Fourth Wall

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Crap! I have a blog...

So, these next few weeks might be some of the hardest weeks of my undergraduate career. I don't want to say "will be", because I don't know what's coming up in the next few months, but let me give you a taste of what I've been up to:

1) BA proposal. Those of you who listen to me complain with some degree of frequency are probably aware that, while my time in Wales was amazing, it did manage to both throw a wrench in and prevent me from working on my BA plans. Therefore I've spent much of this week brainstorming, reading for, and re-writing my BA proposal. Yesterday I had about ten minutes to relax, which took place between posting my thoughts for my proposal on my seminar's Chalk site, and going to meet with my preceptor. Now I have a nice, long, and slightly overwhelming list of things I have to get done this week.

2) Latin. So, it turns out that spending a summer learning a Celtic language is really hard on one's Latin abilities-- so I've been spending the week trying to catch up. Not to mention, my meeting with my preceptor really struck home the fact that I can't just futz around with annotated editions of Cicero and Sallust (as I have been)-- I really need to know this stuff. This is like when Carolyn realized that she really had to know statistics inside and out for her BA.

3) Professor Fulton. I love her, but she really doesn't think twice about assigning a hundred pages of reading per class--which is fine when one *isn't* trying to do BA research simultaneously. Most of my thoughts for my BA are actually located in the margins of my "Religion and Society in the Medieval West" reading.

4) Oh my goodness gracious, I'm taking the GRE in two weeks.

5) Right. And my Aunt Argena was in the hospital this week after having a minor heart attack. They think. You can see that the hospital has not exactly inspired any confidence on my part.

6) Then there was a bit of a financial crisis this week when Jasmine ran out of checks and I had to cover the bills.

7) I feel really behind in my grad-school search.

8) And boys are still stupid, although Vanessa has pointed out that they can't always be blamed for it. I, too, am having a bit of trouble believing that they showed this to be true.

That said, my friends, as always, manage to keep me somewhere near sanity. Examples of some good things from the week:

Playing on the Nichols Park tire swing with Veronica the night before classes started, talking about boys, life, and girl things (and then retiring to her apt. for ice cream).
Pam. Enough said.
Discovering that a certain member of the Calvert House Undergraduates was called "Bunny" by his/her parents when he/she was a child.
Eating Samosas for lunch with Mordu.
The first late-night Dunkin' Donuts run of the year. ("You have to make sure you still know where it is," said Mom.)
Swinging on the playground swings with Mr. McCormick at 1 in the morning.
ACTING CLASS!
Dimitri, making me listen to a Frank Zappa song that starts "She's a Valley Girl..." to express his opinions on our Latin instructor.
Hearing Danny Wasserman's laugh over the phone.

And then there's some stuff to look forward to. Veronica's birthday is coming up (tomorrow!). I'm going to the Caroline Bynum lecture at Loyola on Thursday. I do like my classes, and I was extremely lucky to get a medievalist as a preceptor.

So, some quotes from the week:
(At the MSI reception:)
Carolyn: Three. That's three reasons to go to Seattle, to determine God's wi...
Alice: Look! Kayakers!

Veronica: This guy doesn't capitalize "Christian". That's going to bother me. It's a proper noun! You capitalize "Rousseauian"! I don't know what you don't capitalize..."cummingsian"?
Alice: I'm going to quietly enjoy the fact that you just indirectly compared e.e. cummings to Christ, and return to my reading on medieval views on the end of the world.

Alice: Bill, what is your major?
Bill: Don't worry about it. Concentrations just confuse things.

(In acting class, as our classmates tried to figure out who was telling the truth:)
May: Alice, on the first day of class you told me that you had acting training, so I was prepared to not believe anything you said.

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Monday, September 18, 2006

I Make Appetizers, Even When I Sup Alone...

