There's no Friday Five this week -- AGAIN -- so I stole a Friday Five from Lisa who stole it from some other girl.

1. What's that noise?
It's the noise of the computer running. All's quiet in the grad office today.

2. What most recently worried you or aggravated you?
I'm always worried that I'm not up to snuff here. I guess I've been writing about that a lot. Thankfully this week changed that. Think of this week as an upper after a few weeks of downers. Uppers are always good. Knock on wood.
Also, I have a big zit on my face and I wish it would go away. Be gone, big zit! Thank god for MAC green cover-up!

3. Name something you did recently despite being warned not to ... Was it a success?
My Mom said never to put anything smaller than my elbow in my ear. I put Q-tips in each day and it's always a success.

4. Discuss the shirt you are wearing?
I'm wearing a black t-shirt I got from the Gap. I got it on sale last week and was thinking about returning it until today...when I realized everything else light and short-sleeved was desperately in need of being washed. Hello black shirt. I guess you and me were meant to be. (yes, I know that's bad grammar, but it rhymes!!!)

5. Who last came to your house (other than someone who lives there) and what was their quest? Ann came buy to get readings -- Spivak, Bharucha, Said and more of our postcolonial friends. I was embarrassed because the apartment was messy. Note: she came by last Sunday and I had a Greek test on Monday so I had an excuse!!!

In store for this weekend. Papers, writing a lecture, auditions, movies for class, and movies not for class.

For me, Easter involved too much Homer (I was studying for a test), a fabulous movie called Cruising -- definitely worth seeing with a large group of people so you can laugh at the ridiculous parts, Peeps, and M&M's. Thankfully, it did not involve any puking. Why am I so concerned with puking? Well, on Thursday Mike got the flu -- the really bad flu. It lasted 24 hours, but it was really frightening. We were waiting for the other shoe to drop, but so far I've been lucky. Maybe I should purchase a lottery ticket.

By the way, do not, repeat, do not see "The Secret Lives of Dentists." It was worse than Pumpkin. No really, it was. Terrible. The only redeeming part (slightly, minimally) was when Hope Davis gets kicked...but that only lasts a few seconds. It's not that I even have anything against Hope Davis; it's just that the movie was sooooooooooooooo bad.

Yay for Friday Five!!!

1. What do you do for a living?
I'm a grad student! Next year I'll be teaching. This means that I read all the time. Now you may think, well, she read all the time when she was at KU. Nope, there I read a lot. Here I read a lot more.


2. What do you like most about your job?
I like being able to make my own hours and do my own research -- and hopefully I'll get to do a production this summer!


3. What do you like least about your job?
It never ends. No really, never. Still after working two years as a legal secretary (not to mention many full-time summers), I realized it was a better fit for me than any normal job.

4. When you have a bad day at work it's usually because _____...
I said something really stupid in class or made a mess of my translation -- or had some kind of rejection for something. Generally it has to do with feeling I don't belong here. From what I understand most (if not all) grad students have this anxiety. Still, that doesn't make it better when I'm in the middle of it.

5. What other career(s) are you interested in?
Sometimes I like to think about being a movie or theatre actress, but I remind myself that I would have to do a lot of toothbrush commercials along the way. Obviously some day I would like to be a professor, but of course, I will have to wait and see if that happens. I also wouldn't mind a stint as a stay-at-home Mom. Just a stint I warn you -- like a year!!! I'm all for stay-at-home moms if that's what they want to do, but I think that after a year I would begin to go nutty.

How 'bout them Red Sox? Oh, I love it when my boys come back! Is there anything better than a game of skill and strategy with hot men in tight uniforms? I think not! Hopefully Manny will cheer up this season. He used to be my favorite player, but every year he seems to get moodier.

Hmmm...as for my life, not much interesting is going on. Mike will be going to his house for Easter, but I will stay behind to do some studying. I have a "quiz" in Greek that's probably going to take up most of my weekend. Last weekend was OK, but I felt like doing nothing because I hadn't really recovered from Spring Break. Also, that whole spring forward thing really got me down. Who wants to get up an hour earlier? Blah, not me!

As far as movies go, I saw Bubba Hotep last weekend. I recommend it to anyone and everyone -- especially those interested in Bruce Campbell. He makes a helluva Elvis. I also watched X-men 2 again and I have to admit that I enjoy Hugh Jackman more and more each time. Does this mean I'm getting old?

All I have to say is that if only the person who does the friday five would not be so lazy, neither would I. If there were a friday five this week, you could count on me answering the silly questions and therefore blogging. But alas, when I see there are no questions for this week, I am sorely disappointed. So disappointed that I give up the thought of writing in my blog altogether and go home to watch some extras on the X2 dvd.

This week started off as blah. I came to the decision that Spring Break definitely needs to be two weeks long...especially if one gets sick at all during it. No but really, I needed two weeks of break and didn't get it, so I spen the week coming back being miserable and cranky. OK, I also had PMS.

Then on Thursday, we had a prospective graduate student visit. That was loads of fun. We spent 3 and 1/2 hours out to dinner with him and laughed racously during almost all of it. He also got all the dirt, so he better come here or we'll be embarrassed.

In othere news, I'm reading "The People's History of the United States" for my subversive writing class right now. Yes, it's long, but so far it's good and definitely a recommended read. I wonder if I'll be placed on some sort of right-wing blacklist for saying that. Ah, well...I'm probably already on there for my liberal viewpoints. Hello list, it's just me again, no need to double-list me.

I have a midterm tomorrow in The Art of Subversive Writing so of course that means that I have to do something silly and stupid online....like take a Quizilla quiz.

You are CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL. She is a rad
chick with absolutely no fashion sense. If you
are a guy and chose this... you are gay.


Which old school Nickelodeon show are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
That's totally true. If I were an old school Nickelodeon show, I think I would be Clarissa Explains It All. Actually, some of the other answers are shows I never saw. I was expecting "You Can't Do that on Television" or "Double Dare" but I guess the Quiz isn't that old school.
Damn, I'm old.

Throwing up pancakes in San Francisco.

Yes, I did this because I got a terrible migraine during a play at the Magic Theatre. Actually, it was David Mamet's Dr. Faustus -- directed by David Mamet and you know what? It wasn't that good....not just because I had the migraine. But after that is when the pancakes left me...thankfully not during. It's a shame too; they were tasty pancakes.

Otherwise the trip was fantastic. Siggy got married at this winery on top of a mountain. It was simply beautiful. The weather was just warm enough and I got to dance with Hartmut. What could be better? Then, after that Mike and I spent a little time in SF the next day. That was the pancake day though so it wasn't so good. We then drove to Half Moon Bay to stay in a B&B with owners that were a little weird. Nonetheless, the B&B was gorgeous and I think I slept on the most comfortable mattress ever. The next day was Mike's birthday. We drove to Butano state park and went for a walk in the woods. We saw a cute bunny and many banana slugs, but no mountain lions -- which I guess is a good thing. After that we went to Ano Nuevo and saw seals in their natural habitat. That was a lot of fun. Coincidentally, we met up with Siggy's new in-laws there. Que casualidad. El mundo es un panuelo.

That's about all the news I have here. Hopefully, we will see the Ladykillers tonight. Now it's time for a Friday Five from the past.

1. Do you have a car? If so, what kind of car is it?
We have a Subaru Impreza Outback Sport station wagon. We like the AWD.

2. Do you drive very often?
Approximately once or twice a week.

3. What's your dream car?
Damn. I guess my dream car is any car I can get for free that I can sell to spend the money on something decent. But if I had to have a car, it would be one with butwarmers.

4. Have you ever received a ticket?
I refuse to answer this question because I fear it will jinx me.

5. Have you ever been in an accident?
I got into an accident with Jackie Bradford. We spun and spun. That was scary.

Hello my loves. Yes, it's been a bit since I've posted, but what can I say? It's the week before spring break and everyone likes to pile things up before we leave. Yikes, I have a lot to do, but on Friday I'll be flying to Cali for Siggy's wedding and for a couple day vacation. Then I'll be back in good old Ithaca. Maybe by that time it will have stopped snowing.

I forgot to mention that in high school we used to refer to the Turn of the Screw as "Flush of the Toilet" and the "Shit of the Cow." I admit that I may have been wrong about the book back then, but I will have to report on that after this weekend.

