Day One of the Stretch and Sculpt adventure; I was originally afraid that sleep deprivation and morning-grogginess would get the better of me and I'd spend the class bumping into people, but the exercise did, as promised, wake me up a little. Happily I canceled out the whole ordeal with a bagel (my decided Tuesday Treat) and, now that it's time for me to pack up for class, I'm about ready to go back to bed.

Summer is ending in the muggiest of manners up here; it feels like we're swimming to school with the humidity. At this point, I'm almost hoping that it'll be disgusting through Wednesday, just so that the first day of autumn will seem like that much more of a relief.

I'm slowly getting the hang of my philosophy-heavy classes, I think, though there's plenty of opportunity for that to change. I'm not sure why I didn't think more about the course descriptions when I signed up for them. I guess it's all in the name of rounding out my education.

I'm hardly back into the swing of things, but certainly attending classes and making some motions that might look like I know what I'm doing. My only classes so far have been in German and French -- the latter surprisingly refreshing to hear again, even if the professor himself seemed a little disappointed that our class of 16 has "only four" native French speakers. No matter, he won me over to some degree just by being French and recommending that we take a break during the three-hour class to go out and smoke pour la sante.

It looks like this first month of school will see me learning a lot about Sartre, and how to spell my name in German. The German class is certainly more encouraging than anything existential; our French professor was taken aback when no one knew what year Sartre was born, while we got hearty praise for a vaguely correct recitation of the alphabet in German. I slipped up with a few French pronounciations already in German class, which pretty much everyone predicted I would do (nien, das ist franzosiche), but the class seems like it'll be a fun one.

I don't really remember learning French, which seems strange given that it wasn't so long ago and I could stand to learn a lot more. My first memories of it involve boredom and wondering when the next in-class fete would be, perhaps mixed with the jealous suspicion that the kids in Latin would at least be getting higher SAT scores.

My mornings free, I'm trying to use them to go swimming or do otherwise healthy things besides sleeping in; Day Two of this mission, I already hit the alarm and decided that swimming two days in a row would be too exerting. Well, at least I got one day in, and there's some hope I'll go back tomorrow. I'm probably going to sign up for a potentially-scary "Stretch & Sculpt" class, which meets even earlier in the mornings; there's some chance I'll regret taking the 8:30 am session, but I guess there's no harm in trying. I don't really know what "sculpt" means; I associate sculpting with clay and assume that chisels will somehow be involved as well, which worries me a little, as I've never really thought of my body as a claylike substance.

That said, I'm going to fill my clay-pot self up with eggs and toast before I need to be in class. I'm glad it's September.

I'm home in Arlington for the weekend, picking up a few things to bring back to New York; at this point pretty much everyone else I know around here is already off to school. There are probably even teachers in my old high school getting ready for the fall, though I doubt I'll pay them any visits this time around. Somehow I like that it's kind of cloudy, and not at all hot, right now. The past few days in New York it really has felt like early autumn -- my favorite time of year, which I'm looking forward to.

Today's plans involve breakfast out, a bagel lunch, and a birthday dinner -- to be interspersed with organizing a few things to be sent back to New York and possibly a nap. Yesterday saw me napping for a while; the four-hour bus ride wasn't as easy to sleep on as I'd hoped it might be. I guess this brings me to the photo posted below; the train tracks are in New York, and I've actually only been on two trains this summer, but it seemed somewhat appropriate given that this trip home is my last of the many summer weekend journeys I've been on.


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Originally uploaded by sallymanhattan.

In New York news, I've finally moved into my housing for the school year, a newly-renovated dorm on Union Square right in front of the farmers' market (which I'll hopefully be getting much of my produce from in the coming semester). I've done minimal decorating, and the stovetop isn't quite in the sort of working order I'd prefer, but it's a good, big room and looks to be a comfortable place to spend a school year.

I guess this coming week will see me buying school supplies -- always a fun activity, in my opinion -- as everyone else who's not here already moves into the city and gets settled in. It's surprising to me how quickly August went by, but also something of a relief given how July sort of dragged along towards the end.

Back to New York tomorrow evening, then; in the meantime, there are cupcakes baking and I think I might have a nap.

The end of summer is in sight; I've moved out of my summer housing to my new, temporary place near Union Square while the renovations are completed in my dorm for the fall, and this coming week will be my last week of work at my bookbinding job. The past week has gone by quickly, which might suggest a trend for the rest of the month.

