I knew there was something I had to do... fünf

[Liesje]

hippy, I always thought "cousin's wedding" would also be a good back up too .

I was going to use weddings too, but my dates are a Monday - Wed and a Tuesday - Wed and weddings are usually on weekends, right?

 

[Stories for Boys]

i figure honestly will work. i'll say "look, i could've lied and said i had a family trip, or emailed you the night before and said i was sick...i'm telling you know so we can both be prepared"

but i'm also missing a whole lot of class

 

[kellyahern]

i figure honestly will work. i'll say "look, i could've lied and said i had a family trip, or emailed you the night before and said i was sick...i'm telling you know so we can both be prepared"

but i'm also missing a whole lot of class

Yeah, that would have been bad if you had called in sick for the Party Girl nights, then the boss sees the pictures on the web or on the news . . . .

I've been trying to space out my vacation, but Vegas was too good to pass up .

Missing class is tough though. It's not like having vacation time at work. I couldn't have travelled this much if I was still in school (of course, back then I couldn't afford it either, not that I can now, but that's a different story ).

 

[Kristie]

according to the calendar my concert is during my very last week of classes

see, the tricky thing about honesty is if you're like "I have to go to a U2 concert!" and they say "no" then you've got no backup plan, because if you get sick or have a wedding on that day instead, it's pretty obvious.

 

[bonosloveslave]

hey beth. you all must come find me in the GA line in chicago...i'll be there. i have seats for the first detroit show, but i'll be doing GA with lies for the 2nd.

Yay!! I don't think poor Karl realizes he is going to have to be my line bitch and hold our spot all day while I try to find people I know

And congrats on Conneticut Kristie!

 

[hippy]

Well, my company solved my "pretending to be sick to go to concerts" thing!

Today we had our quarterly town hall meeting where they proceeded to roll out NEW VACATION INCENTIVES for all of us! Now, instead of getting just one week of vacation this year... I get TWO!

I'm happy cause now I don't have to lie

And, yeah, twin... I hear you on not having anything to fall back on if you tell the truth...

 

[Stories for Boys]

well, i'm going to all these shows whether they're ok with it or not. i mean, people skip class all the time just cause they feel like sleeping in or are sick. i always go. so i figure if at the beginning of the semester i straight up say i won't miss class for any other reason, and will make up the work, my profs can't complain. i just hope some of them are fans *crosses fingers*...

 

[Kristie]

so laura!
Since I haven't heard from you in like... a year*, how's it going in lauraland?

Aside from the obvious U2 fame, of course.



*code for "a long time"

 

[Ultraviolet Light]

I can't justify missing classes.

But today was my last day of work until classes start again! And I got a raise! And they're too scared of me to tell me they think I'm a bitch! Huzzah!


Also Beth, I feel you should know I was accidentally near Fowlerville earlier this week and I was like "hey, I should see if I can still find Beth's house." But then the people I was with were not interferencers so I thought that might be odd. Plus you were probably at work. Okay I'll stop talking now.

 

[Kristie]

"Hey! I think we're near the house of a lady I met on the internet! Can we stop by?"

so, I don't know if I've said this before, but I'm really glad I don't live in a city that they have that Animal Cops show on animal planet in.
...that was great grammar.

Anyway, I always watch that show and they're like "Next... can the cat that was set on fire find a loving home?" and I'm like "I'LL TAKE IT!!"
I'd end up with every pet on the show!

 

[Stories for Boys]

so laura!
Since I haven't heard from you in like... a year*, how's it going in lauraland?

Aside from the obvious U2 fame, of course.



*code for "a long time"

my life is really boring, actually. i work, i eat, i sleep sometimes. it's really quite dull until u2 starts their touring again. how is life in kristieland...err, willyville?

 

[Kristie]

hehehee

remember when I actually BUILT willyville?
and then photoshopped the box in the picture so that it said "CONTENTS: PANT" instead of "PAINT"?

You're still at Calvin, I assume?
What's your major these days? What do you want to do with it? When do you plan on graduating?

...all of you need to answer those questions as applicable to you (i.e. if you're not in college, tell me about your job. What do you do? Do you like it? Do you have bigger and better plans?). I have a horrible memory and I forget what everyone's up to.

I was watching Home Improvement today and Tim was wearing a Calvin sweatshirt and I thought of you guys.

I have to say though, it suprised the HELL out of me to see you walking across that stage in Chicago.

Willyville = the great state of connecticut these days. It's got awesome weather and an ocean (or... the long island sound, it's an ocean to me!), but I don't know a single person here and I'm a little lonely at the moment. Apparently Connecticut is the wealthiest state in the union, and you can totally tell. Nobody but me walks around in an old pair of shorts and a t-shirt. They've all got floofy skirts and pretty shoes and fancy shirts and it's making me feel like more of a simple country girl than I already am. Though people keep asking me for directions, so maybe I'm being too self-conscious.

Speaking of pants, I have a confession... I no longer fit into The Pants. I am totally ashamed by this.

I did some mental math though and realized that for less than the cost of the yale 10 meals a week meal plan I intended to purchase, I could join jenny craig and get three nutritionally balanced, easy to make meals a day that will make me smaller. I think this is a good idea. I shall wear the Pants again! And the whole closet full of clothes in a variety of sizes! Of course, I say that all the time, but this time I'm spending money on it.

