Fun time is over

Andrew left to go back to Ontario this morning. It was a lot harder to say goodbye to him than I thought it would be. He actually doesn't fly out until 7:30pm tonight, but he had to take the 10:30 bus this morning to get there on time. We, of course, stayed up until 5am or something crazy this morning playing Settlers of Catan on my laptop. Those are some of my favourite moments from his visit - the 4am victories. Anyway, now I'm on my own again and have to clean up and do a whack of work this week. *Sigh* This is the price of love, I suppose.

Speaking of love, I did a cute test today, courtesy of Chantal. Here are my results:

	Love-a-Lot Bear You love to take care of others and people love being around you because you make them feel appreciated. You are very sweet and soft-spoken. You are also a romantic and consider yourself an excellent matchmaker, so you tend to be a bit nosy. But everyone still considers you the sweetest person they know.
Take the Which Care Bear Are You? Quiz!

This could explain my sadness at the fact that my lover has gone home.

I was going to write "In other news," but there's not really any other news to report. I finished my thesis pages on Friday night, which felt really good. I'm teaching two lessons this week in my first year class on The Collector by John Fowles. I've loved this novel since high school, but have never studied it, so it should be fun to be able to talk about it with the class. I'm going to go now and do some work.

The exhilarating joy of movement

New Resolution: To dance like no one is watching when there really is no one watching. Last night I locked myself in my study and danced to the songs on the Scrubs soundtrack. It was the most fun I've had in ages. I listen to music on my MP3 player on my way to and from school and when I'm working in the library, but I can't really dance while I listen to it at that time, though I want to. I love to dance. I'm not saying that I have the smoothest moves, because I totally don't, but dancing is about the joy of just moving, the freedom of the music, the experience of your own body. At least, for me it is. I haven't been to an actual dance club in months and months (since September - go 'Vil!), and that means that I haven't been able to get my dance on. Well, that's not entirely true. Last term when I was trying to be healthy and take care of myself (a short-lived experience), I would try to dance as a fun form of aerobics for half an hour a few nights a week. Of course, with this structure and the pressure of getting myself in shape, it wasn't fun. I kept worrying about my heartrate and my moves and whether the neighbours downstairs could hear me jumping around and whether anyone could see in my window. What made last night different was that I danced for the hell of it. I felt like doing it, so I did. I didn't worry about whether my moves would look good on a dancefloor. I wasn't on one, so I just waved my arms around like an idiot and sang into my imaginary microphone to my imaginary audience, and had a great time. I have decided that I need to do this more often, and perhaps add real singing to the mix (though quietly - I don't want the neighbours to hear me).

This dancing was of course just another way of procrastinating my thesis. My thesis is coming along, by the way. I have just 4 pages to go. Of course, it's due today at some point, but 4 pages isn't bad. I'm in much better shape than I was for my first 20 pages in December. I think I wrote about 11 or 15 of those pages on the day it was due. So, 4 isn't bad at all. This blog is procrastination as well. I was working away, but this is my study break.

They were calling for a huge blizzard overnight for tonight, but now the warning has been called off. Andrew and I were looking forward to being snowed in, although really, I don't know why. Really all we've done is hang around the apartment for the most part and played Settlers of Catan. I guess it's just the idea of being snowed in. Oh well. I'm sure we'll have fun with our original plan which was to wander through the little stores downtown and to possibly go to the Clay Ground to paint some pottery. And play more Settlers. Hee hee.

Anyway, that's enough procrastination for now. Maybe I can get another page written before bed.

My thesis is thesising along

I've written about 10 of the 20 pages that I need for Friday. This is good. I figure that if I can do another 5 tomorrow (technically later today) and then 5 on Thursday, I should be smiling. It feels much less daunting to break something up into 5 page pieces. 5 pages is nothing (not really, each 5 pages is still time-consuming and challenging, though admittedly much easier to think about than a full 20 pages).

