hello out there blogosphere. does anybody still read this?? It's just a question i'm putting out there. I used to write with a set audience in mind but now it's like, "are you there god, it's me, Margaret." I know cathy reads this but i talk to her almost every day so no real news to report to her. so yeah, leave a comment if you're still reading this shizz...

anyways what's up with you? i'm watching the emmys which were entertaining the first 2 hours and then i got bored and decided to internet stalk people and then i thought, "i wonder if anyone is internet stalking me right now? i should write a post for anyone out there curious about what i'm doing." Well something that' i've been pondering...i think i now understand why people get married in their late 20's. Sometimes it's because you want to and all that jazz but i think most of the times it's because there's nothing else fun to do and everyone else is married or coupled off and you're just alone with your things so might as well plan a kick ass party because parties are so rare these days in old age. I haven't had any real fun in a while. All of my peers are no longer new to grad school and starving for company and willing to go out all the time anytime because they dont' want to sit alone at their house. Instead now everyone is moving to the outskirts of ann arbor, buying houses, having babies, moving in with people, leaving the party at 10pm to go home and snuggle...etc etc. And i'm not better. My weekends are now spent working at the computer lab and going to the farmer's market. this makes me sad! what happened to my youth full of theme parties. speaking of shacking up, nick has been living with me in ann arbor. scandalous! It's been fairly drama free except that neither he nor I know when he's moving out of the state, but we know that he is in fact moving at some point.

my professional life is still a pretty big disaster. I'm taking this professional development class about how to get a job and every time i leave the class i feel like i've been doing everything wrong. All the jobs that i'm qualified for are jobs that i hate (ie things pertaining to stats and research) and apparently no will will probably consider me for these jobs because i have not published a minimum of 3 papers. Basically i've VERY seriously considered dropping out of grad school several times this past week. Thsi is more than my usual consideration of dropping out. but then i realized that this is the worst economy ever and i have a guaranteed gig for the next 2 years, with the second year being all me and no actual job that i ahve to do. I willl just get paid for sitting around and writing. Or i could get a real job and move back to LA. so torn, so torn.

Anyways nothign really big to report. Fall is in full swing and it's AWESOME! not too hot, not too cold, no rain (yet) NO SNOW! it's ideal. Cathy will probably think it's freezing when she comes but ti's so awesome.

my apartment

alright so the long awaited post of my apartment. i didn't include any pictures of my bedroom because as of right now it has no real flavor to it. living alone thus far has been pretty liberating except at bed time when i get kind of scared and close and lock all the windows. but otherwise it's pretty cool. ok so here goes.

here is my bathroom. i painted it "honeydew." I"m mexican, i like bright colors. so sue me. i need a new side thing because this one came with the place and is ugly. i acknolwedge this but i needed a place to put my things. i'm hunting. i'd prefer someting not white but i don't know
i unintentionally ended up with a bird motif. but i kind of rike it
kitchen wall and art that i bought at pitchfork. i have to actually frame it in this frame. this is just temporary. also the orange was a failed wall color attempt. please suggest kitchen wall colors. right now it's a very pale pale yellow that just has no life
i decided to display my dishes thusly since these shelves were there when i moved in
my tumblers. love! also i have like 8 of the butterfly ones and 5 of the owl ones and both of these sets cost me a total of 10 dollars at the flea market
my counter top. i still need a microwave. i finally have a gas stove again which i love love love!
my old school sink. i kind of love it. the dish strainer is just connected so i never have to worry about water getting everywhere.
my tea cup collection.
my 2 absolute favorite tea cups. in fact i might scrap the whole collection at some point and go for a black and white floral theme of cups
and now onto the living room. i painted the wall myself and it's called "empress teal." It sounded very gay and so obvi i had to pick it. empress teal might be my tranny name someday. this painting project was a real bitch and after the bathroom and this room i pretty much decided to wait on the kitchen and bedroom. this chair needs to be re-upholstered. suggestions on fabric colors? right now i have an extra panel of the shower curtain which could work but i also have an orla kiely print of pears ? i could also make pillows out of either of these fabrics. thoughts?
my new couch which i LOVE! clearly i need to put up my art. working on it this week.
my gigante tv. i might die. i was watching flipping out while taking this pic. you can't tell in this pic but it's big

couch = love! i need to make some pillows. i think i want to embroider them or make some out of cool fabrics that i find at the flea market. also this is my old trunk that i'm using as my coffee table. on top are some african woven bowls that annette brought me back from uganda. hella cool!
and now finally for the piece de resistance. every shopaholic dreams that someday they will have an entire closet dedicated to just their shoes. but then when it actually happened it just made me sick to realize that i probably had thousands of dollars worth of shoes in this closet. 7 LEVELS OF SHOES!! i don't know whats' grosser, that i own that many shoes or that i decided to display them thusly. jealousy or judgement? which are you feeling? also i had to double up some shoes so if they were all layed out one by one there would be more shelves. ugh.