Here we go again with the Friday Five. Incidentally, this one is apparently recycled from last year. Friday Five person must be pretty damn busy these days!

1. What was the last song you heard?
I believe it was R. Kelly "Snake." I always listen to hip hop music at the gym and I believe "Snake" was the last song I worked out to. Though, if I count hearing myself sing, it was probably "Why do I love you?" from Showboat.


2. What were the last two movies you saw?
Ummm...that's hard to say. I watched the end of Dr. Strangelove today and Mike and I have been watching parts of Buckaroo Bonzai. But as for movies in totale, that would be Belle du Jour and Sick.

3. What were the last three things you purchased?
Four packs of index cards.
Decaf Mochas, cookies and bagels at Collegetown Bagels.
The film A.I.
I'm also going to include a 4th thing -- a damn non-working cordless phone for Best Buy that Best Buy better take back!!!

4. What four things do you need to do this weekend?
Take that stupid phone back to Best Buy. Read the Turn of the Screw (again, because I don't remember any of it from sophomore year in high school and we are discussing it in Cinematic Desire this week). Work on a lecture on Stanislavski and the Group theatre. See a student production/adaptation of Alice in Wonderland at the Schwartz Center. Only four things?

5. Who are the last five people you talked to?
Does voicemail count? Ok, probably not. James Kincaid -- who is part of a Queer Studies conference that I need to go to tomorrow. I picked him up at the airport. Let's see, I also talked to Brian, a fellow grad student, this afternoon. A pharmacist at my prescription coverage company -- she is truly a gem (I'm actually not being sarcastic here). She managed to get my pills off to me with Saturday delivery after Medco mailed it to someone in New Jersey. I hope that something wonderful happens to her! Oh, and a fourth: I suppose that could be anyone of the people in my Homer course.

That's all for now. Adios.

I'm forever impressed by the ads on blogs. Lisa managed to get one for ironing boards. Mine are for movies. Blog ads are just the best. Not much really happened today, but I'm in a blogging every day mood so here I am writing away. I'm trying to decide whether or not I should audition for the Hangar Theatre this summer. I'm tempted, but I'm concerned that might cause me to lose my summer funding. Instead, perhaps I should act in something more lowkey and wait until next year. After all, I'm not super-excited about any of the productions they are doing right now. All the same, I'm simply dying to act and I know I will have to do that or direct this summer!

As for right now, this semester seems to get more busy...yet I'm not quite sure why. Is it is just my laid back attitude? I don't think so. And yet, I know it's only uphill from here (implying a tough climb). Yikes! But I would still rather be working all the time here than 40 hours somewhere else. I often have to remind myself of that when I get a little burnt out.

Ugh...could I be a more disappointing location? Well, I suppose that President's Place Galleria is also pretty bad. This quiz should not be entitled "Which Quincy Location Are You?" but rather "Which Quincy SQUARE Location Are You?" I'm disappointed in it. I think, when I get a chance, I'll develop the quiz the way it should be with the quarries, the horse stable, Marina Bay, Squantum Yacht Club, etc. etc. etc.


The new City Hall: You've got some things to learn;
you're still a bit immature. You chatter easily
and people can see right through you. However,
your good looks will get you somewhere, not to
mention you're a hard worker.


Which Quincy Location Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Well, this was a movie-filled weekend as usual. Three of the four movies that I saw were for my Cinematic Desire class. I enjoy taking classes about film because you watch the film and you feel like you have something accomplished. On Sunday, we screened the two movies of the week for the course -- Sick, a film about the masochist Bob Flanagan and Belle du Jour, a French film from the late 60's/or 70's? about a housewife who gets bored with her husband and decides to be a prostitute. She has some masochist fantasies -- so as you can see, our theme for the week in Cinematic Desire class is masochism. I highly recommend Sick, but I must admit that it is not for the weak stomach. There was no eye stuff in it, so I did not freak out, but had there been I would have. Actually, what bothered me the most in the film was his cystic fibrosis. It was disturbing...to say the least. Ah, Belle du Jour was decent, but it's not really the film you would watch unless you were taking a class on Cinematic Desire. As for the third Desire film, it was "A.I." I'll be writing a paper on that for the class so I decided to watch it again now. I was once again amazed at how many endings there are to the film. When I was watching it, I didn't even remember the correct ending. I thought, oh, it ends with him and the Blue Fairy statue from Coney Island. But oh no! It goes on much longer than that. Yes . . .
And the fourth and final film was Starsky and Hutch. Mike and I went to it on Saturday. I was, of course, impressed with Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller and Snoop Dogg. But I have to admit that the film had a lot of potential that it didn't quite live up to. Still it was worth seeing. So go see it. Do it. Do it. (OK, you'll have to see the film to get that reference so DO IT.)

The Friday Five

What was ...
1. your first grade teacher's name?
Mrs. Barrett. I liked it because it rhymed with Parrot.
2. your favorite Saturday morning cartoon?
Hercules! I loved the family of blondes and their different creatures...especially Gleep and Glop. Yes, those two were also on Spaceghost. My how they were useful in a tight spot. I think I need two of my own.
3. the name of your very first best friend?
Andrew Myers. :^)
4. your favorite breakfast cereal?
I would always long for going to Martha's Vineyard in the summer where I would be allowed to eat sugar cereal for two weeks. I believe my favorite was the Pac Man cereal with the marshmallow pacmen and ghosts.
5. your favorite thing to do after school?
Well, that definitely would have been Diane Purdy's Childrens' Theatre Workshop. Special thanks to you Diane Purdy!!!

After a few days of glorious beautifully weather (above 40, even 50 and sunny) it is now gray, dark and dismal again. Of course it turned this way as soon as I turned my paper in last night. All weekend the outdoors was calling me and I resisted; now it seems better to stay inside.

Mike and I watched part of The Big Lebowski last night. I must say that is yet another movie that gets more and more fabulous every time I watch it. It's just so silly and yet well-crafted. How do those guys do it?

In other news, I had a paper accepted at a conference. Unfortunately I have yet to write this one. I guess that's what I will be doing in June!

There's no Friday five for this week, so I chose one from the past at random:
1. You've just won a complete set of movies starring one actor. Which actor would you pick?
Um...let me think for a moment...oh yeah, that would be Johnny Depp.
2. What was the last movie you saw in a theater?
Laura -- Film Noir -- 1944 (I saw it at Cornell cinema)
As for new movies, the answer would be Return of the King.
3. What was the last video -- or DVD that you bought?
Ah...I bought Buckaroo Bonzai (Believe it!!) for Mike for Valentine's day. He got me The Big Lebowski. And he didn't just wrap it and give it to me. He made me go into the bedroom and turn on the radio. Then he led me out with my eyes shut, spinned me around so I wouldn't know what room I was in, asked me to open my eyes ... and what did I see? The Jesus. It was fabulous.
4. What movie could you watch over and over again and not get sick of?
Ah...there are so many. But I would say that Dr. Strangelove probably tops that list. It just gets better every time. A second might be Rushmore. But like I said, there are MANY!
5. How do you plan to spend your weekend?
Well, we just went out to dinner at Moosewood and then watched Intolerable Cruelty. Otherwise, I plan to spend my weekend working on a book review I have due for a class. I think we'll also watch American Splendor this weekend.

Ciao!

What a silly fool I am. I took my Greek exam and OF COURSE I neglected to put the really easy stuff in the answers. I mean, when I was identifying verbs, I forgot to put whether they were active, middle, or passive. What a dope I am. Oh well, hopefully the professor will recognize my stupidity as sheer blondness and not as stupidity. I mean, I think I got some of the really difficult forms, but forgot to put down the easy stuff connected with that. Doh!

Lisa, I must admit that I've never heard someone characterize the new job experience so well as you did in your notion of the "new job smile." It's just perfect...no, it really is.

Tomorrow I'm going to see a musical called "Baby." One of the grad students, Anne is in it. Though I'm sure her performance will be stellar, I'm a bit concerned that I won't be too into the musical as a whole. Will I have to grit my teeth and say "it's great" or will my fear of the performance cause me to be impressed? Who can say?

Either I'm on the internet too much, or nobody's blogging like they used to. Maybe I need to find a new site to look at. Maybe I need to concentrate on my work.

