Meeting Pumba, Visitors, and Chicago!

So, it's been a while since my last blog post. I'll start with the most important story of the past week. When I was in Connecticut with Andrew and Jessie, we went to a brunch place about twenty minutes away to meet up with a friend of Jessie's. When we got there, there was a significant wait, so we put our names in and hung out by the door. As we were waiting, an older gentleman with really hip glasses walked in to the restaurant. I immediately thought, "Hey, that guy looks like the guy who is the voice of The Lion King's Pubma." Now, this raises a good question. How did I know what the guy who voiced Pumba look like? I really have no idea, but I must have seen a video on the making of The Lion King or  something. So, as I was thinking, I turned to Jessie and said something like, "Doesn't that look like the guy...", and before I finished my sentence, she stated emphatically, "It is!"

However, I was not easily swayed. What would the very voice of Pumba himself (not to mention the owner of the beach resort, Leon Carosi in those summer special episodes of Saved by the Bell) be doing at this out-of-the-way brunch place in Nowhere, Connecticut? So, we're debating while we're being seated, and Jessie finally has it confirmed by one of the long-time waiters that it was in fact Ernie Sabella, the voice of Pumba.

So, we're obviously googling and IMDBing, seeing what else he has been featured in (who knew there was that many Timon and Pumba spin offs?) and trying to figure out how we could talk to him. So, when he was passing, Jessie called out, "I love you, sir!" He put his hands on her shoulders and said in his Pumba voice, "Hakuna Matata!" shuffled a few more steps, and turned again, exclaiming, "It means no worries!"Obviously, we were enraptured by this turn of events. Since it was a brunch place, I thought breaking into this song would be especially appropriate:



 So, that may have been the highlight of my post-Thanksgiving weekend.

After a great weekend in Connecticut, Andrew and Jessie came up to Boston and spent some time up here sightseeing (by sightseeing, I mean they saw the sights while I was in class and then we ate our way through different parts of Boston). I didn't realize how starved I was for people that have known me longer than three months. Whenever I felt that way before (what some call "loneliness"), I decided it meant I needed to read some more books or write a paper. So, I decided to go down to Connecticut Thursday-Saturday again. I feel like this is my reward for getting the lion's share (no Pumba-related pun intended) of my work done before the end of the semester.

Speaking of papers, I am consistent in one part of my paperwriting: when I am finished, I've at least made one consistent mistake in every citation throughout my footnotes. This time, it was putting the last name first (like you should do in the bibliography) throughout the footnotes - rookie mistake. So, I'll get to spend some fun time reformatting my paper. I guess it's lucky that I'm so details-oriented (sarcasm intended). Hopefully, this won't one day be the source of my academic undoing.

Anyway, 18 days until I am in Chicago! I'm already scheduling who to see at which restaurant, so it's going to be a great way to gain 20 pounds amongst friends. Well, class is about to start, so I should get going. Happy (soon to be) Advent! (not that I'm excited about that!)