Huh...

Friday I went out for the first time in a while with a few friends from the department. Sat outside Trinity Pub for a couple hours drinking, eating, and generally enjoying the "chilly" Texas weather (well, one of us was not drinking as he was observing a religious holiday).
Word of the bike theft had gotten around the department, and my Turkish friend who was there offered his condolences. These were sadly the only words of comfort that actually made me feel a bit better. Or maybe it was the beer and the burger... anyway, here's the story he told me.

"One of our classmate's, his second year, moved to a second floor apartment in the village. His bikes were stolen too. Three separate times. He'd buy one, leave it out on the second floor porch, and when he'd come back, or wake up after sleeping, it'd be gone. The third time though, he was with a couple friends and this guy jumps up grasping onto the fence of the second floor balcony and climbs over it, and starts looking through the bedroom window. Then he grabs the bike. Well, our classmate taps on the glass (from the living room window which opens up out onto the balcony) and asks him, 'what are you doing?' The guy turns around, looks very surprised, and then says he only wants some food. He asks them to unlock the sliding window so he can come in. Our classmate pulls out his cell to call the police, and then the guy grabs the bike, throws it from the second floor, climbs back down and rides off on the bike. It happens a lot. Don't feel so bad. At least it didn't happen three times."

Note to self... be really sure the door out to the porch is locked all the frikkin time.

In other news: still working on the MA paper, the presentation, and grad school applications. Not much else is new.