I'M DONE! I'M DONE, I'M DONE, I'M D-O-N-E DONE!!!

Dear Readers,

I have done it. I have finished my first quarter at UC Davis! Now, with all of my newfound freedom, I remember those of you who still remember I have blog (Mom) and am updating it with all of the details of the holiday festivities which have commenced since before my birthday.

The Highlights: My parents and sister visited for my birthday and we stayed at an AWESOME bed and breakfast, I spent Thanksgiving with Blake's family, Blake took me to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's holiday concert, Blake, Emily and I went to the Dickens' Christmas Fair, I finished my first quarter at Davis, and I am hosting a Chaunukah party tomorrow night.

The Details:

My Birthday Weekend: I arrived at the Bed and Breakfast before my parents and checked us in. The steward (named Stewart I think- you can't make this stuff up!) brought coffee and chocolate chip cookies to my room to snack on while I finished my Greek homework. After my parents and sister arrived we talked for awhile, and then retired to our rooms where I spent no less than half an hour submerged in the largest whirlpool tub I have ever seen, much less had the pleasure of soaking in. On Saturday we had breakfast, lingered awhile, and then went into Davis. I hadn't yet set my alarm code, so I could not get my family in to the lab to show them my desk, but they were able to see my house and the campus. Mom kept the Davis economy going with Aggie gear purchases in the bookstore. Saturday afternoon was spent playing Scrabble and double solitare with Mom and Blake, and then Saturday night we went to Piatti's for an incredible meal. The chef shared his recipe for short ribs and I intend to make them! On Sunday we had breakfast and lazed around until it was time for my parents and sister to take off. Then Blake and I browsed in a couple of comic book stores in midtown.

Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving dinner was at Blake's house at 2:00. I made a cake with a Dalek and turkey on it (look up Daleks if you have no idea what I am talking about), and have only afterwards reflected that, had the Dalek exterminated the turkey, it (the turkey) would have vaporized and we would have had no turkey for Thanksgiving. After typing that sentence I realize why Greek has so many cases and word endings- that sentence would have been so much more clear if there were a way to make "the turkey" and "it" agree in gender number and case, or if there were a "ho de" to change the subject of the second clause...but I digress... Where was I? Oh! Thanksgiving. Blake's mom made an amazing squash dish (I still need to remember to get the recipe) and after we ate we went to the park and took some pictures. Yes, Mom, I will send you copies soon. You too, Squirt. You too, Ira. Amanda by extension. And Grandpa, if you are reading this I will make sure you get them too. Anyway, then we all walked back to Blake's and played Quiddler (like Scrabble and Phase 10 had a love child) (yes, Squirt, I just said "love child"- no, I am not turning into a hippie), Poker and Monopoly. I won Quiddler and Poker, but Blake won Monopoly. Clearly, Blake and I are more brilliant than his other family members, even if Jessie's potatoes did win the potato contest. Your potatoes were so much better, baby! Did I forget to mention that Blake and Jessie had a mashed potato cook-off? Technically Jessie won, but hers were the only leftover potatoes. She puts sour cream and scallions and ranch dressing and other unholy things in her mashed potatoes. :-/ It was a great Thanksgiving.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra: On Saturday night of Thanksgiving weekend, Blake took me to see the Trans-Siberian orchestra at the Arco Arena. The light show was amazing (of course) and the music was wonderful. They had a reader whose voice was like James Earl Jones'- deep, rich and full. Blake leaned over and told me he would listen to that man read the newspaper. One woman sang a melody in a freakishly high voice, but she sounded incredible. It was a wonderful evening. The best part was having Blake hold my hand during the whole concert. We were dressed up and looking fabulous. Again, pictures were taken and, again, yes eager family members, I will send them to you.

