Good evening, dear readers. I come to the keyboard fueled by a gigantic curry dinner.

Last weekend was a getaway weekend, as I mentioned briefly in my last post. Olive, Hannah, BK, and I were guests at Ron's family's Vermont house. We left campus on Friday afternoon. Before getting to the house, we went grocery shopping and picked up a few movies. For dinner, Rob made delicious chicken penne and we threw together a flavorful salad. We were all a little punchy by the time the first presidential debates came on, and ended up playing the Bag Game instead of paying attention to senators McCain and Obama. (To play the Bag Game, go around in a circle, picking up a paper grocery bag with your mouth with only one foot on the floor. After each round, roll the edge down.) We watched A History of Violence and, after eating lots of ice cream, thought about going to bed before starting The Host.

In the morning, we made pancakes, then drove to a trailhead of Mount Equinox. I warned everyone how out of shape I was, but I soon realized that words could not quite express how much I feared this expedition. While everyone else trotted up the mountain, I stepped slowly, wheezing and taking frequent breaks. (At one point, I wheezed to Ron, who had come down the trail to give me moral support, that I felt like Viggo Mortensen had stomped on my throat.) But eventually, we all made it to the top together. The view was obstructed by thick clouds, but reaching the lookout point was really rewarding. We dumped a little bit of Newman's Own salsa on the ground in memory of Paul. Stinky and tired and sore, we went to lunch before returning to the house to shower and watch movies. We finished The Host and watched What Lies Beneath and Eastern Promises.

Sunday started with a lot of lounging. We watched Sleepy Hollow before cleaning up the house and heading back to school. A delicious Mexican Family Dinner was ready when we arrived on campus.

Olive, Hannah, Chriz, Sammy, and I watched Pink Flamingos on Tuesday evening. It was ridiculous and great; obviously a classic. Thursday was the vice presidential debate, which wasn't as dramatic as I had hoped, but still delivered some interesting moments. On Friday, I went into town to buy the bike I checked out a few days earlier, which I happily rode back to campus. In the evening, we went to the Carnegie Hall Premieres concert, featuring Persian musician Kayhan Kalhor on the kamancheh. Since I didn't get as much sleep as I wanted during the week, I tried to go to bed at 10:30. It ended up being a long, lousy night of not-so-restful sleep.

I worked the next morning and watched American Psycho in the afternoon with O&H. While they worked their late-afternoon shift, I went downtown, mainly to buy two giant pieces of cardboard to tape into a portfolio. At 10, we went to a ridiculous (and overwhelmingly homoerotic) comedy show. Rob invited us to a lame party in Scribner, which I left as soon as I could. While I was planning to get to bed relatively early, Joe and Sarah found me in the hall and invited me to the Spa for a snack. Once there, we ran into a really, really drunk friend, who, after a struggle, we managed to get home and into bed.

I worked again this morning, cutting peppers with Olive in a shift we didn't realize we had together. Conversation made the three hours go faster than usual. I spent the early afternoon reading for Medieval Europe and later went to O&H's room to start my Drawing homework: portraits. After drawing for an hour, the three of us went to Hannah M.'s room to watch Waitress, which was really cute. Since no one else got their act together in time, Family Dinner was cancelled for the first time this year. Liz, Alli, Hannah, Olive, Hannah, and I ordered tons of Chicken Tiki Masala instead. I feel like I'm going to explode.

I just watched Helvetica while typing this entry. I started reading The Devil in the White City this week. It's the perfect book for me, since I love non-fiction but also appreciate a luscious, page-turning fiction-esque writing style.

Well, time for bed.

Photos of the semester so far.

Links to some videos that condense coverage of our laughable political process:
The Democratic National Convention in a Minute
The Republican National Convention in a Minute
The First Presidential Debate in a Minute
The Vice Presidential Debate in a Minute