There are more photos over at Flickr, but the ones above are all from the Brooklyn Museum, where Sam and I spent the last full day of my spring break checking out the lovely Marilyn Monroe and the intriguing Basquiat exhibits. The art at the Basquiat exhibit was very interesting, especially since I had never seen his work before, but what was even better was seeing all the kids there. Listening to their reactions to the artwork gave a lot of insight, pointing out things I hadn't noticed.

All in all, it was a great way to spend Easter Sunday, though our lunch plans for the nearby Tom's Diner were foiled by the holiday. In our hunt for a cheap eat on our walk home, we realized that 5th Ave in Park Slope is suprisingly devoid of pizza places. There are NONE between Flatbush and 3rd St, where we finally found some decent (though not great) eats at Pizza on the Park.

As for the rest of the break, I think I got everything I wanted to accomplished. Taxes done, with a huge refund in the works! Dress fitting was great - I can't wait to show off my dress. Invitiations look great too, and I think we found someone to print them, which is even better. Sam found a tux and looks super snazzy in it. And we set up rentals for the groomsmen as well. I always thought I wouldn't have the vests of the men match the bridesmaid's dresses, but it was just so much easier given all the choices. And we're pretty sure we found THE place for the rehersal dinner, and think we have the Sunday brunch under control as well.

I have so got this wedding thing under control!

Today, it was back to the daily grind. Class, then up to Oakland for an interview (which went great - maybe it was due to the new shoes), then back to Stanford for another couple classes. Yeah, Tuesday is crazy, but did I mention that my schedule this quarter rocks since I don't have class on Monday or Friday and only have one class on Wednesday (unless you count Golf). Maybe I'll actually end grad school with fond memories.

Photos will have to wait, since I forgot my connection cable back in California, but a wonderful weekend was had by all (i.e. Sam and moi) up at my parents new place in the Berkshires. An absolutely beautiful house to ourselves, communing with nature, sleeping late despite the quiet being a bit too quiet, and great meals.

Of course, that had to end. There's stationary for the wedding invitations to worry about, dress fittings, and of course, doing my taxes. Now that's a fun spring break!

....one more to go.

My last final, all I can say is yuk. I hate it when I run out of time on a test (which hardly ever happens - I'm usually the first one out). But from the sounds of it, everyone else thought it sucked too, so thank goodness for the curve.

FORGET YOUR SHOES.

One might ask, Dahlia, how do you possibly forget your shoes?

The answer is easy, you see. Last night, I prepared my bag for my interview, and decided that I probably wouldn't want to be walking around from the BART to the office I was interviewing in my pumps, so instead I'd put them in a bag next to my purse, where I'd be sure to see them in the morning, and I'd instead plan on wearing my flip flops and just change into the pumps when I got there.

This was a great plan, but sure enough, I did forget the bag with my shoes in them.

Luckily, I got out of the BART early, and since my interview was near Union Square, there were plenty of shops that were open (and open before 10am!) to choose from to replace my missing shoes.

The strategy was simple - buy a pair of black pumps, put them on in the elevator of the office, take them off when I was done, and return them. But the shoes I got are so cute! I didn't count on falling in love with them.

I'm telling myself that I'll return them tomorrow because I already own three pairs of black pumps (two mary janes of varying clunkiness and one more traditional pair), and because I so do not need to be spending money on things like this right now, but it might be hard to actually bring myself to do it.

And in case you were wondering, the interview went very well.

And in case you were also wondering, I came home from my interview with my apartment reeking of smoke because one of my roommates had an accident with a pot. Its kind of distracting me from studying, but I don't really want to go somewhere else either. I won't smell it after a while, right?

I Love Firefox with a capital L. And I loved it even more when there was this handy tab preferences extension that kept a history of what tabs you were using, so that if you accidentally closed a tab, you could reopen it by clicking on the list. Also, if you closed down Firefox, next time you reopened it, the tabs you had open would be there. It was great. And then I upgraded to version 1.0 and my old extensions wouldn't work.

Today, however, I was reading Lifehacker (a godsend to anyone who spends too much time on their computer like I do), and saw the answer to all my problems. Session Saver. Not as nifty GUI as previous extension I loved so dearly, but serves the same purpose, and so far is great.

Now if I can only keep Windows Explorer from continually crashing on me, I'll be able to do something else to make me happy during finals - finish my oceanography paper.

Yesterday, a friend and I went on a bike ride. I haven't been on a real bike ride in ages, so I had been a bit wary as to how I would feel. Since Stanford sits at the bottom of the Santa Cruz mountains, there are pretty much three choices for routes: up the mountains, along the ridge, or in the flat bay area. Which means that anyone who wants excercise goes up the mountains.

The ride started off to a rocky start due to a flat tire on my part. We had just made it to the edge of campus, but because neither of our bike pumps are very good and since we only had one lever (usually you need two to get the tube out), we decided the best action would be to walk my bike back to the campus bike shop, all the way across campus. It took forever to get there, but once we were there, we managed to change the tube with no problem. We even got the wheel back in a matter of minutes, which since this was my tricky rear wheel, is no easy feat.

So an hour after we started, we actually left campus. I definately was not in great shape to be climbing hills, and my back was killing me by the end of the ride, but overall, it felt great. Sure it was 9 miles fairly continuous uphill, but up until the last mile (it gets to about 11% inclines at the end), I felt pretty great.

Can't wait to go again.

...it seems infinately easier to bear when its 83 degrees outside. Yup, you read that right - 83 degrees!

The beautiful weather makes you want to be outside, so I'll actually escape my room and the time suckage associated with it and study outside.

This probably won't help me get my paper done earlier, due to glare on the computer screen, but at least I'll come back to NYC next week with a beautiful tan.

When I get stressed, I get horrible stomach aches. Before I moved out here, when I was trying to pack everything in my apartment in preparation for the move, I woke up in the middle of the night with stomach aches. During midterms, my stomach hurt for a week straight. And right now, my stomach feels ok, but I can tell that the aches are about to start soon.

I only have one class left this quarter, and as of today, it seems like I have things for finals under control. The plan is to start reviewing for my take-home final tonight so that I can ask my professor questions before picking it up tomorrow, and also start on my paper due next week.

I have a final on Monday and one on Thursday, and I feel pretty confident in my understanding of those two classes. If I can get my paper done this weekend, and finish my take home test by Tuesday, then I'll have no problem turning them in on Wednesday, meaning I won't have to stress too much about going to a job interview that morning. That's what this is all, after all, getting a good job, right?

However, my stomach is warning me about what I already suspect - in a day or two I'll wonder how I'll ever be able to get it all done.

On Friday, the rain was so hard that I had a clear line on my jeans so that you could see where my rain jacket ended. I am seriously tempted to invest in rain pants, but I keep putting it off since rainy season is almost over.

Ironically, I now have a line down my left shin from my sunburn. While "officiating" at the frisbee tournament, I managed to sit in a way so that only part of my left leg, and none of my right leg got burnt, even though the sun was on my right side.

And now for speaking of burnt color....

I may be across the country, but I feel left out of all The Gates hype, so for your viewing pleasure, some beautiful pics that my dad took a couple weeks ago.