Different Inks:

Fountain Pens:

Fingerless Mittens (from undocumented handspun):

Today he’s on a train to take him to NYC and he’ll be back tonight. My brother is flying into town this afternoon. Bear doesn’t have a phone because Verizon Wireless sucks major balls. It’s a stupid ugly story where basically their sales and customer service pretty much lied and hung up on me for over a week. After charging me. For two phones that hadn’t even shipped. It’s so infuriating that I don’t even know what I’m doing about it yet. Probably we are going to refuse delivery of the phones and not go with Verizon Wireless I guess.

So I gave Bear my phone and he borrowed a blackberry from his work for me to use. That way he can amuse himself on the train with books and internet and such. My brother can call me when he lands and then tonight I’ll get my phone and credit card back. Oh right. That’s the other thing. Our printer fucking gave up the ghost last night while I was trying to print out the barcode for Bear to get his Amtrak tickets. And since I bought his tickets with my credit card and we’ve never taken the train before, we weren’t sure if HIS credit card would work. It SHOULD because he’s the passenger, but 6am was not the time to be testing shit out.

We were supposed to get there earlier but this morning was also a little snow storm that made the normally 30 minute drive into a 45-50 minute drive. I normally have no problem driving in snow storms, but I don’t normally drive that stretch of highway in the dark during a snowstorm because that stretch of highway doesn’t have any lamps/street lights. It was a little tense in the car.

Now he’s safely on a train and I’m finishing the lab cleanup I was asked to do. Today is my last official day in the lab. Tomorrow I’m proctoring a test, but that’s the last time I’m scheduled to come on campus.

(Linda, the song is California by Delta Spirit and the lyric is “I want you to move to California for yourself, I want you to find whatever your heart needs”.)

P.S. I might think this is remarkable just because I adore the man, but after I dropped him off he texted the stupid blackberry: “Thanks again. You got me off safely.” He’s ridiculous, but adorable.

The intro to that song makes me happy EVERY TIME I HEAR IT. I’m sad I couldn’t find a live version I liked, but I’m very partial to the album version apparently.

This is my second favorite “love song”. Where Linda and I grew up, there was (is?) a radio station called Sunny 99.1. They played “love songs”. Both of our mothers listened to that station. “My heart cried out for you.” The lyrics in this song slay me every time. “You are my lover, you’re my best friend. You’re in my soul.”

Then we kinda have to jump down to one of my lesser favorite songs because songs like “Always a Woman” or “Reason to Believe” are kinda about the harder sides of love. Where you keep loving while someone hurts you.

I always think of this song as the crystal staircase song for some reason and then have a bitch of a time trying to find it again. So I’m actually kind of happy that I’m posting it. The next time I have a craving to hear this song, it’ll be here.

“And no matter how old we get, It’s okay as long as I got you baby” This song I don’t remember ever playing on Sunny, but it’s still a beautiful song about how sometimes love makes it all bearable.

I don’t know why, but I totally didnt get enough sleep last night and am currently clutching my coffee like it’s the only air available to breathe. I am also banging out a pretty decent abstract.

Bear said yesterday I need to keep talking if I’m going to get through this, so there might be more updates than usual while I get through this.

Pssst. Y’all wanna know a secret? It’s a little shameful for a ECE graduate. I use this webpage almost daily. Also, I was the one that introduced AJ to the phrase “Come-to-Jesus talk”. Not surprisingly, those of Jewish descent don’t really use that phrase.

(Linda, lyric is “this is the last song that I write while you’re even on my mind” from Noah and the Whale, “Blue Skies”)

Bear and I have been a little homesick lately. We went to visit his mom’s for Christmas. It was an amazingly lovely visit. Bear and I played and relaxed. We had lots of good food and conversation and celebration. I’m extremely happy that I’m developing a good relationship with my mother-in-law. She’s an admirable, complex woman. I even liked the traveling to and from because Bear and I rode the commuter rail and taxi and plane together. That’s kinda sappy isn’t it?

I’ve also been a little freaked out. I’ve had many many nightmares about awful job interviews and defenses and meetings with my advisor. Every night for about 3 weeks now. Bear had to try and give me a come to Jesus talk last night because I’ve been rabbiting about like I can somehow avoid my thesis and defense and getting a job. Didn’t help that I was feeling kinda adrift because I hadn’t heard from my advisor in weeks despite sending her emails. Just found out today though that she WAS sending stuff. Apparently my school email got cut out. Apparently also, I should have said a lot freaked out. I really want to finish if only so that I can get out from under all of this mess.

(linda, I stole the lyric from fun. “the gambler” except the real lyric is we’ve got time left to be lazy.)

Well. It was fun while it lasted and I don’t mind too much that I lost track of it at the end.

To conclude, I’ll leave you with Bear’s funnies from last night:

Bear is shivering under three blankets on cold sheets. I’m shifting them to rub his back. He’s barely gotten any sleep the previous two nights and I desperately want him to get good sleep despite the early hour.

“Emmy, I’m cold.”

“I know. You’ll warm up quick. Just wait a minute.”

“Make them stop?”

“Make who stop?”

“The antimatter. Make them stop.” Bear’s eyes close.

“Antimatter? Stop doing what?”

“Two balls of antimatter…” Bear’s breathing gets heavy.

“What???”

“…are sucking up all the heat.” Bear snores.

I laugh so hard he wakes up a tiny bit and mumbles at me. I pet his head until he drifts off again.

Change of Days by Smith’s Cloud

Actually, tomorrow is my birthday, but my present is that I’m taking today off. Y’all have fun without me.

Hambone soup: ham, 2 cans of kidney beans, can of corn, 2 potatoes/yams, water/vegetable stock, spices

At 10pm I was still outside his office and getting a little upset because Bear still hadn’t come downstairs or answered his phone. I was sitting in the car and had my book though, so I wasn’t too upset. Finally at 10:15 he finally picked up the phone. He was outside my lab.

According to Bear he wandered around outside his building for 45 minutes before freaking out that something had happened to me and getting a taxi to take him to my lab. Then he wandered around outside my lab, found a security guard who walked him around for a while until I finally got him on the phone. I finally picked him up back at my lab. He had been wandering around outside WITHOUT A JACKET. It was in the high 30s at that time last night. I firmly believe that’s what led to his complete meltdown thinking that I had been accosted between my office and his.

So at 11 (after a detour to the freeway because I was completely discombobulated), we are finally back outside Bear’s office and we head up for him to do his work. At 12:30, I got a little tired. At 1am, I got cranky. At 1:30, Bear sent me to nap on the couch. At 2:30, we finally left.

At 8:30am, Bear got up.

At 9:30am, I turned off the alarm and rolled back over.

At 10am I woke up.

At 11am, I went to the grocery store

At noon, I realized that ALLLL of my coupons expired yesterday.