sooooo on friday they announced a major restructuring of my department (basically half of the department- not my half- is being moved to another group, and my half is changing names and taking on some events from a different area) in a meeting that i missed. i didn't have the energy to be anxious about it all weekend but now i'm back at work and everyone is whispering about it and that is making me anxious. we're having a meeting at 11 to "discuss our questions and concerns." my concern is not so much what is happening but like, if i will still have a job at the end of the fiscal year. it's like... 99% likely that i will, but my worry is that my job will change so much that i will hate it. oh well, can't do anything about it now.

i had a very full weekend ! friday was the opening of mike and jeanne's art show at part time studios in fishtown, so mouse and i went down there. their show was sea-junk themed and everything both of them made was absolutely stunning.



i'm really proud of both of them. fishtown is... weird, i basically never go there and didn't even realize this block was there, but there was a little block of galleries and junk (including the fabled coffee shop that biz lives over ! where i... saw two of my coworkers? it was like seeing bugs bunny in real life or something). fishtown is full of weird people who look like aliens who heard tell of earth hipsters and tried to emulate their look without the use of the earth internet, so there was lots of weird flapper clothes, giant feathers in peoples' hair, and slouchy socks. i also saw at least two bolo ties. the gallery was pretty crowded because it was first friday, so i got to very briefly see and barely talk to a lot of people i like. here are my two favorite things from the show:


unfortunately i don't have a full picture of this, but it is a beautiful melusine by jeanne


a leviathan by mike !!!! my actualllll favorite of his was this tiny fiji mermaid but this is my other favorite

afterward, mouse and i went to whole foods and i came home, where i went to bed surprisingly early to avoid cleaning my apartment for company this weekend.

on saturday, i procrastinated so hard i actually played windows solitaire (i use cumulative scoring so i end up in the hole, and always think one more game will get me back in the black), but ended up doing an okay job cleaning my room and getting my laundry together and getting some of my junk off of the couch. my friend brian from connecticut was in town, and luckily was up for a bunch of stationary back pain fun. we got indian buffet and gelato and then watched the naked gun, which i just realized is available on netflix instant !



it kind of fell apart from there because, as you know, there is basically nothing good on netflix instant, but it was fun. i ended up actually going to sleep early, which is sort of a bummer because i go to sleep at 4am on work nights, but i slept for like ten hours, which is unheard of. i think it might be due to the fact that roxy jr. didn't sleep in my room and it was raining so it was like super dark in my bedroom.

oh yeah ! i introduced pizza to roxy jr. on saturday too !



they are not really getting along yet- lots of hissing and growling, though surprisingly pizza seems to be the alpha (do cats have alphas?) and roxy jr. immediately backs down. no real fighting or confrontations, but no grooming and cuddling yet. oh wellllllllll.

on sunday, i met up with brian, christina, nick, and sandi at local 44 for brunch. christina had gone up to nyc to see wild flag with nick and sandi, and then brought them back to see wild flag here. local 44 was kind of disappointing (righttttt after i updated my yelp reviewwwwwwww)- bland bloody marys and the removal of vegetarian disco fries from the menu was pretty heartbreaking. nothing really looked too appealing on the menu, so i chose the new menu item replacing the disco fries with eggs on top that i had last time- weird spicy french fries with eggs on top. i'm not sure why i got this because i'm not really wild about french fries, but it was pretty gross- the fries were super super super super salty, they didn't taste hot at all, and they were pretty dessicated. also the eggs were the size of peanuts.

i tricked everyone into going to cvs with me afterward to get cat supplies, and i also treated myself to some nail polish-


rimmel hot cocoa, purple rain, and steel gray

and then came back home and hung out with nick and sandi while christina napped, and then *i* napped, and then they all went to see wild flag again (i'm bummed that i didn't try to go to this- my back was so messed up when christina strongly urged me to go see them that i thought i'd never be able to go, but it looked fucking amazing and i love mary timony and ahhhhhhhhh). after they got home i had some wonderful drunk bonding with them all, and then watched futurama in bed until it was time to go to sleep- 2am, still pretty early !