Anyway. My cousin dropped by today. He got to Wolfville on Sunday night. He's on a road trip with a friend of his. Tomorrow they're off to PEI, and by Thursday they plan on being at our other cousin's house in Ottawa for a couple of nights. It sounds like they're having a much more fun time than I am, stuck in my apartment writing my thesis. It was really neat to see him. I have a gazillion cousins, but unfortunately I generally only see most of them once or twice a year. This is something that I'll have to fix in the future. Anyway. I think that it was good for us to have company. Andrew and I haven't left the apartment today, and having visitors was a good incentive for us to clean up a little and for Andrew to put on pants (he'll be so mad at me for typing that).

I have gotten Andrew addicted to Settlers of Catan as well. As a team, the two of us are getting really good at this game. This is actually kind of sad, but it's true. Today we played a few games before breakfast. We sat up in bed and held hands while deciding whether to trade wood for wheat. This is both cute and geeky at the same time, which seems to be our trademark.

I don't have much else to report besides this. Oh, we watched Shark Tale the other night. It was very formulaic and short, but it was an entertaining way to tell the same story. I'm not sad that we rented it, but it was definitely not the movie highlight of my year so far. Tonight I'm hoping to watch Garden State with Andrew, and maybe even Butterfly Effect if we stay up as late as we have been the past few nights. I've converted Andrew to my nocturnal lifestyle, with the help of late night games of Settlers of Catan. If anything, he's made me even more nocturnal than usual. He also cooks for me while I write my thesis. He's such a good boyfriend! And so cute, too, cooking in my bathrobe (I'm getting in so much trouble for that).

Anyway, enough with the gushing. Wish me luck with my next 10 thesis pages!

Reading Week fun has begun!

Here are some highlights from the past few days: Andrew arrived in Wolfville around 3:15pm Friday. We had tacos for dinner that night while watching a Russell Peters special (wow that guy is funny!). Friday night we watched the movie Hero (I really like this movie, but I slept through 9/10 of it). Yesterday Andrew and I went for a walk, picking up Garden State from Ashley (who was hard at work on her thesis pages, as I should be right now) and checking out the Mother Nature store across the street from her house. Andrew and I wandered through campus and then downtown. Neither of us had watches, which was a somewhat freeing experience. We had dinner at Paddy's (quite tasty) with the good-as-sex cheesecake for dessert (yummy!). We rented movies and hit the grocery store on our way home. We never did watch the movies, as we found that we were both quite worn out after our travels around town, so we've got something to do tonight. This morning Andrew did yoga in my living room while I had quiet time in bed. This was a good arrangement. Today I'm supposed to be doing schoolwork, although I haven't really gotten that far yet.

We have both become addicted to brie cheese and to Tostitos "Hint of Lime" nachoes. We may both be quite a bit fatter by the time this week is done.

That is all I have to say for now. Sorry if this is boring, but I don't quite have the energy to make it interesting right now. My focus is on the thesis pages that I should be writing as I type this.

T minus not very many hours until Reading Week fun

Hello. I had my last class before Reading Week today. I just have my one office hour tomorrow and I am free free free!!! Except for those 20 thesis pages. Oh, and what's that you say? Don't forget about those two classes I'm teaching the first week back? Oh yes, that's right. I guess I'd better re-read that book pretty soon. And what else? Oh yes, 2 critical summaries to think about too. Oh joy. Honestly, though, I am super-excited about the holiday, even with all of this yucky work, and this is why: Andrew is arriving at my apartment in about 14.5 hours from now, and staying for over a week!!! Yay!! Finally someone to watch That '70s Show with. We have lots of plans, most of which include geeky sorts of fun things, so I won't list them here. Suffice to say, I probably won't be getting much sleep tonight because of my excitement.

Things I'm Bad At: Not Just for Sports Anymore
I can also add guitar tuning to this list. I even have a chromatic tuner, but I still can't get everything sounding right. I can always tell when Zenon's been here because for a day or two afterwards my guitar sounds so great. He always plays when he stops by, and he always tunes my guitar before he plays. This is why I keep him around. Hee hee.

