Happy April Fool's! "Muggle literacy has gone on long enough." - Draco Malfoy, of the Draco Quill
posted by Kecia 11:21 PM
Sunday, March 30, 2003
Weird It is *pouring* snow outside. Just so you know.
posted by Kecia 11:53 AM
Saturday, March 29, 2003
Some News Not doing work. Should be, but am not. Haven't been all afternoon. I've been messing with wedding stuff for the past four hours instead, trying to make the pictures we took of me in the dress shop manageable. I'm not done yet.
We went for some serious car shopping yesterday. We'll either get a camry or an accord, though which and at what level has been up for grabs in the past couple of hours. It's fun though, and reassuring to know we'll soon have a car we can count on.
It's lightning outside. Matthew and I spent the afternoon running back and forth from our respective tasks to the balcony, watching the cold front blow in. The line between light and dark was something to see, demarcated like it rarely is to human eyes. I love where we live; I hope we can live here all the time we're up here.
I haven't asked my second bridesperson yet to be my attendant. I want to, but I'd like to do it in person. Besides, I don't know a definite date yet. Matthew hasn't definitively settled on his two yet either, so I suppose asking would be premature. But I want their opinions!
I didn't exercise today or yesterday, and have eaten hugely fattening things. Oops. Need to get back on track tommorrow.
Before I go back to school Monday, I need to have completed the following tasks:
grade labs 5 and 6
grade asg 1
work on cell bio proposal
reorganize folders
make appt. with Dr. Woods
make lesson plans
send off H-L info
I'[m liking my lab more and more. I still don't think I want a career in science, but I think it'll be a reasonable next four years sort of thing. At least it means I don't have do break out of my mold and learn a new career path. I admire people like Jenn, who can do that. I know myself well enough to know that that's one of the reasons that I didn't like getting *into* lab work - I don't need to repeat that horribleness.
I'm missing my parents a lot. I wish they could have stayed up here, or something. Them at their old house, and me in Atlanta, was the perfect distance apart. What was I thinking by moving?
Bought a dress pattern yesterday. My mom showed me how to use her sewing machine while she was up here. I hope I can make use of it. It, and the knitting, and the french relearning, are a bit much. Especially with wedding planning, work, and school. At least I'm feeling better enough to be handling all of it. :)
I was wondering today to what extent my behaviour at the end of my first year in college affected my mental health and overall self-image. I guess I'll never know.
Feeling nostalgic tonight. I wish I could lean on Justin's shoulder, have a quote-fest with Derek, and pet Michael's cats. I wish I could sit and gab with Nicki and Julie to my heart's content. I wonder what became of Marie and Jessica and Marijke. What about Brad, and Bruce, and Will? Jason, did you ever find someone to slow dance with you? I wish I had made better friends with Kelly and Ann Margaret and the other Bruce. Jeremy, do you still live in LaGrange? Are you still a skirt chaser? Why, Nadia, did you never answer my letters? I was so lonely . . . I wonder what Christopher and Jeffrey and Joel and Jason and Colin are doing now. Kirby and Sequel, I miss you.
Does anyone else sometimes feel that life is sand slipping through your fingers, faster than sight? The tighter you hold it, the faster it flows.
posted by Kecia 7:22 PM
Why? "Our floors are covered with blood, the walls are splashed with blood. We ask why, why, why? Why all this blood? I'm a doctor, but I can't understand such things," Sufian said. "They came to free us? This is freedom? We have done nothing."
posted by Kecia 9:23 AM
Thursday, March 27, 2003
Alfonso Cuaron quote from the NYT: "Harry Potter deals with class, with race, with power. I see this book as a metaphor for our times. The evil Voldemort is very similar to Saddam Hussein. Or George Bush. They're really the same. I believe George Bush and Saddam Hussein should go to a desert island together and relax. It would be a love affair, like in ''Y Tu Mamá También.'' And then there would be no war."
Dave Barry on Weddings March 2, 2003
Every year, as we enter wedding season, I go to the bookstore and pick up a bridal magazine. Then I crumple to the floor with lower-back spasms, because during wedding season, bridal magazines achieve roughly the same mass as Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. They have hundreds of pages of advertisements and articles designed to help the bride, as she gets ready for her Special Day, go completely insane.
She can't help it. Your modern American wedding is more complex, in terms of logistics, than the invasion of Iraq. For one thing, the invasion planners don't have to decide on guest favors; the bride does, and it's not a simple decision. Here is what Modern Bride has to say on this topic in its 312-pound March issue:
"Gone are the days of giving guests mixed nuts in little plastic cups as wedding favors ... Brides today have so many options ... Choose unique favor container – tiny tins, clear plastic cones, little gossamer bags – and fill them with your favorite treats. Give each guest a silver frame ... Or tie a stack of your favorite cookies together with personalized ribbon. The choices are truly endless!"
And they are! Truly! Endless! Which is why tonight, while you're snoring the snore of the carefree, some stressed-out bride-to-be, who had once hoped (The fool!) to get by with mixed nuts in a cup, will be staring at her bedroom ceiling, asking herself: "Tiny tins? Gossamer bags? Personalized ribbon? Should I maybe personalize the gossamer? What IS gossamer?"
At dawn she's still struggling to make this decision, so she can get on with the other 158,000 critical bridal decisions – decisions she must make by herself, because she stopped talking to her mother weeks ago, following a bitter argument about the cake frosting. The bride, alone, must decide on her dress, shoes, flowers, invitations, place cards, caterer, photographer, and all the other wedding elements that must be perfect or her Special Day will be RUINED RUINED RUINED.
