T-day

Back from Sacramento where, as every good Thanksgiving should provide, we ate slept and watched TV. And cooed at the baby who, in his still ineffable seven-week stage, acts like any good Thanksgiving participant -- sleeping, eating, pooping. There was more drool than is usually accepted for grown-up T-dayers. But, we allowed it.
Here's the food:


And here's the general reaction:




Unwarranted, in my opinion. I thought the meal was delicious. Cornish Game Hens, Roasted Root Veggies, Stuffing, Salad.

Have I mentioned how much I love thanksgiving? I do! There are no requirements other than an appetite. No songs, no prayers, no mention of swaddling clothes or talking animals. Just food.

TA-day

So, section kinda sucked today. They didn't talk . . . which makes me talk too much. In a not very illuminating fashion. Often, I feel, the students leave more confused than when they arrived.
Then I come home, slightly addled about the silent section, but mostly relieved that it's over. And also annoyingly attached to every word I said, scrutinizing sentences, re-evaluating my performance. So that, of course, after my bus ride home, I run inside to post an email to my students with the insights I wished I'd stunned them with during class. But then after I send that email, I realize that i didn't quite get to everything I wanted to say. which, for a crazy person, would warrant another email. but not me. I'm too cool for that, if you couldn't already tell. Instead I drag my ass to Trader Joe's to buy a cheap bottle of wine or vodka.
This week's section is in the past. My weekend starts Tuesday night!

Antique R.S.

Last weekend, Dave and I took our zombie asses out to San Francisco to unwind for an evening. It was very lovely. My face was a zombie wreck, but we sat back and relaxed and had a great time. The next day, we went to Alameda . . .


i like interiors


dave likes to think


k. thinks antiques are fun

Woman or Mechanized Female Non-Being?

I've been feeling like a humanoid lately. It has become more and more difficult to believe that I am actually capable of having a normal conversation, light and funny, with people. So I start to think about times in the not too distant past when I would laugh and make other people laugh. Now, I'm not a very warm or friendly person . . . it's true. I'm kinda prickly. But, once I get to know ya, I'm a fucking laugh a minute.

Of course, none of this is entirely true. I'm neither that prickly nor that funny.

But it is true that I am becoming a humanoid. Or a zombie that wants to eat brains. Delicious brains.

Yesterday was Thursday . . .

And a friend and I drove up to Stanford to hear Fran Dolan give a lecture on the discourse of marriage -- based upon Pre-Modern figures of "the rod" and "the breeches -- and the fiction of equality that is sustained only by the obscured presence of the servant or slave upon whom domestic violence is displaced. It was a really nice lecture, and she was so animated and funny that I didn't mind missing most of the ball game. I really need to go out and see more lectures outside my own areas of interest. Broaden your mind, kids. So important. (silence)

Anyway -- that ball game! what a fucking game! I was petrified the last half inning. But it all turned out okay. The Cardinals are moving on to the World Series. Don't fret about things that will end up turning out okay, kids. So important.

Truck, Truck, Goose

weekend update

I spent the weekend doing nothing much in particular.
I started it off with a yen to spend. So I bought an overpriced sweatshirt: great color, great cut makes it worth it in my book. And then I splurged at the Gap, despite my avowed disinterest in their products. Jeans, two shirts.
We ended the weekend with an afternoon flic: The Science of Sleep. It was what you'd expect, crafty and frenchy without the interference of a coherent plot. Or rather, the lack of plot acted somewhat interfering-ly on my total enjoyment. But we left the film with the satisfying post-film sensation, other wordly, out of sorts. It was cold and rainy all day -- which paralleled the cold, raininess of the Paris backdrop of the movie. Unfortunately we weren't really in Paris, but in fact in Santa Cruz. Disappointing.
But it does encourage me to start thinking ahead -- next stop, Paris. (I am an unabashed francophile: no. 1 on my own personal list of platforms.)
One more item on my money spent sheet: we bought some cds -- the first i've bought in what seems decades. a duo called "camera obscura" of post-belle and sebast. glory. i like it, but it doesn't fully satisfy. it's too cutesy to fully accomplish anything.