 

[Stories for Boys]

i remember seeing pictures. those were the days...remember when i took a picture of the toilet box at *the* menards that said "PLEBE"? oh lord, did i just type that? heh.

still at calvin for another year, yes. major is still biology. i want nothing to do with it besides a degree, really. i'm moving to chicago after graduation and getting a job at a music store or something like that so i can be in a band. (we're still looking for a vocalist...heh). anyways, yeah, calvin.

heh, it surprised you? imagine my surprise when bono looked down at me and said "can you play?"...heh.

i'd go for the healthy stuff. dining halls are ridiculously expensive. ours cost like $7 a meal and the food wasn't even good. plus, i inevitably didn't use all my meals, so money would be going down the drain. i want the pants. i wish i could've found them back in the day. but alas, i drew the line at making an international phone call to a gucci outlet...heh.

 

[Kristie]

i remember seeing pictures. those were the days...remember when i took a picture of the toilet box at *the* menards that said "PLEBE"? oh lord, did i just type that? heh.

I run across that picture every now and then and say "Why do I have a picture of a cardboard box? ...oh yeah!"

...and I think it was at Lowe's.

 

[Kristie]

GUESS WHAT
I THINK I MADE SOME FRIENDS!

I met all the new MA students today! There are six of us, and the professors say there were like 1500 applicants...
HOW THE HELL DID I GET IN?!

I mean, everyone's talking about their experience, and they all did field school somewhere fancy like oaxaca or greece or mexico, or they're older and have 10 years experience already, and did their undergrad in places like England and got accepted to PhD programs at good schools like UCSD... and I went to PURDUE, I dug up a schoolhouse in INDIANA, and the only place I got accepted was at Yale! I must have been a mistake. Not that I'm complaining!

I also found out that it's almost impossible to complete this program in a year. The good news is that if you're here next year you don't have to pay the $28,000 again, you just have to pay a $200-some per semester returning student fee. So I could get my coursework done this year, and if I don't get my thesis done I could still theoretically move away to Texas and live with Dave (which is cheaper!) and write my thesis there and only pay the little 200-dollar fee.

So, the moral of this story is, after all this time of people asking me if I was excited and me going "eh..." because I really wasn't, I'M FINALLY EXCITED.

 

[kellyahern]

Yay Kristie!

 

[hippy]

HOW THE HELL DID I GET IN?!

Because you f'in rock, that's why!

I'M FINALLY EXCITED.

Congrats, twin

So will you be doing field stuff as well as classes while you're there?

 

[Kristie]

yes indeedy!
it is required of all of us to take a field techniques class, which is lecture monday, washing and cataloguing wednesday, and digging holes all day saturday. While I could possibly be exempt since I've taken field school already, I figured it couldn't hurt to take it again. Plus I digging holes!

 

[hippy]

Plus I digging holes!

hehehehe

just a kid at heart

 

[bonosloveslave]

"Hey! I think we're near the house of a lady I met on the internet! Can we stop by?"

Yep, I am rarely home. But we do still have our house in Fowlerville, though I hope for not much longer, esp with gas prices and my current 100 mile commute 5 days per week

 

[*BOOMCHAA!*]

 

[Kristie]

 

[Ultraviolet Light]

my current 100 mile commute 5 days per week

Holy. Crap.
Are you working in Canada? Or Ohio?


Or am I stupid and that's 100 miles round trip? I stand by my "wow that's a long drive" either way.

 

[Kristie]

I really hope it's 100 miles round trip
'cause if not, my mom tried that 100 miles one way to work thing once and it really sucked

 

[hippy]

100 miles every day would not be a good time


On another note: twin, how many grad schools did you apply to? I'm curious because I'm not sure if I should just blanket apply to all of the schools I'm interested in (9 in total) or focus on like the top five programs that I'd really like to get into...

getting all of this together is making me


Also, how did your first week of classes go?

 

[Kristie]

I applied to... uh.. 8? Maybe 7.
I'd say you should apply to more if you can afford it, and on a range of whether you think you can get in or not. I only really got in here, Dave applied to nine I think and he only got in at BU. He's in Texas because someone saw his research at a conference and said they'd really like to have him, so he knew he could get in there. He applied there late because he started getting rejection letters and was afraid nobody else would accept him hecause he had crappy grades.
Anyway, check into getting the fee waived if you qualify at the places you apply to. Those fees add up FAST.

First week of classes went great. Yay classes! I actually missed my very first class at Yale, I had a migrane and staggered down to the health center and got a shot for it. I was sad.
The field techniques class I have to take honestly looks a little redundant, but they have lots of money here and can do a lot of analysis we couldn't at purdue and I really want to learn about that. If you want to see the place we're digging at you can go here: http://www.chc.state.ct.us/whitfieldhouse.htm
Archaeometallurgy also looks awesome. I so missed chemistry and physics. The other ones also look nice, but those are the notable ones.

You know what's really crazy about this place? At purdue all the buildings were built for classes, but here you go to where your class is supposed to be and it's a hundred year old house and your class is in someone's former bedroom. I think it's awesome.

 

[hippy]

Thanks for the advice


It sounds like you're having a great time! And how awesome to be doing what you love So are you all just excavating at the Whitfield House for general excavation purposes or is there a thesis you're trying to substantiate?

 

[Kristie]

It might be for a thesis but it's definately not mine. I guess they're kind of in the dark about what went on there for about 200 years so we're trying to figure it out.
This is the sixth year this class has dug there, possibly the last if we don't find anything exciting.

 

[bonosloveslave]

Hey Boomer

It's about 50 miles from my house to my clinic in Birmingham. So about 100 miles each day I work, and I am generally there 5 days per week

 

[Liesje]

It's about 50 miles from my house to my clinic in Birmingham. So about 100 miles each day I work, and I am generally there 5 days per week

I think you should move over to GR b/c...

a) you wouldn't have to live in Fowlerville
b) you wouldn't have to drive so far to the cat hospital, b/c we have a good one (and by good I mean pricey, so it must be good) right over on Breton and 36th and...
c) most importantly, you could hang out w/ Ellen and I more often than say....once every few years!