Raspberries, bunnies, and more

Good and bad times the past few days:
- Driving on the highway for the first time (I-91 and I-95), in a rented car, no less. Thankfully, Kev was there to coach me through merging lanes and the GPS system proved invaluable in navigating weird turns and such. Consider it a practice run for picking up Nick on Monday, with Sara navigating =P
- Trying to move our big green couch, more specifically trying to get it up from the basement. A couple of scrapes and bruises later, it is sitting serenely in our common room.
- Raspberry picking with Kev, Sara, and Chrissy...altogether we got like 6 pounds of raspberries, thankfully giving some away, otherwise there would be a lot more starting to ferment in our fridge now ^^; Also good: getting fruit, apple cider, and apple cider donuts at the farm market, as well as trying a bunch of fruity wines. I discovered I don't even like dessert wines (the strawberry wine was almost like thin syrup), although one I liked was apple wine with cloves and other spices that made it taste like mulled cider.

- Sara and I deciding that perhaps it would be better not to adopt a bunny after all...I'm still kind of sad that we won't have a happy little pet to cuddle, but it's just strengthened my resolve to get one when I finally get an apartment of my own.

I <3 kids

Kids that made my day:
1) Volunteering at the hospital this morning, one little girl (1.5 years or so) was bawling her head off for a good half hour (while all the other kids in the recovery room were asleep or quiet). The nurse took the IV out, tried to get her to drink some juice, wrapped her in a warm blanket...she and the parents pretty much tried everything. Finally, the nurse just picked her up and started walking around a bit...the toddler blinked in surprise and said, "Hi!" to all of us behind the counter, which made us burst out laughing for a few minutes.
2) At Shakespeare in the Park tonight, there was a family with a baby boy in front of us, about a year old or so. He didn't seem too impressed by Hamlet, instead crawling around on the blanket and sort of chirruping inquisitively at us. Naturally, we had to smile back, which probably just encouraged him further. The funniest part was when he picked up (presumably) his dad's empty beer bottle and started trying to drink from it...I wish I'd gotten a photo of what looked to be a baby draining a Corona (and can imagine Benji doing something similar =P)

The production of Hamlet was pretty good overall, especially Claudius, Polonius, and Ophelia. Hamlet was older than I expected, but the actor still did a good job with the difficult role. I appreciated the modern costume twist (think James Bond instead of Medieval Times), although the color symbolism was a bit too overdone. I was also very impressed with the elaborate set and lighting design - it's hard enough doing theater in a normal, professional grade venue, never mind outside! It was also fun to see Dean Flick and his wife Evie (although I guess I shouldn't have been surprised considering I kept running into Dean Flick all summer) and good to talk to Bonner and Emily, especially hearing about Bonner's adventures circumnavigating the globe the past two months.

Tomorrow: last day of work for the summer (yay for info sessions and tours!) then helping Kunmi move back into Silliman and packing some of my own stuff to head home for a few days' rest, or at least what little I can get. By the way, if you're wondering why there's a sudden spate of posts after my blog-silence all summer, the answer is that I don't have much else to do in the evenings (besides drafting secondary application essays) and a little bunny told me that I should post more often ;-)

Ick.

Observations of the day:
1) It must suck to play beach volleyball in the pouring rain.
2) It must suck even more to dive for a ball and end up with wet sand in one's swimsuit.
3) I'm glad Yale intramurals doesn't include beach volleyball =P

That said, go Misty and Kerri!

Mmph.

Amusing moment of the night: Walking past the Sigma Nu frat house, only to hear Miley Cyrus blasting out.

Three more days of work, home for four days, then moving back into Silliman for senior year!

Fortunate coincidence

I decided to relax a little reading at the bookstore after work, so when I left I ran into my co-worker Allen, who was heading back from the gym. He was cheerfully teasing me about being pre-med, asking for advice about his sore wrist, when suddenly he collapsed to the sidewalk clutching his calf, spasming in a painful charley horse. After my own experience waking up with a similar cramp a couple weeks ago, I completely sympathized with the grimace on his face.

Therefore, for the next ten minutes, I was kneeling next to Allen, pushing his toes backward to force him to flex his foot and stretch the cramping muscle, the only thing I've ever found to help me ease the pain. We kept pushing even through strange looks from pedestrians passing by (fortunately, some of them were friends who stopped with offers to help) and a couple phone calls from a friend who was coming to stay with Allen for the night ("If you look up the street, I'm the guy on the ground!") Eventually, the cramp eased enough for Allen to slowly get up, ease his flip-flop back on, and hobble down another block to his apartment.

Bet that he's glad to have pre-med friends now =P