Dickens' Fair: Last weekend, Blake, Emily and I went to the Dickens' Faire. Yes, my dress was lovely, and yes, I will send pictures- though Em has a shaky hand and several of the pictures of Blake and I were blurry. We walked about for a bit, and Emily took me into a harp store where the men let you play the harps. I sat down and began to pluck out "Deck the Halls" by ear. The harp master came over to chat with me and began the conversation by saying, "So, you've had a few harp lessons", and I said, "Um, no. I've never touched a harp before in my life!" He looked taken aback and proceeded to tell me that the way I was holding my hands when I plucked the strings is how harpists are supposed to hold them, and that he usually spends a month teaching his students to hold their hands that way, so when he saw me playing he assumed I'd had a few lessons. :-D I did eventually pluck out most of the melody of Deck the Halls. How cool is that?! after that Em spent awhile in Feziwig's Warehouse dancing and Blake and I sauntered around looking fabulous and commenting to one another on the costumes, identifying the various characters from Dickens' novels and the various scenes they were acting out. He got pictures with Charles Dickens and we snuck one of Scrooge at one point. I had a roast beef sandwich for lunch (would have had bangers and mash had there been room for it in my corset) and Blake had yorkshire pudding and roast beef. We were sitting across from a couple whom I decided would be Blake and I in 30 years (he said more like 50)- they were a riot to listen to. Then we browsed shops and at the end of the night I had a pocket of chesnuts and Blake and I watched the dancing at Feziwig's. He wasn't up for a turn about the floor but I danced a couple of times. They have several trained dancers there- male and female- who lead people in the dances. There were very few set dances and a lot of waltzing. The costumes were wonderful. I met one woman named Jane who had the most beautiful dress and hair there. A couple other women had hair to their thighs, thick the whole way down. Another awesome thing about Blake being Blake? I could share all of these observations and he would reciprocate since he actually has an appreciation for the Fair- he didn't just go to "make me happy". I think he actually told me about it last Summer. It was a lovely day!!

My First Quarter: Well, after a Greek final and three term papers this quarter has come to close. I know I have an "A" in my SLA class because the professor already sent back my paper with my course grade, and now it just remains to be seen how I do in my other classes. I have books to return to the library still, and I just got my textbook list for next quarter. I am just glad my time is my own again for a little while.

Chaunukah: Happy Chaunukah everyone! I will be making latkes and soup and knaidel tomorrow for colleagues, church friends, and friend friends- whoever wants to come and unwind after a very stressful quarter. On Sunday, Matt, Rachel, Blake and I will be going to Apple Hill- at least we will if Matt can still go after having part of his finger re-attached. Don't ask. I have no idea what happened.

Well, that is all for now. I will be leaving for LA a week from tomorrow to stay there thru New Years' Day.

Ciao!

a blog post

Dear Readers,

November 10, 2009, is a momentous occasion deserving of careful documentation in the anals of history. I, Debba, have succeeded in that triumph of life afforded so few fortunate souls- that sweetly searing thrill which trancends the doubts of even the most suspicious and wary of persons. For on that day, I saw with the help of science a marvel of God's genious to behold.

This experience all began with a tape measure. I found that my head, though small, contains a mighty electric machine. I was fitted with a red cap reminescent of a WW2 pilot's cap full of holes. The holes were for gel, and into those goopy puddles sensors were clipped- so many sensors as to create dredlocks of wire where I once had shimmering, long red locks. Then, with the flip of a switch...

...basically, I was plugged into a machine that scanned my brainwaves. So there you have it! I have a brain, and it works. It was so cool! I was helping Mike run a pilot of his study. I am officially a lab rat!

Debba

P.S. My super, stupendious, scintilating, scientific sister Squirt will be gracing me with her presence this weekend. So will my parents.

P.P.S. In other news, I have the best boyfriend on the planet. He took me to a chick flick and then to Chick-fil-A for my birthday. Last weekend he took me to Old Town Sacramento, and we looked at various shops including a miliner and a Victorian costume shop. We are planning an awesome cake for Thanksgiving. Plans for LA are firming up. Expect us Dec 19th-26th- I'll be staying until Jan 2nd. I am SO EXCITED about all of our holiday plans. Seriously. Best. Relationship. Ever.

Colorless green ideas

Hello readers! I know it has been far too long since I have made available my wit and charm for your amusement and edification. Wait no longer!

Highlights: I've been going to school, I've been going to church, I've been watching Dr. Who, things are going well at the lab, and my parents are comming to visit me for my birthday! I am planning social events! I am also sick again. :-/

Current Mood: relaxed

Details: School has been comming along. I am working on a paper for my syntax class on LFG and how it explains suprasegmentals in ASL, focusing on negation. I am 5 for 5 A's on Greek tests, including a midterm, and also got a perfect score on my SLA midterm. Good stuff!

I have been enjoying Midtown Friends these past few weeks. They have had several styles of service and each of them has been beneficial, and provide good fodder for conversation with Blake. The group tends to have dinner together after services and I think I'm going to start attending. Church is done early enough that I should be able to go for a bit and still get enough sleep.

