It's a magical world

Most of my running shirts are from my alma mater, St. Olaf, the nerdiest of which has to be the one that has the three dropped letters of the Greek alphabet, Stigma Quoppa Wau, on the front, and "best fraternity ever" in Latin and Greek on the back. The most obvious, however, is the one says "St. Olaf" and then my class year in big letters.

Every so often while I am running along the treacherous streets of Berkeley someone will see the shirt and say to me, "I went to Carleton!" Which, for those of you not intimately acquainted with small Midwestern liberal arts colleges, is the other college in my college's town and also incidentally the real-world double of Blackstock in Pamela Dean's Tamlin. After much internal struggle (WTF do I care that these people went to Carleton), I decided that my stock response to this would be to say, "Um ya ya!" Which is our fight song chorus, and appropriate because we usually trounce Carleton at sporting events.

Today, however, while I was stopped at a corner, a young woman took off her earbuds and said to me, excitedly, "Is that a Golden Girls T-shirt?" Because, if you don't know small Midwestern liberal arts colleges or music schools, most people have only heard of St. Olaf as a joke made on The Golden Girls. (Full disclosure: Gatsby also worked for two weeks as a janitor at St. Olaf after the war.) I looked at her and I said, "No, it's a St. Olaf College T-shirt. It's actually a real place." 

Yup, that one takes the cake.

Friends, readers--

What have I been doing again? What haven't I been doing? I seriously have not been this busy, except for one notable week in June 2008, since I graduated from college. Before I forget, holiday card exchange post! 

# Getting my hair chopped! Yup, went to The Chop Shop in Philly last Wednesday and got it bobbed, since I realized a) that this was probably my last chance before Christmas and b) my first haircut since the middle of June. Which is too long. It was slightly too short immediately afterwards, but now is just perfect, and quite cute. And at $43 with tax and tip, it's the least I've paid for a haircut in at least eight years. Yes, I know.

# Applying to graduate school! I just turned in another app tonight, as well as finished up the last fiddly bits for one of last week's schools (again), and am probably going to do next Tuesday's this weekend, then finish up two of the final three after my credit card statement closes but before the actual deadline. Leaving only a certain Canadian university, of course.

# Christmas shopping! I am now essentially finished. And I only paid full price for two items! How did this happen, again? 

# Going to Minnesota! Yup, I cashed in some frequent flyer miles and had a weekend with friends for $5 roundtrip. Hah. Restaurant shout-outs for this trip are Zumbro in Linden Hills, and Blackbird in south Minneapolis. I really, really love Blackbird (I've been there before)--it's simple but not simplistic, and the food and atmosphere are equally perfect. I actually went for my alma mater's Christmas Fest, which as usual is an orgy of Christmas and top-notch musical performances, though I don't think this year's version was quite as awesome, program-wise, as some of the other four I've seen. But I did get to Goodbye Blue Monday, one of my favorite coffee shops, and get some of my favorite coffee. Yay. Going to Minneapolis always feels like a homecoming, probably because it is my home away from home.

# Watching the Twilight movie, against my will (forced by my friends, which shows that they really are friends). The only scene with any sexual tension is when Dr. Carlisle Cullen bites human!Edward on his pale white neck. Who says dying of influenza isn't sexy? 

# Writing! I finished a draft of my Yuletide story on the plane home last night. Now I just have to revise.

# Working! Started a different temp job today. I can wear jeans and it's full-time, so really, I have absolutely nothing to complain about.

And now that I'm done those grad school apps, I can get back to my to-do list, at the top of which is translating DTB 12. Among other things. On that note...