Sweet Georgia Brown!

Who would have thought grad school would take so much time? Geez. I apologize for the lack of posts, but homework has gotten heavy. Statistics and Macro are especially to blame.

I took a trip up to Chicago on Saturday of this last weekend with my friend Nooshin, (pronounced 'Noo-sheen'). Nooshin is also in the MSPE program and she hails from Iran. She is also my salsa partner. Neither of us are very good, but we try. In Chicago we didn't really do all that much. We did go to the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower, I like to think of it as the Bruce Willis Tower) and walk out onto one of the glass cubes that extend from the 103rd floor. Needless to say it was pretty amazing. I suggested to Nooshin and the lady standing next to us that we should all jump at once and test its strength. The lady told me I'd be jumping alone. I don't see what the big deal is. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill say they can hold five tons.

After that we headed to the "beach." It was warmer than I thought. Certainly no Oregon Coast temperatures. Then we walked around downtown. A lot. Oh, and we hatched a new plan that we would both go to Kuwait to work after graduating because they pay an absurd amount and their currency is strong.

Yesterday I got a bicycle care-package from my good friends Harry and Moke, who are still putting in time at the bike shop in Springfield, OR. I cannot thank them enough for their generosity and all around love. I have the best friends a guy could ask for and I hope you all know that. Thanks to Harry and Mike I gave my fixed gear a new rear cog and some love tonight after I finished up Stats homework. I've got my work cut out for me to come up with a return-favor.

I suppose I should tell everyone my new marriage plans. Nooshin tells me that in Iran, while driving say, on the freeway, it's not uncommon to get pulled over and hassled for no good reason. Now, if a young man and woman are in the car, they'll be questioned about if they are married and if not, what exactly they're doing, and does the girl's father know what going on. Nooshin says that it's not unheard of for two young people to be forced into marriage if the men believe that they're doing untoward things. So, what I'm going to do is go to Iran, find some cute Iranian girl and drive around on the highways until we get pulled over. Surely they'll take one look at me and assume we're doing something untoward, and BAM! Wife. Simple as that. Although, I would have to pretend I'm Muslim, and that could be a problem given that I can't grow a beard. Perhaps a prosthetic? Either way, this kid's going places. And it ain't California.

Well, it's time for bed. My next project is going to be taking some photos of all my friends here and give you a little about them. The photography situation in the Midwest is abysmal (a developer in Chicago charges $25 to send 4x5 slides back the 120 odd miles, on top of the $3 to develop each slide, outragious). So I'm going to get some 35mm black and white. Nice and artsy. But I won't leave you hanging. Here are some photos I took of my place. I don't know how to post them here (or if it's even possible) so I posted them on my filckr site. To get there, go here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23600488@N08/sets/72157622201598351/

Well, I'm off to bed. Remember: don't trust anyone over thirty.

Cheers.