Serious Procrastination

This will be quick because I was supposed to be studying all day, and it's now 6:45pm, and I haven't cracked a book open yet. I have an Arabic test tomorrow, but I'm not overly concerned. I'm also supposed to be doing a lot of reading that I haven't done yet, but I do have the evening ahead of me. Ahh, the joys of working under pressure. (insert Freddie Mercury singing.. "under pressure... doo do do daa dee" --- a la Vanilla Ice later on).

Anyway, whatever, I am rambling. I had a good weekend. Went to a grad student happy hour on Friday night that was absolutely packed with people, to my surprise. I thought it would be dork central, but it was refreshingly decent with some fun looking people there. Lindsey and Shauna didn't have quite as much fun as me though, and they pulled me away around 8pm. So we came back to my humble abode, invited our classmate Christina over, and played my new card game from Christmas, "Pirate's Loot" and some Boggle as well. A rocking Friday night if ever there was one!

Then on Saturday, Shauna invited me on a picnic up to Mt. Lemmon with her new man "Rouzbeh" and his friends, Farauz and Farsheed (I haven't a clue how to spell these names). Farauz is a bit husky and a little older (ahem, 27) and plays classical guitar very well. Farsheed is a bit edgier, and to be frank, he's really sort of right off the boat, having arrived from Iran only 6 months ago. Interesting to say the least. It was sort of a day out of Iran except that we were still in Arizona (ie: Persian spoken about 50% of the time, Persian music in the car on the drive up the mountain, Persian singing at the picnic site). And if you've ever been to the Middle East (esp. in mountainous areas like Turkey, or Iran) you will know that picnicking is a popular weekend activity. Especially grilling. Which is exactly what we did -- a delicious mix of ground beef kebab and a steak and saffron kebab were the offerings (more red meat than I have eaten in years), and the most tasty salad ever --- known as Shirazi salad -- with the usual mix of cucumbers, red onion, tomato, and a zing of lime juice and olive oil. Ahh, delicious!

I had to do some serious laundry this morning, however, to eradicate the scent of burning pine wood from my clothes. Today, I didn't do much except hit the swimming pool (as usual). Otherwise, I have been hibernating in my studio apartment, cleaning the floors, kitchen, and bathroom, and just blathering around.

Ta-ta for now!

Sitting in my chair all day & night

Hello, lameness. I have been attached like glue to my olive green, $9.99 plastic chair from IKEA for approximately 12 hours. It looked like a beautiful day outside, from what I could see through my vertical blinds. Too bad I was fixated in front of this damn machine, reading an exceedingly long chapter of the QURAN and assessing its legal and ethical injunctions. Oh, and as my professor asked, also feeling free to comment on any verses that fell outside of that binary framework. Huh? Yeah, huh. And as an additional treat I also got to spend 2.5 hours reciting (in Arabic) on my little webcam a minute and a half monologue about some guy named Khalid who "dekheltu koolayit ettajara" -- entered business school. Thrill a minute my life is. I realized something was really wrong when I drove over to my department's building tonight to drop off my 6-page Quranic paper and couldn't find parking anywhere. Finding this odd (one can usually find parking next to the building in the evenings), I completely illegally parked in a construction zone and walked toward the building. In so doing, I ran into a number of 20-something young females all decked out in tight jeans, hoochie tops, UGG boots (frankly, the uniform around this place), and loads of make-up, and suddenly remembered that it was Saturday night. My outfit? Pajama pants, long sleeve t-shirt that I slept in last night, an old blue sweatshirt, thick navy socks with the Grinch on both sides, Speedo slide-on sandals, and no bra. Oh, and might I mention that I haven't even combed my hair today. God, I'm hot.

Don't Give Up On Me!!!

For those of you who think I've died, I just wanted to confirm to you that I am still well and breathing. I'm starting to get frantic notes in my e-mail inbox inquiring as to whether I have been kidnapped by government agents, but alas, I am alive and well and now back in Tucson. Bah humbug...

The good news? I am taking fewer credits this semester and the weather here still rocks. (I have already been swimming outside multiple days since I've been back...)

The bad news? I still don't really like anyone in my lame department, and my closest friend here (Shauna) has all but evaporated with the discovery of her new Siamese-twin boyfriend, also known as Rouzbeh (pronounced Rooz-bay... it's Persian). Miguel is now calling Shauna "Rouz-babe." Indeed.

So now it's just me, my old teddy bear, and my computer on Friday and Saturday nights. Yes, how insanely crazy and wild my college life is! I have decided to focus on getting in serious shape this semester by varying my work-out routine from just swimming. I'm adding weight-lifting and doing the eliptical trainer for at least 30 minutes as well, and so far I feel very healthy!

Miguel also bought me an MP3 player for Christmas, and I made use of it tonight at the gym. Definitely an added plus to any work-out.

I'm also seriously into watching "Project Runway" -- what a great TV show. Not only is it reality TV (my personal favorite genre... how embarrassing to admit), but it involves people with creativity and talent! How marvelous! BTW, my favorite designer is Daniel V. (with the longish hair and big nose) --- always tailored and classic. He is the best...

I used to be really into the show "Lost," but it's just really jumping the shark this year. The new characters, the opening of the hatch... all lame. My mom told me she watched an episode last week (with Mr. Eko's story) and said that his intense facial expressions through every single scene annoyed her to no end, and she said she didn't know how he didn't just burst out laughing during the filming b/c it was all so ridiculous. I had to agree in retrospect.

Nothing more to report. Just living life as a hermit... waiting for spring 2007 to arrive and my escape from Tucson...
Cheeri-o,
Kit