so anywhere i need help from you guys. what color should i paint my bedroom and my kitchen? any suggestions? it's a small odd shaped room so the way i have it set up is kind of what works and i'm too lazy to try to move it around since i can't physically pick up the television.

canada and maine.

hello, world!!! where have i been?? where HAVEN'T i been. I was in DC living the life of a demographer...not so fun. In fact, all of the sitting in un-ergonomic office chairs gave me 3, yes you read that, 3 PULLED NERVES. i pretty much can't do anythign with my left arm and am currently in physical therapy. the cost of an office job is very high. anyways i'm back in Ann Arbor but not before taking a little jaunt over to Canada. I was there for a conference on michigan's dollar. it turns out canada really IS everything that they say it is. It kind of made me want to move there. ti was like America without all the drama and it was super diverse, which is a word i try not to use in this context but it really was! they also really drink canada dry gingerale. Oh, and they have ketchup flavored potato chips which i was initially wary of since it sounded strange. i was worried we were going to have a repeat of the "beef stick" potato chips circa thailand. but no! they were delicious! imagine french fries with ketchup condensed into a processed bag of snacks.

we stopped by niagra falls on the way back. It's actually not a very photogenic place, lots of mist and all, but it's pretty cool to see. for some reason i thought that niagra would be this magestic natural beauty out in the middle of nowhere amidst a forest with hardly any people. turns out there is this awful town called Niagra that has been built around the falls and it's like a family Las Vegas (read: excalibur hotel and casino and circu circu and there are tourists EVERYWHERE. clearly i'm dumb.

then i moved back to ann arbor which led to SEVERAL break downs. nothing like packing up all your shit and moving it a block to make you realize that you have too much shit. ugh! it's been 2 weeks and i barely finished unpacking last night. Most of my breakdowns had to do with nerve pain in my arm and having to move a lot of my shit because no one was in town. being little and injured pretty much marks you as useless. Luckily nick came a few days into the move to help me and i was able to make him do all the big things like beds and such. so we relaxed for like a day and then we drove to Maine to visit our friend Adam. turns out maine is really far. it's like almost 1000 miles. we drove through ohio which is teh worst state to drive through ever and then into northern penn and southern new york which are pretty. then we hit vermont which is so pretty! but then that led us to new hampshire which was kind of a downer. Maine is very foresty. it's like what i imagine oregon being like. it kind of reminds me of Forks from Twilight. Maine is very photogenic and very east coast.

did you know that maine has a longer coastline than california? it's just all scrunched up into peninsulas and coves and shit. pretty cool. this is nick and adam walking to the beach. again, i restate, very east coast. where else would you walk through reeds and trees to get to a beach?

east coast! mind you it was not that hot and the water was freezing but everyone was out. people not from LA don't know.

paging dawson and joey!
the boys took a dip. i stuck my leg in and it got numb so i decided that it was too cold for a real dip
adam said that the cold was "invigorating"

so east coast
one lone flip flop travelling the world
adam's parents lived in a house like this, literally feet from the water. LITERALLY! i didn't take any pictures because i'm dumb but it was cool and they had like 7 deer living behind their house.
scenery
99% of the coast is rock like this

then we hiked to the top of this mountain and looked at this harbor which was full of sail boats.

swearage
fun with my camera's color features. nick needs a haircut so bad
it really was a glorious day.

i am pretty pissed that i didn't take any pics of the lobster. MY GOD THE LOBSTER!! we went to the docks and each ate a lobster in it's entirety and everywhere you go they just give you cups of butter to dip everythign in. god, so good! they just have stew pots of warming, melted butter that they give to you in plastic cups. we also had steamers which are just steamed clams that you dip in, you guessed it, butter. so good!! what is special about eating at the docks is that they boil the lobster in the salt water so it's extra tasty. we also ate a lobster roll which is really simple. just lobster meat in a toasted hot dog bun with butter poured on top. god, i might die. so next post, pictures of my apartment. blaze