It's been a while since I last posted--and by "a while," I mean over a month, but I have an excuse. When I last wrote, I was getting ready to head off for Barcelona and Morocco, and upon my return a week-and-a-half later I needed a few days to catch up on sleep and work. The day I was going to update my blog my computer cut off and wouldn't turn back on. I took my computer to the Apple repair place the next day and, of course, the computer worked perfectly for the service technician but they had to keep it for a few days "for observation." It turns out that all I needed was a new power adapter (covered by the warranty, thankfully), but this combined with the computer place closing for Carnevale combined with me going to Andorra for the mid-year conference and then London/Paris meant that I didn't get my computer back until last Monday. Anyways, I have a lot of anecdotes from my travels and daily life (too many, in fact) and I can't post them all in one entry because I am finishing up some work and packing for my grad school tour of America (I leave tomorrow morning), so I thought I'd leave you with a tidbit from yesterday which (I hope) will be the most awkward moment I live through this month.
I arrived home from Paris late Sunday night to find the last morsels of food I had in the cupboard gone and no laundry detergent with which to complete my mountain of laundry. Frankly, I was surprised that we had a roll of toilet paper because it seemed like everything else was gone (with reason: Ana has had a lab in another city this past week and our new apartmentmate has no domestic skills whatsoever--he can't cook, do laundry, and he even looks uncomfortable washing dishes). Anyways, first thing Monday morning I went down the street to the grocery store and bought laundry detergent, among other things. As I was taking the shortcut to our apartment building up a steep stone staircase, the hem of my jeans got caught on my heel and I faceplanted up the stairs, ripping the knees of my jeans. It hurt a lot (though nothing was hurt more than my pride), but I jumped up and continued to ascend the stairs. I started to notice that my legs felt wet and I got worried that it was my knee, gushing blood. As it happens, the detergent cap and broken, releasing aloe vera-scented liquid all over my pants, my shoes, the box of breakfast cereal that was in the bag with the detergent, and the staircase. Two days later, the detergent trail remains on the staircase, subsiding into drips as one approaches the door to my building. Stairs and bargain-brand detergent: 1, Kara: 0.
More later...off to pack!
