Wednesday, April 30, 2008
bargainist.com
Yes, I've added an widget on my page. This is my secret indulgence, and I love it. The website is called Bargainist.com and its a compilation of many offers, coupon codes, and freebies out there, every day except weekends. I've actually gotten great deals from this site.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Wanna leave the country?
Every week, I get continental.com specials. I like to dream about one day just saying, hey lets go on vacation-- tomorrow, and winging off to some random city. This week, the round trip fare from Nearby Big City to Belize is $150.00. And my thought was, "I can go", not "we." Logically, J can't leave or take off until the wedding, so logic makes that thought easy. But I seriously want to go. Seriously. I have a sneaking suspicion that its A. travel bug (I can't go back to Ireland this summer, and I've certainly gotten used to it over the past few years) B. It's not like its a bad reason I can't go back (wedding) C. Deep down, I don't understand why I couldn't go back this summer. I mean, financially, its impossible. But I've never let that stand in my way (sigh, oh the loans are piling up).
But I want to go to Belize. I want to travel al a carte one more time. The funny thing is, it's not like my days of independent travel are over after marriage. I fully intend on continuing my traveling days, and wandering ways, alone and together with J. My parents both took one vacation apart from the other each summer, and it was very important to them-- I see it as natural. So I shouldn't be reacting to the idea that I'll never travel solo again.
But I want to go to Belize. Maybe it has to do with responsibility and ....... dissertation! Ah, running away, to the most affordable running-away-country! Where they drive golf carts, not cars!
That said, anybody seriously want to run away with me to Belize from Saturday until Monday? it's 150$ round trip and the hotel would be $120 each for whole weekend............ seriously.
But I want to go to Belize. I want to travel al a carte one more time. The funny thing is, it's not like my days of independent travel are over after marriage. I fully intend on continuing my traveling days, and wandering ways, alone and together with J. My parents both took one vacation apart from the other each summer, and it was very important to them-- I see it as natural. So I shouldn't be reacting to the idea that I'll never travel solo again.
But I want to go to Belize. Maybe it has to do with responsibility and ....... dissertation! Ah, running away, to the most affordable running-away-country! Where they drive golf carts, not cars!
That said, anybody seriously want to run away with me to Belize from Saturday until Monday? it's 150$ round trip and the hotel would be $120 each for whole weekend............ seriously.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Oh Yeah, Proposal
I better be ready to discuss my proposal Tuesday at the lecture and dinner. I'm scared shit-less. I feel like I've taken a mental break from it, and finally wanted to get back in, but every time I want to get started with research and writing it, I have laundry, or dishes or well, most importantly NO CAR. we are sharing right now and it's driving me piss crazy.
April Showers Bring May Flowers
I had such a wonderful time this weekend at the bridal shower. It was nice to be with friends, and know that when I tried to start being a bit analytical about the whole ritualized life passage performed by women in our society--- when I started sounding awkward--- my friends didn't mind. I didn't make sense, but I had tried to say something similar up at the Mom's-Friends-Shower up north, and came off as weird.....
What I was/am trying to say is that I never, ever played house like other little girls. We played 'high school' or 'high power fashion editor in New York' or 'Your Birth Mother finally found you and she's a famous model who's sorry' (it sounds a bit sad but it was exciting for my friend M, thanks for such an imagination!).
In this past year, I've come to grapple with a lot of attitudes and opinions that I find I had picked up from, well, bitter people or a desire to prove that there doesn't have to be a 'standard' lifestyle. Such as, the first time my mom cooed about the possibility of my having children I suggested maybe I wouldn't, that it was my choice and maybe I didn't want to. It was important to me to stand up for the other point of view, that I never got to consider maybe I actually wanted children. And then I dated and hung out with people who were bitter and called others 'breeders' and 'corruptors of our world,' people who scorned and were openly hostile (just enough to make it known) to people who, say, brought children to a restaurant or concert.
I never wanted to seem too girly, or too female, or too-- much. Because I wanted my family and society to know that it shouldn't be assumed that every woman would grow up, get married, make babies and stay home, or have jobs that reflect mommy hood.
