Wow

The trailer for Juno looks SO good.

Nice Work If You Can Get It

Back in Memorial in my preferred study carrel. Someday I'm going to show up here and it will be occupied, which will really annoy me. I'm chugging along with Festa; while I suspect much of what I dashed off today will need revision to A) line up properly with my thesis and B) avoid constantly repeating itself, I feel like I've finally broken through with this paper. I know what I'm trying to say, and I really do see the text doing the things I am claiming it does. By the time I finish with the bathhouse scene I'll easily have ten pages; after I read the scene where she puts on the costume I'll be at twelve. I'll probably pause there and do a bunch of editing before choosing which scene to finish it off with.

Man this entry is boring reading. I had something specific to write but it's gone. Today's been good; I went to the gym first thing, and while I can tell I'm getting a bit bored, I still got a good workout in. Then I came here and have been here ever since...about 5 hours. I'm hoping to stay three more, see where I'm at and then go home for dinner. There's been talk of seeing a movie, which appeals to me, but if not I'll do work-study things and go to bed early. I'm thinking of trying to come in to campus before the snow starts (which is looking like around 9) for a full day cocooned up here, but then A) I have to get home somehow in 6 inches of ice and snow and B)...I guess just A. I don't want to stay at home though, and I definitely don't want to be in Thieves all day. We'll see, I guess. Probably I will come in and just cross my fingers.

Today's been good for other reasons too. I love my sister lots, which is good, and I'm still glowing happily from the fun I had last night. And an (admittedly ridiculous) anxiety I've been nursing for a week now has been more or less put to rest, which is always nice.

Alright, back to explaining why Lady Mary creepily wishes that there was an invisible Englishman inside the bathhouse leering at naked women. Peace.

'Tis the Season

I said "Merry Christmas" for the first time this year today, to the woman ringing the bell outside the State Street Walgreen's. I love Christmas...even if I'm too swamped to revel in it, it's a comforting backdrop to all the insanity.

Today went well, despite my feeling like shit for most of it. I holed up in Memorial for nearly 8 hours, and while I didn't quite make my goal of having three pages of Festa finished before quitting, falling short by half a page, I did come up with a functional (if not yet quite perfect) picture of how the paper will look. I did a ton of freewriting, read a few helpful articles and outlined through probably page 9 quite thoroughly. Now I will go home, eat, and work on work study crap. And maybe skim that book for 723.

I think I can do this. If my meeting with Lynn goes well tomorrow I bet I can finish a full-length draft of this by Sunday night, Monday at the latest. And that would be awesome.

Alright, home. This stomach needs some food.

Binary Solo!

So. Oxford.

Tom stole my idea for the entry, which I'm a bit annoyed at, but whatever. I was GOING to list off all the top inside jokes from the week, but he beat me to it, although he neglected to mention our repeated use of Sim slang ("Flama-Jama! Fablee!"), although he did hit on the fact that we played about 6 hours of Sims II my last night in Oxford. That's so us. Two drinks at a pub and then hours and hours of computer-generated life in a house with Basshunter as a roommate.

And though Tom mentioned this as well, it bears repeating. The number-one joke of the week was started by our very own Jim Whitehead, referring to the mailboxes everyone has at Oxford, which are called pigeonholes, typically shortened to "pidge." This leads to all sorts of slang expressions, such as "just put it in my pidge," "I'll pidge it to you," etc. Jim pointed out that this sounds vaguely dirty, and so for the rest of the week we used the word as a "nonspecific sexual euphamism." In every other sentence. I think other people stopped finding this humerous quickly, but it kept up full steam as far as we were concerned. (I pointed out early on that while I may not have a pidge over here in Madison, I do have a box.)

Other notable quotes which I wrote in the back of my journal:

"One if by land, two if by sea, three if my formal hall." - Jim, in reference to...something. I forget.

