I ramble after eating PIE

One of my favorite things ever:
    The perfect fall day. Cool enough to wear jeans but still warm enough to wear a short sleeve shirt. A slight wind. Driving with the windows down in 35-45mph speed limit areas. Smelling fresh, crisp autumn air. And feeling the wind whipping through my hair. I love fall. I love places with all 4 seasons.

One thing I don't love: Teenagers. To a point where I almost don't want to have kids for the sole fact that I never want to reach the puberty years with them.

Favorite book at the moment: Emperor of Maladies. It's great. It also turns out that I own a lot of books. They are all sitting sadly in boxes in the garage right now. Someday babies, you will have homes on a floor to ceiling bookcase. Preferably in a library with many many many other books. And I will have a library ladder to climb to reach the ones on top. A girl can only hope.

I also have a serious obsession with Gilmore Girls right now. No idea why. Maybe because I want to have a similar mother-daughter relationship with my kid someday. Sans the daughter hooking up with a married dude. Sans the insanely rich, overbearing parents. Sans the crazy baby daddy drama. In my perfect world, I'll have a perfect marriage with perfect children who never reach puberty. Or somehow skip over it to become gracious and amazing adults who will keep me company in my old, senile age.

I like snail mail. I think it's fun to send snail mail. I think it's great to receive. I wish people would use it more often. I also hope the government doesn't completely run out of money and cancel the USPS all together.

Best thing ever? Free pie day at Baker's Square. It's delightful, rainbows, sunshine, and happiness all squished into one triangle piece of pie. What??? I like pie!

I miss the boyfriend. Sad, pathetic, but true. So sue me for saying it. Yes, I may be turning into one of those giant puddles of mush. What happened to the hardcore me? Don't worry, I still don't think I need a man for anything. Except maybe one thing... Kind of like that thing...

Anywho, I also like printing out pictures to look at. You know? We have all these technological things now, including computers to look at digital pictures on. But I still find it satisfying and wonderful to have concrete pieces of nice paper to flip through when looking at photos. What can I say, I kind of still miss the old film cameras where you had no idea what kind of pictures you were taking til AFTER you got the pictures processed. I don't think my younger sisters even know what that looks like! Sigh, feeling old now. So I'm dragging my old butt off to watch some more Gilmore Girls. Cheers!

Day 4

Senseless death has caused great turmoil for the organization i came to work for in Uganda. So here I sit, waiting for the next move. My heart goes out to the family and his coworkers who are all grieving.

I am learning to squat like the best of them, aka squatting in a tub in order to use a bucket to bathe. It's pretty funny. I can only imagine what I really look like when I do this. My hair has been cut short so it's way easier to wash now. I'm getting more used to having short hair, but I do miss it and thank god hair grows. The house I'm staying at has a flushable toilet, which is pretty awesome, considering I hadn't had one for a while.

Here I sit, just finished the first Charlaine Harris novel that True Blood is based on and  now I'm watching True Blood in Africa. It's kind of bizarre. There is such a split between those with money and those who don't. I guess I should try to appreciate the comforts I have for now since once I move out into the field, it won't be so much like this. Definitely no toilet that flushes.

Making friends in Africa- rather difficult since I'm a little secluded right now. But I did meet a rather cute Scottish med student on at the Ugandan airport. He got picked up by the same driver as I did. We chatted in the matatu and he seemed really cool. We talked about traveling around Uganda together and such... problem was that there is no way for either of us to communicate. No phone, no internet. But can I just say... Scottish accent? Hoooooot.

Freedom and Some Favs

Freedom, it's a thing I thoroughly enjoy. I'm currently sitting all by my lonesome in a pretty empty apartment. Roommate is gone, moved out and off to Africa for 5 weeks. I'm jamming out to M.I.A. and cleaning my apartment. How I accumulated so many dirty dishes? Not quite sure.

The thing about freedom (from parents, from relationships... from school) is there is an element of unknown. You can feel free to make any decisions. Good, bad, ugly. You have to live with those decisions but the fun part is finding out what happens as a result of them.

I finished a book called Cutting for Stone. It was awesome. Definitely being put in the Favorite category. ALSO The Book Thief was FANTASTIC. I loved it. It has many stars in the Fav category. Now that I am totally slacking off, not doing school, and just working, I have time to read some things for fun. It's nice.

Usher's OMG... catchy song. Very bar friendly. We went to this bar the other night and one of their special drinks was called Skip and Go Naked. I wonder what it's like... I didn't get it but it sounded fascinating.

Another week begins...

Rated at least PG-13

It turns out that no matter how I try, I can never stop being a night owl. I seem to work best when the rest of the world is sleeping. I've been told this is bad for my body, my skin... just about my everything, but tell that to my brain!

You are forewarned that this post was done at 1am and is rated at least PG-13, probably more along the lines of R.

Again, you are warned that this is me in full effect...

I realized today that I chose the right field to pursue a career in. If you know me well, you know that one of my favorite topics of discussion is sex. Just plain, honest sex. Don't hold back, as dirty as you can get, sex. I like things that make people squirm uncomfortable. I like honesty. Think about it though, sex is as honest as it gets (unless you're getting raped and that's a whole other topic or if you lie your way into the actual action or a whole number of things... I guess I'm talking more about the actual action of doing so if you're doing it with someone you like/love/whatever). If you're completely in action, sex is honest. You're naked, completely exposed, vulnerable... People, it's all out there to be seen. Hello skin! (Well... unless it's pitch black and you're just grabbing at things...) Overall nothing to hide. I like it!

Okay, you're probably reading this and going: oh Jess...
Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know... But really, it's not my fault. I've been flipping back and forth through this book called The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and The Business of AIDS. Writing a critical book review for one of my classes... I've written paragraph after paragraph about safe sex, anal sex, oral sex, bodily fluids, gay, straight (okay there's the occasional intravenous drug user and dirty needle bit thrown in there)... reread parts of the book, reread parts of the paper... for the most part: sex sex sex... ALL DAY LONG. Welcome to the Field of Public Health. Turns out we're not afraid to talk/write about anything and I'm writing a paper about sex that will make up about 50% of my grade.

**Disclaimer**no ACTUAL action going on here, just keyboard typing**

Popcorn Thoughts

I've had such depressing posts recently; I decided it's time for some positivity. Here are some bouncy thoughts from me.

TV Shows:

• Roommate and I have been on a total Gossip Girl kick. Crazy, I know. I never knew I'd enjoy drama about the Upper Eastsiders... but it's kind of fun when I have no social life.
• One Tree Hill!!! Last season came out on DVD and I borrowed it from the library. WONDERFUL
• Grey's Anatomy... NEW SEASON starting September 24th. WOOHOO- previews looked awesome

Books:

• I've been reading Africa Doesn't Matter- great book about Africa and why aid isn't helping
• For class, I have to read The Wisdom of Whores- I love it so far
• I really want to read a book called My Prison, My Home- look it up, sounds fascinating and the author sounds amazing

I really want to go shopping but I can't afford it. Ahh the life of a poor grad student. It's even worse than the life of an undergrad. That's probably because I didn't worry about money all the time.

I MISS My Wisconsin Buddies!!!

Favorites from this Summer

Favorite Summer Movie: The Ugly Truth, most definitely

Favorite Summer Cocktail: Mojito

Favorite Summer Song: In the Summer Time- Mungo Jerry

Favorite Summer Meal: Summer salad or light sandwich

Favorite Summer Outfit: Light, summer dress

Favorite Summer Reading: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo- Stieg Larsson

Favorite Summer Moment: Sitting on the Terrace with friends, having some beer