Dr. Who is awesome- witty and evocative. If you have not seen it and enjoy science fiction...what are you waiting for??

I have found my groove at the lab. Currently that means coding signs for a database for an experiment. Today is an exciting day- we are filming the stimuli for a project in which I will be involved. I will be learning how to use Final Cut Pro and also how to do a little bit of programming.

Next weekend I will turn 27, and my parents and my sister will be comming to visit!!!!!!! I have a lot to do in preparation for their stay so I don't have to work the whole weekend, so I will be a busy bee this next week.

I am also working on my costume for the Dickens' Faire which, when completed, should be rather stunning provided I got all the measurements right, etc. If I have time I will make a fur-trimmed cloak to accompany it. :-D Blake and I will be going Thanksgiving weekend to the faire. He is also taking me to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra that weekend. I am SO excited!! Then in early December, we will be going on a double date with Matt and Rachel to Apple Hill. I will also be hosting a Chaunukah party, complete with latkes and dreidel, at my house after finals. Blake took time off work so he can spend a week at Christmas with me in SoCal!!!! We're working out trip logistics, but I am beyond elated that I get to share this special season with him.

I have a cold again, which is a bummer, but this too shall pass and hopefully not lead to bronchitis.

Time to code, so farewell, dear readers!

random bits o' news

Highlights: There was a pretty wicked storm last week, I went to a new church on Sunday and loved it, have been keeping up well with school, and am trying not to lose it at the lab.

Current mood: blah

Details: Last week Davis was hit by a serious storm system. We got a few inches of rain in 24 hours, all blown in sideways from 15-30 miles an hour. It was incredible, and impossible to stay dry. My waterproof jacket, though, lived up to it's function. I was only soaked from mid-thigh down.

I finally went to Midtown Friends on Sunday and I immediately felt at home. The church meets in a small office space, but has been set up to feel like a living room. The music is led by a single guitarist, and there are elements of art, discussion, scripture reading and teaching woven into each service. On the fourth Sunday of the month they "put feet on the gospel" and do something service-oriented. This Sunday we'll be making packages of food and some will go out on the streets to pass them out, and some will stay behind and pray or make more packages. I also found out that Midtown Friends is a church plant of a Quaker church in Sacramento.

I am 3 for 3 A's on weekly tests in Greek, and the midterm is this Friday. I am also getting a take-home midterm on Thursday in Second Language Acquisition, so this will be a busy weekend.

I am still getting used to the way things work in the lab. Evidently, tasks are not presented clearly the first time, and very rarely is everyone on the same page. This has been the source of more frustration than I care to tolerate, but all I can do now is realize that I should ask a LOT of questions up-front. Tasks are presented like country roads with three or four forks. You don't know until you get to the town a few miles down whether or not you took the right fork. This past week, I have taken one wrong fork and one right fork. Needless to say, my confidence is a little shaken. I like to "have it all together" and am still trying to be okay with it when it is not so. This is a huge reason why I need a church that feels like home. I need a place to rejuvinate lest I be sucked in by the vaccum of academic disorientation n'er to return to the threshold of sanity.

Academic Avalanche

This has been a fun, but busy and very academic week.

Highlights: I had another test in Greek (results Monday), I re-arranged my schedule to accomodate more lab hours, I started on several projects at said lab, I saw a movie with Emily when I played hookie from studying and had a rare mid-week dinner with Blake. I attended a workshop yesterday, the first of the year hosted by our graduate group. There was a party with Thai food afterwards- yummy! Today, I will be going to a party of sorts with him to meet his crowd of married friends (though I think not "smug marrieds"). In all, I'm learning how to manage my schedule and the workload so I don't go mad.

Current Mood: Chipper

Details: So as you can see from the "highlights", this has been a rather full week. I will seperate the details by paragraphs. Feel free to skip over the details you don't care about to get to the good stuff.

Greek test: I can now translate from Greek to English and from English to Greek a wide variety of sentences pertaining to a farmer, his lazy slave, and his oxen. Not only can I do this with ease and finesse, but I can do so in several cases. My current favourite Greek word is the plural accusative form of "the oxen", used when oxen are the direct object of a verb, usually "drives". It sounds like "tous Bous", and that is, in fact, the correct transliteration. So if your children are oxen (that COULD even be metaphorical), you can say, "I herd tous bous". Alternatively, just walk around saying "tous bous" like I do and you will instantly appear more intelligent. All that to say I think I got an "A" on my test.