"I like how comfortable you are handling birds." - Tom on Ed's prowess with our roast duck

"Does he ask you to wear wool sweaters in bed?" - Tom to Jamie, on Ed's affinity for sheep

"Dude, if virgin's tears had magical powers I'd have cried a lot more when I was young." - Tom, on the Munchkin card "Virgin's Tears"

"You're cleaning." "What? I'm supposed to be fucking!" - Jamie and I, concerning the behavior of my character in the Sims

It was a great trip. Our Thanksgiving meal was AMAZING, although I missed stuffing. The ham turned out delicious, and I think we did a good job showing our British, Indian and South African guests why America has such a fat reputation. I ate until I almost exploded, then took a walk around Worcester in the freezing cold, then ate two slices of cheesecake. Even posting about this is making me hungry. We played a bunch of Munchkin afterwards and listened to Tom's eclectic music collection, which took me back in time with pretty much every song. Really, the trip was just relaxing in the extreme. I got to do everything I wanted to do: leave Madison for somewhere totally different, spend a lot of time with my friends, eat a lot, drink a lot (which arguably I did a bit too much of, when all is said and done), and not worry about school. I had adventures, I have some fun stories, and I was reminded of how lucky I have been in friends. And I have a ton of candy for the stockings, so everybody wins!

Also, general shoutout to Hertford. I love pretty much everyone I've ever met in that college, and this trip's new faces were no exception. Everyone was so cool and friendly (and crazy), and made me feel like I fit right in. Jamie's lucky to have done so well, and I'm glad to know she's at the helm of a ship that deserves her.

I'm 16, Driving South From Baltimore

So I will write up the rest of my Oxford adventures soon (hopefully later today). This morning I woke up feeling a bit disoriented and a bit sad, both because I am incredibly behind and because I'm not with Jamie and Tom anymore. I lay in bed for a good four snooze cylces, drifting off and repeatedly expecting to wake up in Ed's room, with the sun shining in off Catte Street. But when I got up I was in my own messy, exploded-suitcases, things-I-need-to-read-immedietly-all-over room in Madison.

But then I got up and made my to-do list, and realized that despite the hell that is December, I'm glad to be home. And then I put on "Boten Anna" and realized that Jamie and Tom are always going to be my best friends and the 6 month interlude will only make the June tour that much more exciting.

Hon Heter Anna, Anna Heter Hon

Well, it's Thanksgiving in Oxford.

We're celebrating a day late because last night was the St Hugh's exchange, which I ended up going to with Jim, Jamie and everyone else (except Tom, who had practice) since there were some extra seats. It turned out to be fantastic, actually...the food was quite decent, the wine was both free and free-flowing, and afterwards we got a bit insane in their bar, followed by insanity in the Hertford bar and the Octagon. Typical Oxford. It was pretty clutch...all night we wanted to steal something from St Hugh's but everything was quite literally nailed down, so in the end James stole a huge drum of water and we ran away giggling. David dared me to smash a glass on a tombstone but I chickened out, and several dark Pangos were consumed. Pictures will be forthcoming.

Today we watched FotC in the morning and then had Moo-Moos for lunch. Moo-Moos is so, so delicious. We did a Sainsys run after that, and now I'm in Jim's living room typing away. I guess 11 people are coming tonight, which is awesome. We couldn't find a turkey that would fit in Jim's oven, so instead we're having a five kilo ham. Aww yeah baby.

Also, everyone should watch the Youtube video for Botten Anna by Basshunter. It's been the source of many inside jokes this week and is generally amusing.

I love Oxford.

Holy Cherry Paneling, Batman!

Tom's gym is the poshest I have ever seen in my life.

Merrye Olde Englande!

I'm here!

After a whirlwind 24 hours in Chicago with Maeve (who is amazing and the best hostess ever and I love her), I climbed onto my nonstop Virgin Atlantic flight and promptly fell asleep. When I woke up I was hovering over England. I got through customs in record time, caught the 9:50 bus and was in Oxford at a miraculous 11:15. Tom was the first person I saw; we were very affectionate, huggy and un-British in greeting each other. Jamie soon followed, and we met Jim and Ed for lunch at a twisty little Polish-run deli for lunch, right next to the (inexplicably open) covered market.