Next topic: I shouldn't watch TV while I'm alone. I've been so emotional lately that I've been crying over every Scrubs episode and even That '70s Show today made me tear a little. And it wasn't even the Promise Ring episode either. No wonder I'm depressed all the time. If TV's getting you down too, check out Chantal's blog. She's done a hilarious job deconstructing the Cosby Show with unique results. It made me laugh out loud. I love the Cosby Show, but I'll never look at it the same way again.

Oh, one more fun thing and then I should probably be off to do other things. I bought the game Settlers of Catan for my computer. I played the board game over Christmas and fell in love with it. The computer version isn't quite as much fun, but I am still really enjoying it. That is all.

Yay 14 hours until fun time! Yay!

I like hot chocolate

I've discovered why it is that I like the show Scrubs so much, besides that fact that it just all-round kicks ass. Two things: the soundtrack is amazing, and J.D. reminds me so much of myself, if I were a doctor. The soundtrack has given me my new theme song: Fresh Feeling by the Eels. I played this song on my way through school today, and it just put me into the exact right groove. I love these songs, and they're used so effectively on the show as well. As for J.D., well, it's the daydreams and the ongoing (quirky) internal monologue that first made me realize how I identify so much with him. Then, there was episode #114 where J.D. was asked if he wanted sex, and he said, "Yes please," in a very cute way, much like I would if I were asked by an attractive person in my bed. Today was the clincher. Today, I saw episode #104 where J.D. called one of his patients "neat". I felt so connected to him at that moment... I can't even explain.

Less psychotically obsessive things to mention today: Well, I got a haircut yesterday. I am very very very happy that I finally got this done. My hair looks so much better now, and is so much easier to handle. Plus, being shorter is making it curlier again. I'm happy that I was able to get it cut before Andrew arrives on Friday. Besides this, my Valentine's Day was pretty fun. Ashley and I wanted to see the Acadia production of the Vagina Monologues, but unfortunately tickets were sold out. So, not wanting to waste the trip down the hill, we went to the Library Pub for pints (and coffee). The LP was much nicer this time than when we went before on a Friday night. The LP is very small, and when we were there before there were lots of loud people. Last night there were just enough people there. It wasn't the same as snuggling with my sweetie, but pints with Ashley was still a nice way to spend V-Day.

I can't believe that it's almost Reading Week. More to the point, I can't believe that my next 20 thesis pages are due so soon. Yikes! Stupid thesis. I should have picked a better topic. I should have been given more time to formulate my ideas, but I'm not going down that road again.

I've been playing the guitar relatively a lot recently. I still don't have any callouses on my fingertips, though, so I can't play for very long at a time. I've discovered that this is a good way to entertain myself when there are no new Scrubs or That '70s Show episodes to watch, and I don't have my Garden State movie. Sunday, I think it was, I learned to play the chords for Across the Universe by the Beatles. My repertoire is up to 3 songs (4, if you count the fact that I remembered the chords for the verses of Help! this evening)! I can't wait until Andrew comes and brings my Simon and Garfunkel guitar book.

Finished marking essays this afternoon. They always take so much longer than you think they're going to. I'm happy to have them done, though. I was running out of tactful statements for "Your essay sucks." (Hee hee hee... I'm just kidding... mostly...)

I just have to read one Middle English romance and then I'm done my classwork until after Reading Week. Whoo-hoo! This week it's King Horn. I'm printing it out now. Hey, reminds me... how do people feel about Sylvia Plath? I surprisingly am finding that I'm not a big fan of her poetry. I thought that I would be (despite past evidence to the contrary) because I love confessional poetry, and she is probably the best-known poet in the genre. However, I wasn't nearly as excited by her poetry as I was by Ginsberg's. Maybe my feelings will change after another week of looking at Plath, but I don't know. I do like the poems about poppies, though - "Poppies in October" and "Poppies in July".

I'm drinking minty hot chocolate right now, hence the title of this post. I don't have anything else to say about that, except that it's yummy and you should have some too. That's all for now.

More pictures!!!