Schedule re-arrangement: David wanted me to be in the lab during hours more ammenable to his schedule, so I asked my Greek professor if I could attend her early section of Greek on Tuesdays and she said that would be fine. My new lab hours are Mon 7ish-11, Tues 7ish-9:20, 11:20-2:20, and Fri 7ish-11, 2:30-5:30. I am already quite busy with projects.

Lab projects: There are several things going on at the Corina lab, and I have my fingers in most of them at this point. I am helping create stimuli for a project looking at semantic (meaning-based) locations for signs in ASL, I am gearing up to kick off a new project with Sarah and David regarding infants and toddlers with cochlear implants, I have reviewed stimuli for another project on semantic processing in native signers, and some other stuff I can't remember right now. Oh! Yes. I am creating a database of participants grouped by age of acquisition of ASL so in the future we can more easily contact people to run new studies.

Playing hookie: I have figured out the amount of actual reading and work required for each of my classes, so I don't feel quite so overwhelmed every night. On Tuesday, Emily goes to see movies for $5, and I decided to drop what I was doing to go with her. (Picking up this narrative on the following day) We saw "The Informant". It was pretty good. We also made a schedule for housework to make sure everything gets regularly cleaned. Huzzah! I'll be vaccuming and cleaning the bathroom counter/mirror.

Dinner with Blake: On Wednesday night, Blake came over bearing Dr. Who and Mountain Dew. I had crockpot bbq chicken and potatoes for dinner and cookies for dessert. Blake had cookies. We watched Dr. Who with Emily (who is also a fan), and it was one of the most enjoyable weeknights I've had in a long time. He will be comming over this Wednesday for steak and potatoes. Mmmmmmm!

Workshop: I attended five sections of the first graduate group workshop on Friday. The first three were relevant to my work at the lab- related to ERP's (event related potentials) and specifically N400 studies. For example, if I say "I like my coffee with cream and ________" you probably automatically fill in "sugar". That would not produce an N400 peak (measure of brain electrical activity). However, if I say "I like my coffee with cream and mud," that semantic oddity would cause your brain to fire in a different way, producing an N400 peak. Another presenter spoke about eye-tracking and body-movement tracking to see how language is processed. If you have a piece of candy and a candle in front of you, and you're told "pick up the candle", in the miliseconds before the "le" comes out for "candle", your eyes will have briefly looked at the candy. If it is a pickle and a candle, your eyes won't go toward the pickle at all because it doesn't begin with the same phonemic cluster. Cool, huh?

Party afterwards: The graduate group hosted a gathering with Thai food. Yummy! I sat around and talked with a neat couple and with Elaine, the woman who keeps the department running. We had a good time relaxing and chatting, and only talked a little about work.

Tonight Blake and I will be checking out a church midway between our houses. I had a great time last night meeting his friends, and I'll post details about that later. Suffice to say for now that they're like his second family and are some really neat people.

A wiki wiki update

Highlights with a little Detail:

Ahhh. I had a great time in LA with family and friends, and am back to the grindstone. I met Blake's dad and had a chance to talk with him some yesterday. All went well. I am done with all of my homework for tomorrow, but since I am planning to have Blake over on Wednesday for a rare mid-week dinner date, I am going to push through with my reading for Wednesday too, so that tomorrow I can study for Thursday. There is a workshop and party this Friday for graduate students, and then a gathering at Blake's friend Blake's house. Yes. Blake squared. I haven't met anyone from that circle, but they are reported to be much more nerdy. My kind of people. I got an A on my Greek quiz last week. We will have quizzes every Friday. Here's hoping they all go as well. I have begun projects at the lab- one on organizing binders of forms, and the other on collecting a set of early-acquired signs for the infant toddler ASL project.

Time to get back to it.

a very very quick update

While I am sure my witty banter and exemplary commentary on life, the universe, and everything Davis is the highlight of your day and the sustenance of your being, I regret to inform you that this will be a very, very short update typed while I await the printing of my next batch of reading. Was that grammatical? I should do c-structure, f-structure and a-structure...structures to make sure of it.

I read articles. I translate Greek sentences about groaning, grain-growing farmers. I interpret. I take notes. I sleep. I repeat.

