So a lot has happened in the past month. I got a job, graduated and it got sort of warm. Big milestones!! I suppose I'll have to stop posting here altogether since I blessedly will no longer be Living in a Northern Town. If I learned nothing else during my time in Madison, it's that I am not at all cut out to live up north. While my northerly friends may call me a wuss, I'd like to see them in Lexington in mid-August, then we'll see who's the basketcase! Although I was reading in the park today (it's sunny and 76! God be praised!) and was getting hot. I will need to reacclimate, and fast.

The one not-so-great thing about this warmer weather is that I have my windows open... and so do my neighbors. I find it baffling that I have not one, but two neighbors who are in love with Elton John. The across-the-alley neighbors were blasting "Tiny Dancer" and other assorted Greatest Hits which I vainly attempted to drown out by turning up the volume on my TV. Alas, the sounds of British comedy are helpless against Sir Elton. Things have also not improved with the Elephant Man, whose acquaintances have taken to leaning on the buzzer for twenty minutes when he doesn't answer, a buzzer I can hear clearly. Occasionally they will also stand below my window and shout "MIKE! HEY MIKE! LET ME IN MIKE! MIIIIIKE! COME ON MIKE! LET ME IN!" I am sorely tempted to lean out my window and yell, "IF HE DIDNT ANSWER HIS BUZZER THE FIRST 2195 TIMES YOU RANG, HE'S NOT GOING TO ANSWER TO YOUR SHOUTING AT HIM FROM THE ALLEY! HE LIVES IN A ONE-ROOM APARTMENT, IT'S NOT LIKE HE'S COMING TO ANSWER FROM THE EAST WING!" But I don't, because then they'd start yelling at me to let them in, because they are obviously dumber than a box of hammers.

There are many things I will miss about Madison (things I am reminded of as it slowly becomes not a barren wasteland), but this apartment is certainly not one of them.

In two days, it will be May. Today, I wore a sweater, my winter coat and a scarf. It rained ice, then it sleeted, then. it. SNOWED. SNOWED! ON APRIL 28! WHAT!

The homicidal rage is making it really hard to concentrate on the one problem set, three papers, two presentations, and exam I have to get through before the end of the semester.

19 days till graduation... 19 days till graduation... 19 days till graduation....

I haven't talked much about my assistantship much on here. It's a pretty good job, and I am actually more committed to it right now than I am to my classes (which granted isn't saying much since my level of interest in school is at about -114% right now). I'm a Project Assistant, which means I do a little bit of everything- making posters, contacting speakers, arranging dinners, logistics, paperwork, etc. I've realized I really like project management, which is pretty valuable knowledge at this point in my life, but also, this job lets me meet a lot of really cool people.

For instance, yesterday I chatted with the former Ambassador to Nigeria at the copy machine. And I'm pretty friendly with the former head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, who works a few doors down. Tomorrow I'll meet the former chief U.N. weapons inspector to Iraq, since we're hosting him as a speaker this week. The speaker we had last week is the newly-appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food.

It's not like I'm going to go out and have a beer with any of these people, but for a policy nerd like me, it's pretty sweet. Now if only one of them could get me a job....

Aaaaand it's cold and snowing again. It's almost like Wisconsin wants me to leave. I'm going, okay?! You don't have to keep pressuring me!

I saw this outside my apartment this afternoon:


Even Nature is sad about Wisconsin's crapulent weather.

Today is a glorious day, one to be written about in tones usually reserved for the laying down of arms or heavenly proclamations. A day that, a month ago, mired in the frozen slush and bogged down by eighteen layers of clothes, I never thought would arrive. And yet, here it is, sneaking in with no fanfare or declaration, surprising us all. A momentous, memorable, spectacular day.

I am only wearing one pair of pants.

Because it's 38 degrees! It's so amazing, even though the sidewalks are like fast-running creeks and water is everywhere and my socks are wet, because it means things are MELTING!!! Grass, I saw GRASS! That green stuff that covers the ground most of the time! And the forecast lists above-freezing highs for the next ten days! Exclamation point!

Now I'm daydreaming about flowers and sitting outside by the lake. I know we're probably in for at least one more snowstorm, but things are finally looking up. I wonder if Mayor Dave's "Screw You, Winter" official proclamation had something to do with it.

WWTL: Yellow.
Temp: 38!!!

Last night I had the most wonderful dream. I dreamt I turned on the news, and it was 36 degrees! I put on just one pair of pants and one pair of socks. I wore my second-warmest jacket- without a hat. I laced up a pair of shoes that wasn't my hiking boots or my snow boots. I was so happy. My happiest dreams no longer involve me on a tropical beach with Sayid from Lost. They involve temperatures above freezing.

Then I woke up and found ice on the inside of my window. So I put on two pairs of pants, my giant red puffy coat (and a hat), two pairs of wool socks, and my hiking boots. I went to catch the bus. It was -17 degrees out. The bus didn't show up for 25 minutes. Why? Who knows. While trying to decide if my toes were still attached to my body, I began to understand why so many serial killers come from the Upper Midwest.

Temperature: 3/-12
WWTL: What do you think?

I can now add a new experience to my list of Unpleasant Things I Have Dealt With. When one walks to the bus stop in subzero temps, and finds it necessary to wear sunglasses because the glint from even the weakest sunlight off the sheets of ice covering every surface is literally blinding, one often finds that said sunglasses fog up as one's 98-degree breath filters upward through the three layers of scarf, coat and hood. Today, I noticed that my sunglasses were not de-fogging. I took them off to discover that my breath had, in fact, frozen onto the lenses. Awesome.

Here are photos from last Wednesday evening, after it stopped snowing and the cleanup began.


That snow's not piled up on a curb- it's actually that deep.


Bobcat clearing snow from the sidewalks.


Dump truck taking snow to be dumped out of town.


That snow-fence is probably about shoulder-high on me.

And now some photos from my weekend away in Galena, Illinois:

A little knee-deep hiking.


Playing in the snow with my friend Lindsay.


Sean makes snow angels while Patrick watches me try to get up.


Snow is a lot prettier in the countryside.

Temperature: 4/-5 windchill
WWTL: Alarmingly red.