Dinner and a book
March 3rd, 2012 § 1 Comment
I went out to dinner last night. I tried something that was friendly to all of my permanent and temporary dietary restrictions –Tofu House. I ordered boiled tofu and mushrooms, but I didn’t have a chance at really digging in after the enormous kimchi appetizer. :
I obviously didn’t eat the egg or the weird fish stuff they give you, or the spicy stuff. But I ordered two seaweeds and two rice noodles.
My entree was great as breakfast.
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I brought along a book last night:Arms Wide Open: A Midwife’s Journey, which might seem like a strange dinner companion, but I’ve had stranger. I’m about halfway through the book, and it’s all right. The author/speaker is way hippier than I am, and so far the setting has changed three times (commune hopping). But it’s still interesting to read, especially right now as I’m taking a social organizing class.
YAY!
March 2nd, 2012 § Leave a Comment
I GOT INTO SARAH LAWRENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another latte day
March 1st, 2012 § Leave a Comment
I’m currently trying to finish my homework, write a recommendation letter, book journal, and figure out what to eat for lunch.
Yesterday was Leap Day. I drank wine, even though I am currently not drinking wine. But on Leap Day, nothing counts!
Last week, I read a really interesting book about librarians and their importance in the 2010s.
Also in keeping with my goals for this year, I’ve been running. Yesterday, I ran in the rain for a long time and came back to find I had gained ten pounds of water weight, which I’d been carrying in my sweatshirt. It was still worth it.
I might blog at some point about a big running thing coming up. Right now, I’m still too anxious to talk about it.
Latte day
February 25th, 2012 § 2 Comments
Wow, it’s been a month since I’ve posted. I finished all those grad school applications and got a new job.
I’ve been writing, but mostly privately (as in, journaling). It’s definitely been a season for that.
In other news, I got new glasses!
Writing Sample update
January 23rd, 2012 § 1 Comment
Well, the females in The Maltese Falcon are really, really not feminist.
I’m at a place in writing right now where I have lots of information, pages of writing, dozens of primary source quotes that make up some kind of point in my head, but no real argument. I sometimes run into this when I’m writing academically. I have all the stuff and a nebulous idea, but trouble executing it or even boiling it down to a sentence. I am so brain-fried.
The Nancy Drew part is written; I need to add some analysis.
Whole Foods was busy earlier, but has died down now that the football game has started. I’m thinking about leaving soon and maybe zoning out with a novel or a documentary.
Group Dynamics
January 22nd, 2012 § Leave a Comment
My new class is full of group work. Working with others is one of the most difficult parts of this class and actually, my life. I fear new dynamics, especially in a community in which everyone is significantly younger than me and not really into high achieving. Mostly, I play nice since our grade doesn’t come from these activities. I just don’t know what to say when a girl stares at me and says, “I wish I did my homework.” The only thing I could think of was, “I wish you did, too.”
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I go to Whole Foods three times a day. I’ve developed quite a following. The following consists of boys who have crushes on me. Going to Whole Foods is more awkward each time. I can’t get apples without talking to Produce who asked me out but backed off when he figured out how nerdy I am. I think it was specifically the light I wear on my head when I run and how much I love C-SPAN that scared him away. Now there’s a boy who works in the front of the store who talks to me about running. Right now, I’m in a phase of liking the boy in front of the store.
Navigating the second-largest Whole Foods store in the country has become quite the challenge.
Katherine just told me the cheese-counter boy smiles at me when I go get olive samples.
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I am in the process of joining a new church full of old people, a running club full of quick people, mostly boys, and a knitting club full of people whom I assume are neater knitters than I am, since most of them are old ladies. I have been phasing these in over the past few weeks, since its too much for all at once. Most of the new people in my life are not in my typical dynamic (i.e. they are 18 and 80, except for the runners and the boys at Whole Foods; but those last two are mostly boys, a group I rarely hang out with as a whole). For the record, I like old people best.
