1. I was a complete idiot on Halloween, and let people talk me into watching ghost hunting shows on TV. I got two hours of sleep that night, and ever since, have been incredibly uneasy in my house once the sun goes down. My friend Frank making me watch this clip certainly didn’t help. Nor did his analysis of said clip. “The really freaky thing about these shadow people isn’t just how human they look, or how fast they move — but how they seem to be toying with us.” Thanks, buddy.

2. Since I woke up super early this morning, and didn’t particularly want to lay around in bed while the shadow people took tours of my house, I got up and went to the gym while it was still dark out. Because there was no traffic and since I wasn’t in a hurry, I was able to pay more attention to the buildings passing by. I noticed two brand new businesses in the downtown area — one a charming gift shop with locally made items and the other an art store. You know,  I really didn’t want to move to Berkley, but I have to admit, it is starting to grow on me. Even with the round-the-clock police surveillance that comes with your father being a police officer in the city in which you live. By the way, OFFICER GABRIEL, flashing a spotlight on my house at 11:30 last night did not exact help my current state of freaked-outedness.

3. I really, really need to stop collecting bookmarked blogs, as I certainly have enough distractions during the day, but I can’t help it — I really like this one. While my own experiences with love have been less than charming, I still can’t help but enjoy it as a ideological concept.

4. I always find it intriguing when people read something and say “this reminded me of you.” Because I have no opportunity to view myself objectively, being stuck in my own head all the time, I like trying to momentarily step out of the picture to see what I look like from the outside — what DO I remind people of? The latest occurrence of this resulted in me reading a book I would never have picked up for myself, but which I really enjoyed.  Thanks, DZ!

5. And here’s what’s on repeat this week:

• Trigger Happy Jack — Poe
• 4 and 20 — Joss Stone
• Sunday Kind of Love — Etta James
• Forever — Chris Brown
• Fireflies — Owl City

2. None of this has been helped by a tragedy that took place on our campus the day before yesterday. One of our students committed suicide; he hung himself from a tree just over the hill. I am sure it is hard to imagine how we can possibly feel a connection to this student when there are around 19,000 of them running around, but we do. It is a vastly extended family here, and when we lost Corey, we lost one of our own. The fact that he felt he had no other option sickens me; the rumor that he took his life because he recently identified as gay, and was not able to acclimate to a world where he was open about that fact makes it worse.

3. And I am so exhausted from the negativity. It just seems to be swallowing people up as of late. Everywhere I look, people are complaining endlessly about every aspect of their lives, judging people they have never even met,  dragging each other down instead of lifting one another up. I realize that I am particularly sensitive to it at this time of the year, but I can’t help but wonder when everyone became so very pessimistic and self-entitled. It makes me want to cut myself off entirely lest I be swept into the undertow.

4. BUT. Instead I am trying to think of ways to combat the negativity. I have looked into becoming a S.A.F.E. ally on campus for our LGBTQ students. I am reading more selectively on the Internet, avoiding sites I know to be more heavily laden with ridicule or complaint. I am finding items and people and hobbies that comfort and inspire me, rather than frustrate or disappoint me. I am cutting out participating in the celebrity gossip scene, as it only wastes my time and perpetuates the concepts of bullying and voyeurism. And all this helps.

5. And so does music! Here are the songs on heavy rotation this week:

Matt Nathanson — Pretty the World
Sara Bareilles — Uncharted
Siouxsie and the Banshees — Kiss Them For Me
That’s How Strong My Love Is – Otis Redding
Tightrope — Janelle Monae

1. I am super psyched because tomorrow night a group of us are going on a hayride at Upland Hills farm. I love this farm, largely because I have great memories of being there. When I worked at Gateway Montessori, we took a school-wide field trip there every year. As in, we literally shut the entire school down, and every last one of us went. One of my favorite things about the farm is their collection of Peking ducks. I won’t lie to you: I have harbored secret fantasies of having a pet Peking duck ever since I helped rehabiliate one at the first vet clinic I worked at. His name was  Ferdinand.

Man, I LOVED that duck. So you can imagine how much I loved going to the farm and feeding dozens of ducks just like him.

Anyway, it will be dark when we get there, and the ducks will be tucked away for the night — but snuggling up in the hay as we are driven through the cornfields and the big bonfire and hot cider that are sure to come afterward will still make it totally worth the trip. Michigan winter is almost worth the fall that comes before it. Almost.