I am a first-year PhD student accustomed to the semester system now taking more than a full course load in the quarter system. Enough said.

It was a lovely break...

I am typing this on Monday morning sans coffee (mistake) as a brief update on my weekend before I get ready for my first full schoolweek as a doctoral student.

Highlights:

Read, did Greek homework, read some more, printed articles to read some more, watched season 1 of Castle, played a Star Wars miniature game, went to church, and read some more.

Current mood: chipper (sans coffee, so whatever chipper without the aid of a caffeine drip looks like...)

Current book(s): The Hobbit, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Second Language Acquisition Theories, Athenaze, An Introduction to Lexical Functional Grammar (you know you wish your reading list were as cool as mine)

Details:

On Friday I power-studied through my cold (which is worse this morning than it has been this weekend :-/) and read for a good four hours. I did my first translation exercise for Greek class, which consisted of having a glossary and notes to aide me. I have some vocab to memorize so I'll be making a list and/or flash cards so I don't make the same mistake I did with French- learn the pronunciation but not the vocab and grammar. The good news about Greek syntax is that it is word-order-by-cubism. All of the parts of speech have their own morphemes realized as suffixes which attach to the appropriate stems to form meaning. Greek is very precise, except when it comes to word order. Viola, word-order-by-cubism. Fun! I like my syntax professor. He's funny and made a little fun of Chomsky's transformational grammar. Now that I am printing the 83-page chapter to read IN ADDITION to the chapter in the book this week, I am thinking I like him a lot less. :-/

On Saturday I had a much-awaited and well-earned day of cuddling with Blake talking and watching Castle, a fantastic cop show about a mystery writer who gets wrapped up in cop work when a murderer uses his plotlines to create death scenes. If you don't know, I collect several different mystery authors' works. Blake thought I would like the show and he was right. We also (per his rule that you must leave the house every day for at least a little while) went shopping- he bought frozen pizza and waffles and I bought nail polish remover. I don't know why that strikes me as funny, but it does. He took me to his favourite hot dog place, where an order of french fries is nothing less than an entire tray piled with salty potato goodness. Naturally, I had a salad for dinner last night. Yesterday afternoon before church Blake taught me how to play a game with Star Wars miniatures. He beat me, but just barely. Methinks it will be difficult to find a game at which I can beat him, but nonetheless it's fun to play. We also read the first several chapters of Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It was SO nice to just relax for a couple days, but I doubt my schedule will permit many more study-free weekends, so I am committed to having at least one weekend day for myself on which I do not have to study or do homework. Feel free to hold me to that. Next weekend I will be back in LA, so do not expect to hear much from me this week as I will be loading all preparatory studying for next week into these weeknights.

My First Day

For those of you who don't know, I did get hired to work as an interpreter at UC Davis, and I currently have seven hours a week of classes. I started work today as well as school.

Highlights:

There was a "walkout" demonstration against the budget cuts and furloughs today, so many classes were shorter than usual, or class time was spent discussing the current economic climate. I had two classes today- Greek and Second Language Acquisition (SLA). I enjoyed both, and already have homework. I didn't end up actually working at all today, but am still receiving three hours of pay. I am coming down with a cold.

Current mood: tired

Details:

I took the bus to school today since I was planning on being on campus for awhile and, due to the proximity of the buildings, didn't need to ride my bike across campus. It is free for students (read: part of our tuition fees go toward bus service) and quite convenient. I was a minute late to my first class to interpret because I couldn't find the room. I have decided that monkeys suffering from ADHD and near-sightedness designed the buildings at Davis with paper bags and banana peels, which were then translated into bricks and ramps. If you take the wrong staircase you will end up in a Twilight-zonesque hallway from which all logically ordered room numbers hide. It is lassiez-faire engineering. The first floor could be the basement or the second floor, and occasionally it is a floor reserved for staircases that go up or down one flight and then force you to exit the building. Other than that, the layout makes perfect sense.

My first class lasted only 15 minutes, which my team interpreted, so we went back to the office. I have asked Dave (my boss at the CMB) for a lab-issued laptop so I can work remotely while on campus during my breaks. If he issues one I'll be able to work in the interpreter's office. I went to Greek class, held in one of the smallest university classrooms I have ever seen. The professor regaled us with how elite we are for selecting classical Greek as a course, and we took our swollen egos off to practice writing the Greek alphabet like very elite... first-graders. I got my student ID during the break between Greek and SLA, then ate lunch and wrote very pretty Greek letters. In SLA we discussed the syllabus (there will be a lot of reading) and I got approval for my topic for the final paper: English language acquisition in native Deaf signers. Good luck to me finding ten sources on the subject...

