Friday, August 28, 2009

Two days...

...twenty-one hours, and fifty-three minutes until my flight departs for Rome.

I saw my sister and father off at the airport early this morning. They're going to Seattle, to go to our cousin's funeral, visit family and spend time with friends. Nathan was 26 and now that the shock is fading, I'm still racked with grief at his death. I'm glad that they get to go and represent our family, even if I can't be there.

That said, the last twenty-four hours I've only slept an hour or two here and there, so I'm exhausted and not getting much done. I'm upset with the financial aid office, frustrated with packing, putting off doing the laundry, and generally grumpy. I did find a great way to entertain myself the other day, using an automated simplified Chinese translator. You put in a sentence in English, then translate it back and forth until it morphs into something unrecognizable but hysterical. For instance, the first sentence in this paragraph became: "My each rank dormancy 1:00 number or counts two before 24:00, therefore I exhaust with obtaining the execution." Here's another: "I'm leaving for Rome so soon that I'm afraid my head will explode if I think about it too much" became "Which I forgot that my situation concerns me to be afraid generates Rome rapidly, if I also considered." It's like computer Telephone, and it's immensely fun. Give it a try.


I took this photo at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden the other day (full album here), and it was published on Amherst's intranet today, which also made me happy.

But I don't feel like packing, or cleaning, or doing laundry, or even reading or practicing Italian vocabulary, so I'm feeling like a useless blob, and extremely tired at that. And the clock just keeps ticking.

2 comments:

  1. <3 <3 <3 I'm sorry to hear about your cousin, love, hugs and sunshine to you. I'll give you a call later tonight.

    And on your Chinese translator, "I love you like a fat kid loves cake" becomes "I like to think you are fat kids cake."

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  2. In my translator "I love you like a fat kid loves cake" becomes:

    "I like you looking like the fat child to love the cake," then
    "I like the looking like obese numerator you love the cake," then
    "I like looking like you to love the cake the obese member."

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