Currently Reading Thurber Country : A Collection of Pieces About Males and Females, Mainly of Our Own Species By James Thurber see related

Happy Mule Day!

Um, yes. Apparently today the King of Spain sent some mules to George Washington--in 1785, that is, not literally today. And I don't think that's especially important, but it shall have to do. Or we could say Happy 127th Birthday to Leon Trotsky . . . Not altogether interesting either, but 'twill do.

As far as the "Currently Reading" item is concerned, I actually finished it last night and returned it to the library this afternoon, but I have been reading rather a lot of Thurber lately. Grand fun all around. He's so terribly ironic, amusing, and melancholy all at the same time. And I'm trying a collection of E. B. White's essays, which are similarly interesting.

Alas and alack! My singing abilities are at one of the low points--well, they have been for the past day and a half or so. The irritating seasonal allergy-type thing I get whenever the season changes has sprung up with a vengeance, leaving me somewhat voiceless with a nagging cough and irritatingly drippy nose. Again, not very interesting, but true. Life is like that, sometimes.

In other news, I don't like Wellness. Not the class, per se, but the concept of trying to do some sort of physical activity for three hours a week. Well, it's at all bad when the weather is decent--walking, jogging, bicycling, hiking, and the like are marvelous--but this rainy, chilly stuff is not entirely conducive to such action. Especially with these allergy things. Bother. I dislike those dratted aerobic tapes, and I don't believe I possess even that most minimal of social aplomb required to exercise at the SRC. Oh well. I shall manage something.

Ho hum. I ought to be writing a page about a science article and another about the Christian and pagan themes in Beowulf--not that either will take much time, but the concept remains. And I'm rather hungry. And this entire concept is dull. Let us (or rather, "me") think of something interesting to relate. *Jeopardy music plays eight or nine times to the increasing consternation of the author*

Aha! No, scrap that. *Jeopardy music increases in volume and tempo*

Or--no, wait! *music reaches point of alarming annoyance*

Oh, bother. *smashes music-producing gremlin* There's nothing of interest at the present moment. If there is, I can't think of it. I need food. My sister needs this computer. I need sleep. My documents need completion. I need recreational reading. My speech and Lit Take-Home Exam #2 need informational writing. I need to stop using parallel structure. My writing also needs to stop using parallel structure. Cease!

Happy Fall Break!

Yes, this evening is the start of Fall Break, the first "long" break of the school year--which also happens to mark the end of the first quad. Which also happens to mean that I am 1/2 finished with this semester, 1/4 finished with this school year, and something like 1/16 finished with my bachelor's degree. *heartly laughter* How utterly absurd. And my hands are cold. Again.

Well, let's see: what is the purpose of this update? None whatsoever. I finished my first "big paper" of ENGL 215, which was rather good, even though I do say so myself (and haven't gotten the grade back yet). Almost 1900 words on female characters in the Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, and the Aeneid. Grand fun all around. And don't ask if that was sarcastic or not--because I'm not sure.

In other news, I have completed the required Theology of Culture course. *throws tremendously restrained party* It wasn't bad, but I'm never going to read anything else by David Wells . . . it's not that his actual points are that annoying (most of them are rather good and sensible), but his way of presenting them can be infuriatingly arrogant and shockingly insensitive. Not that his prose style is terrible--actually, quite the opposite--but he uses it in a very irritating way. I wanted to throw the book across the room more than once, but managed to restrain myself. Wow, I've just used the word "restrain" twice in a single, short paragraph.

In nonschool news, my sister and I had a "sister day" on Saturday, complete with random movie watching and pizza. And when I say "random movies," I really mean random movies--Somewhere in Time, The Philadelphia Story, and a terrible early 60s fairy tale/fantasy/something called The Magic Sword. The first was terribly much better than I thought it would be, the second just as witty and amusing as I thought it would be, and the last even more cheesy and absurdly fun to dissect than I thought it would be. Rejoice in my utterly passive sentence structure.

And, yes, I really did like Somewhere in Time. Absolutely gorgeous score, terribly, beautifully sentimental story, and actually quite convincing acting. Of course, my sister and I disagreed over the final effect of the ending, but I love sobbing and she loves trying to convince herself that the death of lovers is really not sad  . . . Oddly, it rather reminded of a rather intriguing B&W musical called Maytime. And I have to go let my mother and siblings into the house.

Hurrah for Almost-Labor Day

My sister said I must update. Nicole said I must update. I said I must update. Thus I shall update.

As everyone might guess, I did go to Grama's house. And I was there pretty much all summer long, with the exception of a few days when I came home for various things. Grama and I also went to Aunt Mary's house for several days. But, still, I was with Grama most of the summer--even when I came home, I usually brought her with. Now, I love Grama, whether or not she has Alzheimer's disease. The fact still remains, no matter the amount of love, that there is only so much time one can spend with a person of rapidly deteriorating mental processes. So I don't expect to pursue a career in geriatrics. Thank God.