Hello. I had a request for more pictures on my blog. So, I've posted these ones of my apartment, for those of you who haven't seen it. I'm sorry that they're not great quality shots, but I took them with my webcam in one hand while holding my laptop in the other, so that focussing etc. was somewhat haphazard. Anyway, it should give you a bit of an idea of what it looks like here. You can see the sparcity of furniture in my living room. I've been using this as an excuse to not have parties here, and now everyone will know that it's true. Besides that, the pictures are pretty self-explanatory.

I should mention that the person who requested more pictures was Jason, a friend of mine from high school that I haven't talked to for 2 years or so. He contacted me today, out of the blue, and we've been chatting and catching up and such. He's been reading my blog and he wanted to see more pictures. I really should put some more up of me, maybe, where I look better than in the ones from the fall, but meh. Someday when I have some I'll put them up. Anyway, my point in this paragraph was that I was really excited to hear from Jason. He was one of my favourite people in high school, and I was sad to have fallen out of touch with him. It sounds like he's doing well now, though, going to film school in Toronto, so I'm really happy for that.

The reason that I'm home tonight and talking to Jason is because I skipped out on improv again. Zenon will probably be mad at me because he's in town again this weekend and I was supposed to meet him there. I suppose this makes me a horrible friend. I'm just flakey with group outings. He'll have to learn that soon if this friendship is going to work.

On the upside, I've been in a really good mood this week and I'm hoping the feeling will continue. You can help by posting a compliment below in yesterday's post. Hee hee. I have to finish marking essays this weekend, though, and read a book of Sylvia Plath poetry, neither of which are really happy-making activities (although I do get to fail one student for plagiarism - that might cheer me up). Also, Ashley has a guest cat staying at her house, and apparently antics have been ensuing. I'm going to stop over there tomorrow (technically later today) and check it out. That should cheer me up after misplaced commas and awkward sentences have gotten me down.

Here is a really fun thing I've come across. Even if you don't like Lord of the Rings (as I don't), it's pretty freakin' hilarious.

Enjoy!

Lastly, here is part of my bedroom. You can see my beautiful (handmade) red curtains.  

This is my bathroom. I'm learning geography from my shower curtain.  

Here is my study, or the second bedroom in my 2 bedroom apartment 

Here is my kitchen, or half of it. Most of it, really - it's just tiny. 

Here is a blurry webcam view of my living room, or as much of it as I could fit into the picture. 

I'm being haunted...

by the movie Garden State. It will not get out of my head. I suppose the fact that I've been listening to the soundtrack pretty much non-stop doesn't help either. I've lent my copy of the movie to Ashley, and even though it's just been out of my hands for two nights, already I miss it. I haven't felt this way about a movie since...hmmmmm... I don't even remember. It's been a while. I'm burning the soundtrack on CD right now. Well, that soundtrack and part of the In Good Company soundtrack. It's going to be the kick-assest CD ever.

What else is new? Today's fruit is pineapple. I bought myself one as a treat and cut it up after supper. As I was cutting it, I also cut two of my fingers and bled a lot, which wasn't as good (on my left hand too... errrggg).

I think one day when I have time I'm going to write a screenplay for Havelok, the Medieval romance we just read for today's class. I was imagining it in my head, and with some minor editorial changes, I think it could be great. Perhaps one day it will make me famous.

People have been saying a lot of nice things to me lately. I seem to be on some sort of streak. I hope that it continues. Feel free to keep the trend going in the comments section. My favourite adjectives right now are: whimsical, beautiful, stunning, creative, sexy, clever and unique. Bonus points to anyone who uses all of these compliments in one post.

I think that's all I have for tonight. Don't forget to comment!!!