2. I have a new — and varied — group of songs stuck in my head this week. They are all linked to totally random memories, ranging from boyfriends to undergraduate classes to getting ready to go hang out in downtown Royal Oak with my friends on Friday nights. They are:

• 2Pac Shakur — California Love
• Madonna — Don’t Tell Me
• Fuel – Shimmer
• Mr. Mister — Kyrie
• Lit — Ziplock

3. Nic, one of our flashmob friends, and a certified computer genius posted a link to a game called Typewar on Facebook a couple of days ago. I am not even going to tell you how much time I wasted trying to break his streak (30 correct answers in a row). Think you know anything about fonts? Try it.

EEEK! Low battery warning!

4. As I work through various assignments for class, I keep finding these AMAZING pictures of my parents. Like this one, of my mom:

I think one of the most incredible things about these pictures is the power they have to remind me of the fact my parents are people that had lives before we came along and made everything super predictable and boring.

5. I am totally paranoid, my computer is totally going to shut down any moment. So, as briefly as possible — try Mrs. Meyers Basil dish soap. If, like me, you don’t have a dishwasher, and you need any little bit of help you can get in making washing less miserable, you won’t be sorry.

1. I had a photoshoot in the Department of Biological Sciences this morning. It’s a shoot I do every year, and generally involves photographing graduate students in their lab environments. I didn’t find out until twenty minutes before the start of the shoot that Dr. Bee has new students this year, and that we would need to stop by her lab.

Dr. Bee teaches human anatomy. In the human anatomy lab. That is full of humans. And their anatomy. Live humans. Dead ones, too. And their dead parts.

I got a little woozy just thinking about it. It was the thought of the potential smell that was really getting to me. I have this problem when I watch “Bones” on TV, too. The whole time they are conducting the fascinating scientific analysis on the murder victim, I am completely distracted by what that victim would smell like.

But you know what the lab smelled like? Plastic. The lack of the expected decomposition-decay-insect activity-worm-food-smell emboldened me enough that I could actually stay in the room with the gentlemen missing the top of his head. And with his brain, which was on the table next to him. And with the fellow next to him. And his lungs. Which were right there. Two feet from me. Tooootttalllly fine with it. Yep.

2. I don’t know that anyone will get as excited about this as I am, BUT: we just started learning Adobe Dreamweaver in class, and my professor directed us to a site to help us choose color palates for the websites we are building. You may not be building a website, but maybe you are painting a house. Or putting together a wardrobe. Or something else that requires pairing multiple colors together, and you have no idea where to start. If so, head over to colorjack.com. So fun!

3. Speaking of colors, today also involved a trip to the salon. I have been seeing the same stylist for almost fifteen years, and I trust her implicitly — so much so that upon arrival today, I gave her free reign. Literally told her to choose whatever she wanted, cut and color-wise. The result you ask? About five inches less hair — and the hair that’s left? Copper colored. It would have never occured to me, but you know, what a great idea for fall.

4. One of my former English professors posted a link to this site on Facebook, and I am sort of in love with it. Not only do I love the cheers you get when you adopt a word, I love that the words that come up as choices for adoption are often words that are brand new to me.

5. The same professor also regularly checks her horoscope on the most unique horoscope site I have ever seen. Love it!

2. Generally speaking, anytime someone tells me they’re “into” music, I make a mental note to avoid discussing any subject remotely close to music within ten feet of that person. People who are “into” music have a tendency to ask you what kind of music you like, then immediately judge you for it. They are the people who, when you say “Oh, my gosh, I heard the funniest thing on the radio this morning” cut you off with a “I don’t listen to the RADIO” in the most amazingly snobby tone of voice, and who spend all their free time at open mike nights and concerts in venues the size of my bathroom. I am NOT into music; I LIKE music. As in, all kinds of music, including the ridiculously overplayed songs on the radio, and show tunes, and random finds that people tell me about. And I have a tendency to REALLY like a handful of songs at a time. I will get obsessed with them, and drive around for a week straight, playing that handful over and over again. I am sure it would irritate the shit out of anyone who had to drive around with me for an extended period of time, but my ears are perfectly happy under this MO. This week, the five songs I am obsessed with are:

• Maybe — Ingrid Michaelson
• Half of My Heart — John Mayer and Taylor Swift
• Magic — Rabbit
• My First Kiss — 3oh3! and Ke$sha
• Hands Clean — Alanis Morrisette

3. Rabbit I discovered through the wonders of the Interweb. What I love about reading blogs is that they link to other blogs that link to other blogs… I have told many of you about dooce.com, one of my all time favorites. Earlier this week, she linked to a blog called Pacing the Panic Room, which is really rather amazing in the many things it does — but the thing I loved most about the blog, which is written by a freelance writer/photographer, was the gorgeous maternity series of photographs he took of his wife, Cole, while she was pregnant with their daughter. What does this have to do with Rabbit — well, he also took the pictures and turned them into an adorable stop-motion movie as a gift to Cole after the baby was born. That movie was set to “Magic” by Rabbit. And I even though I am generally adverse to the pregnancy epidemic someone my age cannot but help be exposed to, I have to admit to being completely charmed by both the photographs and the movie. What a rather amazing thing for a husband to do for the mother of his child.

