F.Y.I. There are pigs in my bathroom.

Over the weekend, I got to enjoy my first REAL Halloween in a long time.
My good friend Taja and I went with three of my fellow coworkers from the Iron Horse to a new hip restaurant/bar in Turners Falls called Rendezvous. (Frequenters are known as the VOUS). They hosted a 70's Funk night and costume party which we were all appropriately dressed for and danced into the wee hours of the morning to the Ghost Quartet who were freakin' awesome. They had close to 8 different instruments being played and had a lead singer whose voice was made to sing low-down n dirty funk. On our way back we stopped at the 24 hour Whately Diner cuz the boys were hungry and watched American Psycho back at their apartment (which funnily enough is my old one! good ol' Apt 11). I found the movie to be more darkly amusing than scary and have put it down on my must read list.
The night before Taj, Noelle, Sarah, Kurt(Noelle's fiancee) and I went to another concert series at the much beloved Amherst Coffee that showcased 4 bands that represented bluegrass, metal, folk, rock and jazz. As a side note- if anyone enjoys whiskey, they had a drink called the Rusty Belle (the name of a local band) that is made with ginger beer, whiskey, lime juice and bitters. Try it at home!
Needless to say, it was a weekend full of buddies, beverages, boogie-woogie and bliss.

However! This week was academically hefty and helped to balance out the overwhelmingly social holiday I had celebrated boisterously. I had a big presentation in my Anthropology and History seminar that was basically 2 hours long, a midterm in my Women and Modernity in Asia class, and about 300 pages of reading. Some nice breaks from work were had like going to see a Q&A and poetry reading by the Dickman Brothers (Michael and my new idol, Matthew), several nice bike rides to get back into the saddle, and several shifts at the Iron Horse.
Another aside- my contemporary poetry professor used a line from my last paper in her introduction of Matthew during the reading which was at once bizarre and exhilarating. I turned to Sarah and Taj while she was reading and was like " ummm, that's totally mine!" and of course I was so flustered and giggly that none of us were able to hear the rest of it. But that's okay, the point is is that Matthew and I are both totally rad and have this amazing connection now and everyone knows it who should!

As for today, I have no classes and have already finished watching Cadillac Records online through Netflix, gone to the gym and done my reading for two classes. I fully intend on this being a day for recuperation so I will have to take a nap soon but not before I.....

..... go to the Rachmaninoff lecture, visit the Bamboo and Blossom exhibit at the greenhouse, go to the bank, journal, take a shower, attend my friends art opening and do some homework!

Yay Smith!

xo
emr