Yesterday morning was pretty much dedicated to hard labor; I pushed a cart of all my belongings from Canal Street up to Union Square, which wasn't actually all that strenuous but I felt slightly heroic anyway on finally arriving at 14th Street. I've gotten the air conditioning working, plugged in my clock and lamp, and stocked the fridge with basics like milk and popsicles; since I'm only going to be in this room for a couple of weeks, I'm not really putting much time into unpacking. Some stuff will likely spend the whole two weeks in a suitcase. My only gripe with the place is that there's no internet access at present, but it's easy enough to walk a couple blocks over to the nearest computer lab.

Anyway, it's very, very hot, and my underslept brain needs some caffiene before moving along with the day.

Back in the city, after a nice trip down to Florida, which was sunny enough to suit my sit-by-the-pool needs, and provided a few good thunderstorm-shows in the afternoons. I guess New York doesn't get that many thunderstorms -- which is probably good, as I doubt New Yorkers would give as much thought to lightning-safety as Floridians do. I guess I'd forgotten that whole electrocution aspect to it -- I had to be reminded not to dawdle outside under an umbrella while a storm was passing overhead.

It's probably not any cooler in New York right now than it was in Florida; the little weather-thing at the bottom of my screen isn't even showing the sun, or clouds -- just a steaming red thermometer, and a red stop sign warning for the heat advisory.

It's a short week of work, for me, and I'm happy to actually be staying in the city for once this weekend; for one thing, it makes it a lot easier for me to buy fruit, because I don't have to worry about eating it all by Friday morning lest it rot over the weekend. I mean, it'll still rot even if I'm here -- I don't believe I have any preservative effects on produce -- but at least there won't be that Sunday-night disappointment to see that the fruit went bad while I was away.

In other news, my summer-roommate lent me her finished copy of Harry Potter, which I somehow raced through in two nights. I know I'm a fast reader, and I guess most people have been saying that they've gotten through the book in two days or less, but I can't explain how six hundred pages went by so quickly. Anyway, with that done, it's on to the next book of my summer reading (which has, happily, been picking up recently, probably inspired somewhat by finishing Tender is the Night); I'm next moving on to Waiting (Ha Jin), which I suspect will take me longer than two nights to get through, even if it's only a paltry 300 pages.

I don't know quite why I find it so amusing, but it's actually not a bad idea for a website; if you've seen a really strange, unidentifiable sort of bug around the house and you happen to have taken a picture of said bug, you can send the photo to these people at whatsthatbug.com, and they'll tell you what it is! Entertaining to look at, even if you don't have your own mystery-bug to report, just to see all the scary things that are out there in strangers' kitchens.

In other nature news: had I become an animal biologist, it seems as though cephalopod biology would've been right up my alley, at least according to some guy quoted in an Anchorage paper who said that cephalopod biologists are "a playful group of people" who like stories about sea monsters. I like stories about octopi, as far as that goes, which brings me to this long article; I never realized just how weird these things are. I'm also not sure about whether I've been using the word "octopi" incorrectly my entire life. Am I supposed to say "octopods"? What a messy language. Anyway, a picture..


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Originally uploaded by sallymanhattan.

The blinds have since fallen down completely, and the roses are gone as well, but the sort-of-grayish look to this one seemed accurate enough for a rainy evening like this one. After a stop by the library after work, I'm back home and contemplating some grilled cheese for dinner. The books are meant to accompany me on my Florida excursion, but I might find myself digging into one of them tonight; it's a good night for curling into blankets and reading and generally staying indoors.

Speaking of books, if anyone wants a copy of the somewhat-acclaimed book (at least, from what I could tell on the few morning-show reports I saw) French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano, let me know; I ended up with one free from work, and I'm not sure what to do with it. I personally think it's somehow kind of gimmicky, but to be fair I've hardly read it; I tend to not put much faith in morning shows, I guess.

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Alright, I'm so close to getting the photo-thing mastered.. now I just can't figure out how to get rid of the stardate-tag thing above. No real update at present; I just wanted to post this photo, really. Back from a fun weekend in Philly, which I suppose this guy was at least partial witness to from his dining-room-table post. Tomorrow starts off my three-day work week, and then the second half of the week will see me on my Florida vacation, which I'm looking forward to. My digital camera half-broke over my trip to Woodstock (which sadly left me with virtually no pictures from that weekend), and even though it seems to be taking pictures just fine now, the lens is making a grinding sort of noise that I don't like when it adjusts, so here's hoping it'll make it down to Florida and back without mishap.

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Originally uploaded by sallymanhattan.