4. Speaking of photographs, I am not the least bit ashamed to admit I am fully enmeshed in the brand new season of America’s Next Top Model. I am completely honest when I say I am in it for the photography — I am fascinated by the way they take these often very odd-looking girls and turn them into stunning pictures — and merely tolerate the drama that is produced in between. That said: this week’s episode earned HUGE points for Tyra in my book. Who did Miss Banks eliminate first from the competition? The 110-pound girl whose ribs, spine, and collarbone were the features she was most proud of. The fact that she was a total bitch is just icing on the cake. I cannot even tell you how happy it made me to see a girl eliminated for being too thin. Bye bye, Anna Maria.

4. Finally, apropos of nothing, I will share the interesting little tidbit that Transformers 3 is currently filming on campus, and Patrick Dempsey is officially a short walk from my office. My friend James also saw Hugh Jackman, in town for another film, walking around Birmingham yesterday. I have a really hard time intellectualizing this. I think it’s like when you were little, and you saw your teacher out at the grocery store. You just can’t wrap your head around that person being in a different part of your environment. This is like the fourth or fifth film crew to use Meadow Brook Hall in the last two years, so I guess I should be getting used to it, but yeah, no. Still think it’s crazy.

2. I am so excited about the class I am currently taking, Foundations of Media Art. We have only met twice, but already I have learned something I have always, always, always wanted to know: how to seamlessly cut out a part of a photograph and integrate it into another. As in, I can now create a lovely couple’s portrait of A.F. and Brian Elias, the founder of Hanson’s Windows. We ran into him at the mall a couple weeks back only to discover the man is a total guido, but I have relished developing his random glance at A. into a full-blown romantic relationship. They are friends on Facebook now. And “Brian” has been sending A. love notes through interoffice mail. Wait till she sees the picture of them together in Paris. Or maybe Hawaii. I haven’t decided yet.

3. The class I am co-teaching with A. starts on Monday, finally. Labor Day set us off a week, and I am really looking forward to meeting this year’s crop of students. A lot of my excitement stems from last year’s successful experience. M.B. and I were visited earlier this week by one of our former students who, it turns out, spent the winter and summer semesters turning into this absolutely INCREDIBLE man. He interned with the secret service over the summer, and will be doing basic training with the Coast Guard in May. I see him and just want to squeeze the living daylights out of him while simultaneously telling him all kinds of cheesy things about how proud of him I am. For someone who was a total smart ass that I had to pull aside and reign in more than once last year, he’s doing pretty damn well. It is so gratifying to see him use his powers for good and not evil.

4. I think I keep forgetting to mention here that I recently found out that I will be going to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London — a trip that I am pairing with a week in Ireland with my friend from France. To say that I am excited would not even begin to cover the urges I have been having to bounce up and down in my seat. I have wanted to go to Ireland my entire life… and the OLYMPICS — OMG. And I love London. Love, love, love. I could not be more delighted. No, really. It is not possible.

5. I have been whining about the inevitable onset of winter for weeks, but this week I remembered one of the truly delicious things about the colder weather: turning my bed on before I get in it. Last year, my therapist convinced me I needed to buy an electric mattress pad, and it was seriously one of the smartest fifty dollars I have ever spent. Twenty minutes before bed, I turn it on high, and when I slip between the sheets, it is like crawling into a warm cocoon. HEAVEN. Do you have one? Why not? Go get one. Right now.  I mean it. You will thank me.

But my point in bringing this up: I had been feeling pretty nostalgic all weekend, and I had a moment, after settling in on Saturday, when I looked up and cast my eyes around the establishment only to realize just how many times I had been there. How many people I had shared tea with there. How many boyfriends I had sat across from there. How much gossip had been exchanged, how many secrets revealed, arguments delicately hashed out and settled, birthday presents given, books reviewed. And even though someone might argue that this particular Caribou has no personality or identifying characteristics that make it special from the other skillion Caribous in the world, for me, this one is pretty special. I have grown up here. And I will continue to let people watch me type here, SISTER.

2. My friend L.S. takes SUCH good care of me and my Internet interests. Whenever she sees something she thinks I will like, she sends it along — and her recommendations are always spot on; every single link she sends me goes straight into my bookmarks. I am particularly thrilled with her most recent offering. It was a link to Flashlight Worthy Books, a site that compiles lists of good reads according to compelling and unusual topics. Some of the topics I immediately jumped on:

• The Top Ten Most Influential Fictional Characters
• Odes to Dead Spouses
• 11 Long-Neglected Candidates for Adventurous Book Clubs

I don’t think I will ever be stuck on what to read next again. This site has a list for every mood. Thanks so much, L.! You are the best.

