Ed is my new friend

I was in Nashville visiting my brother, Aaron. I got back last night. I had a very nice time there. My first day there we saw some "sights" in downtown Nashville, but both agreed that the Country Music Hall of Fame was not our idea of a good time. It felt strange to be in what was an obviously touristy part of town and have very little touristy interest in it.

I feel like it had been a long time since I'd seen Aaron. I enjoyed having some time alone with him and Kaitlin, his fiancee.

They adopted a stray cat named Ed, who is the sweetest, loveliest cat I know. They feed him on the patio. He loves to be pet and to lick toes. He looks like an albino tiger with beautiful turquoise eyes.
Eddie-poos:


Ed cannot be let inside, because Aaron and Kaitlin's apartment already contains three cats that don't particularly like each other.
Anyways, enough about cats and how I wish Ed were mine.

I finished Anna Karenina. I enjoyed the book, but the ending disappointed me. It was similar to Crime and Punishment where the author took to demonstrating his own newly found religious faith through a main character. I found it irritating. And uninspiring.
Next book: A Clockwork Orange. I read half of it on the plane yesterday and it creeped me out.

Aaron helped me out a lot with fine-tuning my personal statement for my law school apps and with deciding where to apply. I finally feel like my statement is excellent and will add to my overall application.
List of schools:
1. University of Minnesota (#1 choice, will find out by 1/1/07 if I get in)
2. University of Washington
3. University of Iowa
4. Boston University
5. Vanderbilt University
6. Washington and Lee University (I may take this one off the list)

I think I can conceivably get into at least one of these schools, if not more. But my anxious side worries that I'll get into no school and my plan will come falling down around me and I'll spend next year completely miserable.
Worst case scenario.

I'm starting to get a little freaked out by my trip. I've been having really weird dreams about it. I have to send off my passport to the Vietnamese Embassy tomorrow so I can get my tourist visa. I signed up for SCUBA lessons and am taking them next week. Monday is the travel clinic. This weekend, Mom and I are going to hit REI and we're going to buy my bridesmaid's dress for Aaron and Kaitlin's wedding. The list of things to do goes on and on.

I got a very nice compliment from Bob at Habitat for Humanity today.
Bob: I've been watching you and you strike me as a very serene person.
Me: What exactly does that mean?
Bob: Well, it seems like you know who you are and you don't let the world get you down or knock you around (rough paraphrasing)
Me: I think that's true. Thank you for the nice compliment.

The guys at Habitat were telling me today they used to work with some inmates at the Women's prison in Shakopee. They were being taught carpentry so they could be apprentices when they got out of prison. They'd practice their skills with Habitat. I thought that was neat.

Oh, and I finished my sock. Here it is:

Now, unfortunately, I have to make another one.