Some Happy Thoughts

Anyone reading this blog lately would think that all I do is watch movies and eat taco seasoning. While it is true that I have been doing quite a bit of both of those things lately, I have also been doing some schoolwork. I did a presentation today in my Confessional Poetry class. It went much better than I expected (and much longer than I expected). Presentations are one of my favourite things about grad school. As you may already know, I've decided not to do my PhD. This decision extends definitely through next year, and I was kind of thinking that it would extend for the rest of my life. I was excited at the idea of liberation and the work world and learning different things and having money. What I find, though, is that presentations make me want to do my PhD. It's so much fun to exchange ideas, and sometimes I wonder if I'm just evading my destiny by avoiding teaching. Teaching in various forms seems to run in my family. However, essays (and my thesis) remind me of why I don't want to do my PhD. I've just begun to find them so tiresome and pointless. I can't imagine a life based on academic writing, or at least right now I can't. Maybe after a break from it I'll feel differently.

Today I bought myself some blood oranges. This was a totally frivolous thing to do, because blood oranges are expensive, but they are so darn tasty. I went through a blood orange phase a couple of years ago one summer when I was working at DriverCheck. There is a fruit market just around the corner from the office, and I used to go a couple of times a week and pig out on blood oranges while they were in season in August. At that time I was working full time and thus could afford to indulge in exotic fruit. However, I ate one of the blood oranges for dessert tonight, and I decided that frivolous or not, it was darn delicious. If you have never tried blood oranges before, I highly recommend splurging on one. And don't be put off by the name. They aren't dipped in blood or anything weird. They are just reddish on the inside. Depending on the one you grab, the red could look like little veins inside, or the fruit could be burgundy. As I recall, they seem to taste different according to amount of redness inside, but I don't really know if that's true.

Andrew will be here for a visit in less than 2 weeks! This also means that it is less than 2 weeks until Reading Week - definitely a happy thought. The only cloud is that I have 20 thesis pages due on the Friday of Reading Week. I haven't gotten as much work done on them as I'd have liked to, so it looks like I'll have to sacrifice some Andrew time for thesis time. It just doesn't seem like a fair trade, somehow.

Another happy thought: I paid my bills tonight and am doing better financially than I thought. This means that I can keep on eating and that I can maybe even get a haircut. Yay!!! Plus, I handed in my OSAP forms at the post office today, so sometime soonish I can expect money to magically appear in my account. That's always fun.

That's all the happy thoughts I have for right now. I still have a Middle English romance to finish for Thursday (although this one seems to be going a lot faster than Ywain and Gawain. Perhaps I'm all practiced up now) and a stack of essays to mark, and my thesis pages to work on, so you'll know where to find me for the next little while - next to the grindstone. At least I'll have yummy snacks.

Ashley is an English geek too

Ashley read my previous post about Wimbledon and Medieval romance. She had some interesting responses, so with her permission I'm going to post them here. Sorry to those of you who don't care about Medieval romance.

Ashley says:
I have read your blog on Wimbledon. My comments are:
1) I think that there is a very direct and conscious link between medieval romance and modern romantic comedies (via Shakespeare to Jane Austin and then to cinema). I think it is an explicit evolution of a single genre through different media and times.
2) I really liked Auerbach's (who I did my summary on) suggestion that love is the motivation in the romances as a surrogate for any number of real-life motivations. I don't really take love seriously in romances or in films; I don't feel like there is an intentional claim that life is like that. You know? It's just prettier that way. Just like how in desperate housewives, there is no serious claim that middle aged women don't wrinkle. I haven't worked this out yet, but I don't really believe that love is the subject of the romances at all. It certainly isn't the subject of Wimbledon in a meaningful way (it doesn't dwell on the love the way that the love between Yvain and the Lion is dwelt upon in Ywain and Gawain.) I think that love and women become a kind of shorthand for the things about men that they are trying to show. Peter gets the girl at the end to show how he has actualized as an adult and a man and a worthy competitor. Also, I think that there is an underlying misogyny that subconsciously guides those films that makes the undercutting of a strong and powerful female and reduction of her to a prize an act of violence against her power and autonomy as a competitive female.

Endquote. Thank you Ashley for your comments!

I have a few other non-Medieval romance things to comment on. First of all, Andrew got his microphone working on his computer, so we can now talk to each other over the internet. This is great, because we can't talk on the phone. Hearing his voice has been so exciting! It makes such a difference that I can't even explain it.