Tomorrow I have a "quiz" in Homer that incorporates tons of vocabulary. How much you ask? Well, if you stacked up index cards approximately six inches high, you might then be able to guess at the amount of vocab there is. And no, this time, I'm not exaggerating.

I think I need a nap.

Congratulations Lisa and Rich, for two years of Lisa and Rich!

Organic orange juice and a blueberry bagel from Collegetown Bagels. What could be a better breakfast? Well OK, french toast and pancakes with bacon -- perhaps, but who has time to eat that every day?

This weekend I painted the town pink with my friend Meghan on Friday. We had fun going to dinner, spending time in the theatre office looking for jobs and then eating dessert at the finest dessert place in Ithaca: Madeline's. My molten chocolate cake was not as warm as it could have been, but it was still delicious!

On Saturday I spent the better part of the day watching Spartacus. No, I had never seen it before. Of course, I found it fabulous. And finally, I can say I'm a Kubrick fan without having to suffer the embarrassment of answering the "have you seen Spartacus?" question with a "no."

Yesterday I watched Rear Window for my Cinematic Desire class. Watching the film after reading lots of psychoanalytic theory with phalluses (or phallii if you prefer) galore changes the watching of the film a bit. There is a lovely part of the movie where they are all standing around shaking brandy glasses in front of their genitals. I almost died laughing at that part.

In other news, I have a Greek "quiz" on Wednesday. It scares me because we have yet to have a "quiz" and well, it covers a LOT of material from Homer. Oh Homer, why do you have to be so different? Why do you have to have words in forms that exist only in one place and nowhere else?

Hello,
I'm better again...though there are times in the day where I use up three tissues in a row, they are few and far between! It's very exciting. At any rate...I thought I would do the Friday Five to celebrate.

When was the last time you....
1. ...went to the doctor?
I went to the doctor in December. Mike and I got new Cornell insurance and so I decided to go to the doctor to get some more migraine medicine. I picked this doctor because he's interested in Eastern medicine as well as traditional Western medical practices. When I met him, he was delightful and I discovered that he interned at Harvard Vanguard at Fenway. That made me more pleased than ever.
2. ...went to the dentist?
Mike and I are still searching for an Ithaca dentist. I guess I was at the dentist about 7 or 8 months ago, but I do have some cavities that need to be filled, so I better get my bum to a dentist soon. Nevertheless, I will not go to just "any old" dentist. I mean you have to be really careful about getting someone who is sketchy. Sketchy dentists can do serious damage and charge you serious money for it.
3. ...filled your gas tank?
The gas tank was filled last week. That's probably good for at least another two weeks. Ah, the joys of walking to work/school!
4. ...got enough sleep?
Well, not last night, but I will make up for that with a nice nap this afternoon. Otherwise, I got enough sleep the night before. I've come to the decision that sleeping is good and should not be neglected until the end of the semester.
5. ...backed up your computer?
Uh, I think the last time I backed up my computer was a few weeks before the ice storm in Kansas. That was just pure luck. My computer died during that icestorm. I lost practically nothing b/c of that backup. Now granted that was years ago...I should probably back up again but I'm not that upset that I haven't been doing it thus far. I mean, I really didn't have anything new on this computer until...well, the end of last semester.

That's all for the Friday Five, I guess. Now I must attend to Homer.

still sick here...still struggling with Homer...not going to update until feeling better.

cold = what it is outside, what Megan has.

How did I get sick? I blame it on that girl at the gym who wanted to open the window next to me. At first, it seemed like a good idea, but in the long run, it was probably not too smart to let her do that.

Alas.

I'm not sure why I'm into taking these silly quizzes, but I am. I have a weakness for them, if you will.

Aphrodite/Eros


?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

Delicious. I just had three of the cookies I made yesterday along with some English Breakfast tea. I enjoy the little pleasure of having tea in the afternoon.
My weekend consists of work, work and more work. I'm so confused. Wasn't the beginning of last semester easy? Why is it that the beginning of this semester is so difficult? Shouldn't I have loads of time to run around Ithaca? And if I don't, what is going to happen when I have a paper to do?
Well, actually, I do have a paper to write for next week -- but it's only a page long. It's actually a speech on why people shouldn't bother voting. What? Why am I stuck with this subject? Well, last week we had to write a statement on something we truly believe in...so I wrote one on believing in voting. As soon as the professor collected these speeches, he assigned a new speech indicating that we believe in exactly the opposite of what we wrote in the previous speech. Oh, how I longed that I had submitted an essay on abortion or gay marriage or guns or ANYTHING but voting. You see, we are graded on believability (i.e. whether the rest of the class believes us) and no matter how persuasive my little non-voting speech may be, I highly doubt that the otros chicos y chicas will believe that I don't vote. To make matters more difficult, we often discuss political things in class and I feel I can't open my mouth until this speech thing is finished. Damn.

So, even though isobel's back, I'm going to do the Friday five because I've found that I enjoy it.
1. What's the most daring thing you've ever done?
That's hard to say....was moving to Kansas daring? You may think, no, that's silly, but I think it's a big deal. For instance, someone may say that bungee jumping is daring and I would agree, but you don't spend a year bungee jumping (well, in most cases anyway), whereas I did live with the consequences of Kansas (which weren't bad consequences) for two years. I don't know, I think that's daring. If you want a more mundane answer, I suppose I could say that running around Presidents golf course in my bra with Diana and Siggy was sort of daring and stupid.
2. What one other thing would you like to try that your mother/friend/significant other wouldn't approve of?
I don't know, I'm not much of a risk-taker... bacon?
3. On a scale of 1-10 what's your risk factor? (1=never takes risks, 10=it's a lifestyle).
I'll give myself a 4, on the basis that moving around the country is taking a risk.
4. What's the best thing that's ever happend to you as a result of being bold/risky?
Ummm...Ithaca?
5. ...and what's the worst?
Ugh, probably that time that I along with some others were almost arrested at a Weezer concert.

Well, that was probably mundane compared to most people's answers, but that's all you're going to get out of me. My plans for today are to go to greek class, take a nice long nap, go to the gym, make cookies, and get an assload of work done. Let's hope it all happens. ciao.

Alas, isobel791 is no more and in honor of that blog, I've decided to post the Friday five.

You've just one a million dollars:
1. Who do you call first?
Well, obviously I'd call Mike. That's a silly question.
2. What is the first thing you would buy for yourself?
Hmmm...a toughie. Perhaps a month-long trip to Europe. Perhaps a new pair of skis, some new ski boots, and some lovely new poles. Oh, and a helluva long massage. And last but not least -- a house (a modest house, but a nice one)!
3. What is the first thing you would buy for someone else?
Someone else? Hey, a million bucks really doesn't go that far anymore. But OK, I would like to buy my parents a nice new stove. The stove they have is not old, but it has it's many problems. I'd also buy them a new dryer, a new dishwasher, and some tvs (for New Hampshire -- the one's up there are still 19" and I think the renters are getting a little sick of it). Otherwise, I think I would just try to do something nice with people.
4. Do you give any away? If yes, to whom?
Geez, after 3 and 4 I don't have any left. If someone close to me was really in need, I would. I'd also give some of it to the democratic candidate for president. A horrible donation, I know, but a necessary one...and if he wins, that benefits everyone...doesn't it?
5. Do you invest any? If so, how?
OK, I'd invest most of it. I don't have any retirement yet and won't even start on that until (if and when) I become Prof. Megan -- how long that will take...I do not know. So a nice IRA probably.

Note about the question: I think this would be a better question if it asked what you would do with 50 million dollars or something. I mean, really half a million would buy a house in the Boston area....then you would need the rest to pay the property taxes. I'm not greedy, really! Just realistic.

You are a Theory Slut. The true elite of the
postmodernists, you collect avant-garde
Indonesian hiphop compilations and eat journal
articles for breakfast. You positively live
for theory. It really doesn't matter what
kind, as long as the words are big and the
paragraph breaks few and far between.


What kind of postmodernist are you!?
brought to you by Quizilla

You may think I'm snobby for posting this, but in the quiz I admitted my weakness for fashion magazines...so whatever.

I should mention that Mike and I saw The Return of the King this past weekend. Again I cried. In fact, I think I cried more this time than I did last time. Ah, catharsis.

Sadly, my new planner is not even in the same league as my Edward Gorey planner. In fact, it's not even in the same world. How sad. It's simply red with white flowers. That was the best I could do at Borders. Granted it was only $4.00, but I think in the future I will try to remember how much enjoyment I can receive from a more expensive planner...because hey, you have to splurge every once in awhile, right?

