63

Dear Longhorn Basketball,

Even though you make more turnovers than all the bakeries in France,

Even though I’m pretty sure my mom makes a higher percentage of her free throw shots than you,

And even though you have lost 5 of the last 7 games to teams who were mostly, by almost anyone’s definition, inferior;

62

The question I think I am asked by my friends most after “How are you handling to cold?” (Answer: It’s surprisingly tolerable) is “What are the people in Boston like?”

I usually reply with something stereotypical and kind of cop out-y like “driven” and “genius,” although those would be correct adjectives to use for a good number of people I’ve met. I think I’ve also said that they were “intimidating” and “intense,” but I don’t think those are the most accurate descriptors either.

61

On Thursday afternoon, I received this email:

Ms. Fong your wallet was turned into this department [B.U.Police department] . 32 harry agganis way next to the boston university arena out bound on commonwealth av. Officer Gaffney 617-353-****.

Well that’s peculiar, I thought. They must have confused me with someone else because my wallet is right here in my…wait, where is it? Because my car keys, among other things, have been known to magically disappear and reappear in the black hole that is my backpack (Seriously, NASA needs to get someone on that), I gave it a thorough shakedown before realizing that someone had turned in my wallet before I even knew it was missing. Funny thing is that I hadn’t taken it out all day so I have no idea how it ended up lost. Which should come as a surprise to exactly zero people.

60

More highlights from Christmas break in Texas:

Drinking 5 liters of beer w/ SI, JFW, EH, and long lost Michigan friend SS. EH's Twitpic

59

I guess it’s a good thing I never ran with the whole being-a-journalist thing since I’ve pretty much been neglecting this blog like it’s my red-headed stepson (…too much? I never know how far I can go with these things without sounding like a complete jerk). In any case, I will try to be better about updating this.

58

I recently found a teddy bear that dances and sings “You’re still the one” in my parents room. Apparently my dad gave it to my mom for Valentine’s day this year. Generally speaking, talking animals kinda creep me out, but I told him that I hoped my future husband would also do cute things like that even after being married to me for more than 30 years. He said that after 30 years of being married to me, the guy would need Prozac.

57

So good to be back in Texas, where I’ve been able to expose my forearms for the first time in months. I do still have the warm fuzzies for Boston, but I think we are nearing the end of our honeymoon phase. We had our first big fight on Thursday night when, without warning, it decided to go all frigid on me. -8 degrees, specifically, which is downright ungodly.

56

Though my mom—and I guess most people—loathe driving in the rain, I remembering loving sitting in the back seat of my mom’s navy blue mini-van when God finally wrung out the thick moist blanket that usually covered Houston. As the rain streaked the outside of my window, I would find the two singular raindrops sitting at the very edge of the glass that would become the participants in my own version of the Kentucky Derby. I would quickly size them up, silently wager which one I thought would make it to the other side of the window first, then use my finger to trace their courses.

55

Whilst surfing the internet earlier today, I came across this little gem. My favorite line is “When I hug people, I leave room for the Holy Spirit.” Pure ridiculousness. Naturally I could not stop replaying it. Later, I tweeted this:

cant tell if theyre being serious or if its an elaborate hoax. either way, never been a fan of the “CSH”: http://tinyurl.com/ybcpfcg

My friend JM responded w/ this:

@oliviafong You’re so wild I’m surprised you even know what a CSH is. You the type to go for the sinful front-hugs. Sinner.

to which I had to stifle a snort-laugh during a lecture on autism spectrum disorders. Luckily, my actual sneeze sounds like a snort-laugh, so a classmate blessed me.

54

I spent this past weekend with MH in New York. Good times were had shopping and eating our weight’s worth of hot dogs, gyros, cheese fries, pizza, and halal teriyaki chicken. Man, I do love me some street vendor food.

We also saw Stomp, which was totally unlike any other show I’ve seen in that there was no dialogue or soundtrack or raucous dance number. Basically, it’s a group of 10 performers who use their bodies and ordinary objects (kitchen sink, brooms, trash, etc.) to make these sick rhythms. It sounds kinda not cool when I write about it, but the intricacy and precision was incredible.

The one sour note of the trip was our trip back to Boston. We booked our tickets through Mega Bus, which I had heard was much more reputable than the Fung Wah Chinatown bus. I mean, people really made it sound like the Chinatown buses required passengers to bring their our stools and frequently spontaneously combusted on the side of the road.

Anyway, we were supposed to leave Penn Station at 1:15pm and arrive at Back Bay Station at 5:30. We didn’t leave New York until a full 2 hours after our scheduled departure time.