Kayaking

Today was one of those days that I feel satisfied with. Today, I:

• woke up at 7:30AM very groggily, got ready, packed up my stuff, and walked to campus. I got here about 20 minutes before 9. Only five-ish minutes later, Min found me in my office, and we walked down together to the bus stop at Forbes & Morewood. We were accompanying the current MLD PhD incoming students to a kayaking trip down at the Point. We took the bus, walked to the Kayak harbor, we signed waivers and waited for about an hour until they got us into the kayaks, and then we kayaked for an hour or two upstream (and downstream on the way back) on the Allegheny. Fun time. Then we walked to the Strip District. I walked barefoot because my shoes were wet. Barefoot until we got to a street whose stone was too hot for my feet, and then I put on my wet shoes temporarily. We went to Primanti Bros, I ordered a cup of milk, and then we left. I got to meet a few of the new students. Cool group.
• got back on the 54c, and while trying to figure out what to do next, I realized my body was pretty tired, so I decided to take a half hour nap. 4 hours later, at 6pm, I woke up.
• did my laundry! (There should be a simple verb for that. Laundered. That's it). The Fairfax key still does not work at all, so tailgating was my mode of entry for all three trips (1: put stuff in the washer, 2: move from washer to dryer, 3: take out from dryer and fold).
• used my steamer for the first time! Oh yeah, I bought a steamer from Target one or two days ago. Not a bad purchase. I can now steam SO MANY THINGS! Today it steamed my CSA leafy vegetables and half of an orange pepper. It made for a nice dinner.
• began organizing all my junk/belongings/stuff/property that Laura helped me move from Julian's and Min's on Friday. Sooo many clothes. I'm currently wearing the blue Reddwerks LOVE FEST 08 WHO NEEDS A HUG? Austin-style T-Shirt I found in that pile. I'm building up a NO pile of clothes and stuff, though, that's either going to Freecycle, Goodwill or the trash, or serving as towels and rags around the apartment.
• found a lamp for my room!! It was lying around in my pile of junk. Since Julian fully moved out of his room and took his lamp with him, I've depended on external sources of illumination to find my way around my little room. Fortunately, I foresightedly stored a lamp along with the rest of my stuff, and now my room lights up automatically by flipping a switch. Groovy.
• exercised my physical therapy homework for the first time! It's not bad at all... I just have to put a plastic ball underneath the parts of my body that hurt the most, and let my weight push the ball into my muscles for 2 minutes, on each hurting body point. Ignoring the pain, it's actually a very convenient exercise. Then there's the towel exercise to stretch my shoulder by pulling my hand up behind my back. Sequential two-minute intervals also, a level higher every time. I managed 3 levels today. The fourth one would've been close to torture, and the therapist told me I'm not supposed to do that. Oh, did I mention I'm going to physical therapy these days? Yes I am. Healing Motion on 5480 Ellsworth Avenue Suite 302, Pittsburgh, PA 15232. My next appointment is on Tuesday September 6th at 10AM. The therapist's great.
• came to campus after I decided that the Scotch 'n Soda party going on at my apartment right now was too distracting. While I was here, I hooked up my TB/2 HDD to my Mac, realized Mac OS X doesn't allow NTFS write, googled for a solution, downloaded NTFS-3G for Mac, it worked fine, and I transferred some of my Niagara pictures. I also scanned the latest medical bills and forwarded them to my lawyer who has also not gotten back to me since several weeks ago. I also realized I have LogMeIn active on my Mac, and I made sure it was working fine. My Mac will now become my little file server (since it has my hard drive hooked up to it and stuff). I wonder if watching a movie through LogMeIn would work fine. I wonder if the audio is transmitted? So many questions...
• and now I'll go scan some of the sketches I've made on my little blue sketchbook. After that I'll probably grab my stuff and go back to my apartment. The party should be at least... close... to ending?

OK. Sloppy journal entry achieved. Add that to my list of activities. Yay.