So I was deep in the middle of "Project Minestrone", which follows the saved-by-bowtie-pasta "Project Sauteed Greens" and the very successful "Project Teach Kathleen To Make Homemade Bread", and precedes "Project Granola" and "Project Use Up Leftover Cabbage From Project Sauteed Greens By Feeding Coleslaw To Tom", and realized that:

1) I still had rounds of leftover baguette in the refrigerator
2) I had Garlic
3) I had Parmesan Cheese
4) I was really hungry

and so decided to make some bruschetta while the minestrone cooked. Somewhere in the middle of grating parmesan into the bowl, I thought to myself "wow, this sounds really familiar". Indeed, I had re-created half of this recipe, from that other blog I'm supposed to have.

All said and done, I have some tomatoes that need to be eaten, so mayhap I shall go whole-hog tomorrow. As it came out today, it was more like "Death by Garlic" bruschetta.

Perhaps I shall likewise feast on the famed Cheesy Tomato Eggs at breakfast tomorrow, although it may be heresy to eat them alone. I must say I love the fact that the recipe directs, "3. Mix in spices, erring on the side of minimalism".

In other news, as you can see, there isn't much to do here right now, except cook, blog, and study for the GRE.

(Oh, and I should note that I still think this is a really good outline. I still say: skip the pizza cutter, get a churchkey.)

Maybe it's just the neck/back pain I've been having...

but this actually looks very appealing.

In other news, this quote is late. However, I (as a medievalist) think it's great that everyone at the dinner party got this joke:

John: So, I was in Avignon...
Larry: ...visiting the other Pope...

You probably noticed that Mom's friend (and fellow Jazz-Dancer) Larry was a faithful reader and commentator whilst* I was in Wales, so it's only fitting that he (and his better, more practical half) should be properly acknowledged.


___
*Yes, people say "whilst" in Wales.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Looking over her Registration List (First Draft)...

Alice: Pasta baking thingy?
Kathleen: You know, the thing you use to bake an individual serving of gooey, cheesy, pasta-y goodness.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Mwy Webcomics

Here's a tiny bit of grade-school-in-the-early-nineties humor for y'all.

And then, Patrick has directed me to the Welsh adventure currently on in Scary Go Round.

That's about it. I'm back in Chicago now, recovering from the bad cold I caught in Pennsylvania (we're two-out-of-three for trips to PA making me sick) and seeing friends, many of whom are talking about their GRE scores. Ack!

Oh, and there's other news: Madrid Fashion Week Rejects Models Who Are Too Thin
"I think its outrageous, I understand they want to set this tone of healthy beautiful women, but what about discrimination against the model and what about the freedom of the designer," said Cathy Gould, Elite's North America director, adding that the move could harm careers of naturally "gazelle-like" models."


Diolch yn fawr iawn i Kathleen for pointing out lipstick.com, where I found this story.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Ble mae Alice?

My travel plans appear to be creating some confusion, so I'll lay them out for you all here. I'm leaving tomorrow, with my parents, for Pennsylvania. Grandma's funeral is on Saturday. Sunday, Mom flies home and Dad and I are flying to Chicago, where we're (wait for it) renting a car and driving to Iowa to see his family. I should be back in Chicago (and blogging) on Wednesday or Thursday.

Mom's current project is putting together a collection of photos to be displayed during Saturday's reception. Amongst the many photos she found a V-mail Mother's Day telegram (1944) from my Great Uncle to my Great-Grandmother.

Moving on: I was trying not to blog about either my secret online addiction or the death of the Crocodile Hunter, but what the heck, I'll just cover both at once. Cute Overload's tribute to Steve Irwin

Everyone's all up in arms about this new facebook feed thingamabob, and nobody seems to have mentioned the other change: you can now list your religious views. I've got mixed feelings about that, but it's sparked some interesting conversations, both internal and external.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Please Tell Me Someone Else Also Thinks This Is Funny

Economists talking about math:

Poincare's conjecture is important not for its practical applications, but because a vast quantity of mathematical work assumes that it is true.
The Economist, August 26th 2006

IN OTHER NEWS: I'm home in San Francisco. More blogging to follow. I promise.