I took the bus home and am nursing the beginning stages of a cold, so this weekend will be low-key. I have reading to do for Tuesday, and will undoubtedly have more tomorrow.

Bilbo's Birthday

I have not updated this recently on account of having been VERY BUSY, so I am adding two new posts today: Bilbo's birthday, and my first day at UCD.

Highlights:

Dinner was good- I made a brisket braised in stout gravy with mushrooms and carrots, mashed potatoes and garlic rolls. I made a chocolate stout layer cake for dessert. Blake's buddies were nice. We watched Star Wars.

Current mood: tired

Details: I made the brisket on Monday at my house and then finished cooking it on Tuesday in Blake's kitchen. His sister and I cleaned up and she helped me find the cookware I needed to finish preparing the food. People started arriving around 7:30. I already know Matt, one of his best friends, and Matt's fiance Rachel. I met Lee, Dave, Stu, Kei, Hung (Kei's boyfriend) and Fox. I spent a good part of the evening talking with Rachel about family and wedding plans etc, etc, but did see part of Star Wars (Episodes 4 and 5) with the guys. No one was able to explain why we were watching Star Wars on Bilbo's birthday (not that I have a problem with Star Wars), but Blake said Bilbo would have appreciated it. I have heard since that all of Blake's friends approve of me, especially Matt and Rachel. I'm looking forward to spending more time with them.

Here are my impressions of Blake's friends:

Matt is funny, and possibly the most outgoing of the bunch next to Stu. Rachel is an excellent foil for him, and is a lot like me. She is creative, and has a knack for feeling out people's personalities. I met her last week Sunday- Blake and I went out to dinner with Matt and Rachel after church, and I was glad that Tuesday nights' conversation added to my good opinion of her, and hers of me. Dave is a classic computer geek. If he could speak in binary, I think he would (and who knows? He probably can...) Blake is a nerd, which I love, but he isn't a computer geek. Quite the opposite, actually, with a great deal more social savvy. Lee is Blake's flatmate, so I am surprised I hadn't met him yet. He evidently spends a lot of time with his girlfriend who recently had gall bladder surgery. He thanked me for cleaning the kitchen and said he'd never seen it that clean before. Bachelor. Shocker. Stu is funny. He kept bugging me to socialize with everyone while I was doing the dishes- they've never met a woman of the Joseph bloodline. The kitchen will be left clean! Anyway, at one point he came to stand next to me and said "You're so tiny!". I think I got a similar reaction from Blake when he first met me because 4'11" looks taller on paper than in real life, I suppose. Stu is perhaps the least natural-nerd of the bunch- he seems to be nerd-by-osmosis. Kei and Fox would fit in well in LA- thin, blonde, and confident that those two things will satisfy all other character qualifications. That is likely not a fair assessment, since I didn't spend as much time with them as with the others. Rachel is more than a cut above both, and according to Blake it is more important that I get along with her than with them. Hung, Kei's boyfriend, seemed nice but not quite nerd enough to roll with the crowd. In all, it is an interesting mix of people brought together by various interests, but the sheer force of their personalities holds them together.

A Bus, A Brisket, A Butt-kicking, A Bible

This was a very full, but very rewarding day.

Highlights:

I took the Davis city bus for the first time, I interviewed at UCD and I think it went well, I made an awesome brisket in preparation for Bilbo's birthday party tomorrow, I worked out with folks from Crossings (church), and went to Bible study.

Current mood: Exhausted

Details:

I am tired, so the details will be short and sweet. The E line Unitrans bus picks up a couple blocks from my house and drops off on campus, so I've decided to make use of that resource sometimes. I successfully took a bus to my interview today. I met with the director of the student disabilities center and two staff interpreters. I bombed the voicing part of the assessment, but I think it's okay otherwise. I'm fairly certain I'll be hired to interpret for them.

