e_clare

Best birthday theme party ever: "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer".

I'm totally stealing this, and having an "All Things Considered" party next year. *g*

Dickon is on Broadway.

eehee hee!

Although I have fond memories of watching the Athens opening ceremonies and Paralympic swimming (at work and in Bath, respectively), it's been a long time since I really got into an Olympics season. The summer games never hold much interest for me -- the only sport I'm really interested in is riding, and those events are only broadcast in the wee hours of the morning -- and during the Salt Lake games, I was busy being a crazy high school senior, and trying to figure out what to do with my life.

Watching the (admittedly goofy) opening ceremonies on Friday night was a blast. I hadn't planned on watching any of the coverage, but I read the NYTimes recap of the ceremony on Friday afternoon, before it aired. And even though it sounded fantastic, nothing could have prepared me for the utter awesomeness of the 3-D mountainous dresses, or the giant celestial balloons, or Yoko Ono, or Pavarotti and his hankie. Nor was I prepared for the utter attractiveness of the athletes. There are some fine-looking people hanging out in Turin right now, is what I'm saying.

What this is leading up to: I feel like I spent the weekend watching TV. mirror_dancer came over for a cookie-baking date and more sports-watching (luge! moguls! PAIRS SKATING!). Eva and Rhea came over for dinner tonight and still more sports -- snowboarding and sk-jumping this time. ( And so much more! )

When I yelled, "Can we get drunk and watch the Olympics every weekend" last night? I was only half-kidding.

For banannagoats: Sven!

For olivia_circe (non-Olympic, but I found it unexpectedly saved): 19th-century!Giles

PostSecret manages to be simultaneously more depressing and uplifting than usual...and now I'd much rather sit and make Valentines instead of working on my thesis or making up questions about The Cherry Orchard. Could be dangerous.

At approximately 8 pm last night, I finished reading Ulysses. Now I just have to write a paper about it.

*polishes _kinch's info*

I made it through! I made it through the week!

The first week of November is the one that'll really kick my ass, but I have a wee break until then. *whew*

Tuesday, I had a six-hour shift to work the Howard Zinn event, co-sponsored by the local bookstore and several local social justice groups. Chapin was as packed as I've ever seen it; I heard they were turning people away because there simply weren't seats. Howard and Anthony were both wicked nice, and obviously excited to be here. Since Voices is about the People's Voices, it wasn't a straight-up book reading; instead, 18 performers (including my housemate, Biz, hi!) read excerpts of the documents and speeches. The social justice groups and union organizers wanted to give the event a local slant, so in addition to talking about Shays' Rebellion (which happened in Northampton), there were pieces from a Holyoke mill worker, Frances Perkins, a Northampton peace activist, and a Belchertown military mother (the last two were present to perform their own letters -- very cool).

Howard is obviously getting on in years, and it seemed like his energy flagged near the end of the 90-minute presentation, but he was gracious and chatty with everyone during the book-signing that followed. I didn't have a book, or get a picture taken (like one lucky Becky P. did two years ago), but it was still a thrill to have met him.

I'm off to snuggle up with Oscar in the library, and likely take a nap. It's thrilling how my thesis reading has become my pleasure reading, no?

Hooray! Exams are over! For all I've been insanely stressed out all semester, this exam week was the most relaxed exam week I've ever had -- including high school. It just didn't seem to matter that much: I know what I know, and based on my last papers, my professors are prepared to reward me well for very little of what I know. Not sure if that's a good thing or not, but whatever. Stick a fork in it, etc.

Best of luck to everybody still slogging through finals hell at home (and even more luck to those who haven't yet entered the hell). I'm off to do laundry and possibly (finally?) go to the Baths.

Quite a nice weekend overall, despite the massive amount of work that I (should) have been doing. A brief Complaint, and then the Happy Stuff, in Easy to Read Daily Highlight format:

Complaint: I /hate/ dishes. I've spent at least 90 minutes today washing and putting away various dishes--as I seem to do every day. I know, I know: 9 people, lots of food, lots of dishes. But it feels like there are very few of us who actually take the time to put the clean dishes (and more importantly, silverware) back. The dish rack ain't that big, folks--and while we're on the subject, it'd be great if people could make sure that a dish is completely free of crustiness before they set it to dry in said rack. *sigh*

Happy!Friday: Blenheim Palace is way cool, and the gardens are way huge. Three hours is way too much time to spend there. Letters from alcavana, ejberman, kmmatero and a wedding announcement from lkmaxwell--eeeeee! Housemate Jeff is v. jealous.

Happy!Saturday: phone call from kmmatero--warm fuzzies! Jeff demands a pie at dinner; roommate Sian starts looking at recipes to see what we could conceivably make. 10 minutes later, she's atop the garden wall out back, picking apples off our neighbour's tree. In the dark. I collect what she's picked, have a brief case of hysterics and drop them all when startled by a camera flash, but recover enough to help bake 2 enormous apple crisps. Mmmm. We then spend an hour going through cookbooks, marking recipes and making a list for shopping tomorrow. (Nerds. I love it!)

Sunday (meh): Strategically planned a visit to the Nelson House computers during the dinner hour. Had place all to myself, and could mess about on internet to heart's content. Only real sadness: nobody online at home to talk to. :( (I'm not really addicted. I could stop at any time, I swear.)

O, happy day! Got another Freaks and Geeks disc from Netflix, The Amazing Race premieres in 10 minutes, and if all's gone well at the theater, I get to see King Arthur tonight. Brilliant!

Nothing of any substance here, really. Just giddy joy. :D

Edited to add substance: Got my housing assignment for Bath next fall. Quelle coincidence: My roommate? Goes to Denison. Heh. :)

I'm done. Hallelujah!

It would have been better if I hadn't slept from 6 am to noon...but whatever. It's over. *dances for joy*

It's an absolutely gorgeous day today; finally, spring has arrived. It's basically caught up to the weather in Dijon--I have to admit that it was like this all last week in France, and I had quite the climatical shock coming back.

Hitting the diner w/ members of the Brel cast last night (and special guest banannagoats) really helped my mood. I still feel really distanced from the cast for the most part, but I also feel like it's going to get better. *fingers crossed*

As tonight marks the first of our Friday night rehearsals, I'm off to do homework. Yay.

But first: eeeeeeee!