Today is a crazy day of classes and various other stuff for me. I might have to forgo the homework for the class that I'm auditing tonight and begin working on Thursday's stuff. The problem with taking some undergrad courses is that the good professors try to scare people out of their class during the first week. Super.

On the good side of things, a book that I thought was $117 turned out to be only $14 in paperback version. Party on!

i just cleaned out all my email accounts and I feel like a new woman. Now I just have to hope that I didn't delete anything important.

In order to really feel like a new woman, however, I need to get a new planner. The fact that I have thus far operated without a 2004 planner is absolutely amazing...don't you think? Ok, perhaps not...because after all, classes haven't started yet. But now I'm feeling the planner crunch. I'm also feeling that I probably will not be able to do as well planner-wise. Last year I had an Edward Gorey planner and really...what can top that?

Hello.

Here I am in Ithaca where it is most likely snowing. It seems to do that quite a bit.

In recent news, I have been working on a "imagined" syllabus for an antiquity to 1500 theater history class. Hopefully, it will serve me well if and when I apply for a job...someday. Right now, it just seems like an endless task that I should probably stop working on. I mean, when you think about it, I could keep reading and changing articles and going on forever and ever.

I have not let this take up all my time though. Mike and I have been religiously watching the 3rd season of the Simpsons. I feel this season definitely marks an improvement over 1 and 2. Whereas I find I usually need a slight break before watching seasons 1 and 2, I could watch some of the episodes on season 3 over and over again.

We also saw Big Fish this weekend. As lovely as Tim Burton is and as perfect as this script was for him, the movie was still somewhat of a mixed bag. It's sad too, in that the script seemed to have so much potential -- but then it just goes nowhere with its creative side. Now, I know that I've said similar things about A.I., but I assure your "Big Fish" is in an entirely different pond than A.I. Whereas A.I. was a Kubrick movie ruined by Spielberg's niceties, Big Fish is a film that benefits from Tim Burton's quirky imagination. It's just the story that hurts.

*****

As I sit here drinking my decaf Stash English Breakfast Tea w/silk creamer (simply delicious by the way), I ponder who I will vote for in the democratic primary. At first, I was thinking Kerry. Then I was thinking Dean. Now I'm not sure. Do I move towards Clark -- the favorite of the M's (Mike, Madonna and Michael Moore) or am I too concerned with his love for the Bush administration in 2000? Should I consider Kerry? That whole saying I'm Irish when I'm not thing really set me off him before. And will I be voting for him or his wife? I'd like to vote for his wife, but sadly she's not running. Perhaps I should choose Dean -- though he appears the most vulnerable candidate to attacks by the Bush administration's unearthing the past team.
Dear me...I have a while to decide, but the nice thing is that I live in a state with a lot of electoral votes...so it's quite possible and likely that my vote counts for more than yours. How do you like that?

Of course, NY probably has a higher turnout rate than other states, so perhaps in the long-run my vote counts for less than yours. Damn.

It was still a little bit crazy driving wise after my last post.
12/29 - spent night in Trumbull, CT
12/30 - drove back to MA
12/31 - Mike and I organized our gifts (more about those later), went to Classic India for dinner (which if you haven't been to and you are from Quincy --- FOR SHAME!, it is some of the best Indian food ever! And don't give me any shit about not liking Indian food. Everyone likes Tandoori Chicken and Mango Lassis.)
1/1 - I think we spent some time watching The Simpsons, returning things and going food shopping.
1/2 - went to the Cape for a few hours to see Joanne and Steve
1/3 - returned to Ithaca via CT (are we crazy or what?)
1/4 - made attempts to put away our stuff ... still not finished on this one...

I'll be returning to Quincy tomorrow just in time to go to NH to go skiing with my parents. Then I'll get back on Sunday and probably hang out in Quincy until Wednesday, when I will return to Ithaca. I don't have to be back at school until the 22nd, but I do have some projects to work on so I must go back earlier.

In the future, I will not travel this much again at Christmas. I mean, it's really quite ridiculous and not much of a vacation. Still, it was nice to see the people that we did see. And going to Jocelyn and Jeff's wedding was a blast.

As far as Christmas gifts go, I must say that I made out like a bandit. I got an iPod for goodness sake! I put that on my Amazon.com wish list never thinking I would actually get it, but I did. Mike and I also received a rice cooker -- yum yum and a toaster oven (which we already set on fire, oops!). We also got quite a selection of DVDs (including 4 copies of the Pirates of the Carribean mate!).

Just in case you are wondering what's up and why you haven't heard from me...
12/19 - some shopping and drive from Ithaca to Boston
12/20 - Christmas shopping; Nutcracker with Aunt Mary & cousin Beth; dinner with Myers at the fabulous Classic India; Lord with Christopher at 11:00 in Randolph
12/21 - Siggy's shower; nap; Christmas shopping with C. Myers
12/22 - Christmas shopping; three hour nap
12/23 - wrapping; drive back to Ithaca
12/24 - more wrapping; drive to CT with Mike; dinner at Grandma Annie's
12/25 - drive to MA; dinner at Aunt Mary's; in bed by 8pm
12/26 - lunch with the Myers; Yankee Swap; finally open Christmas presents with Barbara & Dan; see Paycheck with Andrew -- movie not recommended
12/27 - drive to CT to see Lys play at Toad's Place
12/28 - Attend Jocelyn's wedding in Hartford
12/29 - hopefully the madness will calm down.

DONE.

Two papers down. One final taken.

Now I must grade final exams and do some Christmas shopping! Yay! I finally get out of the apartment/campus for a little while.

I'm much more relaxed now since all I have left due is grading. I probably won't finish it tonight, but nevertheless, it looks like I will get it done tomorrow. I might even have time to do something crazy like work on my syllabus (supposed to be due this semester, now due next semester -- tg for that!).

In other things, I will say that I'm concerned over this whole Nomar thing. Please let Nomar stay. I say that to both his agent and to Theo Epstein. Nomar is the heart of the Red Sox and i can't say what I'll think if he goes...I just know that I will be very, very sad.

Oh and by the way, it snowed again today and is supposed to snow more tonight. SNOW makes Ithaca beautiful! Oh wait, Ithaca is beautiful (gorges) without the snow too.

Oh, how crazy, I just noticed that the ad on the top of my blog is for turkey fryers. Fabulous!

One paper down.

One final down.

I'm exhausted. Can anybody tell me why the end of the semester has to be like this? Answer: It doesn't, Megan, you silly thing! Next semester, start your projects earlier. Oh! So that's the answer.

Verdict: Blue corn tortillas baked with organic string cheese on top are absolutely DELICIOUS!

Scattered: As you can tell from this post, I am. I went to the doctor today to make sure that I'm still working. And I couldn't answer any of his questions because I couldn't remember anything. He stopped for a moment and said "You seem tired." And I said, "I AM!" Ugh, Greek final makes me memorize a bunch of stuff and forget everything else. He must have thought that I was a weirdo -- or just exhausted I suppose. But anyway, I found out that he used to intern at Harvard Vanguard at the Fenway location. Que casualidad, el mundo es un panuelo. Y tambien ahora tengo pastillas para mis dolores de cabezo.

Adios. Tengo que dormir.
XAIRE. VUV KATHEUDW.

one paper down.

snow.

final tomorrow.

I forgot to mention that the TN DMV called me yesterday to say that the check I sent was only for $10, not the $13.25 required to replace the plate. The funny thing is that I had this conversation with them last Wednesday -- saying I didn't need the plate ay more and could they just send my money back. Unfortunately, I did something stupid (which if everything went right would have screwed up the mailing of my license plate). What was it that I did? I put the first line of my Ithaca address on the letter to them and the second line of my TN address. Doh.

It turns out that they were supposed to call me yesterday to find out my NY address -- not to ask about the check. So now, I think everything is straightened out...maybe. And maybe I'll get the check in the mail. maybe?

Is the madness over? No, not quite yet...but tonight at least there is a small respite. I get to see Comedy of Errors -- which is exciting. Plus, the only thing I technically have "due" tomorrow is a regular Greek assignment. In the next two weeks, however, I have two term papers, a Greek final, grading for the class I'm assisting with, and a imagined theatre history syllabus. OK, I need to stop thinking about all that stuff and just take a nap...don't you think?