Let's face it, I was a tomboy, daddy's little girl, the holder-together of the family. I couldn't be too 'feminine' or 'emotional' or 'soft' growing up, so of course I am weirded out by female rituals. But beyond all these OLD notions, and attitudes I've been stressing over this past year, there is one true fact: I want all these female rituals. I want kids, but I have a hard time getting used to that idea-- it's been almost 2 years of me saying, 'all right yes, i want them someday' and every time I say it, I check myself because its such a big deal to me to say.
Anyway, this weekend was a beautiful shower, and (now I'm starting to tear up, how 'female' of me ha ha!) it was so striking, to be surrounded by friends--- yes, the materialism of it does weird me out a bit-- people watching me open presents-- but what I tried to say at the shower I meant-- all these women gather together to help build my future home, yes; but more importantly, to help me transfer from one role to another, to 'change my sign (or is it signifier?)' a little bit, before it changes ultimately in August, perhaps to help ME acclimate to the change. It all seems so very real now. You were there, you witnessed it, it's really going to happen.
I'm really going to get married!
What I was/am trying to say is that I never, ever played house like other little girls. We played 'high school' or 'high power fashion editor in New York' or 'Your Birth Mother finally found you and she's a famous model who's sorry' (it sounds a bit sad but it was exciting for my friend M, thanks for such an imagination!).
In this past year, I've come to grapple with a lot of attitudes and opinions that I find I had picked up from, well, bitter people or a desire to prove that there doesn't have to be a 'standard' lifestyle. Such as, the first time my mom cooed about the possibility of my having children I suggested maybe I wouldn't, that it was my choice and maybe I didn't want to. It was important to me to stand up for the other point of view, that I never got to consider maybe I actually wanted children. And then I dated and hung out with people who were bitter and called others 'breeders' and 'corruptors of our world,' people who scorned and were openly hostile (just enough to make it known) to people who, say, brought children to a restaurant or concert.
I never wanted to seem too girly, or too female, or too-- much. Because I wanted my family and society to know that it shouldn't be assumed that every woman would grow up, get married, make babies and stay home, or have jobs that reflect mommy hood.
Let's face it, I was a tomboy, daddy's little girl, the holder-together of the family. I couldn't be too 'feminine' or 'emotional' or 'soft' growing up, so of course I am weirded out by female rituals. But beyond all these OLD notions, and attitudes I've been stressing over this past year, there is one true fact: I want all these female rituals. I want kids, but I have a hard time getting used to that idea-- it's been almost 2 years of me saying, 'all right yes, i want them someday' and every time I say it, I check myself because its such a big deal to me to say.
Anyway, this weekend was a beautiful shower, and (now I'm starting to tear up, how 'female' of me ha ha!) it was so striking, to be surrounded by friends--- yes, the materialism of it does weird me out a bit-- people watching me open presents-- but what I tried to say at the shower I meant-- all these women gather together to help build my future home, yes; but more importantly, to help me transfer from one role to another, to 'change my sign (or is it signifier?)' a little bit, before it changes ultimately in August, perhaps to help ME acclimate to the change. It all seems so very real now. You were there, you witnessed it, it's really going to happen.
I'm really going to get married!
Monday, April 7, 2008
update: comfort films
Seasons 1, 2, and what remains of 3 are all available to watch online, on netflix. Yeay!
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Comfort films
This weekend I spent my time in the bedroom, or bathroom, or bedroom again. And while dealing with an unwelcome intestinal illness-- apparently not associated to cough-- I indulged myself in secret past time that I've ritualized over the last 15 years. You see, every time I'm really sick-- really truly, puky, fevery, sick, I haul out my old vhs tapes of a favorite tv show.
This show was canceled in the middle of the third season, and has been critically panned as implausible and farce-ical (word?) once Spielberg and scheider maneuvered away from it in the second season. But I can't help my love for Sea Quest. Sea Quest DSV, SeaQuest 2032, whatever it's name, that's my indulgence.
It's true that the first season was refreshing, a new 'starship enterprise' underseas, an inner world voyage instead of an outer space adventure. Plausible (for an imagined future of 2021) story lines captivated audiences on Wednesday nights at 7 ( I still remember when it was on, in 1993). In fact, on Halloween, 1993, the crew became entangled with a ghost ship on the bottom of the ocean. I stayed home to watch this, avoid taking my little sister out to trick-or-treat, and avoid friends who wanted to play Ouija board.
