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I leave for Japan in 3.5 days. Yes, I’m down to half days and hours, but not minutes, at least not yet. I’m freakin’ excited fo reals y’all! I’ve been planning this trip for three years, and I’m lucky to have someone as awesome and fun as Danny to go with me.

Oh yeah, since everyone is concerned that we are going to abandon our cats I can assure you that we have a plan. Danny’s coworker is going to come by after work everyday or at least every other day and make sure that our babies have not wasted away. Personally, they are so fat that I think it would take a month for them to fade away, but on second thought, the little one would probably go first and the big one would eat his carcass. Why did I think of that? Maybe because it’s Halloween and I’m in a ghoulish mood.

We wanted to buy one of these for our kitties but then we decided that we couldn’t spend that much money on a cat castle right before our vacation. Instead we got them this for 16.99 at tjmaxx. They sniffed it and ran around in it for 10 minutes. Now, it is simply an obstacle between the sofa and their food dish.

The only bad thing about leaving for Japan in 3.5 days is that I still have an assload of stuff to finish. My plan is to finish my two grad school apps that are due on the 15th and just send them in. I’m pretty much done aside from fine-tuning a couple of my essays. Still, will they ever be perfect? I need to just pick a time to put down the pen.

I’m already half-way packed and Danny and I have gotten most of our supplies. I still need at least one more bra, but you probably didn’t need to know that, now did you? See, I think about more than just shoes.

Yesterday, I went to Seattle to visit the University of Washington Business school. I’m sending in my application next week, but I really wanted to squeeze in a quick trip and check out the students (aka weirdness screening) before committing to it. Plus, I figured if I liked it, it would give me some extra tidbits to add to my essays.

My day began with a set of freshly dry-cleaned clothes, my new swanky black coat, and a bag of books and cosmetics to prepare for the trip. I packed my rain hat and cursed myself that I didn’t have a little umbrella. Oh well. Maybe the cab could drop me off right in front of the building. As it turns out, it was sunny in Seattle. Who knew? And, for an extra $2 (trust me, I was watching the meter), the cab waited in line at the guard shack and dropped me off right in front of the building. The cab ride was convenient but expensive.

I got to campus at noon, so I had about an hour to kill before I was to meet with a second year student who would take me to class with him. By the way, the campus is gorgeous. The leaves have turned so there are sprays of orange and yellow lining every scenic walkway and fringing the commons. I wandered until I found the student union building where I knew I could find food. I grabbed some lunch and then gradually wandered back up to the business building. By now, the sky was clouded over.

I met my guide, a thirty-something, nice-looking guy with a shaved head named Arkan. I kept wanting to call him Akrat, so I kept my mouth shut. He took me to his finance class. Although I’m intimidated by finance, the teacher seemed really approachable. Arkan was cool and answered all of my questions. He didn’t really elaborate though. His answers weren’t canned, but I had a hard time getting any personal anecdotes out of him. I’m not one to push, so I just waited until I could talk to other students. I might have also been a little put off by the guy “buddybuddy” atmosphere with Arkan and his friends. They were all friendly, but I wasn’t totally comfortable. Is this their fault? I don’t think so. This is the kind of stuff I wanted to find out on my visit.

In the middle of class, the fire alarm sounded. We all laughed and wandered outside where I met my second guide, a first year student named Tracy. When we filed back inside, I went to her management class. It was cool. She told me that it was one of the more fun classes and it was a break from accounting and finance. Since she had just gone through the application process, I was able to get a lot of good, candid answers from her about why she wanted to be in this program and what she liked about it. After class, she took me to the school’s monthly coffee break where students get to mingle with faculty and find out about school-wide events.

This is where things got a little tricky. After I left Tracy, I had to run over to another building and meet with the global business program coordinator. She was really nice and answered my questions, but I was painfully aware of the time. I had to meet the director of admissions and I was already running late.

I ran back over to the admissions office and had a good chat with the director of admissions. She was helpful but her remarks about applying to the school made me realize that I need to rewrite a good portion of my essays. By no means did she tell me exactly what to say, but now I have a much better idea of how to organize my answers. This meeting made my whole trip worthwhile.

After meeting with her, I got a taxi back to the airport only to find out that my flight had been delayed. It wasn’t a long delay, but it gave me enough time to do some reading, eat a snack, and talk to whomever was foolish enough to pick up their phone (Lisa? Mike?). I got home at midnight and was pooped. It sucks that it was such a short trip, but I felt like I got a lot out of it. Plus all of the personal attention from the students and administrators was very cool. Even though it’s a huge state school, the business school is much smaller and, I hate to use the word, intimate. Ewww…now I feel dirty for some reason. Although I want to stay in the bay area, Seattle rents are a TON cheaper than where I live now.

For now, all I can do is apply. I’ll worry about the housing situation later.

