Menu for the Holiday Party

which will be on Saturday:

Meatballs, which is apparently a tradition in most people's eyes. So I'm givin' it to them.
Latkes, cause this party ain't christian-specific.
Bruschetta with anchovy tapenade.
Eggplant Sandwiches. Laura said she'd make those.
Fingerprint cookies.
Dips and Cheeses
Some sort of punch.

I'm kind of looking forward to the cooking part. I've never thrown a "catered" party before, so I don't really know what to expect.

"christina is" has many things on her mind

First off: I spend way too much time on facebook. It makes me feel pathetic.

I've been thinking about Hillary Clinton in the last several hours, and how newspapers (for example, the NY Times article I just read) will publish features that claim to probe into the minds of presidential candidates. "Why won't Hillary cry?" I suppose my malformed "reading" of this would be to point to the wide spectrum of actual presidents and the variety of their emotional/professional reactions to events in life that seem to have little to do with their masculinity (read: "neutral"). And suggest that Clinton does not seem to neatly fit into either the category of "presidential" nor "feminine" and how that seems to pose a big, emotionally-affective [and epistemological] crisis for some.

Next, I think I'd like to move to "upstate" (not that far up) New York.

And finally to add that I'm working on grading papers but thinking about my skills as a cookie-baker. I'm planning a holiday party on saturday and would like to make delicious foods. I feel pretty confident about my meatball and hors d'oeuvre skills, but I am not so good at the baking thing. Too many rules.

Well, that change of theme really shut me up.

I am sitting here, listening to a Fresh Air interview that I've already heard, thinking about all the websites I could possibly visit in order to avoid having to write this paper. This stomachache-inducing paper. Which I will have to present at a conference in Alabama next week. A thought that has me paralyzed. Although it will require me to buy a "conference outfit" and since I finally got paid yesterday, the idea of new clothes is the only thing keeping me okay with the world.

In the past couple of weeks, absolutely nothing has happened. Dave is getting closer to finishing his final project. We've started watching Deadwood on DVD. I saw Darjeeling Limited, which has some people scowling. But I kind of liked it. I didn't dress up for Halloween. I've made three different kinds of soup: a weird Tuscan tomato bread soup, lentil soup, and split pea. Soup-making is a lot of fun, but requires dicing a few too many onions. Think on that.

change of theme

there is way too much talk of babies and weddings on this blog. and relocation -- although, to be honest, that is always at the forefront of my casual musings: where shall i move to next?
but enough! let me talk about other things. starting . . . now?

St. Louis trip

We went to St. Louis a couple of weeks ago to attend my friend's wedding. It was tons o' fun, and impressively organized and decorated. Yeah for Lauren!
Here are some pictures of the bachelorette party -- a trip through Missouri wine country! which we roped Dave into chauffering. I know, "poor Dave." But get over it, he had a good time.

i got me a one year old nephew

We were in Sacramento celebrating my nephew's first birthday. Circus theme! It was very cute. But i gotta say: too many babies in one weekend! Normally i can take all the baby time people want to throw at me, and won't be at all affected. I mean i coo and say, "who's the cutest baby?" and pretend to eat their toes. Okay, I admit . . . sometimes I leave and think about how awesome my baby will be and how it will win all the awards given to the best baby. (quick digression: i had a dream last night that i won an oscar for best supporting actress and it was awesome, but no one believed me because i left my award with zach braff. jerk.) But seriously, we saw A LOT of babies, day and night, and it's not like they bothered me or anything. It was just a lot. I guess that's all I really have to say about that. Many babies were seen.

Flinch

So, all summer I have been working on various school things. I did some TA-ing, some research and catalogue work for a prof, the whole Dickens thing, and most importantly writing drafts of my dissertation prospectus. I met with the chair of my committee this week and she said that it was looking good, one more draft and I can get the approval of the rest of the committee and it'll be a go. Awesome! Unfortunately I don't have a full committee yet and this morning I get an email from the one professor I really, really wanted and she said she didn't want to do it. Why? because her help is "unnecessary" and that I am "perfectly capable" of writing this thing without her guidance. Which, of course, is not the real reason. She is about to retire and just doesn't feel like it. A fact I can accept, but one that kind of leaves me up a creek. Erg. So I decided that I was going to take all references of her works out of my dissertation! She'll get no acknowledgment from me! Just kidding. I still love her.