With a Name Like Volcano Roll...

Uh-oh.

Something in the kitchen smells funny. The bad kind of funny.

Today was a productive day because I bought three-dollar pottery AND a ball of yarn bigger than my head. Plus a neat screen print that wasn't quite as outrageously priced, but it's cute, and we all know how much I'm willing to pay for things that are cute: almost full price. What I'm trying to say is that Danny and I drove down to Kalamazoo today for the Art Fair Garage Sale that I think should be put on much more often because I like it when I can buy things without feeling like I'm getting ripped off (speaking of which, I haven't been to J.Crew in too long...shopping trip to try on $500 jackets anyone?). Kalamazoo is the craziest city I've ever been to. Every time I go, and no matter who I'm with, we end up getting lost. It's like there's no grid-layout for any of the streets; all of them veer and bend and jog and do other things that sound like they belong in an intermediate step-aerobics class. During our exceptionally long drive, we had time to talk about important things like relationships, the existence of God, in vetro fertilization, and the pros and cons of gas station coffee (I, of course, was pro...for all). Plus we rummaged through her glove box and found a cassette tape of Bill Cosby doing stand-up from 1982.

We made it home safe, purchases and morals in tow (for the most part), and I had time to skip the gym, shower up, and sally forth to East Lansing so Meredith and I could finally have the date we'd scheduled weeks ago. Lots of time spent on our good ol' Michigan highway system today. Good thing that snow storm decided to hold off until tomorrow. The evening really was perfect, mostly because of the awesome sushi (I eat with chop sticks so infrequently that I have to re-teach myself to use them every time. Today it only took me seven minutes!), sake, green tea ice cream, and the waiter who I'm pretty sure thought we were on a real date (as in, he brought the ice cream in a big dish with two spoons...which doesn't really mean anything, I guess, except maybe they were running short on bowls tonight). And I wasn't even wearing my rainbow pin! Before awesomesushi we saw the Reno 911 movie. It was better than I expected it to be, which is always nice. And Meredith is just pretty great in general, so it's not like having a bad time was ever even a possibility. She gave me the new Shins cd just to prove how cool she is, and Aaron called from Bear City to remind me that St. Patrick's day is indeed coming, and there will once again be an epic gathering over in the East, which I may (just may) be attending.

Tomorrow is the last day of break, which is never a fun place to be. There will be some reading (three chapters of Marquez left to go), some dish washing (see earlier observation about funny-smelling kitchen) and lots of groaning and rolling around on the floor, which is how I like to cope with unpleasant things about which I can effectively do nothing. I find the change of perspective refreshing.