My diet is going well. I’ve made it to day five, so I think I have a chance to make it until next Thursday. I don’t think I will want to eat omelets again for a while though; too many eggy meals. Tonight was fajitas though. Mmmm…fajita-ee

I have about one week until my vacation starts and I have a lot to do…so I spent 2.5 hours after work getting caught up on The Real World Austin. It was Real boring. God, those people don’t do anything cool in Austin. They go to the same stupid bar and then drunkenly dodge construction cones on the way back to their hot pink mansion. Bleaggghhh….. Why don’t they at least go see some live music, aside from the few they were required to cover for SXSW? Have they not heard of S. Congress? Do they care not about 4th street and the warehouse district?

I lived in Austin for seven years and trust me, sixth street gets old real fast. All I can figure is that the bar they frequent gives them free booze and doesn’t care about the crew filming there. Otherwise…LAME!

Rant comprete….

I thought I’d written a post yesterday. I’m losing it. I guess that’s what happens when you turn one year older. First it’s the mind, then the body, then you’re wearing shoes like these.

I had a really nice birthday. I ate a fishy lunch and a fried fishy dinner followed by ice cream. Today, I’m starting a diet. It is dangerous to start a diet right before the weekend, but I think I can do it. It’s not any sort of insane diet and I’ve certainly enjoyed some tasty meals lately. I’m just doing it for the two weeks leading up to my vacation, then I shall indulge in many foreign foodstuffs.

Oh yeah, so back to my birthday. I came home and Danny gave me my presents: the newly released Veronica Mars DVDs, a cute red thumb drive so I don’t have to email myself files from work, red daisies and red balloons. Oh yeah, and dinner at a nice Japanese restaurant.

Tonight, my cousin from Dallas is staying with us before she heads back to Texas tomorrow. I don’t know what the plan is but as long as it involves a little red wine, I’ll be happy.

I had leftover warm apple cinnamon bread pudding with vanilla ice cream and I am stuffed. I am SO gaining weight it isn’t even funny. Ugh…maybe I’ll walk some of it off when I’m on vacation in two weeks. Yeah, that’s it. Anyway, I’m not stressing about it too much. I’ve been studying and working on grad school applications. Oh yeah, and I joined the Unitarian Universalist fellowship I’ve been attending for the last ten months. Not that that really takes up much of my time but it is extra and curricular.

I’m good at beating myself up over bad eating habits but screw it. I had a healthy breakfast, lunch, snacks, no sodas and the bread pudding and ice cream were my only indulgences all day. And…I got a 100 on my Statistics quiz! I know I know, excitement city(tm dipu) over here. Heh, I almost typed excrement city. Ewww…

These are the ones I bought. Yes, they are EZ SP1R1T. I’m a n3rd.

I haven’t worn them yet though. Danny and I are going to the mall this weekend to get him some shoes, so I might return these if I find something I like better. I’m partial to these, but I want to try them on first. Oh, and these too.
And these.

….and the Lord said “Let there be links! Let there be Jessie’s girl, and Just Babs, and blogacharya, and matthewstoryteller, and may they be good and live on the good land, and feast upon the fowl and the fish, and live in harmony together in their respective list.”

And the Lord looked down upon the website and saw that it was good. And on the seventh day he rested. Actually, he didn’t really rest. He stayed up until four a.m. eating burritos and watching Springer reruns in his pajamas. Oh wait, that was me.

Since I wrote that post, I’ve bought a pair of shoes for my trip. I wanted something cuter but when I put them on I knew I had a winner. They are so comfy. They are black leather slip-ons with a square toe. There were cuter ones but they just weren’t as comfy.

I have a little less than three weeks to get everything organized for my trip to Japan. On the top of my list is new shoes. I have tennis shoes, but they’re a bit beat up. I would get another pair, but I want something more substantial and somewhat waterproof.

I don’t really want to get hiking boots but instead some non-ugly black or brown walking shoes that don’t make me look like I’m on my way to my shift as an orderly at the nearest nursing home. I’ve looked at some shoes but the closest thing I’ve found are black leather tennis shoes. These are…ugly. They are almost as fashionable as my marching band shoes were in high school.

Suggestions? Anyone have a favorite brand or style? I need help people!

Today, I was messing with my itunes playlist. I bought a new album and I couldn’t find a way to sort it so that the tracks would be in the same order that they are on the CD. I hit buttons, I viewed my preferences, I clicked the top of every column to sort and re-sort, I tried to drag and drop but nothing would arrange the tracks like I wanted.

So I went online and read tips and tricks, suggestions and feature descriptions but to no avail. I could not sort my list.

Finally, I tried the drag and drop approach again and it worked! WTF? All I had to do was drag and drop the stupid things. Why this didn’t work initially, I’ll never know. Maybe itunes has some special feature where you have to research at least three other apple product lines before it will let you use the software properly. Or, maybe I’m just retarded. Hmmm…