so, overall, good weekend. not much on the horizon this week except lots of work, hanging out with mouse, maybe going to ryann's show at the bean if i can make it (the walking junk is still pretty tedious), introducing jeanne to roxy jr, blah blah.

p.s. i love nick and sandi
p.p.s. work is stressful right now

back on the chain gang

man. i really want to go get a latte but i keep forgetting and putting on this disgusting minted rose lip balm. i accidentally bought it instead of regular smith's rosebud salve :(



what a weekend ! on friday, christina and i went to south philly to go to target and the pet store to get ready for the new cat. my back was bothering me and we were both exhausted, so it wasn't thatttttt exciting of a trip. i got TP for our bungholes, and dish soap, and a pet hair roller, and some cat food. i'm trying very hard to switch pizza to wet food, specifically wellness brand (when she and weirdo ate this together, her dander and shedding reduced by like 100%), but she hates pate style cat food. i got a few of the wellness pouches to see if she liked them, and she does, buttttttt feeding instructions indicate that she would need five pouches a fucking day !



i think i'm going to try giving her a mix of the wellness wet food and wellness dry food and see if that helps. it will certainly be cheaper than like, $6/day which is more than i spend to feed myself (not counting coffee) per day. i alsoooooooo met up with jeanne's friend jim (MY friend jim now !) who lives on my block and was kind enough to lend me his cat carrier for my trip the next day.

on saturday, christina and i woke up at 6:30am (after both falling asleep at 4:30am) and drove to brooklyn to get my new cat ! we met up with nick and sandi and their friend hanna first at hope and anchor in red hook for brunch. i got a bloody mary (bloody roxy/roxy mary), which was pretty intense (very horseradishy, very strong, pickled asparagus spear, olives, etc !!!!)



but i was pretty disappointed about the other food i ordered. i had a breakfast burrito, which was actually like... 8lbs of breakfast food rolled in a tortilla, which two open ends. it was so gigantic and wasn't meant to be picked up, and it was a big disappointment because i had to basically dissect it to eat it. i also got a root vegetable hash which should have been good, but it was unevenly cooked and underseasoned. i also tried some of their french toast, and it was mediocre. buttttttttttttt i got to see nick and sandi, who are my favorites, and i got to see my old buddy milo, who is just eyes:



after thattttt we went to go pick up my new cat. his previous owners were very nice and gracious and friendly, and seemed sad to see him go (they have toddlers who are just learning to walk, and his personality does not go with that- more on that later). his name was mr. puffins, which... i changed immediately, though his previous owner calling him "puffy" seems to have stuck as a nickname because i keep calling him that ! anyway, meet roxy jr.:



i haven't had a chance to take any good pictures yet, but he's like... the most beautiful animal i've ever seen in person. he has blue eyes (no, he isn't deaf) and the pinkest nose and the longest, silkiest coat. that's the good news. the bad news is that he quite possibly has the world's worst personality? he isn't just getting adjusted or anything, he seems generally pretty comfortable, so i think this is him ! he likes to curl up right next to you and be petted ON HIS HEAD ONLY for less than 10 seconds, and if you touch his body or pet his head for 11 seconds, he starts hissing and growling and swats at you and bites you. this is pretty hilarious because he's wearing soft paws and he only has one tooth. he kind of sadly gums your hand and then gives up.

so far i think it's pretty funny, but i wonder if it will bum me out that i'm now saddled with my dream cat and he fucking hates me. at least he wants to sit next to me all the time? but is that any consolation? because of the forbidden fruit aspect.



i was super exhausted when we got home, so i took a short nap, and then mouse, meesh, and brendan came over to take a look at the cat. he didn't disappoint- he walked around rubbing against everyone's legs and growling like a crazy person !