And I am attending Wheaton College, though I am commuting this year. Perhaps next year I'll live on campus. Hopefully. This whole driving-back-and-forth thing is overrated. Thank God for audiobooks. It's only about twelve miles, but it's the same exact twelve miles in any event, and I'd rather not stare at it with nothing to distract me.

So I'm taking 18 credit hours this semester, and I'm not dead yet. Of course, they're all fairly intro-level classes, and it's not yet two weeks into the school year. It's nice to think that everything's marvelous though. I know I'm majoring in English (despite all those major-switching statistics), and I'm considering a double major in Communications (not sure which emphasis though). If nothing else, I'm minoring in Communications. Or perhaps a theater minor, since it's pretty much the same thing to start out with. Thus I'm taking Fundementals of Oral Communication--just a glorified speech class. The prof (Dr. Joseph) is quite nice, even if he does try to make us think about logic too much. And we had to give an impromptu speech last Wednesday, when it wasn't scheduled until Friday. The result was somewhat debilitating. And I have to give a speech on myth criticism at the end of this month. Also somewhat debilitating.

And then there's Dr. Coolidge teaching Classical and Early British Lit--which is actually quite interesting. I'm not terribly fond of Classical and Medieval works, but we've had some fun with The Odyssey over the past week and a half. I shall finish the last of the reading tonight and then write a 1-3 sentence summary of its theme. I've only written one very short paper thus far--a fact which is really very amazing, considering the frequency of DrB's writing assignments. Dr. Coolidge and DrB have the same first name actually. Not that it's a very important point, but still. Both are very fine teachers.

I also enjoy Art Survey with Dr. Walford; the fact that he has a British accent is naturally a plus. For some reason, he reminds me of my late Grandpa Tom, Dad's dad. Grandpa Tom didn't have a British accent, but they do both have rather wild grey hair and a somewhat similar voice tone, I think. My memory of my paternal grandfather is a bit shaky now that he's been dead for five years. He was always so nice and funny, except when he was drunk and would babble loudly. He scared me then, even though he never got violent and we always left quickly. But back to Art Survey: analyzing art is really very interesting, though I don't think I'll like modern art very much. We're going to go to the museum in Chicago sometime this month, I think. Or maybe in October. Anyhow, it'll be awesome.

The other two courses I'm taking now aren't altogether marvelous. Dr. Campbell is new to teaching at Wheaton, and he doesn't have the finest elocutionary style, but he seems nice enough--still, biology is really not my forte. Better that than chemistry, of course. I don't like Theology of Culture very much though: it's a very long class and more than a bit repetitious. Prof. Miguelez is a good enough speaker, but I'm not altogether fond of the class anyhow. Oh well. It's only a quad course, so it's only a quarter of the school year. Not bad.

In other non-school related points--okay, it is somewhat--Wheaton has the most amazing library. The lower level (where the 800s and 900s are) has these really neat sliding shelves that you press buttons to open the shelves you want. It's very exciting. I feel powerful. Hehe. They've also got lots and lots of marvelous books: several complete sets of Stevenson's fiction, dozens of Wodehouse books, quite a few Buchan novels I've never read, and of course lots of more "serious" works, including hundreds of works relating to Shakespeare, at least two complete sets of Victor Hugo, and millions more. Well, maybe a million or one and a half. Not sure the complete volume count. It's thrilling all the same. I was wandering the Late Victorian/Edwardian fiction section and found myself almost unable to breath with delight. It was simple amazing. Wonderful. Perfect. I could live there, if it werely for real academic work. And sleeping. And eating. And all that other stuff. hehe. I'm done. For now.

Currently Watching Jeeves & Wooster: A Plan for Gussie see related

Happy Norwegian Independence Day!

No, I'm not Norwegian. But my maternal grandfather's mother was Swedish--Helen Holmstrom (not sure about spelling though). That's rather close, geographically anyhow.

Today is a Wednesday, thus I do not wish to do anything not due today. So I shan't. And I'm in a very odd mood. This marks my fifth attempt to post something since that last entry. The reason I needed to end it was that my dad lost his "credit" card, which is really a debit but works as a credit. Yes. But we found it, eventually. Took rather a long time, actually.

Hmm. I'm not literally currently watching the above video, but we stopped it in the middle last night and intend to finish watching it tonight or tomorrow. My siblings and myself have recently developed a great liking for the Jeeves & Wooster videos--ever since the library made video and DVD rentals free. I think we've watched five of them in two weeks. Plus the Pride & Prejudice mini-series, which my sister and I now adore. Unfortunately, my parents don't especially appreciate our preferred films. They watched about ten minutes of the "currently" listed item and pronounced it "absurd." Rather a compliment, but not really. I quite thoroughly envy people whose parents share their reading and viewing interests. But at least my parents tolerate my "absurdities." But I digress.

