1) Yes, I'm still alive. And wow, it's been almost a year since my last post. Since then I've obviously graduated from college. I think the reason I haven't bothered to say anything here, though, is that there isn't really much to stay. I'm living with my mom in California. I'm working at the Castle. Hopefully neither of these things is too permanent (though I do enjoy working for Carole).

2) I'm applying for the Peace Corps. It's taken me way longer than it should have to get to this point, but I have an interview at the Los Angeles office on the Monday after Easter. Before there are a bunch of questions that I don't know the answer to, according the the website, it takes 6-12 months from when you start the application to when you know where you've been selected to go, and about a quarter of applicants are offered a position. This means I really don't know anything yet. I'm hopeful, but I'm trying not to be too hopeful. My back up plan at the moment is running away to teach English somewhere (and yes, I took a TEFL class back in February).

2b) My shiny new(ish) B.A. is in political science, but it's not in American government, and quite frankly, aside from a brief love affair with The West Wing, I'm just not super interested in American government. I did try to find a job like that for a while, because it seemed like the thing to do. Still, I really don't like the idea of leaving a job that I like for one that I'm not excited about, even if I'm overqualified and don't have enough hours where I am now. I really do just want to run away to somewhere new and exciting, not permanently, but long enough to have lived there. I want to go someplace where English is not the linga franca, and do something that feels worthwhile.

3) I have also recently started attempting to revive my Etsy store with very limited success. If you feel so inclined, take a look!

3b) Jess, I finally made you some earrings! (You're the one I owed them to, right?) Let me know where I can send them if you want them.

4) I bought a car. It was my grandma's car, and she can no longer drive, so I got an amazing deal, and while I owe her money for it, I'm not paying interest. My name is on the title, though, so I live with my mother, but it's almost like I'm a real person, now.

5) In more recent news, I went to San Diego the weekend before last (and a month before that, actually). Laura was visiting from England, and Jen's baby had gotten so much bigger, and the burritos are still amazing, and I'm pretty sure I just spent half the weekend on Sarah's couch, and it was basically a fabulous weekend. Oh, San Diego.

6) More generally, I've been cooking a lot (including this bread), and listening to a lot of podcasts (This American Life, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and RadioLab are my favorites), and watching way more TV than I did while in school (Bones and No Reservations, among others). It's strawberry season. I have friends around, though I don't see them as often as I'd like. Life is a bit dull, but mostly good.

It's summer now, my hands smell like the clementines that I just ate, and it's pouring out all of a sudden, and I feel like I'm kind of floating in some in-between place. I've been done with finals - done with college, really - since Tuesday, and Commencement isn't until next week on Sunday. I've worked at the library every day since I turned in my last paper the Tuesday before last, partly for money, but also because I have nothing else to do with myself. Yesterday was my last day of that. This graduation thing is the culmination of what I've worked toward for as long as I've been able to have goals, and now I'm not sure what's next. So I do have something to do - I need to be packing up my life and writing cover letters, finding a job, something, but the problem is just figuring out what.

Something will work out somehow, and it will nice to be home again at least for a while. But it's also intimidating, this not knowing what comes next or where I will be in a month.

And the sun just came out again. Oh, Massachusetts, I wonder if I will even miss you.

This last weekend was an epic adventure involving airplanes (with mood lighting), taxis, public transport (buses in subway tunnels?), and a couple of peter pan buses, too. But somehow SCDS (or four of us, anyway) made it to NorCal for a weekend of tacos, debate, California weather, and friends that we don't see enough of. There could have been more sleep and less paper writing involved, but it was, all-in-all, a worthwhile experience - despite that whole debacle getting back to Smith on Monday.

And now I'm really just more psyched for spring break. It's so weird that I'm going to be back in California again tonight. I already have a long to-do list for next week, but since several of the items on it involve Kristin time, I'm ok with that.

It's my senior year, and also the first time I've actually gone to Rally Day events.

This morning brunch (on Wednesday!) was pretty good, but I was still feeling pretty annoyed at Smith. Yesterday I got an email from the registrar's office saying that they hadn't received my major certification form, which I need to graduate (and which I turned in a few weeks ago). Really this is more annoying than anything else, since by now I've already gone and gotten a new form and have set up an appointment with my adviser to get it signed - but I still resent being told that I might not graduate because of a bureaucratic mistake.

The Rally Day celebrations made me feel really good about Smith, though. We have some amazing alums. Despite C. Christ's sometimes idiotic questions, I enjoyed hearing from the Smith College Medal recipients. I was excited about Mandy's boss, Danielle Brian, going in, but Luma Mufleh was also really awesome. And her advice to graduating seniors? When you get you first Alumnae Quarterly, throw it out or use it to play a drinking game. Do things now that you won't be able to do in ten years like waitressing or joining AmeriCorps. Mandy was also around, and talking to her also made me feel better about life and graduation, kind of like talking to Tamar had last semester.

And at the end C. Christ announced that our commencement speaker would be Rachel Maddow - and JMG hall went crazy.

On Monday we had weather in the 50s (and also a torrential downpour), and now today we have a high of 15 with crazy amounts of wind. I am not a fan.

I know what classes I'm taking. In the middle of the week I had a minor freak out over whether to take French Cinema (en francais, of course) or International Political Economy, but I've decided to take French Cinema, along with second year Russian and a seminar on intelligence (as in, spies). Yes, I'm being a slacker this semester and only taking three classes.

In other news, all the things I had to do today were canceled on me. I guess I can just work on the novice handbook, instead. It needs to go to the printers this weekend!

I do love California. Especially the Mexican food. Not so much the weather these days. Seriously, this house is so cold. I've gotten used to well-heated buildings, and putting on several layers whenever I go outside - while my mother never seems to turn on the heat, and certainly not high enough to not need a big sweatshirt at all times to be comfortable. Not that we don't need the rain, but really? We need the rain in Northern California, since that's still where the water comes from.

I didn't get quite as much done as I wanted to over break (my camping trip was even canceled) - but in the end I did knit a hat, learn to batik, get some days in at the Castle, and have some fun with friends. I'm also still convinced that the Novice Handbook is going to be mostly done by the time classes start.

My last semester is about to start. It's going to be much better than fall semester.

(Oh, and I am coming back for Spring Break. The ticket is booked.)

I now have a plane ticket to San Francisco for Thanksgiving. Whatever, at least it's a cool place.


This semester is kicking my ass, but last night I took a dose of NyQuil and went to bed at 9, and it was amazing.

New York this weekend was great! So many cupcakes. Am excited to go back for Thanksgiving.

Now why is Massachusetts so freaking cold?

The bells were glorious.

This is basically my first weekend off since getting back to Smith. Debate's been taking up the rest of them (even the weekend before the Smith tournament, I have tabling on Saturday and the Novice workshop on Sunday). I almost don't know what to do with myself, except that really I have a massive amount of reading to get done (as always). Still, since I finished class for the week three hours ago, I've kind of just been sitting around enjoying the fact that my reading doesn't have to get done right now, this instant. I have all weekend.

I definitely was supposed to be in a workshop that I forgot about at 12:15, though. Fail.

On a completely different note, there was a bowl of grapes that had all been cut in half in Cutter at breakfast this morning, and I have no idea why.