And don't tell me that the groom can help. Please. The groom is useless. Statistically speaking, something like 92 percent of all grooms are male. If you let males plan weddings you are going to wind up with Skee Ball at the reception.
No, the groom dropped out of the picture minutes after he proposed. For all the bride knows, he has been kidnapped by aliens. It does not matter. The bride must plunge grimly ahead, making decision after decision, day after stressful day, night after sleepless night, until she has, at most, two remaining marbles.
Unfortunately, the bride reaches this state just when she is turning her attention to the most abused victim group in America: bridesmaids. If you've ever wondered why you see so many weddings where the bridesmaids are unrecognizable, the answer is that these poor women were following the fashion orders of a crazed bride who wants all her bridesmaids, regardless of their physical nature, to have exactly the same "look," because otherwise her Special Day would be RUINED RUINED RUINED.
A few years ago my wife was a bridesmaid; the bride was the sweetest, most thoughtful person we've known. But she insisted that all her bridesmaids get a certain hairdo, which meant that my wife emerged from the beauty salon with this foot-high THING on her head formed by (1) her hair; (2) a substance that appeared to be either very strong hair spray or super glue; and (3) 14 million bobby pins. She had enough steel on her head to make a Cadillac Escalade. Her hairdo was interfering with aircraft compasses. She did not look like my wife. And she wasn't! She was . . . a bridesmaid!
Can anything be done to halt this craziness? Yes. Alert reader Lori Rispoli has come up with a brilliant solution:
"Have you ever wondered," she writes, "why it takes a bride months and months to plan a wedding, but a good funeral can be pulled together in two days? The elements are all the same – church, minister, music, flowers, guests, food."
Lori is absolutely right. What we need is a law prohibiting brides from planning their weddings more than, say, a week in advance. A bride caught violating this law would be subject to severe punishment, such as being forced to walk down the aisle to the tune of "I Shot the Sheriff".
Wouldn't that be great? Brides – and their loved ones – would be spared months of insanity. Weddings would be simpler, cheaper and more relaxed. Everybody would win! Except, of course, the people who put out the bridal magazines. They'd have to find something useful to do. But I'm sure they'll have no trouble. The choices are truly endless.
posted by Kecia 10:00 AM
Thursday, March 20, 2003
XIV -Stephen Crane
There was crimson clash of war.
Lands turned black and bare;
Women wept;
Babes ran, wondering.
There came one who understood not these things.
He said, "Why is this?"
Whereupon a million strove to answer him.
There was such intricate clamour of tongues,
That still the reason was not.
posted by Kecia 8:05 AM
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
Happy Birthday, discantus! "There is music in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument; for there is music wherever there is harmony, order, or proportion; and thus far we may maintain the music of the spheres" - Sir Thomas Browne
posted by Kecia 9:48 PM
Just So You Know Today is a good sort of day. I'm happier these days (in general) than I can ever remember being. World events notwithstanding, life is good.
This new sense of goodness is due to several things, one of which is probably my newest (or oldest, depending on how you look at it) escape hobby.
Tonight My dad's dog, Ceasar, is dying. My dad loves that dog; he pours into it all the love his children are no longer around to receive. And now, unexpectedly, Ceasar has sickened, and, unless something changes soon, he will die.
My mom and I got into an argument about the UN. She thinks it's useless and always has been, I think it's an important construct. I realized yesterday, after hearing about her recent visit to the doctor's office, that she won't be around forever. I now am dealing with enormous loads of guilt from moving so far away.
Found out that one of my friends' marriage is falling apart. This, as usual, has triggered my propensity to fret about my own relationship and my shortcomings therein.
Been down this entire weekend, actually. Haven't studied as much as I need to (have a test on Tuesday) and have generally been more depressive than since I started the medication. Not as far down as I got before, though, even if my mom thinks the medicine is doing nothing.
Three Easy Pieces Morning Humor I want one! (The baby is the nephew of one of my fellow grad students. It's cute, but the pages really show how much work a little one is . . . hmmm, maybe I should rethink my "I want one" declaration . . .)
And finally, hope for our times.
posted by Kecia 8:48 AM
Tuesday, March 11, 2003
Grading makes me Tired That is all.
posted by Kecia 9:53 PM
Amazing, as usual. Though I want to beat Harry and Ginny up. And give Remus and Sirius time to work it out alone. And give Neville hugs and chocolate and whatever else he might want. And that spell. Wow. I can think of so many who could make use of it, both in that world and this.
What are you waiting for?
posted by Kecia 11:56 AM
Wednesday, March 05, 2003
Fishing for . . . Something Because if Canis_M can do it, so can I.
I ___ Lyrelle.
Lyrelle is _____.
If I were alone in a room with Lyrelle, I would ______.
Lyrelle needs ______.
I want to ______ Lyrelle.
If I used one word to describe Lyrelle, it'd be ______.
I know that Lyrelle likes ______.
When I think of Lyrelle, I think of _______.
Someday, I think Lyrelle will ________.
Go on, do your worst. I promise not to hold it against you in a court of law.
posted by Kecia 12:36 PM
Sunday, March 02, 2003
So I've narrowed it down, mostly. Either I will stay in grad school and work in Dinman's lab and get my PhD and run to the nearest teaching position I can find, or I will switch to the MLS program, get my certification in school media, and poke around for a position in Howard county.
Now I just have to decide.
posted by Kecia 10:53 PM
a home for my blatherings on the web, because i have a real need to procrastinate more than i already do