Despite our doubts, my sister and I were pleasantly surprised to find that Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry do a marvelous job of portraying Bertram Wooster and Reginald (gasp! he has a first name!) Jeeves, respectively. Fry was a bit more animated than either of our imaginations--but Amanda and I agreed that Bertie had probably exaggerated his stoicism, since he does exaggerate everything. Of course, Laurie does very well with Bertie's animated antics, altering his expression several times in a single sentence. Definite facial mobility. But grand fun. Aunt Dahlia isn't quite as large a woman as we would prefer, but Aunt Agatha is thoroughly large and terrifying. And poor Gussie has the most amusing and impossible speech impediment, which works very well, oddly enough. Essentially, we were very satisfied. Even my brother--who has only read Psmith, Journalist--greatly enjoys the shows. He even attempts to watch them without his sisters, which we do not quite like.

And . . . what else? I'm succumbing rather gradually to lethargy, but that's merely the usual May ultra-procrastinatorial virus. Ick. May is the Wednesday of the year. Oh well. It's half over, anyhow. My awkward position as first graduating senior/first college student of the family has only increased. I am going to Wheaton, but the question of funds is somewhat daunting, especially as Dad still has not fully recovered from the car accident of February 18th. Tomorrow will mark his third month of not working. A quarter of the year without any significant income is certainly interesting. Mom works nearly full time, but that's still nowhere near what Dad normally makes. Her paychecks were going to go into savings for college and other "important" things, and most certainly are not. Ah well.

I applied for a job at the library as a page in the support facility, but I've no idea whether or not I could get it. Or if I could take if, were it given to me. My maternal Grama (not misspelled . . . it's something of a pet term) has Alzheimer's disease, and it's been getting much worse over the past two or three months. This summer she's moving out of the flat she's lived in for thirty-four years and into my aunt's house--she'll probably move around the family though. And it seems like she's forgetting even to drink throughout the day, so someone is probably going to need to stay with her until she moves out. As the oldest grandchild without a job, that'll probably be me. I love her very much, but . . . well, she's not "Grama" anymore. She usually recognizes me (though she might forget which child's daughter I am), but we can't really converse or do anything at all together.

I miss her dreadfully. For over a year (until my fourth birthday), my parents and I lived with my Grama and Grampa, and I still remember being with them--though Grama still worked then. We made food--I remember cookies and coffee cake most vividly--she told me about her parents and their children, about Grampa, about my mom, my aunts, and my uncle. Now she still does remember some of the stories, but can't remember that washing requires soap or that milk needs to stay refrigerated. It sounds morbid, but I'm almost glad my Grampa died six years ago, when she was still "all there."

And this is getting morbid. There are much better things to worry about, really. Though "worry" isn't quite the proper term. And I need to have something sensible to say. If I had time, I should like to mumble along about Cry, the Beloved Country, since I finished the novel yesterday and enjoyed it far more thoroughly than I'd expected. It's really quite lovely, actually. Poetic, I mean. And "true," in a rather vaguely emotional sense. And before I start trying to explain that comment, I'd best go get ready for church. I think I could drive there in my sleep. And clean the bathrooms and floors in my sleep. Not that I mind helping clean just twice a week; it just makes going there for actual services much odder. Oh yes, Pastor Jim might talking about The DaVinci Code tonight--or next week. I hope he doesn't do a bad job. He doesn't have the best reading comprehension in the world and rather tends to misinterpret things due to misunderstanding or not noticing information. It makes me cringe. Mom says I need to pray that he gets better with that sort of thing, but it hasn't helped much yet. And now I'm being both morbid and critical. Well, the morbidity isn't pronounced at the moment. Heh. I suppose that's a half-chuckle. I need to be done with high school. Really. All the fall semester stuff Wheaton keeps sending me isn't helping. I'd rather just jump into college work and skip the next few weeks. Okay, I could do Melville and Dickinson. Not Enigma of Arrival. And not finals. Especially since I found I could probably test out of the math requirements without ever having taken Advanced Algebra. lol. I just need to rather thoroughly review a few things and learn about basic statistics--which we never did in this course. Then I shall be done with math for the rest of my life, excepting the necessary consumer mathematics of daily life. What a lovely thought! On that bright note, I do hereby end this useless entry. Voila!

Happy False-End-Of-Napoleonic-Issues Day!

Today marks the 192d anniversary of Napoleon's abdication and exile to Elba! Let's all sing "The Three Grenadiers," placing our hands on our stomachs with grumpy faces! Vive le Empereur des Français! Wow. I feel French suddenly. *puts on half-decent accent* Only "half" decent, mind. Nothing terribly audacious.

Edit: Loverly. Simply loverly. Doesn't everyone adore browsers which freeze everything but the submit button? I do. In any event, here is my "currently" item. I tried to put the music I am listening to, but Amazon apparently doesn't carry it. 'Tis "Sibelius: Works for Piano," performed by a Finnish pianist, Ralf Gothoni. I adore Sibelius currently, and only hope to find more of his piano works at the library when next I visit it. I'm learning his "Romance in D Flat, Op. 24, No. 9" now and have borrowed his "From the Land  of a Thousand Lakes." Beautiful stuff. And now I need to go. Immediately. Bother.