But first you should know about the end all to the license plate scenario. I drove home without the plate and somehow managed A-OK. I didn't get pulled over! yay me.

Then, of course, we had the 20 person Thanksgiving. Goodness, that was crazy...but what was really crazy is that we almost burnt down the backyard before that happened. We deep-fried a turkey in Barbara & Dan's new turkey frier. I'll have you know, deep frying is not as easy as it seems. When Dad put the big turkey in, hot oil shot up in the air like a geyser and started little fires around the yard. Luckily, Dad did not get burnt and the little fires were easy enough to put out...but still, it was crrrrrazy. My recommendation: if you are going to deep fry a turkey, have two people put the turkey in!

Aside from that craziness, the day went quite well -- especially when you take into account the number of people that were at the dinner. We had to switch the dining room and the living room to fit everyone in the same place. But overall, the food was delicious (Mike and my vegan cousin James had plenty of tasty things to eat), the fam was fun, and I was completely exhausted afterwards.

Then, of course, we had to get up to drive to CT in the next day. I tried to mostly concentrate on sleeping and hanging out with Lys & Jere (who are fabulous) this weekend, and both of those things went really well.

But now, alas it is time for my nap. Hasta luego.

"lip my stocking"

It's my opinion that people shouldn't steal license plates -- especially when the license plate is an out of state license plate and that person has really no way of getting another plate before they go home for Thanksgiving (other than overnighting info to the Tennessee DMV so that they will overnight the plate back to arrive on Wednesday -- yeah right, like that's going to happen).

On top of it all, they shouldn't steal from anyone who has to turn in a rough draft of a 20 page paper before they leave for Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, that I think is very important to point out.

And by god, if I ever see a stolen out-of-state license plate hanging up in some house .... I can't even imagine what kind of rage would pursue.

Yay for gay marriage in MA!!! This makes MA the best state of all. Rock on.

And Maura -- oooo, what a dis to us married kids!

I just ate some leftover tortellini salad. It was delish. Soon I will move onto a ginger cookie.

In other things, I've been busy reading -- soon, hopefully, I will be busy writing. Yesterday I gave a lecture on Lysistrata. I got a little nervous but overall the class had an excellent discussion and I was pleased. I just need to get over my little self-confidence problem. Yes, it's Cornell, but the Cornell peeps have the same issues as everywhere else...right? Didn't I say that at the beginning of the semester?

OK, now back to emails, a ginger cookie and a succulent Root 66 root beer.

It was soooo windy last night. Aside from hurricanes, that was definitely the windiest experience I ever had in the Northeast! In TN I experienced a tornado and in Kansas, well, Kansas was just windy. But this was horribly windy. I was afraid to go outside. I also feared for Mike walking home, but luckily he did not get blown away by the wind.

Last night I had a migraine. As a result, I did my greek homework this morning instead of last night. Yet I felt that my synapses were still misfiring somehow in headache aftermath. Somehow amazingly I managed to translate well in class. Chock one up for on the spot Greek by Megan.

Now I must crawl back into my warm bed and sleep the remnants of my migraine away.

My hip hurts. I think it's from using the Elliptical yesterday. Ouch. I should stick to the stairmaster.

This weekend was pretty good. Lys and Jere came up and sadly, Saturday night was kind of a bust. There really wasn't much music going on -- nor was there anything else. We tried to go out to dinner at Moosewood and bam! no can do. I waited fifteen minutes in line just to put my name in for a 45 minutes wait. Then a woman came up to the counter and said that she was told thirty minutes and had been waiting fifty already. Needless to say, we left for the delicious Thai restaurant. There was no wait to sit there, but it seemed like an endless amount of time passed before we were able to receive our food. As a result, we missed all the movie showtimes (with the exception of a surfing movie playing at 11:15 at Cornell Cinema) and ended up renting Whale Rider. The movie was good, but watching Whale Rider is admittedly not as exciting as taking people who visit out for a night on the town. I suppose we should have planned better. Oh well.

Today it is dreary here and I have much reading to do. I had my "Hot Mocha" so I am all set to go...or maybe I'll take a little nap first. :^)

Do you every want to happen upon a blog of a person that you know or knew in the past? But of course, you don't want them to know that your looking at their blog -- you just sort of want to have a secret "in" to the aspects of their life...a little desire to see what's going on. Perhaps there is someone reading this blog with that purpose. I can only hope so.

I've been searching for such a blog, and I have yet to find one. Perhaps I will try another shot at google. Any suggestions anyone?

OK, OK, I'm a pathetic procrastinator. I know.

Congratulations to Lisa Renzi, Esq. for passing the bar exam!!!

Now I must go to sleeeeeeeeep.

Saw Lost in Translation this weekend. It wasn't nearly as good as I expected it to be. I kept reading rave reviews about it and as a result, I was slightly disappointed. Now that I think about it it was a bit actory. Don't ask me to explain that adjective, because I can't, but in general it means I noticed the acting at parts -- not a good thing.

Let's see, I also went shopping for four hours. Most of that was food shopping. It was the kind of food shopping where you buy oils, sugar, flour and all that stuff you don't have when you start out. It was kind of encouraging to buy these things, because it means that I'm actually going to eat cooked food instead of soup. For the past two nights Mike tried out new exciting recipes. The first was a kind of chickpea tomato spinach thing -- yummy! The second was Lemon tofu bake. This was not as good -- not bad, but not really good either.

On top of movies, eating and shopping, I attended an Indian Classical Dance performance yesterday. How was it, you ask? It was not so good. Sadly, the woman introducing the performance proceeded to read the entire biography of each person involved directly from the program. Because the performance started late, my program as well as those of others were well-perused. Needless to say, when she finished the lengthy introduction, the audience had ceased to be receptive. I think it was this lack of reception that caused an overall dearth of energy on the side of the performers and on the side of the audience. The rasa in this case was "boredom."

Unfortunately, because of the Indian Dance performance I had to miss Salman Rushdie speak at Ithaca College. OK, the times didn't overlap, but I did have to do some work yesterday! I'm sure I would have enjoyed his speech much more than that of a woman reading a program.

"Are you a MexiCAN? Or a MexiCAN'T?"

It's raining here, but here is Ithaca so that makes the rain OK. The husband arrived yesterday and I am sooo pleased! I can't even express how happy I am. His presence almost makes me not worry about my Greek test on Friday. Almost.

I'm mostly over my cold...I think. But am I over it enough to get a hot mocha today? hmmmmmmm....perhaps!

blah.

I got a flat tire this weekend. Flat tires suck, especially when they cause me to be about an hour late to a dinner with a fellow grad student, his wife, and his two kids. Well, at least I noticed it before I got on the highway. In fact, if Sears hadn't taken an hour longer than they said they were going to take to fix it, I would have had no problems. But alas, I came back after 30-40 minutes just like they said, and behold! they hadn't even pulled my car in yet to work on. Oh silly Sears. At least I had the road hazard policy and the fix was free.

To top things off, I received a lovely sore throat and very slight temperature on Sunday. Such gifts are not welcome. I want to give them back, but I'm not sure how I got them so.... no luck there. At any rte, this means that I will be spending much time sleeping and drinking tea. I do enjoy these two things, but wish I could do them without being sick dammit!

It's been snowy and rainy here. But last night I actually enjoyed the snow. I walked out of the gym and big fluffly snowflakes were coming down. They weren't sticking, so I knew I wouldn't have to worry about walking up a snowy, slippery hill in the morning. Sooo it was just that lovely, charming kind of snow shower.

During the day yesterday I spent three frustrating hous at the library doing research. I must admit that I actually miss the Kansas library now. Did they have fewer books? Yes. Were the stacks there haunted? I think so. The nice thing about the Kansas library, however, was that the books I wanted were most often there. This does not seem to apply to the books in the Cornell libary, nor does it apply to the books in any other Ivy League Library that is part of the special "borrow direct" program. "Borrow direct" is like inter-library loan but it is just among the Ivys and thus far I've found it thoroughly disappointing. Granted, I was able to order three books through it. You may think "well, that's wonderful" and I would say that it's just an excuse for the Cornell library not to buy more copies of the books they really need. I mean, isn't the point of a library to have books in it? And if copies of books are continuously out with people constantly recalling them, doesn't that indicate that perhaps the library needs more copies of them? And isn't this especially true if they are all by the same author? And can anyone tell I've been spending too much time with Greek writers -- especially Plato?

