asteroid B612

I had heard rumors of a tropical storm, but I didn't know Bill was so close. I love it! I live in a place that gets tropical storms. How exotic is that!? We're fine in our apartment. It's not even that windy. The only thing that's a bother to Louisiana is flooding, and we're on high ground at our apt with the pumping station just down the street and updated drainage system on our street recently completed. I'm SO glad I didn't go to Baton Rouge today.

I'm loving these rainy days. Apparently I have a tropical storm in the vicinity to thank. It makes it so nice to sit at home and read and study. I'm so glad I'm not under obligation to go to Baton Rouge today.

This weekend we watched a great French film The Taste of Others. There are a few circles of people and then the individuals in each circle. Sometimes individuals cross into other circles. Each circle has its own taste. There's the bistro, the group of actors/artists, a businessman, his wife and bodyguard and chauffeur. Some characters' lives change dramatically when confronted with another's taste, especially the businessman when he encounters art. He doesn't know what to do, how to act, or what he is even feeling. The lives of other characters can't change when they encounter another taste, and that creates conflict, creative dissonance, if I dare use such a clicheed expression. I very much enjoyed this film. In some ways, it was almost a microcosm of real life...with the plastic tastes of businessmen and the struggling individuality of the artistic personality.

Chris and I have signed up for a trial of Netflix. Has anybody used this? or have an opinion about it? So far we're pretty optimistic. The selection is terrific.

How hip are you? take the quiz. Brought to my attention by andy's blog and NPR.

I clocked in at a respectible 60%, though you need 72% to be really hip.

That's how I feel about this summer...one by one things get done. And we have to get through the summer that way. I've always hated summer. So uncertain. So unsettled. I yearn for my routine and for activities that are conducive to routine. Even though, right now, things are somewhat stable for me, Chris is pulled in bazillions of directions. We're thankful, though, that he could go work at Banana Republic again this summer...it will get us through the summer financially. (and some discounts..yay.)

I finally talked to my prof. He was totally cool with my request not to go to Baton Rouge everyday. Right now, I'm doing fine, and understanding the homework at home fine. So he said for me to just use my discretion and come to class when I feel like I didn't understand what was goign on. This is a huge relief for me. I'm able to start working on these term papers that are hanging over my head.

I read Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" the other day. It is about a guy who wakes up and realizes he's changed into a large verminous creature/insect. Since he is the main provider for his family--his parents and sister--it upsets their family financially, as well as the emotional and psychological trauma of having someone in your family turn into a large insect. One of the first things that struck me when reading it was the matter-of-fact tone. How he wakes up, realizes he's a bug, and then his response is almost like "oh darn. I hate it when that happens." Interesting to think about in terms of self and how much your body and your subconscious is related to that. What is his ego in this situation?

We had a nice bday party for Chris yesterday. A bunch of people from church came, and I had a taco salad buffet and pumpkin pie for his "cake", since that's his favorite. I keep pumpkin in the freezer from the fall just for his bday. Abby and Chara Grace love a bday party and are so fun to have around. Every once in a while they come out with the funniest turns of phrases that belie their Brit parentage. For instance, I have these little M&M guys that attach to C'mas lights in the kitchen, but they always fall down. Chara Grace said, "you should the M&M guy back on" and i told that they keep falling down, and she, who is just 4 yrs, says "well, you should sort out the problem." Ha!

I went with Alison and the girls to another bday party for a little boy in our church across the lake. Abby (2) is not a fan of the hustle and bustle, so clung to me the whole time. Since I don't customarily have children hanging all over me, I was happy for a snuggly kid to hang onto for the afternoon. I had a good chat with Alison, too. It's been a while since we've really talked.

Today is Chris's birthday! Yay!!!

Because of German, I find myself randomly wanting to capitalize nouns.

I highly recommend these two albums:
Toufic Farroukh - "The Pain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Brain"
Album: Drab Zeen (Label: Harmonia Mundi)
Year Released: 2002 Media: CD

Joy Denalane - "Hochste Zeit"
Album: Global Soul (Label: Putumayo)
Year Released: 2003 Media: CD (Release: New)
Comment: Germany/South Africa

Chris and I heard these songs from them the other day on wwoz, and they were amazing. Drove us batty!