on sundayyyy, mouse and i went to adobe in manayunk, where i, for some reason ordered a taco pizza? it was pretty rough, i was only able to eat about two of the triangles. i never actually think about what i'm ordering at restaurants and usually end up hating what i get- in this instance, i was like "well i like tacos, and i like pizza"



we had fun, though- he also helped me run some errands (because of my back)- i dropped my laundry off, bought more aleve, and went grocery shopping (this week's breakfast/lunch menu: cherry greek yogurt and granola, string cheese, cinnamon applesauce, carrots, oranges, and bean burritos. baby food !). it was also nice to hang out with him, because i hadn't in a million years.

soooo. yup. my back is still pretty hopelessly fucked- i can get around and stuff, but every morning the pain resets and it takes a lot to get going. i made an appointment last month with an orthopedic guy, but the earliest available appointment was march 24, so i have another month of miseryyyy. it gets worse on the weekends because i sleep more and sit at a desk less (oddly, sitting at a desk really helps), so i'm already feeling a lot better today.

okay, i have to go do some work !!!

p.s. i'm seeing jonathan richman tomorrow, and i totally forgot ! pleasant surprise.

cool thoughts on the present situation

first ! christine, brooke, and i started our history blog, cool thoughts. the name is based on a document brooke and i saw at the benjamin franklin underground museum called cool thoughts on the present situation of our public affairs (authored by one benjamin franklin, alias mrs. silence dogood), and the blog is woefully located on tumblr because the name "cool thoughts" is literally taken everywhere else, and is mostly parked domains or blogs of like, "confucious say..." shit and doors quotes. alas ! anyway, the purpose of the blog is for us to post anything we are reading about or interested in throughout history, in any format, whenever we want. if you'd like to contribute something (anything !), please send it to coolthoughts@nervous.org.



one of my main goals here is to get comfortable talking about things i know about< without the crippling fear of being wrong or considered "not smart enough"- this is a problem many people have, i'm sure, but women specifically are made to feel intellectually inferior or like they have to apologize for or soften their opinions. it may not seem like i have a big problem with this if you know me, but it's something i struggle with every day- especially in regard to my lack of formal education.

what else ! i've been taking an ill-advised break from reading for the past few days because my brain needed a break, which means i'm going to have to really and sincerely bust ass all weekend to get everything done. i have a research proposal, a few essays, and a rough draft for my genocide paper due. i'm actually waiting for my professor's feedback for the rough draft- she's really awesome but can be a little slow with stuff over e-mail, and our class meeting is canceled this week. anyway, i've been mostly farting around watching simpsons dvds, and it's been... heavenly.


i only have seasons 5-9

i also ended up breaking down and buying cataclysm, the next world of warcraft expansion. i am waffling about whether or not i want to play- like, i just don't have time for wow anymore with school, and i have mixed feelings about the new 10 man raiding structure. like, i love the dudes (and two women) i play with, but i often found myself being the 11th man when 10 mans were forming up previously. i'm not the most amazing player, but i was better than some other people who were chosen, and that was because i had a lot of personality conflicts with some shitty random norms in the guild (like a handful of idiot privilege denyin' dudes who wanted to be able to call women bitches and stuff). luckily those dudes were sort of phased out or alienated (by me !) so there's a small chance things will be different now, but who knows? yesterday was a patch day, and the world was ripped apart and orgrimmar was redesigned, and everything honestly looks pretty cool. i also saved the name astralweeks for a goblin shaman. sigh. i really like this fucking game, who am i kidding.



what else ! oh ! nick and sandi are coming today ! sandi told me not to eat anything in anticipation of a family dinner? which is exciting and also easy to do because i'm only at work for 3 hours today and i forgot to bring lunch and also i have zero groceries that aren't thanksgiving ingredients (actually i have some trader joe's burritos i guess). i'm excited to see them because it's been figuratively forever. also i get to bro down with christina, who just got back from san francisco.

my plans for the break? cooking, hanging out, thanksgiving with jeanne and mike, reading, writing, agonizing, procrastinating, simpsons, history, internet. i gotta get some work done in my last 30 minutes at work, though, so.. ttyl. happy thanksgiving !