Wednesday is always a good day for me. Because I know, if I've made it to Wednesday, I'll probably make it through the rest of the week OK. *knock on wood* The beginning of my week is always crazy busy -- I have a Greek quiz on Monday, (actually next week I have a TEST), a bunch of classes on Tue Wed and Thu, and usually something else, whether it is a performance, a baseball game, or a meeting regarding "career" planning. Yesterday I had the career planning meeting. Basically career planning for theatre professors comes down to the following three things: publish, publish, publish. And I have yet to do any of these. Thus far, I have one journal-publishable paper, but unfortunately it is about the first Matrix movie and the significance of the theory I use could possibly be completely overthrown by the 3rd movie in the series. So, I must wait. And wait I will.
In the meantime, I really have to get started on the seminar papers, presentation, imagined syllabus and lecture that I have to do this semester. Oh dear, how these things weigh on me! I feel this weekend will have to be a weekend of accomplishment in these areas.
On the good side, Mike will be up next Tuesday for good! That's less than a week away. On Monday he passed his defense. Soon he will pass the dis in. Oh, won't that be a glorious day?
Years from now, I may pass my dis in. Maybe . . . if I'm lucky.

Ugh. I feel depressed today. If only the Red Sox won last night... I keep saying that to myself, but of course, I need to stop harping on it. I can't change history. And I will say that they played very well. The game itself was one of the best! So intense...as was the game the night before. And they were in Yankee stadium.

Actually, the most annoying thing about the game was that I had to listen to Yankee commentators talk about it. So when they won, the commentators were screaming and I sitting at my kitchen table with my head in my Greek book. My head descended to the Greek book when the Yanks got that homerun and I was unable to pick it up until Becky called. Misery.

But enough about that. Last weekend I went to NYC. I saw Andrew and met up with my parents. I saw two plays there: "Take Me Out" and "Avenue Q." I went to NYC with the express purpose of seeing experimental shows. Unfortunately, all the shows I really want to see are coming up (i.e. they are not playing now. C'est la vie. I did want to see Spalding Gray do a show at PS 122, but I couldn't really convince the parents to go to that. Instead, we saw "Avenue Q" and low and behold a guy I went to Double Edge and Poland with was in the production!!! He was just an understudy and he wasn't onstage the night I was there, but the funny thing was that he was supposed to play the main role that night. Apparently, the main actor was going to go on $25,000 Pyramid but Pyramid asked for a woman instead of a man at the last minute and my friend ended up doing puppets in the background, but nothing onstage. I told him that I would come back when he was playing the main role.

Anyway, that was my weekend last weekend. Today I'm going to make some shadow puppets. Perhaps if I go home now, I can take a little nap before I go.

Ah...what a weekend. On Friday night I spent the night taking care of another graduate student, Anne's animals. Her cat is quite mischevious and I think he was sitting on my head and biting my hair in the middle of the night. Strange. Her dog, however, is cute and silly. It's a long haired daschund and a princess.

After I took care of the animals Friday night, I came home on Saturday, at lunch, went to the gym, showered and then went to an estate sale. The estate sale was fabulous. No really! I had never been to an auction before and I found it just delightful. Did I get anything? Oh, you bet I did! I got a solid maple table with solid oak chairs for $42.50. The cushions need to be recovered but that shouldl be easy enough. I desperately needed a kitchen table. The one that Mike and I had in TN was barely big enough for two of our salad plates to fit on, and two of our large dinner plates? Forget it. Now I can probably fit four large dinner plates on the table with glasses, silverware and everything. How exciting.

Did you get anything else at the estate sale you ask? Yes, I did. I bought a dark wood two-level end table with leather top for $11. It's from the forties and is in really good shape. $11! That was it. Oh, I love the estate sales. I believe I will be going with Meghan and Caitlyn the next time one happens, which should be the beginning of November. Of course, they were sports in helping me fit my kitchen table into my Camry -- not an easy task.

Today I'm supposed to be reading, but I have been sleeping most of the day. Shit. That's really going to put me behind. I better toss away the idea of getting a lot of sleep tonight...but somehow I prefer to sleep during the day. What kind of strange nocturnal being am I? Will this change if I have children?

Oh, and the other good news is that the long awaited COUCH is coming on Monday. This means that my living room will actually have something in it to sit on. OH! I'M IN FURNITURE HEAVEN!

If the Sox win today, that would make my day too.

Ahhh, it always feels good to get to Thursday in the week. I know that I've made it one more week. Yes, yesterday in Greek class my translation was so painful it felt like getting hit by a big SUV, then a Mac truck, then a bulldozer, but alas that is the way grad school goes sometimes. OK, so that's not a grad school course, but still. Other than that classes are going well, but I do have to start on my papers soon!!!! Otherwise I'm going to be wading in a great big pile of dried shit at the end of the semester.
As for other things, the weather is finally chilly. And right now I'm enjoying it. I'm going to go across the street and get a delicious decaf mocha. Then I think I will go home and read some Greek, maybe take a map. A simply wonderful afternoon -- to be made more wonderful only by bringing the husband up here. Sadly, that will not happen today, but when it does, it will be fantastic.

Hello all. I must admit I'm a bit tired today and hungry! so I will be keeping this short. This weekend I went to two parties -- one a grad student party with many people from different countries and the second a party at a professor's house concluding a symposium on Heiner Muller. Needless to say, both parties were fabulous in that I was able to drink with people of other nations. In my opinion, Americans are no fun to drink with (and yes, I suppose I include myself in that) but Mexicans and Germans? Damn good drinkers.

Well, more importantly than that I performed in a reading this weekend of Heiner Muller's Medea Material: Landscape with Argonauts. I really enjoyed working with the director and the cast. It was so much fun! And best of all, the people at the conference were impressed with the amount we pulled off in just five hours of rehearsal time. So it was a very happy weekend.

Now I must go EAT.

Also, my cousin Mark and his wife Amy had a baby this weekend. They named it Andrew David McWilliams, but Andrew is not spelled Andrew -- it's a different and wonderful Gaelic spelling. Congratulations to them!!!

By the way, I looked up "spacking" at dictionary.com and it didn't know the word. So I feel it is necessary to make it one and I will be taking suggestions as to definitions up until October 5.

Alas, I am not blogging all that much lately. But what can I say except that I don't have the internet at home? Yesterday I was very ill in the morning. I actually had to miss a class because I had a terrible stomach ache and was dry heaving. I think it was some form of food poisoning though I do not know where I got it from. I suppose it's possible that the soup I ate was bad -- on the shelf for too long perhaps. But isn't food poisoning supposed to take affect within a few hours? This was the next morning. Perhaps I simply digest more slowly than others. I don't know what else it could be -- a stomach bug perhaps, but I didn't feel sick otherwise. And no, it's not morning sickness.

In other things, I'm going to participate in a reading of a Heiner Muller play this weekend. That should be exciting -- rehearsal for it begins tomorrow and the director was the former dramaturg at the Berlin Ensemble. Not a bad deal at all.

I saw "Thirteen" this past weekend and I agree with Maura's analysis. It certainly served to reinforce racial stereotypes. But I also cried at the end. Go figure. After that I played darts and discovered that I'm quite bad at darts. Hey, you know, I think I wrote a blog this past Saturday about this that got lost. Maybe not...I do not remember anymore.

Blech. I'm exhausted. I went to bed at 2 last night even though I didn't have much work to do. Why? Because I wanted to make sure I took great notes on Burger, which I did, but I think I could have tried not spacking out as much. I just wrote spacking instead of spacing and I like it quite a bit. I hope it doesn't mean anything dirty.
Mike arrived on Sunday and is leaving today. :( We went to see "Once Upon A Time in Mexico" so I could drool over Antonio Banderas, Johnny Depp and Willem Dafoe. Well, not really Willem because he's getting old and I realized long ago that I drool over the young Willem, not the old one. And sadly, Antonio is getting old too. Yes, Johnny is as well, but he doesn't look it dammit -- though I must say he wasn't very sexy in this movie. Needless to say, the drooling was not really happening...except for over that guy sitting next to me in the movie theatre.
Drooooooooooooooooool.
OK, my office hours start in two minutes (which probably no one will come to) and I have to get a pee in before that so -- adios!

