If you give a mouse a cookie...

Yeah, I fully realize that I have not written in a while. It's been one helluva week. I've kinda been letting all the events pile up until I don't particularly want to take the time to jot them all down. So for your benefit, reader, here is the concise/spark notes version...

IAN CAME!

I WAS HAPPY!

We had fun.

Ian left.

I was sad.

I miss Ian.

Ok, so maybe that's a little too concise. In short, though, I had a glorious weekend with the bestest boyfriend a girl could ask for. We had some tasty wine, he cooked me dinner on several occasions and he impressed the hell out of all my friends. I'd say he's pretty much perfect.

I'm already counting down the days until he comes again in February for Valentine's Day. Sappy? Maybe. But frankly m'dear, I don't give a damn. I'm gonna love every second of it.

This week has gone by rather quickly with MLK day and the inauguration (BARACK my world, baby) and all the various other miscellaneous assignments I've been on.

I was able to go down to Northwestern's downtown newsroom today and see the inner operations. I will be spending the majority of next quarter there specializing in my field of choice - broadcast. It was pretty neat - we heard from a ton of professors about some really awesome class choices. When you get up at 6 a.m. and end up sitting on your ass until 5 p.m., however, you may start to get a little antsy. I was fidgeting all over the place just trying to get out of there.

I rode the El home instead of going out with some people for Cinnabon (people love their cinnamon buns around here.) I'm glad I left when I did, though, because I was able to ride the train all the way around the loop and see the city amidst a beautiful sunset. I took about a bagillion pictures.

I'm also in the process of compiling an audio slideshow based on some interviews I got during University MLK day events in response the relevance of MLK in light of the inauguration. I'm a little short on pictures though - now I'm just snapping photos of anything that seems remotely patriotic. I'm past the point of trying to be relevant. (That sounded oddly philosophical don't ya think?)

To get back to the newsroom today, I think I've decided for sure to take the "Urban" class so I can learn how to cover city policy, government, etc. I find that stuff pretty fascinating, even though bureaucrats can be pains in the ass most of the time. I look forward to picking up even more skillz (note the chicago slang) as this quarter progresses so I can be ready and raring to go come next quarter.

Until then, I miss ya'll. I've been missing Portland quite a bit more than usual this week actually - you can blame Ian for that.

I even chose Sam Adams when we were assigned to write an advanced obit for a celebrity from our hometown. Sex scandal and all, I got a little nostalgic mid-article.

In other news, I woke up several times to the sounds of scratching in one corner of my room. I thought somebody was trying to break in at first in my half awake state, but then I thought of the two mice we had caught in our house this week and realized I have my very own Stuart Little living in my room. The jury is still out on what I'm going to do with it.

As always,

Peace, love, Portlandia.