Haven't finished my Marx readings, but I did everything else expected of me, so I'm forgiving myself for escaping with my headphones. It's amazing what listening to just one song, in the dark, through headphones, can do.
Tomorrow is Halloween. Shit. I don't feel like I have the energy for Halloween right now... maybe if I could stall it for a week, sort of put it off and make everyone play along when I actually feel like putting on a mask and having Fun. "Fun" is such a weird concept - I kind of wish there weren't established times for it. Trying to have Fun when you don't feel like it is kind of horrible. Like dancing when you don't feel like it. Like people trying to cheer you up when you physically need to be sad or you'll spontaneously combust.
It's a Monday, let me be.
Last weekend was Parents Weekend, or Parent's Weekend, but I don't think so. The weekend does sort of belong to them, but not enough for an apostrophe. I saw my parents - again, as I've seen them a lot lately - and my sister. I went to a lecture on Language and Thought, which was interesting. I ate bad "Texan" food, which was bad. I breathed in smoke, I felt sad, I walked in the cold air, I watched others eat Thai food, I saw an orchestrated and vocal performance of a Carmen song (the one everyone knows, that I love). I ate expensive cheesecake with Upekha's family and my sister, which was good. It was a weird Saturday.
Sunday Gina and I went to Wicker Park, which I like normally. It's tremendously indie, in ways that make me want to gag a little sometimes, but it remains true to the idea that there can be ideas, which is different from Hastings. We went to American Apparel, which seemed exciting. Made in America! But it was all unicolor, somewhat odd clothing. We went to a vintage shop, to a used book store. I bought "Lolita".
There's something occasionally strangely depressing about riding the el at night. Maybe it's the smell, or the dirtiness, or the looks on the people's faces. Someone told me once: "Everything depresses you," which is not true, but valid in the sense that really random things depress me really quickly. Not deeply, just quickly.
I am not depressed right now. I am pondering stupidly. And I am listening to "In My Lady's House", which is a song that sounds beautiful, like a pillow. A pillow is kind of beautiful. Wait, no. A pillow is functional.
I was thinking some about love, and its relationship to touch. To be touched is to be healed, and to be healed is to be cared for, and to be cared for is to bond, and to bond is to love. QED, love and touch are closely related. But it's not an if-and-only-if. Love doesn't require touch, but touch hastens love. Though it should be noted that I'm not in it, it being love, and am pondering stupidly.
Hm. Bed.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Learning in between classes
1) People eat peas even when their parents don't make them.
2) People do cool things, like travel the world. And I mean most people.
3) Chinese leftovers stink, and horribly so. (Sidenote: There IS such a thing as too much Chinese food.)
4) Kissing is confusing. Not the act, just the effects.
5) Everyone likes tea.
6) Peeing with boys in the room makes you much more comfortable around them.
7) There are no mean Asians.
8) Just because there are numerous tasty desserts at every meal, at no added cost, doesn't mean you have to eat them. Still learning this one.
9) Dancing at frat parties is like dancing at the Prom (bad), only more drunk.
10) Music at frat parties is like music at the Prom (bad).
11) It is impossible to shave your legs in the shower. Without having a machete-like effect on them, I mean. Unless you're really good at yoga.
12) The laundry room is mind-numbing.
13) The el train is sure to be slowest when it's coldest outside.
14) Everything in Chinatown is cheap. And the portions are huge. Chinatown, however, is not huge.
15) A lot of people know Chinese. This is strange, but helpful.
16) You meet grad students on the bus, or waiting for the bus, and only there. Unless one is teaching your class.
17) Most Walk/Don't Walk signs may be ignored. On campus, anyway.
18) Bubble tea is wonderful, and wonderfully overbearing.
19) Not everything (but most everything) pertains to China.
2) People do cool things, like travel the world. And I mean most people.
3) Chinese leftovers stink, and horribly so. (Sidenote: There IS such a thing as too much Chinese food.)
4) Kissing is confusing. Not the act, just the effects.
5) Everyone likes tea.
6) Peeing with boys in the room makes you much more comfortable around them.
7) There are no mean Asians.
8) Just because there are numerous tasty desserts at every meal, at no added cost, doesn't mean you have to eat them. Still learning this one.
9) Dancing at frat parties is like dancing at the Prom (bad), only more drunk.
10) Music at frat parties is like music at the Prom (bad).
11) It is impossible to shave your legs in the shower. Without having a machete-like effect on them, I mean. Unless you're really good at yoga.
12) The laundry room is mind-numbing.
13) The el train is sure to be slowest when it's coldest outside.
14) Everything in Chinatown is cheap. And the portions are huge. Chinatown, however, is not huge.
15) A lot of people know Chinese. This is strange, but helpful.
16) You meet grad students on the bus, or waiting for the bus, and only there. Unless one is teaching your class.
17) Most Walk/Don't Walk signs may be ignored. On campus, anyway.
18) Bubble tea is wonderful, and wonderfully overbearing.
19) Not everything (but most everything) pertains to China.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
freedom and democracy and SUVs for every boy and girl!
Wow. It's October now.
The past month has mostly been a blur of Adam Smith, vaguely-beatnikish activities, and ethnic food. A good blur, though. I should brush my teeth.
And not eat Lebanese food anymore, because apparently it causes me to almost-vomit at 6 in the morning for no particular reason. Weird.
Yesterday I walked from here, 60th Street, all the way to 35th Street where I got on the green el and rode until Adams/Wabash (I think). Twenty-five blocks may not sound like a lot, but it was reasonably exhausting. I started out thinking I could make it all the way downtown, but that would have taken hours. I will do it, though, eventually. Or eventch, as Alex says.
I came to Chicago somehow thinking the city, the downtown, would be my destination... the downtown is great, but it's all of the in-betweens that make a city so fabulous. Yuppie neighborhoods and their "starvin' vegans", bakeries with cheap pastries run by Slavic immigrants, train folk, singing old black men, bubble tea, Ethiopian cuisine. There's also the university life.. taping chairs to the ceiling, tea-drinking. Ironically, I'm more relaxed now than I ever was in high school.
Oh yeah, and I'm taking classes...
The past month has mostly been a blur of Adam Smith, vaguely-beatnikish activities, and ethnic food. A good blur, though. I should brush my teeth.
And not eat Lebanese food anymore, because apparently it causes me to almost-vomit at 6 in the morning for no particular reason. Weird.
Yesterday I walked from here, 60th Street, all the way to 35th Street where I got on the green el and rode until Adams/Wabash (I think). Twenty-five blocks may not sound like a lot, but it was reasonably exhausting. I started out thinking I could make it all the way downtown, but that would have taken hours. I will do it, though, eventually. Or eventch, as Alex says.
I came to Chicago somehow thinking the city, the downtown, would be my destination... the downtown is great, but it's all of the in-betweens that make a city so fabulous. Yuppie neighborhoods and their "starvin' vegans", bakeries with cheap pastries run by Slavic immigrants, train folk, singing old black men, bubble tea, Ethiopian cuisine. There's also the university life.. taping chairs to the ceiling, tea-drinking. Ironically, I'm more relaxed now than I ever was in high school.
Oh yeah, and I'm taking classes...
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