I stayed home to work instead of biding through tedious German. I'm glad I did. It's a rainy afternoon and perfect for study. Once I get through today's translation, I'm going to read something. I don't know what, just something. It's depressing, here I am in grad school, and I feel starved to read. Things like German homework, and even the skimming to gather material for a term paper, are not the sinking into the text that invigorates us all to the task of scholarship (or professional Wondering [or Inquiry, to sound less Dr. Graham-ish], as I like to think of it). I'm also feeling the need to stop a bit and think. Do we ever get that kind of time? Perhaps not. Maybe I'm just tired of German. Because of random sentences we get in our German exercises and because I just keep hearing his name pop randomly, I've been wanting to read a little bit of Kafka. Chris likes him. And I've been wanting to delve into lit. theory a bit for its relevance in exploring music as a text. First though, I want to read Rob Wegman's Born for the Muses: The Life and Masses of Jacob Obrecht, esp the introduction. I'm also trying to develop my own personal intro to musicology course as an independent study for next fall...

While, my car got its $500 end of the school massage today...with a new timing belt and four new tires. I swear, the thing drives like a dream. You take car of your Honda, your Honday takes care of you.

Chris went with me to Baton Rouge today. It was lovely of him to go and keep me company. I was excited to show him my "digs". We went to the deli with the other grad student who is in theory (theory and musicology folks tend to hang together as the "other"...the non-performers...this past year I was the only musicology grad student and he was the only theory student...new ones come this fall). Patrick (this other theory student) has been a great friend. And as he is ABD this year, has offered me really helpful advice. So I was SO glad that Chris could be with us while we talked shop. Sometimes I run around LSU feeling like I'm single again, which, when you have a great husband like Chris, is not all that fun.

I wonder what my classmates in my German class do when they sit down to do their German homework at night. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who has studied the lesson...who has looked up words I don't know, who has diagrammed the sentence, who knows where the verb in all its parts is. It drives me battily bored in class sometimes. I mean, I'm not perfect, but at least I'm prepared! (I'm not perfect, but I'm present active..ha, haha!!!) I'm also the only girl in my class now. There were two others, but they dropped.

Okay...gotta finish my homework...

One of my favorite things in the world is a grilled cheese sandwich...and variants thereof. For instance, today I used mozzarella cheese and put black olives on it. I also like the classic plain cheddar cheese. A grilled cheese sandwich is so comforting.

And if you think my life revolves around le bon appetit, you wouldn't be far off. I made a stellar meal the other night. The first time I tried putting two soups in one bowl, and it worked! A cold canteloupe soup and a cold strawberry soup...each in half of the bowl with a mint garnish.

Well, I thought my car woes were minimal. The mechanic tried to start the car this morning, and the timing belt jumped. (Whatever that means...I just know that I need a new one.) I guess putting 20,000 miles on my car in the space of 9 months isn't the greatest idea, but we gotta do what we gotta do.

I'm so sick of learning verb tenses. I "know" (if I look at my little chart I've made) 13 tenses in German. At least I can diagram the sentences fine.

You know what's really weird? Henry VI of England and Charles VII of France had the same span of rule (1422-1461) AND their successors Edward IV (eng) and Louis XI (fr) had the same span of rule, too (1461-1483)!!!! That has always struck me a very strange coincidence.

I almost set the house on fire last night. I decided to make spinach quiche for dinner, which is a fave with us. So I grabbed the bag of frozen chopped spinach out of the freezer in order to use the last of it and tossed it into the microwave. Half-seconds later realizing that it had a twistie on it, and as I came to this realization I saw sparks and flames in the microwave! (Twisties are metal.) I lunged for the off button and opened the door, only to find the small flame of burning bag starting to grow. I knew it was too big to blow out, so I thought "baking soda!" but as I turned around, I saw the canister of flour on the counter and grabbed that. After a couple of quick heaps of flour, I had put out my little fire. Thankfully, neither the microwave nor the spinach was damaged. The worst of it ended up being that I had to clean up the flour mess. And our quiche was delicious. Once we eventually got it. I was deterred at every turn from a quick preparation. Aside from my little fire incident, I reached for the shortening from the cupboard, opened the container only to find a gloppy, melted texture. This is the first time I had bought organic shortening, so I guess it has different properties. And I'm sure living in Louisiana doesn't help. So I had to stick in the freezer for a little bit so that it would harden, and it now has a new home in the refrigerator.