In other news, I saw the Lemony Snicket movie today in the tub. It wasn't nearly as good as I expected. In fact, I'm surprised that I watched the whole thing. I think that it was just a different genre or mode or somthing than I was expecting. I didn't connect with the characters of the children, so I didn't really care if they died or whatever. Anyway.

I was listening to the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack tonight while I was baking cookies. I love that movie so much. I only have it on VHS, so I can't watch it while I'm here. It's OK, though, because I've seen it so many times that the movie plays in my head while I listen to it. I have so much to say about this movie, but I won't even start. I could talk about it for hours and hours and hours. I wrote an essay about it for my 20th Century Christianity course last year and I was re-reading it tonight. There are so many neat things that you can find in this movie, and in the words themselves... The other thing that the music reminded me of was last Reading Week when Andrew and I took a road trip to Nashville. We listened to the soundtrack over and over as we drove because it was the only music that I'd packed that we both enjoyed (Andrew, sadly, does not share my love of the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, shockingly enough). Anyway, my point is, if you haven't seen the Norman Jewison version of this film, do!!!

Hmmm... that's probably long enough for now. It's after 4am. I have to stop being so darn nocturnal. It's interfering with my activities that happen before 3pm.

I'm an English geek

So, I just watched the movie Wimbledon. I have a few things to say about it. First of all, can we please someday see a movie about a beautiful romance that happens in more than 2 weeks? Maybe I'm cynical, but I think that falling in love with someone that quickly is a delusion. After watching Garden State, where the characters fall in love in less than a week, and now this movie, I'm feeling like the rising divorce rate has been accounted for. I consider myself a romantic, but the love story I'd like to see involves people who take the time to get to know each other before declaring their mutual love. These people each know the faults of their partner, but love them anyway. They work together as a team, and while they have problems, they work through them. Maybe this wouldn't make for an exciting movie (so maybe throw in a car chase scene or something) but at least we could relate to it.

When I wasn't getting mad at the totally unrealistic love story in Wimbledon, I was thinking about how this movie hearkens back to Medieval romances. The whole idea of courtly love was there, albeit in a slightly modified form. During the final scene, when Peter is playing for the tournament victory (sorry for the spoiler, but it's not like you don't see it coming), and all through the movie actually, it's made clear that his inspired playing comes from his relationship with Lizzie. It made me think of Medieval knights at tournaments, playing to earn the favour of their ladies. I was particularly reminded of Lancelot when L. is fighting Malegeant, and it looks bad, and then he looks up towards the tower where Guenevere is watching, and comes back to win, mostly because this is exactly what happens to Peter (sorry again). It is clear that he wants to win his tournament (this one's a tennis tournament, not jousting, but it's pretty similar all the same) to do honour to his lady. He gets his inspiration from his lady, and his winning is tied to his reputation (endorsement contracts etc.) and to keeping his lady's love. I was expecting Lizzie to give Peter some sort of love token that he would tie on his lance, er...tennis raquet, during the match. The fact that the final match was between the two men who were fighting for the lady's heart throughout the story also made another connection back to courtly love themes (if courtly love actually exists, but that's a whole other debate), and it reminded that societal definitions of gender have not actually changed that much since the Middle Ages. The woman is still the prize to be earned through battle, while her own trials are either not considered, or are made secondary. We do learn at the end of the film that Lizzie goes on to win Wimbledon twice, but we never see this happen. It's a postscript. Her own battle is secondary. I found the links to Medieval romance to be very interesting.

All that being said, it was an enjoyable movie, for its genre. I'm still not a fan of Kirsten Dunst, but she annoyed me much less in this film than she did in the Spiderman movies, so that's good. More importantly, her love interest, the knight of the tennis court, was British (suitably), and he was of course a very hende knight, courteous in all respects.

