President's Day

The b-friend left yesterday morning after our long weekend. It was definitely a good weekend, but not really long enough. Although, no weekends are long enough these days, so I guess I should stop complaining about it. Anyway, the highlight of the weekend was celebrating my early birthday on Sunday - we went downtown to see the Houston Chamber Orchestra and then had dinner at the Sambuca Jazz Cafe. The first piece the orchestra played was the Pelleus and Melisande Suite by Sibelius, and after intermission they played a violin concerto by Beethoven. The soloist was a guy from Hungary, and seriously, when he first walked on stage, I thought he was one of the stagehands. Everyone else in the group was wearing a tux, but he was wearing just black pants, an old black t-shirt, and a wrinkly black silk shirt over it. His hair was kind of curly and disheveled... looked a little fro-ish. Absolutely amazing player, but definitely looked like he just rolled out of bed and plopped onto the stage.

We stuck around for the reception after the concert, mainly because they were serving champagne and neither of us would have to drive for the next few hours. On the table behind all the champagne glasses was a very large bowl of what looked at first to be potato chips, and when I first saw that, I couldn't help thinking, "Wow, only in Texas..." The chips actually turned out to be banana chips, which I guess are higher on the chip ladder than potato chips, but I would argue, still not the chip equivalent of champagne. Anyway, at one point I disappeared to find the restroom, only to come back and find C. chattering away with one of the members of the Houston Chamber Orchestra board of directors. This only furthers my claim that this boy can carry on a conversation with a brick wall. :)

Anyway, we had a great time doing not much of anything the rest of the weekend. Saw a couple movies, ate lots of food, and had fondue at Becca's house on Saturday with Sarah, Nick, & Cari. Mmmm... cheese and chocolate...

Random side note - I was picking up my mail last night after coming back from Zio's and it occurred to me that I should get a decision letter from MIT in a couple weeks, and right as I thought that, I saw a large envelope with MIT's return address on it in my mailbox. Gasp! Nope - just the alumni association wanting more donations. Heart attack avoided.

Random side note #2 - my hamster can climb stairs! A couple weeks ago I let her run around on the landing, and after much scratching at the baseboards and attempting to dig a hole in the carpet, she decided that she didn't like being on the landing anymore, so she climbed up to the next stair. This went on for three or four more stairs before she got tired, but this past weekend I put her on the landing again, and she climbed the entire flight of stairs! Pretty impressive for a hamster that's only three inches long.