Unwanted bedfellows...

So we (as in the speaking members of our apartment) have known that we have mice for a while. In fact, the management descended into our hovel about a month before we started seeing rodential evidence, and set traps which mysteriously disappeared soon after said evidence appeared late one night. That was about a month ago, and the latest development is scarily close to a long-held childhood fear of mine. Last night, my roommate (the one subletting for the crazy french guy) awoke from a dream involving petting her old cat, to find a small mouse chilling in her bed--just nestled between her feet. The mouse suffered a hasty loss of altitude, but survived to plunder again. I have seriously been afraid of a mouse getting into my bed ever since I read "Little House in the Big Woods," when Pa wakes up to find a mouse making a nest out of his hair, which results in an ill-concealed bald spot. Granted, I'm a grown woman, and silly childhood fears shouldn't intrude on my ability to sleep, but when they're manifested just a thin wall away--all the way up in a bunk bed, no less--I feel justified in tossing and turning.
On an indirect, but similar note (involving today's title), a female bed guest was seen scurrying (in mouse-like fashion) rather quickly through the apartment and out the door--in the opposite direction of our resident Don Juan late last night. Interesting. Usually they're running inside at an alarming rate and in numbers no average (or above average, for that matter) man could even fathom. Oh well, life in Boston continues its long, bizarre run.

37 Days and Counting!

That's right, folks! Only 37 days left in the crawly, hygenically-challenged, dank, "garden" apartment I've reluctantly called home for the last year. In a little over a month, I will be living with one roommate--a good friend who answers the door, washes her hands regularly, believes in cleaning, has good taste, detests insects, does not require a waiting room to maintain the hundreds of her booty-calls, does not expect monthly bill loans from me, cares that I exist, and is, in a word, awesome. This will, by the way, be the antithesis of my current living situation, if you hadn't already guessed. I. Am. So. Excited. I've even made one of those elementary school paper chains, a link of which I ecstatically rip off every day at work. Yay. I've never been so anxious to move heavy boxes up and down stairs.

In other news, I have been introduced to Joni Mitchell. While she may be old news to some, she is a revelation to me. It's hard to understand how I've been singing for so long without being influenced by her fabulousness. Sigh. I love her.

Another interesting development is finding out about old friends who are either married, pregnant, or getting married soon. It's odd to hear about everyone starting to form their little family units, when I am in such a different place emotionally, and career-wise. Oh well, yay for impending marital and procreational bliss.

My first blog

The summer is almost over. Almost. Over. I'm sure that if I knew/cared anything about sports, I'd have some genius sports-related analogy to demonstrate just how close we are to the cessation of hot, wet, disgusting summer weather. Of course, I must acknowledge that the further we get from summer, the closer we get to the vile, exhaust-flavored slurpee that is winter in Boston, MA. Yes, I live in Beantown, which means that, as well as walking in fear of being trampled by staggering rabid Sox fans, deafened by "Yankees Suck!" shouting rabid Sox fans, and dodging the traffic-bound, road-raging, horn-blasting, beer-guzzling, SUV-driving rabid Sox fans, I get the excellent opportunity to live in a sauna in the summer, and a sub-zero fridge in the winter (which, by the way, lasts for about six months, and feels like seven). Wow. That was a run on sentence. My apologies. But seriously, it's taken me a while to realize that people elect to live in places like Boston, even if they aren't required to live on the East Coast primarily due to the existence of an accessible live music scene. That's love. But that's enough about weather and sports mania.

For those not reading this blog out of platonic love, familial obligation, or successful nagging, I'm a second year grad student at the New England Conservatory of Music, I sing jazz, and I'm hoping that someday (soon) people will want to pay me to sing all the time, thereby eventually whittling away my rather significant pit of debt (financial despair) at a much faster rate than the "I work for minimum wage and sing for free, so I can afford to pay $25 dollars a month" plan.
Recent newsworthy events include, but are not limited to:

*Working about 3/4 time in the development office at my school. Duties include filing, answering phones, internet research, playing pac man, text twist, and online scrabble, running errands, recreational reading, doing the Metro crossword, and other such important tasks.
*Being almost intolerably bored after work every day, yet still managing not to practice enough.
*Taking a rather embarrassing (yet surprisingly unwitnessed) tipsy stumble off a curb and scraping/bruising hands and knees, and fracturing the knuckle of my right pinky finger. This doesn't sound like the most inconvenient injury, but it's a little difficult to take piano lessons with a defective finger.
*Giving tap lessons to my friend Jodi, who is also my would-be piano teacher. She's doing great.
*Signing the lease for a new apartment to be shared by myself and Karissa Bryant this coming September.
*Doing spontaneous (if not slightly scary) dances of extreme felicity in reaction to above.
*Randomly running into a fellow PLU graduate to whom I haven't spoken since moving, in the middle of the Fanuiel Hall open market.
*Binge reading the latest Harry Potter book in six hours.
*Regretting compulsive gorging of children's book (or rather, the sad fact that there's no more to read now).
*Sweating, and seriously longing to walk around nude outside, an impulse that would never exist, were it not for the hot wetness in Boston.
*Upcoming event: Flying to L.A. to witness the birth (or at least first few days) of my big sister's fourth child. Yay.

So, that's the general overview of my summer so far. Perhaps I'll write again soon if anything interesting happens.