"please shut because cat"

October already? WHAT? I guess that makes sense, this past week's forecast was entirely in the 70's, and next week's is all in the 60's. And rainy. Though might I point out the beautiful blue sky to which I awoke this morning? Because it's there, and according to my paint swatches, it's "True Blue Tint". Which is the truest of blues. One thing I kind of took for granted in Colorado is just how expanse the sky is. A blue sky here could be a monsoon without warning because only a tiny portion of the sky is visible at any given time. In Denver, you can watch a storm roll in from the mountains and guess which towns might be spared from its wrath. And most of the time, you're correct!

Katie, Will, and I met up with Kyle and Jeff at Clark Park Tuesday night, where we sat at the flimsy (yet adorable) orange tables so kindly provided by the city. One of those surprise rainstorms showed up, so we migrated to Kyle's friend, Baca's house. His roommate's cat had a litter of kittens, so you can probably guess how socially involved we were at the time. Our household loves cats. And I never use bold.

Will and I went to the Mütter Museum on Wednesday! It was everything I'd hoped for, being the most interesting thing I'd explored in eons. The stories behind all the specimens are what really got me... Every one of us is just a back-story to another potential addition to a museum of medical oddities. Hmmmmm.... That evening, we went over to Chris and Bob's for a dinner party. I made a spinach and strawberry salad and Will made those bacon jalapeño poppers again, then Annie made this PHENOMENAL baked mac n' cheese which they topped with Chris' delicious homemade chili. It was absolutely amazing, and I sincerely hope this dinner party thing becomes a weekly routine. fdlksafjl;sdkjfal;sdkfja;lsdkfjalsdkfjals /wipingdrooloffkeyboard

My mom and I had a Skype date on Thursday, which was undoubtedly the highlight of my week. Yeah, better than kittens and better than chili mac & cheese, if you can imagine. :) That evening, I went to El Camino for my third interview, which ended up with me working my first shift! It went really well; my coworkers are awesome, the atmosphere is awesome, the food is to die for, hostessing isn't the best, but I get to stand outside and watch all the local dogs walk by. I do a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what I used to do at Pete's, and I get paid quite a bit more. SCORE.

Mom's surgery yesterday went successfully! Yay! I'm really hoping she recovers as quickly and painlessly as possible...

Yesterday afternoon, Will and I went shopping for curtains for my room because I'm sick of staring at our neighbors across the street. We ended up going to Ikea, which wasn't nearly as epic (no parking garage!) or eerily tidy as the one in Centennial. I mean it's still Ikea, but... definitely a South Philly Ikea. It brought back delightful memories of exploring the one in Colorado with Max and Homer before I left. Aww, I miss them... After Ikea, we ventured to Wal-mart to try to acquire an inexpensive HDMI cable. I took a photo of this Wal-mart, because I think it is the most ghetto-looking one that has ever existed. They're doing renovating on half, but it still looks awful. Also they didn't have any HDMI cables for less than $30, nor did they have anything else we were looking for. The place was crowded, and I wondered if anyone was finding what they were looking for. I doubt it.

Ghetto-mart.

Last night I worked my second shift, which was significantly busier, but no less awesome. I'm pretty stoked on this job.

Today will be dedicated to locating a power drill to hang my curtains and my shelves, and to making meatballs. Because I couldn't help myself at Ikea yesterday.


This is the Piazza, the big, fancy apartment/shopping plaza across the street from El Camino.

And here's Honk, just Honking out as usual.