I spent most of the rest of the day preparing the food for Bilbo's 165th birthday taking place on the morrow. I baked two layers of chocolate stout cake and a very tender, very yummy brisket over mushrooms and carrots that is chilling as I type this in the fridge. I was able to accomplish all this and still make the workout and Bible study groups at church. Sara kicked our butts with her exercise regime. It's unreal that she is having a baby in six weeks. Absolutely unreal. I lasted about 45 seconds in the final wall sit. At Bible study we discussed parts of Luke 19 and 20, and ended up talking about the parable of the vineyard tenants. We discussed possible interpretations of the parable and how we as tenants or as the vineyard now need to give back to the owner (God) when and what He asks. Not easy to do...

Special Announcements:

Special Announcements:

My employment went through the system for the CMB, and my fees for school are now all paid!

I have an interview with UC Davis tomorrow at the center for students with disabilities (or whatever they call it) to interpret classes for the university- this work would be in addition to my stipend.

I will be driving from Davis to LA on the weekend of October 2. Any other travel schedule wouldn't be cost effective.

Lovely weekends...

I love weekends. Even though I have not been working this week, I still feel that weekend days are different from work-free weekdays in some enigmatic manner.

Highlights: Spent a day with Blake, was introduced to an amazing used bookstore, met his mom, watched Lord of the Rings, and relaxed!

Current book(s): same

Current mood: thoughtful

Details:

After getting to know Blake for three months on the phone, it is nice to finally spend some proper time with him. I met his mom yesterday. She's a firecracker. Blake has told me many times I remind him of her "in all the non-creepy ways", so it was nice to meet her. We had lunch together at The Cricket and Company- I was told their biscuits and sausage gravy are to die for- I'm not dead, but my arteries may be slightly more clogged than they were. We discussed the merits or lack thereof of a variety of books, and she was knitting wool socks the entire time. My kind of woman. Blake has a garden in his front yard and he grows tomatoes, peaches, lemons, and cotton among other things. Yes. Cotton. His mom picks it, seeds it, spins it, and makes things with it.

After lunch Blake showed me around Sacramento a bit, which included his taking me to a used bookstore larger than some chain retail bookstores. I bought four books. They have the publication of Shakespeare's plays that I like, so I will be returning with a list of the plays I still need to fill out my collection.

Last night we watched The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers with his sister. She's a character. She'll be helping me with food preparations for Bilbo's birthday party on Tuesday, and has strict orders from Blake not to put any ranch dressing or sour cream in the mashed potatoes. :o)

And mom, I know it's Bilbo's birthday because "Bilbo and Frodo happened to have the same birthday, September 22nd." (The Fellowship of the Ring, pg 42 in my copy)

L'Shana Tovah

I decided to establish this blog as a way of updating every interested party at once of the highlights of my life in Davis. That way I don't fill everyone's inboxes with the minutiae of my days. Each blog will have highlights followed by details, so if you are a nuts-and-bolts type you can easily see the important stuff.

Highlights:

Sundown tonight is Rosh Hashana, and I just finished baking 10 mini loaves of honey cake. If you want your house to smell awesome, I suggest you do the same. It is possible that, as time goes on, I will post recipes here I deem worthy of sharing.

My room is set up, I have all my paperwork done with the CMB (Center for Mind Brain) where I begin working October 1, and school starts next week Thursday. My house is not as clean as my Jewish blood deems necessary to welcome the new year, and therefore I will be doing more cleaning and less blogging today.

Current book(s): The Hobbit, Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Current mood: peaceful

Details:

I have never seen so many bugs inside one house all at one time. I have been killing spiders and knocking down webs left and right. I think God has brought me to this place to force me to come face-to-face with my fear of arachnids. My roommate is not as detailed in her idea of cleaning as me, so I have decided my mitzvah for the year is to thoroughly clean the house to make it easier to maintain at my standards. My cousin Ira gave me a broom as part of a housewarming gift, and I have been using it with a vengeance. I think I may have scared Emily with my zeal, but in time she will learn to embrace the clean. My landlord, Steve, is really nice. I have already put up a rack for my pots and pans over the stove, and have put up some of my artwork, which I never got around to doing when I was living in Santa Clarita.

It is not going to be too difficult to stick to my budget. I have an interview at UCD to be an interpreter this school year- that means a few extra fixed hours and a little more money. Sara, one of the most awesome women ever, buys produce in bulk from this place called the Fruit Stand and brings it to Crossings (my church service) on Sunday nights. We all load up and pay almost nothing for produce. There is also a fig tree in the front yard. I need to find some use for them (I don't like eating figs by themselves) so if you have any recipes for figs I'd appreciate them.