The swiftly passing weekend; how bright, how brief!

Good grief, where did my weekend go? I'm not quite ready for it to be over yet...

So, last week was as crazy as the past few weeks have been, with lots of scrambling to get last-minute assignments done. Also, I have not been getting enough sleep, as those of you on Facebook will be aware. Thursday night was particularly troublesome. I can't wait to move out of here, and I can't believe I have to stick it out the whole year... *sigh* Of course, the down side to having to get my own place is that I'll probably have to end up buying a bed. Damn. Still, a small price to pay for sleep, surely?

Anyway. So, aside from the irritating fact of noisy night-owl flatmates, I've been liking the whole getting up at the same time every morning, and the gym has been good. It's nice to get some sort of feeling of accomplishment early in the day, because lord knows there's usually not much of it happening later. ;-) But Friday was a long, long day and I had much less sleep than usual, and it was all adding up, so I was tired and grumpy and didn't go to the bar after colloquium like usual. And of all the weeks to skip it - that was the day that Mike and Andrew and Sandiway decided to show up! And, what's worse is that apparently Andrew is the source of all knowledge and gossip in the department, and he was there, and drinking just enough to be chatty - and I missed it! Damn. Also, Mike is not letting me forget it, because I gave him a hard time about missing last week... I can't win!

Anyway, Saturday night was a party at Adam and Andy's house, and that was actually a really nice night. There was a mix of people, but I think we 1st years were the best represented group! They have a great house (and a gorgeous cat!) and I'm pleased to report that the linguists' catering standards are suitably high. Most people brought something, and the food was varied and great! I made Lara's salmon mousse recipe, which seemed to go down quite well. There was a nice selection of wine too - when he heard I was red wine drinker Andy was all excited to get me to try a local Arizonan wine, from an area just south of here - it was really good! - and showed me where it was on the map, and why the climate there was good for wine, but not here... ;-) So, a lovely time, and I got to chat to a bunch of different people, which is always nice.

Of course, what's less nice is that, probably due to the climate here, my tolerance for alcohol seems lower - and my hangovers are worse. Red wine never used to give me nasty headaches!! So, I was a bit delicate today, but I went over to Jelena's and had brunch with the Canadia Ladies - pancakes and eggs and fake, veggie bacon! (Nothing like the real thing, of course, but who am I to turn my nose up at a cooked breakfast? Especially one cooked by someone else!)

So, what with the shopping and cooking etc yesterday, and the brunching and recuperating today, I haven't got a lot accomplished this weekend, but it was nice to have a bit of time off, do some domestic things, and be a bit social for a change! It's been a while since I've made an effort to go out and see people.

And next week is a short one, because of the upcoming turkey festivities! Woohoo! I will have to find my way back to a grocery store again very soon, though, because I've just discovered that I need to make pecan AND pumpkin pies for Thursday... eep! Pressure!