Everyone looks great. I have missed them so much. But again...with Jamie and Tom, whenever we finally get together, it's not overwhelming and exciting. It's just natural. It feels like an inevitability, like comfort. This is compounded by the fact that Oxford feels pretty natural to me at this point as well. Today, for example, after eating, we just sat around in Jamie's prsidential pad (verdict: pretty sweet but incredibly cold) and played a Magic-esque game called Munchkins, which is really fun. Now I'm huddled in a fleece watching Tom do his linguistics homework, staring out the window towards Broad Street. We're going to Formal Hall at Worcester tonight with Jim, then more Munchkins over wine.

I have missed my friends so much. Being here is great. It brings back so many good memories...of Oxford last year and of all the crazy shit I've gotten up to with these two.

Yay vacations!

Baby Steps, Baby Steps...

So I am writing my presentation for Comp, and I am now writing a discussion prompt about his claim that "reason vs madness" is one of the three external limiting factors of discourse. And I was thinking about how fun (seriously) I found that passage because madness is such an interesting topic to come across in a theoretical article, and how neat the few passages I read last month from "Madness and Civilization" were. And then I actually felt a strong desire to read the whole book over Christmas break.

*That's* a first.

Almost ready to depart on Friday. Got to buy a bus ticket and pack, and remember to bring my hairdryer home from the gym. But otherwise...I'm ready. This trip is going to be fantastic. I can't wait to see the new bar in the Waugh room, or just to see T&J's faces. I know everyone is sick of hearing me gush about this trip, but the fact is, if Jamie and Tom were both at school in like, Alabama, I'd still be gushing about going to visit. Oxford's just the icing on the cake.

And my MBD paper is coming along great! Life's not so bad. Even if Bakhtin does make my brain hurt.

And You Can Wake Up Younger Under the Knife

Today was a good day. I worked out, I read Foucault and mostly kind of understood it, or at least felt okay about it, I went to a basketball game, I actually used my newfound understanding of Foucault in a conversation (so sad the things that excite me), and I am eating SunChips.

And I go to Oxford in less than a week.

Really Random

So...you know how there are those songs, the ones you associate really strongly with events or phases in your life? For you, that song *is* that moment.

I just found out, via the magic of the internet and coincidence, that a song I heard for the first time in 2004 and indelibly associate with part of that summer, was released in 1991.

I know that doesn't seem like it should be weird, but...but it is. It really is. Memory can betray you, things often feel like things they're not, everything looks different when you look back.

It's made even more significant by the fact that it's a song I found again this summer after losing it for two years. But that's another story. And I've been sufficiently weird for now.

Welcome to the Good Life

Check the use of irony!

Actually, life's ok. Yesterday was a great day. I met with Melody and got ideas for the presentation Monday, I read for Lynn's class, and I took a nap. That alone makes it an ok day, but afterwards I actually did fun things! Marshelle and I went to the mall, where we both bought coats; I actually bought two coats. I love them both, and they were both pretty cheap. After that we picked up Renee and went to Marshelle's house, where her roommate was hosting a candle/dinner/sex toy/Halloween party. Needless to say it was incredibly diverting. I ate lots of mini Three Muskateers, drank numerous glasses of wine and appear to have committed to hosting one of the above categories of party with Renee in February...I'll leave it to the intrepid reader to, knowing me (and Renee, come to think of it), to guess which one it is. Themed food will be served!

After the party we went back to my house and did our usual...talked, drank a bit more, watched TV, crashed. I love that Marshelle and Renee sleep over pretty much every weekend...it makes me happy. This morning Renee and I went to the farmer's market for the last time until spring, then I hit the gym, and now I am in Memorial doing work of all shapes and sizes.

I'm pretty excited for my vacations. As they creep closer they begin to come into focus, and it keeps me going on the days when I want to cry pretty much every second. The text messages I received at midnight last night don't hurt, either.

Ok, time to formulate some kind of idea for my comp proposal, then maybe take a break to regroup at home before starting the evening shift.

Your Mother Told You There'd Be Days Like These

aka, days that totally blow.

I'd say something along the lines of "thank goodness it's the weekend," but it's hardly a change anymore. Apart from the little shindig at Marshelle's, all it means is that class won't get in the way of my work.

At least I'm eating a sundae cup though! That's worth something.