I decided that "my Rushmore" was a bad name for the blog -- I mean, Max failed out after all right? And we don't want that.

I've changed it to "spooooooool" to honor Becket, but now that I think of it, that may not be such a good name either as it implies that I will get old, listen to tapes of myself and eat bananas while sitting at a table.

spooooooooooool.

I graded papers last night. Originally I was nervous about these papers because they come from the Ivy League kids but guess what? ivy league kids make the same mistakes that kids at Kansas make. And, some of them also doing put in the effort they should. The kids are the kids I guess. Only these kids are paying a lot more money for their lack of effort.

Actually, I will say that I've noticed a difference in class discussion here. People are much more in tune with the readings and one really needs to be on one's toes because there are people who are so brilliant you just have to shit yourself.

So my birthday went well. I got roses, I bought a cookie and cheesecake for myself and talked to several people that I love dearly. Plus, I'm here in Ithaca and it just makes me smile, despite the fact that I had a lot of work due today. OK, actually, I had a lot of work I thought I had to do for today but I made the mistake of doing a reading that it wasn't necessary to do. -- a 50 page reading of heavy theory. On my birthday. Silly me. On the good side, I got to take a nice nap this afternoon/evening. Now I'm going to grade 11 papers and bam! commune with my kettle again. What shall I do with my kettle this time? What shall I do?

Oh, I forgot to mention that Alison Lurie, the novelist is in my "Actor and Performing Object" class. She's fabulous! Umm...though I have to admit I have never read a novel by her.

Warren Zevon died today. I hope he finds werewolves in heaven.

I tried to blog this weekend. I really did, but blogger was being pesty and was not letting me. In fact, I couldn't even read blogs by bloggers. So alas, here I am on Monday writing an entry.

This weekend I actually went out with another grad student named Meghan. She made me dinner and then we went to see "Bend It Like Beckham" and "Identity." I think anyone who has the stamina to see two movies in a row is a damn good person...especially when you consider that the seats really are not that comfortable at all. Of course, the fact that Cornell Cinema is free for Theatre, Film & Dance grad students certainly makes the seats bearable.

After that Friday night outing, I devoted most of my time to study Ancient Greek. I studied so much I even dreamed in Ancient Greek. No, I'm not making that up. I actually had a dream where people were speaking Greek and I couldn't understand them...but I could pick up traces of what they were saying. Despite my incessant studying, I know I got at least one question wrong on the test. For some reason I decided to list a verb as "aorist middle" instead of just "aorist." What the hell was I thinking?

Damn, I think I need more baked goods. I've decided that since it is my b-day tomorrow I have a right to journey every day to the "Eat Dessert First" restaurant in order to obtain a tasty treat. What will it be today? I suspect a ginger cookie is in the future.
How about tomorrow? Clearly, tomorrow will be the day for cheesecake.

Does anyone else think that it's odd that I'm taking a bunch of graduate classes and the one I'm most concerned about is 100 level?

OK so Ancient Greek class is kicking my ass right now. Yes, apparently it does make a difference when people take Greek five days a week and other people take it only three (I would be in the latter of this group). Dear God, the students know grammatical stuff that I have yet to hear the likes of. My only hope is that I can study like a madwoman from the same book they used when it arrives from Amazon.com. Sadly, I don't even think that it has been shipped yet. What's up guys? I know it's the beginning of school but I NEED THAT BOOK!

OK, in other things, I decided not to audition this semester (uh...see the above). My performance with the tea kettle in class went really well, though. Oddly enough during the part where the kettle gets stuck during its gymnastics and fears for it's life, it's cover came off. This didn't happen in rehearsal, but it made the performance much more dramatic and scary at the end. The kettle thought up a better ending than I. Go figure.

It's about to thunderstorm like mad and I'm about to attend the reception for the Classics department in the Temple of Zeus. Temple of Zeus in a Thunderstorm? How excellent.
My first two days of classes were fairly uneventful. Classes are classes I guess -- even with smart chicos and chicas. Of course, there were smart chicos and chicas at Trinity, KU and well UT but here I'm scared of them for some reason. Not scared enough to read the Greek in my first day of Greek class though! Score. I'm not a silent blond girl.
Mom is visiting. This is very fun. What's going to be even more fun is that Lys & Jere will visit for a few hours tomorrow. They are going to attend lunch with Barbara Shea and me. Then Lys & Jere have to leave for a wedding in Buffalo. Still...it's so nice that people can actually visit -- even if it is a bit out of the way.
In other things, I'm going to be doing a performance with my tea kettle on Tuesday. I haven't decided what to call it, but I know it's going to involve lots of whistling on my part.

Well, I'm starting to get nervous and getting nervous means I say stupid things which I know to be false. But alas, I'm sure I'll get over it. At least, I hope I will. Today I'm going to the department beginning of the year picnic. That should be exciting and nervewracking at the same time. I'll probably eat some salad and then spend the entire picnic with a huge piece of lettuce stuck in my teeth. Note to self: bring small mirror and toothpick.

I purchased a couch. It's the first real couch I've ever purchased and I'm quite excited about it. I chose the fabric and everything. I was, of course, very tempted to get a red couch, but seeing as both my desk chairs and the Diplomat are shades of red, I thought it might be a good idea to stay away from it. So what color did I choose? Well, it's called "java" and it looks black but it's actually brown. Then it has a nice sort of pattern on it. I'm very happy with my choice and await my couch longingly. It will take at least 6 weeks to come. I do have the spot in the living room where it's going to go spiked out. So I know, that space is for a couch, damnit.

So yesterday I was walking along toward the library and what do I see? A bus that says Knoxville Tours. At first, I think nothing of it. Then I say to myself, "Wait a minute, I'm in Ithaca. That can't say what I think it does." So I looked back at it. And it did! It said "Knoxville Tours" and it was from Knoxville, TN. Weird. No really, it is. Weird.

I've unpacked about a million boxes so far and I still have a few to go. The apt., however, is shaping up to look quite nice. Unfortunately, the living room is quite empty. I'm on a mission to find furniture for it, but as I'm in upstate NY, that's not always so easy. I'm considering whether I should drive one hour away to look at couches or just go with the one that I saw 15 minutes away. I'm leaning towards the latter. I mean, a person can spend all their life looking for the perfect couch and then they would never have one...right? Plus, I really should be brushing up on Greek and Spanish. Shame on me. I'm such a slacker.
For those of you who want to know how the drive up went I would say that it went considerably well. As you know, we rented a Penske truck and drove it all the way up. Sadly, the truck had a sensor that kept going off for no reason whatsoever. This would not be so bad except the sensor made an awful noise -- a high pitched ringing if you will -- which would only go away if you pulled over, turned the truck off, and turned it back on again. Yes, that was a pain in the ass.
But on the good side, we didn't hit anything and well, everything made it to Ithaca OK with the exception of two torchiere lamps. No big loss as far as I'm concerned.
We moved everything upstairs (using the handy elevator) and within one half hour of getting everything up there *bam!* the power went out. This was a pain because there really was nowhere to eat open. I couldn't vacuum and the apt. was fairly hot without any sort of help from fans. But at least the power went out after we moved up everything in the elevator and not during. That would have really been awful if the elevator was out.
Anyway, that's all the news on the move. I now have to go decide on couches.
Adios.

I arrived in Ithaca on Thursday and I still have many boxes to unpack. But all I have to say is that the air smells cleaner, the temperature is incredibly cooler, there are a million theatre productions I want to see here, I saw a deer on campus and I have FIVE closets. Is there anything more fabulous?!?

I fucking love it here.

This past week I packed, packed and packed. I also got new headshots done and I'm happy to say that they came out fantastico! I chose four different poses instead of just one. I'm such a sucker...but I do feel that I will use them all.
On Friday I went to the Baker Donelson 2003 outing. It was at the Knoxville Zoo. Personally, I think that the Zoo was a good place to have it even though I don't necessarily completely agree with Zoo policies (elephants always look so sad in zoos). Anyway, the event was fun because it was after zoo hours and many people got a little tipsy. It really is hilarious to see attorneys, secretaries and staff yelling drunkenly at wild animals. But the best thing of all was ... Bunnyville. How many zoos have a building full of rabbits? Not many I tell you and could you imagine anything more fabulous? I certainly can't.

