COCKTA!

Word.

Two things I felt I should post about really quickly, that will probably eventually become much more than two.

Firstly, I talked on the way home from Northwestern today. Not to myself, though that wouldn't be entirely out of place on the El at certain times during the day. This was not one of those times, and as I'm generally one to try not to convince people I've become completely unbalanced until I at least get to know them, I wasn't screaming nonsense. Instead, in a somewhat strange sort of events, the man across the aisle started talking to me. I perhaps looked talkative, as I'd just been talking to another first year grad student, and after kicking me on the way by he mentioned something about Kip Wells, presumably brought on by the fact that I was somewhat out of place wearing a Pirates hat in what is very firmly Cubs territory. After talking about the ballparks of the Bucs, the Cubs, and the White Sox (the entire discussion amounted to "PNC is nice, and it's too bad the Pirates can't play up to the level of their surroundings, Wrigley is quaint but uncomfortable and the guy who decided to face the outfield of Comiskey (U.S. Cellular) toward the projects rather than the Chicago skyline was a moron"), he started on about psychology. That is, evidently he writes books which deal with the subject in an accessible manner and occasionally for children. After mentioning what the hell I was doing in Chicago, he proceeded to get out a little notepad and write some things down. I have no idea what per se, but I tried not to let it bother me.

This constitutes my first experience talking at length and about our respective philosophies toward working to someone completely random in this city.

Secondly, I've just finished my first Cockta, which, for those of you that haven't seen empty bottles of it strewn around a back alley near you, is a Slovenian soft drink which is evidently infused with herbs (but not, sadly, caffeine) and tastes like a sort of syrupy coke with a bit of an herby aftertaste. It's actually quite good. Very elusive as to what on earth it tastes like until you read the advertisement, which gives away the orangey-herbal thing. Evidently, I could have bought this and waited a year to drink it, or more likely, it could have waited in the stockroom of the grocery store for a long time and then found its way into my apartment when I got sufficently curious. I'm not sure why it's called "Cockta", and it brought on a fear that I'd slip and hit the enter key 2/3 of the way through the name while typing it in to google, which would lead to a much different set of results, presumably.

I still don't know the results of my proficiency exams. :(

Update: Went to get my results after getting notification that they were ready. Spent 45 minutes in the public transportation system, ten of which was spent on a platform hoping that the Purple Line to Linden would eventually show. It did. And I am proficient in all areas. Which is a relief, because I haven't had Inorganic in three years, and I've never had Kinetics.

Yay.