Rudy

My mom called me yesterday afternoon to tell me that they had to put our 18 year-old dog, Rudy, to sleep. There aren't words to describe how shocked and saddened I was, even though I should have been preparing myself for this day for years. In the past 6 years, there have been several back surgeries and more than a few bouts of sickness bad enough to make me think this might be the end. But he always bounced back better and healthier than before.

I guess part of me assumed he'd just keep doing that.

But this time, it seems, there was no bouncing back.

Being so far away in DC, I feel somewhat buffered from the full impact of this news. But what will happen--and how will it feel--when I go home to Colorado, and Rudy isn't there?

He's been a fixture--a family member--since I begged my parents to buy him from the pet store when I was 10. At the time, we already had two other high-maintenance dogs; the last thing we needed was a new puppy to train. But he was so cute, and it was so heart-breakingly sad that no one else had wanted to buy him: he'd been in the pet store for 8 months--so long that the employees had gone ahead and given him a name.

From the moment we set eyes on Rudy it was love at first sight, and he has been nothing but a wonderful, fun and funny addition to our family. From tipping over trashcans and pulling toilet paper off the roll to being the best looking dog ever to sport an Elmo party hat, Rudy will be missed. By me and my parents, certainly. By our other dogs certainly. But also by just about anyone who ever encountered him: Rudy was the kind of special dog that made even the most wary dog-hater fall in love, and I don't know how exactly we will get along without him.

Rudy with birthday cake on his face

Easter fun, a few weeks late

I'm back-dating this blog post, because I couldn't bear the thought that I'd actually gone more than a month without posting on my blog. Shameful.

Easter is one of my favorite holidays of the year: I love spring time, I like pastel colors, I like dyeing eggs and I LOVE Peeps. But this year, I was sick to the point of not being able to get out of bed and had to cancel my plans for an Easter dinner with my grad school friends. But Mike--who must have the world's best immune system--could sense my disappointment about scrapping all my Easter plans, and he said he was willing to risk getting sick in order for us to celebrate. And so we did, in a smaller fashion. A little dinner, a little egg dyeing, and some Peep jousting. All in all, a pretty good Easter, despite the illness.

Our dyed Easter eggs

Mike and Claire self-portraits. Medium: eggs, dye, and wax crayon.

Our Peeps, prior to the joust

Our Peeps, after the joust. I think Mike's won.

If you're going to San Francisco. . . .

I know, I know. I've been a slacker of a blog poster this month. Since grad school started, that seems to be the theme of my life. But to do a little catch up, two weeks ago, Mike and I went to San Francisco for Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend.

I think I told every single person I saw in the month leading up to us going how excited I was.

You know how sometimes you're really excited about something, and then when it actually happens, it's not as good as you thought it would be? Yeah, that definitely DID NOT happen this time. San Francisco/Oakland were so much better than I thought they would be, and I was already expecting them to be awesome.

For starters, we had kick-ass weather. Apparently, it's been very rainy and cold this winter, and this was about the first time since November that the sun had come out. I know this because when we went kayaking on Lake Merritt, the boat rental lady told us we were the first people to rent boats in 2008! Good work Mike and Claire!


Then, we got to go to Drake's, my fabulously sketchy brewery in a parking lot. And even better, I got to go there with Miranda. And even better than that, we ran into George. Seeing as how Miranda and George were both integral parts of the awkward craziness that always was Friday nights at Drakes, I was happy to share it with both of them.



We also got to see more of my dearly missed SF friends: Helen, Jess, and Dina. We hit up some of my favorite dive bars in SF and the East Bay.

Doc's Clock

The Alley

We went to Angel Island. I learned how to play Rummy 500 and now own a set of "how to survive in the wilderness" playing cards.



And we ate oh so much yummy food. This trip was pretty much built around a very rigid plan of all the foods I've missed and can't get in D.C., that we then washed down with cheap dive bar beers. Or bloody marys.

Banana Pudding from Chef Edward's

The only things that could have made it better would have been more time, and getting to see more old friends. But for a short weekend it was awesome, and I think just simply made both of us more sure we want to come back again--very soon!