Could someone please pack the rest of my apartment for me? I'm tired of packing...

I just erased my last post. Silly Megan. It wasn't very exciting so I'm not going to rewrite it. I will, however, point out that noone else seems to be posting right now and I find that wholeheartedly disappointing. Don't you know that if you don't write in your blog that means I simply have to go back to packing?

Anybody up for joining an Episcopal church?

Ahhh. Finally, a weekend where I did something. Mike and I managed to get to two movies yesterday at the dollar theatre. One was Chicago, which I found extremely disappointing. Don't get me wrong, Catherine Zeta-Jones was fabulous, and the others had their moments. Of course, I am becoming such a fan of John C. Reilly. I mean, who couldn't be this year? He was the best thing about The Hours; he was fantastic in Chicago and of course, outstanding in Gangs of New York. I mean, has there ever been an actor with a supporting role in three of the films nominated for best picture in one year?!? The second movie we saw was X-Men 2, or as Mike likes to call it Los Hombres de Equis Dos. It was my second time seeing the film and I have to say it truly is quite good. It's far better than the first one -- mostly because the script is close to perfect for an action film of it's kind. It's rare to see action films (like X-Men 2) that contain real emotional scenes and lack one-liners. What a shame.

Oh my God! Maura has an ad for Queer Eye for the Straight Guy on her blog. I'm sooooooo jealous and I haven't even seen the show, though I will say that it is a favorite of Barbara Shea's. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy! Queer Eye for the Straight Guy! Ohhhh, pick me Queer Eye for the Straight Guy!

In a new low of internet searching, I tried typing in ____.blogspot.com. I discovered that both radagast.blogspot.com and decker.blogspot.com use the same blogger template ("look") that I do. frodo.blogspot.com is in Spanish. gandalf.blogspot.com just has a nice background that says "Gandalf." quincy.blogspot.com sadly has one post and seems to now be abandoned. rent.blogspot.com is for rentheads, but has no posts. Go figure.

The sign on the Broadway Baptist Church says: "Life is fragile. Handle with prayer."

What is all this crap from the Bush administration and the Vatican about the sanctity of marriage? I fail to see how two men or women getting married affects the "sanctity" of the relationship between my husband and me. Nor do I see how it affects anything at all about our marriage.

BTW, I read about The Nine today. Did you know that Dennis Kucinich is a vegan? Who would have thought? He might have my vote. As of now, I am undecided. Kerry's three purple hearts are impressive as well. His wife is even more impressive. It really is too bad that she's not running.

14 days until Ithaca.

I made my last visit to the outlet stores in Tennessee today. Boy they are really hit or miss. Today was "miss" and I actually think that's better because I'm not in dire need of clothing. Still, I am in need of a pair of jeans. I own three pairs: jeans #1 I love, but though I still wear them they really are too small; jeans #2 are sort of OK, but they are large enough for me to take off while still buttoned, jeans #3 are summerweight. Thus, I have no regular pair of jean that actually fit. No problem you might think. Just go out and buy a pair. Well, if you think that you must not be a petite female. The problem is that they don't make jeans to fit short ladies. Yes, companies do make ankle length pairs, but often the fly area is too long. This results in major FDS (fake dick syndrome), where the jeans make one look like one has a penis when one doesn't. Also, I must point out that for some reason companies like the Gap, Banana etc. make only some kinds of jeans in the "ankle" size. All the really stylish jeans are for "regular" people only. Funny, but they never seem to make jeans for "short" people only, or "tall" people for that matter. Bastards.

Aside from the jean fiasco, I did buy some sheets that go with the Diplomat. They are expensive, but I feel they were needed. I also used the remains of a gift certificate to Coach to buy a belt and some leather cleaner. They were having a sale...so those of you who dream about Coach purses, my advice is to go to the outlet now.

OK, enough horrible consumerism. As an open-minded American leftist, I am both disgusted with my materialism and appeased by it. Ugh. That's even more gross. I need to read some Greek.

Redeemable is a word according to dictionary.com. I've heard it used before, but I never knew if it was a real word, or just a word people used...you know?

Today was a delightful rest from the lawfirm. And...I began packing. In fact, I managed to pack all but one of the boxes we have (which really isn't that many, but it's still something). Tomorrow will go towards packing also, but with only one box to pack I sense a trip to the outlet stores to spend the last of my gift certificate at Coach. I just hope it is still redeemable. Is redeemable a word? If not, perhaps it should be.
Lisa's blog is sadly disfunctional right now. It seems to be misbehaving at exactly the wrong time. Eat another goodie Lisa.

The hip hop honeymoon is over.

I just heard a commercial on the new hip hop station in Knoxville. Sadly, that means that their 10,000 songs commercial-free is over. Ah well, it was a great few weeks. My only hope is that the airways of Hot 104.5 don't fill themselves with the foolish banter of dj's (I like dj's elsewhere, but good one's in Knoxville are few and far between) and the endless ads for herbal remedies that puport to improve your mind, your health and your sex.

P.S. Is 104.5 just one airway?

Lisa, although I've never taken the bar exam, I have been a shut-in because of studying. My advice for you is get yourself something damn good to eat that you don't eat often or you don't allow yourself to eat often. Eat it somewhere besides your place of study. mmmmmm....

Maura -- I chose my apartment in Ithaca based on baking smells. OK, that's not entirely true, but it certainly is part of it. A great part of it. So if you're not so into cooking I would grab a roll of pilsbury dough at the supermarket and bake yourself some cookies during the interviews. It's a surefire way to get the roommate you want. Oh, and maybe try keeping up with the dishes for a week...

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"Is this it Priest? The Pope's new army?" - Bill the Butcher
"Bill, you said this was to be a battle between warriors, not a bunch of missed nancies. So warriors is what I brought." - Priest
Gangs of New York

17 days until Ithaca.

Don't think that this statement means that I am not living in the now. I am very much living in the now. But one always has things that one likes to look forward to, doesn't one? Plus, 17 days until Ithaca means 17 days until no more laundromat -- I'll actually be able to do laundry in the basement of the apt building! It's a step up, damnit!

Today I must do the laundry I did not do yesterday, or over the past week. My only consolation in going to the laundromat is that I will be able to read more of Tom Robbins Jitterbug Perfume. The book is simply fabulous and it is definitely the best Tom Robbins book I have read so far. Believe me, that says a lot. I was wowed by both Skinny Legs and All and Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates. Now I am beyond wowed, in fact, I am wooed by Jitterbug Perfume. Ahhhhh....

19 days till Ithaca. I hope Penelope can hold out that long.

I got my pictures from Becky's wedding in the mail today. I would say that Ofoto does a pretty damn good job -- the pictures came out great. Some of them were blurry, but that seems to be because my camera doesn't deal well with people moving. At any rate, the pics want to make me reiterate that those were the best bridesmaid dresses ever, that bride looked beautiful in her princess dress and that Melanie and Brandon are just adorable.
Sadly, I have no wedding to go to this weekend. Instead, I intend to accomplish all the chores that I did not accomplish this week because I was working at Baker Donelson. Sounds thoroughly exciting, I know, but perhaps I will break to catch a movie....or two.

Yes, a name change for the blog was definitely in order.

Today I should have been studying, or reading the Illiad or cleaning or packing, but instead I chose to take several necessary naps. That does not mean that I lazed around all day. I did go to the doctor this morning, then I went out to lunch with Mike in Oak Ridge, balanced the checkbook and finally did laundry. I'm sick of doing laundry at the laundromat. I wouldn't be surprise if that statement, or statements similar to it are the backbone of many previous posts to my blog. But I guess I should be happy. After all, I have a dishwasher, and that's a step up from the first time I lived in Tennessee. Plus, there are many people in the world who wash things in rivers and dry them on rocks...of course, that isn't really a choice I have here. There is a river, but if I tried to wash my clothing in it, it would probably either be eaten by three-headed fish or come out glowing. Neither one of those choices sounds promising...

24 days until Ithaca.

And here's a quotation from A Prairie Home Companion, with Garrison Keiler speaking about the good aspects of liberals not being elected: "Poor people are no longer going to be subjected to the humiliation of welfare systems but will be able to gain wealth and power through casino gambling."

My suggestion for the day: Go to Google, type in "weapons of mass destruction," and hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button.