yes we arrre, yes we arre

this was a long fucking weekend ! but guess what guys ! i actually got some work done. not as much as i should have, but it's a vast improvement over previous weeks.

on friday, i did some grocery shopping and read half of s.: a novel about the balkans by slavenka drakulic. it's not a long book, and i probably could've finished it, but i felt like i was having a fucking panic attack halfway through and i had to put it down.



okay, i understand that i'm writing a paper about genocide and rape and sexual violence, so this stuff isn't exactly avoidable, and i should steel myself for it. however, i don't necessarily see the merit of reading a super super in depth descriptive novel about how rape makes you feel. like, on the one hand, of course it's important to understand and appreciate the horror of what happens in these situations, but the book was pretty vague on facts and high on emotional response, and an unfortunately high number of women are already personally aware of these feelings. like, not comparing and weighting experiences against each other or anything (since systematic rape during war in camps set up for rape is obviously not the situation in which most women are assaulted), but i don't necessarily think that it's important to make undergrad students feel, experience, or relive rape and the trauma that follows rape in order to teach them about rapes that have occurred (especially since undergrad males across the country are doing such a great job of making sure college-age women are aware of them). at the very least, i think it was kind of irresponsible to assign the book without a disclaimer, as most of the other material we're reading is straight statistics or dry facts. i know it's a class about genocide, and that i'm going to have to read many, many, many horrific things, but i think rape is unique because it's so personally relatable and familiar to so many women, no matter the context it occurs in.*



it's sort of hard to switch to light-hearted stuff after this ! but i need to ! for my brain ! christina's friend chris stayed over that night, and in the morning we all met up with mouse (whose name, if you didn't know, is ALSO chris), and got ethiopian breakfast and got coffee at green line. jesse made me this beautiful mean latte:



and i got some reading done and eavesdropped on people ! on saturday night, mouse and i went up to his mom's so i could hang out with scottie the baby (his nephew). ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh god he is the cutest fucking baby ! daisy the dog (and rookie the dog) was also there, and she seemed... a little jealous of the attention the baby was getting.



we had a great time though. scottie just learned how to do that buhbuhbuhbuhbuhbuhbuh thing where you put your finger in front of your mouth and make your lips vibrate. also he just laughs randomly and it's really cool ! i also wore my hair down so he could pull it a little and he was psyched. after that, i came home and read more- i finished s., and i read part of the chapter about bosnia-herzegovina in our textbook.

sundayyyyy i went to trader joe's to get stuff for lunch (which i forgot to bring to work today !) and mostly chilled out with christina and the cats. christina cooked a bunch of delicious food and let me eat some of it, and i got sort of panicky about my writing class essays and only finished one. i really really need to get my shit together ASAP so i get an okay grade in this class. i just like... can't make myself care about it, and the instructions are all so muddled and weird. i think it speaks volumes that i'm getting As on every single paper in a 400 level history class but doing subpar work in a 100 level required writing class. i'm not trying to downplay my responsibility here, since i've been a pretty crappy student, but it's a pretty crappy program. even with a good instructor who's doing her best with the material she has to teach, it's incomprehensible. hateeee it.

um, what else? i got my eyebrows waxed on friday and they gave me a free nail polish because one time in the winter they were closing and couldn't do my eyebrows. they've already given me a free eyebrow wax, a discounted eyebrow wax, and a different nail polish for this same incident, but i'm not complaining. nail polish is my one stereotypically feminine vice- in middle and high school i painted my nails a different color every fucking day even though i didn't brush my hair and i wore old man's pants and t-shirts from the flea market. the color i got is um, lucerne-tainly look marvelous? which is like a gun metal with teeny glitter.



oh yeah. i possibly registered for spring classes? they aren't on my schedule now but christina thinks that they're off while they're working on registrations and crap. the classes i selected are:

Course title: Elementary German II
Course description: A continuation of GRMN 101. The student's expression and comprehension are expanded through the study of literature and social themes.