3. I started my new class last night, the third one in this latest degree, but not without considerable pouting on my part. It isn’t that I MIND going to school, obviously, since I am taking this series of classes entirely for my own edification and nothing else — but god, I hate night classes. I haven’t had to keep this kind of schedule since I finished grad school, and I forgot how miserable it can be waking up at 5 a.m. only to remember you won’t be returning to the house until at least 10:30 p.m. It is just a long day. But I really should savor the last lingering opportunities to be walking around campus without eighty layers of clothing. And last night, I noticed they installed the rumored hammocks that I have been hearing about around the edge of the lake. I am sorely tempted to plop myself in one for a few minutes of warm summer night before heading home.

4. And, actually, my class was quite enjoyable once I got there. I love my professor, despite the fact his facial expressions are reminiscent of Exhibit R (that alone should make me feel like class is a waste of an evening, since the long hours I spent listening to R certainly were — but the professor surmounts the association with crazy, animated gestures and truly interesting information).

Here is the trouble, though: generally speaking, I always find at least one person to hate within the first ten minutes of class. On the rare occasion, I grow to tolerate this marked person over the course of the semester — but more typically, they continue to make my insides clench every single time they speak. I have always thought this a fascinating phenomenon, this instant dislike of someone I don’t even know. I speculated on this in an earlier post when I learned about Malcolm Gladwell’s theory of “thin slicing.” I have also always loved the explanation the K.F. once gave me as we waxed philosophical poolside at our summer job, watching condominium owners trail in and out with their towels and trashy novels: that people’s spirits recognize one another for exactly what they are before their brains do, and make that instant judgement for us.

This semester is no different, and I already have a classmate I would like to punch in the face. In this case, though, the cause is no mystery. During introductions, she announced, “I am a sophomore, and I am a really good photographer.” She then proceeded to take no notes and pay no heed to the portion of the lecture directed at obtaining good images for what we will be doing in Photoshop next week. Um, hi. You are 19. People who are 19 are not really good at anything, short of being egocentric and spending their parents’ money. And even if you are so good, my dear — which remains to be seen, since you couldn’t answer a single question about the “awesome” camera you already have  (“I have a Nikon… I forget which one — one of the really expensive, really good ones”) — you might want to take a moment and recognize that our professor has been taking incredible photographs and creating astounding art since THE SEVENTIES. TWENTY YEARS BEFORE YOU WERE BORN.

5. But, there are always things to make us smile, even when we are annoyed to the core of our being. Like a new site M.B. shared with us the other day, called Hungover Owls. It took me a couple of visits for this site to truly sink in and delight me, but now I see it for the gem it truly is. Especially this post. Which is how we feel here in our department just about every morning, even sans alcohol.

It was then that I realized that in a pinch, a dose of Advil Cold and Sinus will work just as well as a shot of Vodka for easing the troubles of the day.

But I am almost all better now, short of the cough that makes me sound like an eighty-year-old-smoker, so let’s catch up.

1. I absolutely adore this recent post from Hyperbole and a Half specifically for it’s portrayal of Allie’s reaction to watching a horror movie. I do that to myself ALL the TIME — convince myself it is a fantastic idea to watch a horror movie, than regret it exponentially for the next ten years.

2. I learned about this place, a rental home called The Poet’s Loft, on another blog I love, and am now totally obsessed with the idea of spending a week there. Or maybe the rest of my life. Because I am pretty sure I could do that, with very little convincing.

3. And I randomly found this recipe on a new recipe blog I accidentally discovered, and am now SO excited to try it. LASAGNA CUPCAKES. GENIUS!

4. I devoured this book in less than 24 hours, just as I knew I would, and just as you should, too. I know I have mentioned this series in my posts before, but seriously: if you have not read it yet — WHY? WHY ARE YOU DEPRIVING YOURSELF???

5. I have been denying the inevitable onset of fall not because I dislike fall (I love it, actually), but because I so heartily dislike what comes after it. But yesterday, when I woke up and felt the cooler air coming through the window, I was finally sold on the idea that the end of summer can’t be all bad. I impulsively slapped on sunscreen and headed out to the lake to spend the next three hours drifting around on the water and under the tree branches that are now starting to turn. I realized while lying in bed last night that I had totally forgotten about my three-month check in with the psychiatrist — but I think few would argue that the fresh air was far more effective than any anxiety meds could ever be, anyway.

*sniff*

*hack*