It's been awhile, but my muse is gone. Gone gone gone. [update: with the new Animal Collective album and a little help from Byrne & Eno, it's back on some level.] Blam. Pow. A lot has happened since October '08's glorious Nica trip. Some snippets, in no particular order:

(a) My roommates and I created a whiteboard and painted one dining room wall a glorious orange (15 years of pumpkin pleasure). Quote from the Scio township Lowe's paint mixer as he opened the freshly mixed can for the first time: "and a roar goes up from the crowd as the pleasure pumpkin is revealed." It was a beautiful moment.

(b) I spent a glorious Thanksgiving in NYC (blitz round two), and then a month later enjoyed a kinda bizarre New Year's and winter break on the east coast: Dave, Chris and I drove from TC to NYC, I bussed to DC for New Year's celebrations, was chauffeured up to Baltimore a few days later, and then flew back to the Detroit area. I enjoyed my red hot second in NYC, saw more of DC than ever before, and was taken with parts of Baltimore. Some hitches: (1) all of my clothing minus that on my back was stolen on the way to DC. Fortunately Jess was kind enough to outfit me for the rest of my travels, with some supplemental intimates from Macy's; (2) my Baltimorean host, known to some as "Bunny", became violently ill on day 2 of my visit and I spent most of the day watching a (kind of boring) Ravens victory and lounging with borrowed parents.

(c) School's back in session. I'm excited about all my classes and capstone project, and am set to graduate in May. Future plans TBD, but be assured that they will include planning the pants off of some urbans, somewhere.

(d) We have a new prez. I keep forgetting!

(e) A set of friends and housemates traveled to Chicago this past weekend to visit a handful of Chicago residents. Parts of the weekend were chill, and parts were less so. A summary of locations and scenarios: delicious Thai Pastry, an amazing breakfast at Leen's corner diner, Special Export, stretching on air mattresses, hot water bottles, a round of Celebrity, the Green Mill at 2:30 a.m., Sabertooth (the band), boiling in the Phoenix Lounge, and some Obama-approved soul food. It was a relatively awesome trip, and a great way to kick off the semester.

Enough for now. It's good to be back, intermittently.