Course title: Creative Non-Fiction Writing: Perspectives in Race, Class, and Gender
Course description: A workshop course in the writing of expository prose. Assignments include informal as well as formal essays, covering such topics as autobiography, family history, review, interview, analysis of advertising and popular culture, travel, work, and satire.

imaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagine how fucking annoying that second class will be ! imagine ! i can't fucking wait. i think my plan is to see how the creative non-fiction classes are and then take a couple of them, because it will come in handy for history windbagging.

anyway, this was a pretty good weekend. my plan for this week is to get caught up with my writing class (like tonight, or tomorrow) and get more into my genocide research for my big paper. luckily these idiots are committed to helping me:



i swear this blog will get interesting again once school is over, and then become not-interesting again when school starts again.

* please note that i'm talking about teaching this material in a specific context- an american ivy league university, undergrad class, in 2010, with a specific student population. i know that there are many, many places and times in history where other factors of genocide besides rape would be familiar and palpable and real to people learning about them

i'd love to love you, lover

dudes ! dudes ! i seriously did zero work this weekend and i'm freaking out ! i don't know what's wrong with me ! usually i am a master procrastinator, which means i procrastinate but am able to get things done by a deadline, but i really dropped the ball. i think my big problem here is my writing assignment, because nothing on earth interests me less. to be fair, though, i'm behind on a genocide assignment too, and nothing interests me more.


the most interesting search result for "procrastination." poor guy.

on friday, i...? i'm not sure. i got a car to go to whole foods, but i didn't realize it was like 9:30 at night, so i ended up dropping my laundry off and wandering around cvs for awhile. i'd had 9 shots of espresso at that point so i was mentally insane, and i stopped at a light next to a giant mcrib billboard and was totally perplexed by it. now, i have eaten a mcrib before ! i know about mcribs ! i call those morningstar riblets 'mcribs'. furthermore, the billboard featured a giant picture of a mcrib. despite all of that information, i stared at it for the duration of a light and could not figure out what the sign said. i was like, "m.. crib? m.c. rib? m crib?" please note that i also know what mcdonalds is and am familiar with their naming convention.



on saturday, i cleaned my room a little (not totally) and went to the green line to study. this did not go well, but i had a wonderful time hanging out by myself listening to weird al. also, patchie came in and hung out with me and it was the first time i ever hung out with her FOR REAL, and she is fucking cool. she let me windbag her about genocide and we talked about what a dork god is. mouse met up with us after that and he and i went grocery shopping and came back to my house to watch the masque of mandragora. it was awesome to hang out and watch doctor who with him (and eat the thanksgiving food i bought for $1000000 from whole foods' hot bar !) because we haven't had time to hang out for real in weeks.



i have the novelization of this story (because i suck), and i'd always pronounced it man-dra-GOR-uh but it turns out it's man-DRAG-or-uh ! fascinating ! basically a ball of energy and that dr. doom guy were going to prevent the renaissance from happening through fake doctor who science and some people got caught on fire and the doctor stole two horses. not too bad? i have specific interest in people getting all burnt up in a movie (especially if a charred skeleton is left behind !) so i was satisfied, but mouse was disappointed that the doctor didn't kick anyone in the nuts. after mouse went home i stayed up late and accidentally ended up watching a softcore hbo porno called "cougar school" which had serious script problems.

on sunday, christina invited me to get ethiopian breakfast with her and amber !!! i had to study, but i realized that i wouldn't have actually studied if i didn't go, so i went with them. amber is the best- she's so funny and cool and it's great to have other friends who understand anxiety junk. neither of them had ever been to abyssinia for breakfast/brunch before and they loved it as much as i do ! sigh. amber got the ye'inqulal tibias (which is scrambled eggs with cool spices and hot peppers and tomatoes and onions), and christina had her first bowl of foul <3<3<3<3<3 i also got dabo fitfit for all of us, which is just... french bread ripped up and soaked in a spicy tomato and onion sauce, which sounds super simple but is like one of the best things i've ever tasted.