I'm a Bloody Mess

And I do mean that literally.
This is what happens when an accident prone person (inevitably) falls off her bike. It's going to be even more gorgeous when it bruises, I think. Oh, and for those who are interested, if you follow the trail of blood down my shin in the picture, you can also see the eye-shaped scar left over from the MRSA/abscess-removal.

I suppose it's never too late to start wrapping myself in bubble wrap?

YAY!!!!

My friend Miranda sent me a message a few days ago, asking what I was doing for President's Day. Seeing as how I didn't even know when President's Day was, I definitely didn't have plans. And then she suggested meeting in San Francisco, with boyfriends in tow. It took me approximately 4 seconds to decide that come hell or high water, boyfriend or no, I WAS going to be in San Francisco that weekend. So I launched a full-force persuasion campaign to get Mike to agree that it was worth the cost to come.

And 12 hours later, our plane tickets were bought. I AM SO EXCITED! I'm excited to see friends, I'm excited to get to go all the places I miss, and I'm really excited to get to share it with Mike.

Times Square Ain't the Place for a Vegan

Mike and I were in NYC last weekend to celebrate the birthday of his friend Yuriy. Last Friday evening, after many hours of meat-eating and booze-drinking and general birthday-celebrating, we left Yuriy and the rest of his friends to make our way back to our very swanky Times Square hotel.

En route, we got into a fairly intense discussion. It was intense enough--and we were both so focused on it--that upon arriving in Times Square we continued to stand in the middle of the sidewalk, talking intently to each other and not really paying any mind to what was happening around us.

So here we are, in the middle of Times Square, having the kind of single-minded and emotionally intense conversation you can only have when you're really drunk, when a couple--youngish and fairly well dressed--approach us.

Couple: "Um, excuse us. We're sorry to interrupt you, because you look like you're having a pretty important conversation, but we don't have any money and we're pretty hungry."

Mike and Claire: "Um. . . ." as both of us start fumbling through our pockets for change.

Couple: "No, no. We don't want to take your money, but if you wouldn't mind buying us something to eat, we'd appreciate it."

Mike seemed game for this proposal, so he gestures around Times Square--where there are easily 20 open restaurants within spitting distance of where we are standing--and asks them: "Where did you want to go? How about McDonald's?"--as it was the closest to where we were standing.

Couple: "Um, well, that won't work actually. You see, we're vegans and we don't really eat any of that kind of food. But we know a really good vegan Chinese restaurant about 15 blocks south of here. How about that?"

Even now, a week later, I don't know quite what to make of this. Have people really just gotten that bold? Were they actually trying to pick us up for a foursome? Were we being Punk'd? And did they really not appreciate the truth behind the phrase "beggars can't be choosers?"

Needless to say, Mike and I said that was a bit far for us to go to get them food, wished them luck and bid them adieu as we quickly made our way back into our hotel.

Seen in the NYC Macy's

A Hassidic Jew toddler--complete with baby yarmulke and long curly sideburns--attached by a leash to his mother.

Good News

I have lots to blog about from the last few weeks, but I'll share my exciting school/work-related news first:

About a month ago, my friend Alison, who works in the very cool Center for Social Media at school, was asked to recommend any people she knew who might be a good fit for the Center's Fellowship program. She recommended me (as did a couple of my professors), and I was brought in soon after to interview for the program. Destpite interviewing in the middle of my final hell week--when I hadn't slept in two days and I was running around with a painfully throbbing MRSA-filled abscess on my leg--I had felt like the interview went well. It went well enough, anyway, that they offered me some short-term employment over the break, while they were short-staffed.

Cut to today, when in the middle of a conversation with the woman I'd initially interviewed with (about my continuing to do some work this semester for the Center), I asked her when they would be deciding about the Fellowships. Shocked, she replied, "But I thought you knew! No one told you? We're offering the Fellowship to you!"

Needless to say, this is really fantastic news, and I'm very excited. The Fellowship will partly pay for school for the next two years, and I'll get two years of working with the other folks in the Center for Social Media, which is right up my alley!