Well, it looks like the visa stuff won’t be here on time. I finally got to talk to my future boss and now she is working on in dedicatedly but people aren’t answering her phone calls either. What a country. No, I kid. I’m really excited about going back. I like packing miscellaneous things. In my little suitcase (to keep the big one from going over 50lbs) I’ve put so far:

Bank papers
Europe by rail travel guide
Mac diploma (in case I need it, not really sure I will)
Computer speakers
My many awesome DVDs
Two books about French vs. American culture
My phonetics textbook
A French dictionary (better than the tiny one I took last year)

The other half-packed suitcase wasn’t quite as fun but it does have lots of interesting pockets I’m excited to use. Oh yeah, I’m not at work today, you may have guessed. I called France at 3 am, that was fun, then drove my dad to work at 8:30.

I did find out where I’ll be living. It’s the residence in the middle of this page, R?©sidence Charbonneaux.

I’m starting to get really excited about France. The university came back from vacation today so I went ahead and e-mailed the secretary to let her know I need the contract in, um, eight days. I hope that won’t bother her. I tried to be really polite.

My dad did something unusual tonight. He went to the mall for one thing, and came back with two completely unrelated things, a new suitcase among them. He says it was on sale and that I can use it for France since the one I used last year is breaking. If this sounds normal to you then you don’t know how my dad shops. So now I have a nice new red suitcase that I’m pretty excited about. I’m starting to list things that I forget to take last year that I should have, like, well, all of my cute clothes. ALL OF THEM. I don’t know what I was thinking. And my movies. I bought a lot of movies this summer:

Brokeback Mountain
The Departed
Friends with Money
Mean Girls
Annie Hall
When Harry Met Sally
The American President (packaged with Dave)
Junebug
A Prairie Home Companion
Little Women
About a Boy

Yeah, it’s pretty exciting. And they were all $10 or under. I think I need a better movie wallet now.

My old computer–yeah, the one that doesn’t really work–went for $543 on ebay! Good lord. Am quite happy with that. In fact I was a bit shocked. That’s more than twice what I expected.

I’ve started looking for fellowships for grad school online, and it’s daunting, and I’m a bit lost.

So Tropical Storm Erin has apparently settled right over San Antonio, possibly changing our plans for going there tonight.

Also, whatever radio station Accounting is listening to has decided it needs to play Shakira – Hips Don’t Lie once every hour. I’m about to throw the radio out the window. Didn’t this song come out last year anyway? Isn’t there a statute of limitations on how long we can be made to listen to it?

It’s raining. Apparently it’s because of this chick Erin.

We went to see Becoming Jane tonight. It wasn’t very good. I’d rather have seen this but it’s only out in New York and LA.

Hey. So I took the GRE today, and I did better on the math than on the verbal. Wtf, mate? Although from looking at score averages online that looks kind of normal.

Otto and Boris have an ongoing and very dedicated project, which they work on studiously between sleeping shifts: digging the grout out from between the kitchen tiles. Well, maybe that’s what they’re doing. You can’t really tell since they never make any progress, but there’s a lot of licking involved.

Otto is always torn about going outside because of the chance that the opening back door will cast some moving light on the floor. Likewise, when he runs into the house, he checks for the same thing before the door closes.

Still no news on the visa. Maybe this week?

So publishing camp was pretty cool. Too bad it had to end. Also I didn’t take any pictures because my camera batteries were dead. Fortunately everyone else took about a thousand so I’ll just steal theirs.

In other news:
1) Still no word on the visa
2) The I-35W bridge broke, eh?
3) I’m very sleepy. I got up at 4:15 this morning.