Yes, Jonathan Brandis was on the show, yes he was hot in that 90's young-grunge look that we were all trying to perfect at 14 (well, it was easier to pull off a flannel shirt and 'jesus shoes' than a hypercolor tshirt, don't you agree?) Yes, I had a crush on him. Yes, I had an overactive imagination that led me on my own episodes at night, zipping through the worlds oceans, (Lucas) discovering young girls (me) in distress on abandoned science outposts in the mariana trench, or even, jumping into the second season, leading Lucas Wolenciak 10miles below the earth's crust begging a female crew member to "hold me, just until I get to sleep" (he drew the short straw, and with only 4 seats available for the one shot rise to the surface, he was supposed to die down there at 16, never been you know what).
When season three began, in 95, and the crew had just returned-- 10 years in the future-- from fighting a war on a distance water planet, transported by aliens and brought back to a new age of society, fans were upset. Plausibility was clearly gone. It was interesting when whats-his-name Luke Skywalker turned out to be an interstellar traveler (who took seaquest to that distant planet), but still, ratings declined and the show ended before the season was out. I was offended. When SciFi channel ran the episodes in syndication the next year, I tried to tape as many as possible (hence the vhs tapes).
You may be thinking, she's a Trekkie geek at heart, a weirdo, a truely strange one. If you'll indulge me in my posting, here's why I cling to this (albeit poorly edited) show. In 1993, my father died. He was sick for 3 months, and then was gone on March 25th. When SeaQuest started, I was in the midst of my withdrawal, and sorrow. The show gave me an outlet to imagine multiple, fanciful, futures, because I couldn't bear to imagine a realistic one without my family. I even wrote a few of the dreams down, but don't ask as I won't share them. Some early work must never see the light of day, no matter what editor thinks that a juvenalia collection may do to a writers reputation and prestige.
I think I return to this show, when I'm ill, when I'm weak, not because it was a fantastic critical achievement, misunderstood by all, but because in the years when I was the most fractured from my mother and sisters, these characters provided a bit of a familial spot for me. Every week, someone almost died, but never did.... except for the unlucky, unknown, crew members no. 5 & 6, say, eaten by evil plants, or killed in alien gunfire. I needed that resurrection each week, I suppose.
And so now I'm almost to the end of Season 2, when Roy Scheider signs off, and the alien troubles begin. Season 3 changes to a man-made war, with major characters dying, and the inevitable intrusion of reality when you remember the object of your teenage obsession killed himself after making a few made for tv movies with Melissa Joan Hart. You never know if Captain Ford and Lt. Henderson ever got it on, really, or what the cancelled episode would have been about, that day in 1995, that wasn't aired because of some current crisis (I can't remember what it was).
A fitting end to the escapist machinations of my teenage brain--- oblivion--- a story without resolution. And so I watch, and am comforted by my weakness of years past.
This show was canceled in the middle of the third season, and has been critically panned as implausible and farce-ical (word?) once Spielberg and scheider maneuvered away from it in the second season. But I can't help my love for Sea Quest. Sea Quest DSV, SeaQuest 2032, whatever it's name, that's my indulgence.
It's true that the first season was refreshing, a new 'starship enterprise' underseas, an inner world voyage instead of an outer space adventure. Plausible (for an imagined future of 2021) story lines captivated audiences on Wednesday nights at 7 ( I still remember when it was on, in 1993). In fact, on Halloween, 1993, the crew became entangled with a ghost ship on the bottom of the ocean. I stayed home to watch this, avoid taking my little sister out to trick-or-treat, and avoid friends who wanted to play Ouija board.
Yes, Jonathan Brandis was on the show, yes he was hot in that 90's young-grunge look that we were all trying to perfect at 14 (well, it was easier to pull off a flannel shirt and 'jesus shoes' than a hypercolor tshirt, don't you agree?) Yes, I had a crush on him. Yes, I had an overactive imagination that led me on my own episodes at night, zipping through the worlds oceans, (Lucas) discovering young girls (me) in distress on abandoned science outposts in the mariana trench, or even, jumping into the second season, leading Lucas Wolenciak 10miles below the earth's crust begging a female crew member to "hold me, just until I get to sleep" (he drew the short straw, and with only 4 seats available for the one shot rise to the surface, he was supposed to die down there at 16, never been you know what).
