Being sick all through college orientation :(

And jet-lagged :(

Pity meeeeeeeee. I'm only staying awake until I can register for class in an hour or so and then I'm passing out.

On the upside, it's really pretty here.

I am leaving is less than 24 hours to move to Portland for the next four months!

The plane leaves at like... 7 am tomorrow. Ouch.

I'm slightly freaked out about moving to the other side of the country.

I'm slightly freaked out about not being able to find a pair of my pants so that I can pack them because I need them because it's chilly out there. HOW DO PANTS DISAPPEAR?! I find this confusing.

Lemon Raspberry cupcakes



They are possibly the most delicious thing I have ever baked.

Lemon cupcake with a raspberry jam center, lemon-raspberry icing, and raspberries on top.

I like raspberries.

Also, I ordered shoes from Zappos and they came in less than 24 hours. Holy shit.

They were these:



I think I'll keep 'em.

I would be doing something productive instead of making ridiculous blogs, but I'm ridiculously tired. Also, it hasn't rained in about a month and the pollen count is ridiculous and my nose and eyes want to die.

ONE FLEW INTO MY EYE TODAY

like, it actually smacked my eyeball while I was riding my bike. With great force.

And then crawled around on it until it died.

And then I couldn't find it for a half-hour.

I had to try to awkwardly fish it out in a stranger's car mirror.

It hurt, and I still had to ride a bunch of miles to get home :(

Damn you, gnats.

specifically, frogs and toads



I went for a walk in the woods today, down in a ravine, and there were little frogs and toads all around. I caught a few. It's amazing to be able to hold something so tiny and so alive in the palm of your hand. You can see them breathe... watch their hearts beating... jesus christ, they're beautiful. It seems impossible that something so tiny and perfect even exists.

I saw a mink, too... I've never seen one of those in the wild before.

Yes, this is a silly post.

crisis averted, sounds like my dad's going to be at least sort of okay, although they drugged him up and he has to stick around the hospital until tomorrow.

Anyway, thanks!

It's kind of nuts that they just kind of... stumbled onto thousands upon thousands of gorillas.

More than 100,000 Rare Gorillas Found in Congo

Actually, the article says the number is close to 125,000.

They thought there were only maybe 50,000 or so left in the world, and they just found over twice that many... man, that's really cool.

and I'm wondering... what are your tips for what you should take if you're going to school very far away from home? Or just... tips in general? I live in Columbus, OH and I'm going to school in Portland, OR. I'm leaving August 26th and I won't get to go home until around December 19th.

I guess more than anything I'm just looking for advice on what NOT to take, or what problems I should look out for... realistically, I'll probably always be flying home. Stuff can be shipped, but obviously it would be kind of ridiculous to have anything too heavy/large, and (I assume, unless someone can tell me differently) it's all going to have to come home at the end of the year (does anyone know if you can leave your stuff over winter break, generally? I know that's probably a dumb question that I could find out easily on my school's website).

Anyway... uh... any advice? Obviously I'm going to buy a lot of stuff there. I guess I just don't have many people to compare experiences with at the moment. All of my friends who are going out-of-state/pretty much everyone I know who EVER has were/was within driving range.

I think I might be allergic to something new, and it's driving me NUTS.

A couple of times in the past few months my lips kind of swelled up and got tiny little bumps all over them, which went away after four or five days (it's not the herp, don't worry). They also got like.. dried out and rough and gross. Ew.

I thought it was my stupid new "natural" chapstick, but I think it might be happening again right now. I'm going a little nuts trying to figure out what's doing this. Has anyone ever had a reaction like that to chapstick before? And what kind?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it was in the basement of the MOMA design store in SoHo. Ahahaha.