usual, the cops put on a scare show, using such lines as "BURGLARY IS A FELONY." The team searched the house, collected IDs and addresses, told minors to call their parents, and sent people home gradually. Will and I left with the pedestrians and walked from Fairmount to Perkins, at which point we called Mike, who was, no surprise, on the open road, willing and able to take us the rest of the way to Will's house. After watching bits and pieces of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Snakes on a Plane, and Reservoir Dogs on the TV, I bitched, he apologized and we said our goodnights. I slept soundly on the couch in the basement. In the morning, he drove me to Julia's, where I packed, knit, ate, and finished my winter cottage craft. Julia drove me to the Chinatown bus stop.

The traffic to New York City was horrible and the trip took six and a half hours instead of four and a half. Fortunately, I was there in time to meet Patricia. We went to a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant which had delicious 20¢ dumplings. We wandered northward, did a little shopping, and said goodbye at Grand Central, where I bought my ticket towards Westchester. I had to wait for about forty minutes and knit in the main terminal. The train took about an hour and Liz and her mom came to pick me up at the station. After meeting her adorable dog, I settled in to the guest room bed and passed out.

On Monday morning, we left the house at eight. Once we got on campus, I had an hour before my first class started. I had a paper draft due on Thursday, freaked out Wednesday, and then realized that I still had two late paper options to take for English. Instead of getting a head start, I expelled the assignment from my mind and started watching Kill Bill with Joe.

On Friday night, Joe, Liz, Tess, Tyler, and I started Kill Bill again. Liz, Tyler, and I knit through it. We then joined Kevin, Mike, Sarah, and Taylor in headquarters. It was kind of nostalgic. Saturday, I went to work and then proceeded to waste the afternoon away while pretending to do work. That night, the stress of doing absolutely no work caught up to me and I was mostly miserable. Since I had to work at eight the next morning, I went to sleep relatively early.

It didn't make a difference. At four in the morning, two of the guys across the hall had an incredibly loud, incredibly obnoxious alpha-male shout-down. After about five minutes, I went to the hall, told them to be quiet, and tried to go back to sleep. Unfortunately, I realized that my mattress pad has been worn down and felt springs jabbing into my back and shoulders. Work was not to miserable but my body was. After work, I went to the library and buckled down to write my art history revision. Three pages later, I ate dinner, went back to my room, and worked on my paper between episodes of the second season of Dexter. And now, it's Monday night and that late paper option has snuck up on my unproductive ass. And now I've finished this entry and can't justify procrastinating any more... not to say that I can't find a way.