we got coffee at the green line after that and had a wonderful time talking and sitting in the window seat. eric was working and he told me he saw me on ravelry, which is probably like... the least embarrassing time anyone has commented on my internet activity. i trieddddd to do some work when they left but i got caught in a weird youtube loop where i tried to find every instance of cookie monster wearing clothes (healthy food rap, various monsterpiece theaters, etc.). jesse and her friends also came by for a minute and entertained me, so i gave up and spent $40 at cvs buying like, lipsmackers and arm hair bleach.


i'm beggin' of you, please don't burn my arms

at hoooooome i tried again to do some reading, but i ended up talking to christina about the x-files, fucking with the cats, posting romantic stuff on facebook, and re-organizing my itunes. i did like one third of one assignment at some point (which took like 20 minutes, leading me to believe that i could've done all that work in 2 hours or so !).

sooooo today i have a bunch of work stuff to do, and i'm going to try for a miracle as far as getting school stuff done at lunch. i need to take a trip to the mouse-infested library (i mean that in a good way, because i have positive feelings about vermin) at some point today too because i need to bring shit to class. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i have so much to do !

p.s. i'm taking a mental health day tomorrow !

east timor

i gotta make it quick cause i have a meeting soon ! hey !

yesterday i mostly slept. i meant to do reading for school but i didn't really get much done because i felt so crummy. i guess that's like... barely even interesting for me to write about, huh? anyway, later that night jeanne and i got dinner ! i didn't eat all day because i didn't feel well, but i got super super starving right before i had to go and i couldn't take it anymore, so i... ate like 10 pickled baby beets on an empty stomach !


please enjoy this genius covered in beet juice

so by the time i got to the restaurant, i had a pretty gross stomach ache ! which was a shame because i ate a big cream-based dinner (pappardelle in a cream sauce with sun-dried tomatoes, onions, shitake mushrooms, marsala wine, pecorino cheese). also, i decided recently that my new signature drink is scotch on the rocks, and i e-mailed my mom and consulted with my friend justin about how to order it in a bar, and was totally ready, but i got a shirley temple instead because my stomach was so upset. maybe next time.



after dinner, we got frozen yogurt at scoop de ville, and then i had to take a cab home because i had to use the bathroom and we were in a weird bathroom desert (i usually know where every public bathroom is and the closest one, barnes and noble, was closed). i got home and hung out with the kitten and edited my essay and got to catch up with christina a little- i've barely seen her since she got back from new hampshire !

sooooo, the kitten. she does not understand the importance of the litterbox. like, she goes in the litter half the time, but the other half she either goes 1) NEAR the litter or 2) where ever. i'm going to have to figure out what to do to give her the encouragement she needs. i'm not home during the day, but when i am home i grab her and put her in the litterbox if i see her squatting to go to the bathroom. other than that, she's super weird and cute. i can entertain her for an hour by putting my hair in a ponytail and setting her on the back of the couch.



i wish that accurately conveyed her smallness. that's christina's flip flop, and christina has little tiny feet (little tiny adult sized feet !). her flip flops are like, a 5.5-6 in womens' sizes. so the kitten is REALLY SMALL.

i have to go because my coworker needs help with something that she made much more convoluted than it needed to be, and i also have a staff meeting. bleh.

oh by the way ! i meant to post this picture of mouse and his nephew because it's the greatest thing ever, so i'm posting it in honor of mouse's birthday. he's not excited about his birthday but i am because he is cool and my favorite.



lots of reading to do today. lots of work at work.

we are 139

yesterday was my 138th entry ! hayyy.

this morning my eyes were so swollen and i looked like this guy:



christina put zyrtec eyedrops in my eyes, which was super relieving, and i took a zyrtec- the alavert i was taking just wasn't cutting it, and i feel a little better, but i also had to drink a 32 oz iced coffee to combat it and now i feel like, Very Insane.