Garden State and a tummyache

Well, it looks as though my Friday streak is over. Today was an OK day until this afternoon. I started feeling feverish while I was working in the library, and after I got home I got a horrible tummyache. Poor me. I curled up and watched Garden State again (I watched it last night). I can see myself watching that movie over and over in the future. I like the soundtrack. The scene that makes this movie for me is the one when they're in the rain on the edge of the abyss and the song playing is "Only Living Boy in New York" by Simon and Garfunkel.

To distract myself from the pain in my tummy, I did a personality quiz. Here are my results:

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Well, that's really all I had to say for right now. I'm going to go back to watching movies curled up in bed and feeling sorry for myself. I hope that everyone else is having a good Friday. If I feel better later I'm going to bake cookies.

Just Thoughts

Hello. So, the sour cream and taco seasoning dip that I discuss below is awesome, but I've learned that my stomach isn't meant to eat a whole (albeit small) container of sour cream in two days. It was pretty unhappy with me for a while last night, so I placated it with some wholesome chili last night around 1am. My body was happy with me this morning. It felt nourished instead of icky. In my attempt to put more protein into my diet, tonight I'm going to try tacos. I bought some veggie ground round and taco shells, as well as more cheese and sour cream. It should be tasty. I hope that my tummy doesn't get mad at me again.

I'm kind of disappointed with my classes so far this term. My confessional poetry class on Monday was torture, although I have rediscovered my love of drawing. The most talkative people in the class are also the most concrete, so the discussion becomes more about "x=y" than any truly interesting discussion of themes. I have a presentation in that class on Monday, and I'm hoping to lead the discussion into more interesting territory. I'm looking at the religious discourse in Ginsberg's poem "Kaddish". (Sorry for the British mode of punctuating that last bit - it just makes sense to me. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then just ignore this sidebar). Anyway, since my topics include the discussions of at least two different kinds of discourse, I think it will be an interesting conversation. I'll just make sure that I have a lot to say, and I'll jump in before the other talk-a-lots get the the chance to speak.

My Medieval English course I'm actually liking a bit more, although there's the same problem of the discussion being dominated by people whose thoughts I'm not altogether interested in hearing, even if that makes me sound like a jerk. Last term, my classes were grad students only, which was awesome. There were only five of us, there was lots of talking time for everyone, and almost everything said was worth listening to. This term both of my classes are combined grad/honours seminars, and I find that the quality of thought has gone down much more than I expected it would. I mean, I don't feel a lot smarter this year than I was last year. That is, I know more now, but I think that my capacity for understanding concepts and for formulating ideas is still pretty much the same. I don't know how these classes are so much worse. Although, like I say, I am enjoying my Medieval class. The prof is a lot of fun, and so different than the one I had first time round for middle English (Weldon, for you Laurier people). Whetter doesn't make us read Middle English out loud (which I actually kind of miss... my accent has gotten so bad) and is pretty easy-going about our ideas. Plus, he makes me laugh a lot.

Not much else is new with me. After school today Ashley and I checked out the international food store on Main Street. Neither of us had ever been. I bought some chai tea mix. Ashley and I have agreed to go back there after we get our OSAP payments in. It's a neat store. I almost bought some "Mr. Vigorous Root Tonic" which is used to promote energy and sex drive. I've been feeling a little rundown lately, and how much more fun does a cure get than Mr. Vigorous Root Tonic? However, the girl in the store made fun of me (and probably rightly so... there was a picture of a body-building man on the front of the bottle) so I settled with my chai mix.

I don't really have any big plans for the weekend. I have another batch of essays to mark. At first glance, this seems to be a good batch (somewhat coherent, at least), but that opinion might change after I delve into them a bit more. Ashley and I are planning on going to a free piano concert Sunday night at school, and this is Acadia's Minifest week (the equivalent to Fr!nge), so I might take in a batch of shows either tomorrow night or on Saturday. The only problem with that is that these shows cost money, and that is one thing that is in somewhat short supply right now. Oh well. I'll sort something out.

Well, I guess that I should go get started on my tacos now. Mmmmm... tacos. I've never made tacos with meat before (or soy meat), so wish me luck!