When season three began, in 95, and the crew had just returned-- 10 years in the future-- from fighting a war on a distance water planet, transported by aliens and brought back to a new age of society, fans were upset. Plausibility was clearly gone. It was interesting when whats-his-name Luke Skywalker turned out to be an interstellar traveler (who took seaquest to that distant planet), but still, ratings declined and the show ended before the season was out. I was offended. When SciFi channel ran the episodes in syndication the next year, I tried to tape as many as possible (hence the vhs tapes).
You may be thinking, she's a Trekkie geek at heart, a weirdo, a truely strange one. If you'll indulge me in my posting, here's why I cling to this (albeit poorly edited) show. In 1993, my father died. He was sick for 3 months, and then was gone on March 25th. When SeaQuest started, I was in the midst of my withdrawal, and sorrow. The show gave me an outlet to imagine multiple, fanciful, futures, because I couldn't bear to imagine a realistic one without my family. I even wrote a few of the dreams down, but don't ask as I won't share them. Some early work must never see the light of day, no matter what editor thinks that a juvenalia collection may do to a writers reputation and prestige.
I think I return to this show, when I'm ill, when I'm weak, not because it was a fantastic critical achievement, misunderstood by all, but because in the years when I was the most fractured from my mother and sisters, these characters provided a bit of a familial spot for me. Every week, someone almost died, but never did.... except for the unlucky, unknown, crew members no. 5 & 6, say, eaten by evil plants, or killed in alien gunfire. I needed that resurrection each week, I suppose.
And so now I'm almost to the end of Season 2, when Roy Scheider signs off, and the alien troubles begin. Season 3 changes to a man-made war, with major characters dying, and the inevitable intrusion of reality when you remember the object of your teenage obsession killed himself after making a few made for tv movies with Melissa Joan Hart. You never know if Captain Ford and Lt. Henderson ever got it on, really, or what the cancelled episode would have been about, that day in 1995, that wasn't aired because of some current crisis (I can't remember what it was).
A fitting end to the escapist machinations of my teenage brain--- oblivion--- a story without resolution. And so I watch, and am comforted by my weakness of years past.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
cranky pants
Okay I went to the doctor, had chest xrays, etc. I told him that I had a cough since the last time I'd been there (January) but that my friends had had the same thing, and said their cough hung on for 4 weeks or so. So I ignored the cough until Spring Break. It seemed to get better.
And then, honestly, I got absolutely no sleep 2 nights in a row, thanks to a squabble and then my own inability to sleep when stressed. Then I got on a plane. And that sucked. The doctor said that if I hadn't ignored the cough, it would have been easier to fix. I have something similar to walking pneumonia (I sound and look like it but I don't have it) that has to do with my trachea and upper lungs (pneumonia is in the base), so I have drugs now, which should have an effect by monday. He did say it would take awhile, because my circulatory system was so irritated. And he didn't quite believe me when I said I'd never had asthma........ weird.
Anyways, I'll be better soon and won't have to give my students a walk just because I can't have a coherent thought in front of the classroom.
P.S. I did a segment on U2 and poetry in class. I'll have to post about the project/success/failure soon.
And then, honestly, I got absolutely no sleep 2 nights in a row, thanks to a squabble and then my own inability to sleep when stressed. Then I got on a plane. And that sucked. The doctor said that if I hadn't ignored the cough, it would have been easier to fix. I have something similar to walking pneumonia (I sound and look like it but I don't have it) that has to do with my trachea and upper lungs (pneumonia is in the base), so I have drugs now, which should have an effect by monday. He did say it would take awhile, because my circulatory system was so irritated. And he didn't quite believe me when I said I'd never had asthma........ weird.
Anyways, I'll be better soon and won't have to give my students a walk just because I can't have a coherent thought in front of the classroom.
P.S. I did a segment on U2 and poetry in class. I'll have to post about the project/success/failure soon.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Sick
So I got a cold in February, which I learned from friends that they had already had, and that it left you with a nagging cough for a few weeks. Well, It's now April, and I have this same cough and it won't leave. And I think I have allergies now. And I just wanted to whine a little, because I can.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