the bigggggg news is that weirdo's owners found out we had her, so we had to bring her back to them. it was a bummer because she's back outside already. the cat seriously has zero street smarts and is constantly almost getting hit by cars. i guess they'll be sorry when she's dead? we'll miss you, weirdo (and i reserve the right to name any future cat i get "weirdo II" with a silent "II").



at least jeanne got to meet her ! jeanne came over and petted her forever, and then we ordered delicious thai food. i had crazy allergy head/face so i didn't feel like going anywhere, so we hung out at my house and talked. jeanne is coooooooool. after she left, i read some of huckleberry finn. wow, huckleberry finn is a total sociopath ! i remember his exploits sounding a lot more fun and clever when i was a kid and now i'm like, "what a maniac." i'm kind of kidding, but kind of not kidding too. reading nothing but huckleberry finn and a million genocide books and articles this semester is probably going to turn me into an empty shell of a person who eats a lot of corn pone.



i got some yarn in the mail, too, to make baby stuff for some babies ! first, i'm making mouse's nephew scottie a tiny little mailman replica cardigan (using a patch from one of mouse's old work shirts), and this pattern:



and knitpicks worsted swish superwash in dark navy:



and i'm going to make the presto chango cardigan for helen's upcoming baby



with garnet heather swish worsted yarn, which looks a little like this but is more vibrant with black heathering:



and these faux jet buttons from etsy:



i'm pretty excited to do some baby knitting, since it seems like things will knit up fast and i have a little while before i need to finish, but i ammmmmm a little worried about knitting time vs. school time. i barely knitted anything over summer, but knitting in the summer also kind of sucks. oh, i also bought these buttons on etsy, for use with... some other baby thing? maybe a fancy baby sweater?



they seem too beautiful to waste on a baby (i love babies, but they don't know an ornate button from a shit-lined shoe) but they're also super tiny and i think they'd get lost on any kind of adult garment. i just need to meet a really elegant and fancy and worldly baby. maybe a millionaire baby? dannielynn birkhead? hillary swank?



i guess i should get to work- i'm going to read huckleberry finn on my lunch break, and do a little reading for my genocide class. i have to write a response paper for that class, which is intimidating because i don't really know what that is. here's what the professor wrote us:

I encourage everyone to try out a response paper for Thursday. This will help you codify the definitional questions involved in the study of genocide and perhaps clarify some deeper thoughts you have on the subject. It will also give you a chance to see how these response papers work. As I mentioned last Thursday, guiding questions will be posted each week. Feel free to use them as a guide when writing your response paper. I have found that the most successful response papers engage one question or a set of closely related questions in a sustained way. Response papers are semi-formal--please correct spelling and grammar before handing them in! You should also feel free to draw on personal experience, and by all means use the first person.

hopefully this all works out and it isn't graded too harshly- we have 13 weeks in class and only have to write 10 papers, so i could skip it, but i want all the feedback i can get, so i'm going to try my best and try not to be too worried about "doing it wrong."

okay cya !

my fiction beats the hell out of my truth

heyyyy dudes. i had a pretty low-key, uneventful weekend. on friday, i actually went out somewhere ! christina and i met amber at the south philly tap room. i haven't seen amber in like a billion years because she moved out to the sticks a few years ago, but she's back ! it was really great to see her. the south philly tap room is famous because they used to serve lion meat, but they don't serve that now and they didn't have any vegetarian lion meat.



i got a strawberry and asparagus salad, which probably sounds disgusting but was very delicious (it was a warm salad with spinach and pine nuts and goat cheese and red onions), and... a tomato sandwich. it was the special, and one of my ultimate comfort foods, and it was really good, but paying $8 for that sandwich is insane. also it was on really thick good bread, which is sort of a nightmare when your sandwich fillings are like, some goo.



after dinner, we went to capo giro to get gelato (i got dark chocolate and this weird candied black cherry one that is The Best) and hung out. it was so so so nice to see amber. after that, we came home and i can't remember what happened after that. i probably stayed up real late.