I don’t really like my peers or anyone younger than them. I have enough friends who are in the 18-24, 25, 26 female age cohort, who are amazing and great, but I am seeking people outside that. But hanging out with old people means I need to learn how to interact with them in the best way possible. I also need to learn how boys operate in groups, but frankly, I’ll have to see how interested I am.
Estudiante
January 17th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Speaking of overachieving, I’ve reentered Arena #1 of my longtime perfectionism, perpetual freak outs and coffee-laced tears:
….
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school.
I’m taking a women’s studies class at a community college with Katherine. I started out auditing it, then signed up officially, then signed up for the honors section…
I know this looks like the path of an overachiever, and I’m not sure it isn’t, but I’m only taking one four-unit class, which is a lot fewer than the 20+ units I took each quarter back during ‘those days.’ So at the most, this is overachieving divided by five, which isn’t very much at all.
I like the class so far. One of the teachers (it is a co-taught class) is really cool and smart; the other is alternatively hilarious and frustrating. I’m confused by all the people who don’t do their homework. There have been plenty of times when I didn’t do my homework throughout my life, but I would at least stress out about it when it happened. Not many people in the class seem to care.
Although the class is listed under women’s studies and sociology, it’s basically a community organizing course. So, we talk about different social movements throughout the history of the US and we have to do a service project [I should be good there. (See previous post.)]
I’m trying to use this new playing field as practice for the real work of graduate school, which I will hopefully begin one of these days. So far, I’ve turned everything in on time and have thought ahead about the larger projects. There are no tests in this class, so I don’t have to take notes in order to regurgitate. I’m taking them, though, to practice. I was never a good note taker in college or ever.
I like having something to look forward to during the day (at least on Tuesday and Thursday) and I really like having (easy) homework again. Plus, this is a little something to squeeze into my grad school apps before I send them off in two weeks.
Volunteering update
January 12th, 2012 § 1 Comment
I got a promotion! I’ve been volunteering at the library for a while now, I think since August or September. I’m still a volunteer, but now I’m a volunteer who’s in charge of the other volunteers. I have a phone number at the library and will soon have office hours. And I get to add a title to my email signature.
This new job is a little stressful. There is more responsibility and I’m brainstorming ways to be creative and recruit new learners and find better resources for them.
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Part of the reason I’m doing this (besides loving the library and being committed to volunteering in my community) is that I’m trying to add stress back into my life in a healthy manner. Remember how I used to be an overachiever? I never want to be one again. I’ve been laying low for the past year or so, not doing anything too high profile. But real life is calling and with that comes stress.
So I’m trying to be simply an achiever of my goals without all the extra anxiety that comes with the over part. This position should be good practice.
With my new commitment to sanity, I’ve also turned down a position as an English Language Learner conversation group facilitator (also at the library). I’m really sad about this, but know that I don’t have the energy for it right now. Ahhh———-adult choices.
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I still see the Kindergartners every Wednesday, so I get a lot of facilitating out of my system there. I’m also very attached to most of them, so working there doesn’t seem like a job.
Joan of Arc/The Maltese Falcon
January 10th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
The other day was Joan of Arc’s 600th birthday. Below is my favorite quote from a NYT article.
“We don’t need narratives that rationalize human experience so much as those that enlarge it with the breath of mystery. For as long as we look to heroes for inspiration, to leaders whose vision lifts them above our limited perspective, who cherish their values above their earthly lives, the story of Joan of Arc will remain one we remember, and celebrate.”
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Also, I’ve reached the research point of Part 2 of my writing sample, which is reading The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. The book is a detective novel published in 1930; it’s one of the first noir novels that cemented the hardboiled detective character which would become popular in the 30s. My task is to search the female characters and their dialogue for bits of feminism. This quest seems impossible at times, especially with the first line of the novel being: “Yes, sweetheart?”
But I know I’ll find some, even if Brigid O’Shaughnessy is no Joan of Arc, no matter how you look at her. After all, I found a little bit of feminism in Nancy Drew, which makes me worthy of being called a sleuth myself.
flareandglare