on saturday, christina and i went to pick up her computer and get a cord to transfer stuff from my old computer, and we went to loop to visit amber (two days in a row !). seriously, loop is my favorite yarn store ever. they have an awesome selection and everything is really well-stocked, and they put the prices on everything. they also have really good sales. i got two balls of noro chirimen #1 and another ball of sheep shop yarn.


noro chirimen #1


sheep shop one, lilac

when we got home, i went over to mouse's to watch mouse and mike wrestle. that wasn't too bad, i mostly just sat on a blanket in the grass- it was actually almost cold out ! then we got indian buffet for dinner, which was already more bland and less spicy cause the penn kids are back, and went to capo giro again (!). then mike came over to my house to watch survivorman.

on sunday, mouse and i met up and ate a late lunch in fairmount park. we picked a random spot and there was like one thousand geese there (to my delight and mouse's chagrin). mouse wasn't feeling well so he didn't even protest too much when i fed the geese some (pitted) cherries. i really should not have fed them anything butttt they came up to me and it was really cute and scary, cause geese are assholes. it's also funny because the geese were hanging out on a bike path, and instead of running off to the sides into the grass when bikes came, they'd haul ass down the bike path. luv u, geese.



after the park, we came back to my house and watched the terminator. maybe it's because i'd never seen it in HD before, but i never noticed that you can see arnold's dong in the beginning? also, i really want to buy the shirt kyle reese wears from old navy or something.


i posted that sentiment on facebook and my brother said "didn't he just wear a trenchcoat over a flashbeagle shirt?"

yesssssssterday i was supposed to go see mouse's band, but i got horrible diarrhea from the pound of cherries i ate the day before (i'm worried about the geese !) what better day than to finish the girl with the dragon tattoo. i thought this would be a fun book to read to make fun of, but it was actually like the dullest garbage ever and not even fun/funny !



so, if you haven't read this book, i'll save you the trouble- the plot is that this disgraced journalist gets hired to investigate the disappearance of a wealthy industrialist's niece in the 60s. it turns out that her brother and father are serial killers and serial rapists and she ran away to australia to live in secrecy or something. and also some boring stuff about business.

cons
- the book was super poorly translated, either by someone who doesn't speak english or someone who doesn't speak swedish
- it was basically like.. rape and torture porn?
- it took 350 fucking pages for something interesting to happen and then they dragged it out for like 350 more pages
- the business stuff? no one gives a shit.
- he forgot to really put the title character in the book, and repeated the same things about her over and over and over again- an ANOREXIC BITCH, socially awkward, socially retarded, damaged, a VICTIM, pierced eyebrows, tattoos, etc. also does anyone else think that 95lbs at "just barely 4'11" doesn't sound that skinny? it's small but it's in the normal weight range for that height.
- i mentioned this before, but he forgot to make lisbeth salander socially awkward in her interactions with people, despite telling us that she was 100000 times, and he forgot to make mikael blomkvist charming in HIS interactions despite telling us he was 100000 times.
- the rape and torture was just tooooooo fucking over the top and unnecessary and unbelievable
- there were too many fucking people in the vanger family. i kept having to flip back to see who people were.
- super poorly edited
- the book was also basically an advertisement for apple computers and he never once said 'his computer' or 'her laptop', it was always 'his ibook' or 'her powerbook'.

i have a million other complaints with how crappy this stupid book was but i can't even remember them cause it was so boring.

soooooo, my classes start thursday. i'm really nervous about getting books and stuff ! i got the syllabuses for both classes, and they both mention a required text, but then they also mention other books we'll be reading in the weekly plans, so am i supposed to buy those too? i'm really nervous in general because i haven't been to an actual classroom in like ten years. buhhh what if everyone hates me and i'm too stupid for school?

i'm at work now, and i look really cool.

p.s. once my friend diana posted on a messageboard about those tomato sandwiches and this dude said, "ahhhh, the classic t"
p.p.s. Initially, Zona's cause of death was listed as "everlasting faint"; later, this was changed to "childbirth".