A Long Day's Journal Into Night

Scourge!!!

I had a brilliant idea. There are brownies and there are blondies. I was thinking that something pumpkin in a bar shape would be yummy AND they could be called reddies. Or something. Yum, eh? Now somebody should go make them for me.

I have been saving up some stuff to say:

a). I saw a flier in a stall at the gym asking for sexually-active couples to participate in a study about sex, health, and relationships. Then at the bottom it said that women taking hormonal birth control are not eligible. Excuse me? I have never written in a bathroom before but had a strong urge to find a pen and write, "ANY WOMAN IN A SEXUALLY-ACTIVE RELATIONSHIP SHOULD BE TAKING THE PILL!" Of course this does not apply to those couples trying to conceive, but as it was posted in a college gym, I assume they are targeting those who do not want to have a baby in the near future. Maybe the purpose of the study is to figure out why young women might not be using brith control, but isn't it a little bit unethical to study a problem, rather than trying to fix the problem? Wouldn't the medical world be better served by a flier that posted numbers on different birth control methods?

So, may be I was overracting and maybe condom efficacy has gone up recently so I checked the numbers:

Male Condoms: 86 to 98%
Hormonal Birth Control: 95 to 99.9%
Female Condom: 79 to 95%

I don't have time for b)-z). Tis time for Funky Step.

I have two things to say, both of a trivial nature.

First:

The shift in the male to female ratio in our hallway has manifested itself through the toilet seat. Now, I never understand women who so vehemently insist that guys leave the seat down. I mean, they have to lift it up, why can't we set it down? However, I do still groan (unfairly) a little whenever I do have to re-orient the toilet for female usage. I guess I have been spoiled growing up in a house where the women out number the men 5:2. It was never a large problem with my male roomies in Boulder either. Heh.

Second:

When is rains in Southern California, it feels like leaving on a dry, craggy sponge that has been dipped in warm water becoming soft and pliant. Of course in all this rain I forget and wear my slippery flip-flops and have been slipping up street and down alley. Another plus of rain: I get to bring out my favorite mountie, Guillaume. Ah, bliss.

and all the world is football shaped, it's just for me to kick in space
and all the world is biscuit - shaped, it's just for me to feed my face

You know you're getting older when...

The next generation teenage soap opera rips on YOUR generation teenage soap opera.

Case in point. Last night I was watching this show called, "Life as We Know It," which from what I gather is about an improbably beautiful group of high schoolers trying to have sex with each other.

The Shy-but-Beautiful boy awkwardly asks the Bitchy-but-Beautiful girl and her friend where they are going to hang out.

"Where?" snaps BbB girl at SbB boy, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "The Peach Pit!"

Ooh! That is a low blow to the zipcode that sired the essentially infinite genre of "Dawson's Creek," "One Tree Hill," "The OC," etc. (Though we have to give props to Degrassi which I believe was the original inspiration for Walshes and company.)

I thought, now this could be cool, in a Screamesque, self-satire, bite the hand that feeds you, way. So I made a concerted effort to watch the show, but, alas, I could not get through 15 minutes. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but the show just didn't work. I was bored. And I am not easily bored. I must admit, the 90210 is wine and cheesy, but at least it is watchable. It's syndicated for crying out loud.

So I must conclude, that the Peach Pit remark was not meant to be a clever allusion, but a rallying cry for teens and tweens who want to distance their culture themselves from twentysomethings culture. "Yeah," they say, "The Peach Pit and 90210 is so OVER! It was their time, but it's out time right now. Right now, it's our time!" And they probably feel the same way about the Goonies.

I am reminded of my roommate who once asked me, "You like 80's music don't you." Yes, I do. First of all, it rocks, second of all, how can you dislike an entire DECADE? So you're sayind every song produced between 1979 and 1990 sucked, even Madonna? Ha! I would have her stumped by playing the Madonna card. "Oh," she said, not without condescension, "You like Madonna don't you."

Well how can you argue with that? Except to say, he who knows only his generation remains always a child. San Dimas Football RULES!!!

One perk of being a graduate student is being able to check out books from the library for an extended period of time. If I check out books, say in the Spring, they will all be due on the same date in the Fall. That date is tomorrow, so today I lugged two bags full of books to return. Let's review some of the books that have been sitting in my room:


Widow for one year by John Irving: Great! I am so into John Irving now. His style is so easy, you just sort of fall into the novels.

Barn blind by Jane Smiley: Pretty good, about a family that rides horses.

Body of dancers by Candice Leigh Brown: Ballet book, okay.

Bear went over the mountain by William Kotzwinkle: Did not finish. I picked this book because I like the title and the list of other works by the author included, ET, which I didn't know was a book. This book was bizarre, about a bear the steals an author's manuscript, publishes it, and walks around in clothes.

Twins byTessa de Loo: DNF. I'm not sure why I didn't finish this. Recommended by Betsy/Tacy email list person. About twins reunited after WWII. Seems like something I would enjoy, but just never could get through it.

Presumed innocent by Scott Turow: A few chapters into this, I realized it was made into a Harrision Ford movie, which I had seen. So I knew the ending, but I still finished it.

Secret of cartwheels by Patricia Henley: DNF. Liked title, but it is short stories, which are just not my thing.

Dune by Frank Herbert: Loved, loved, loved! Read multiple times.

American childhood by Annie Dillard: Annie Dillard is a goddess. Multiple reader, gives me that chocolate-chippy feeling of nostalgia. (And this isn't even ficiton!)

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson: I got this book after hearing the author speak at the LA Times Book Fair. About code breakers during WWII and present. At the beginning I couldn't get enough of it, but it is very loooong. By the end I was just pushing to finish.

Breathing lessons by Anne Tyler: Good.

Writing life by Annie Dillard: Not as good as AC, but still very enjoyable.

Duplicate keys by Jane Smiley: As you can see I went through a Jane Smiley phase.

Age of grief by Jane Smiley: Again short stories, so I am not sured if I finished.

Red shoes by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger: Cheesy ballet, I think written after the movie. This is on my library card computer account, but I thought I returned it.

Rainbow's End by Martha Grimes: Good mystery. Oddly, not on my computer account, but is in my room. Maybe they confused this and the above.

My roommate may be a vampire. She stays out all night and then when I wake up she comes home and closes the curtains and hides out all day in her bed. I have to watch my lily-white neck.

This weekend I was walking by a retirement home and an elderly woman was sitting on a bench outside. She called me over. She told me she was severly blind, as was evident when she asked me if I was Asian (hmm..must be rubbing off) No, I resonded. Well, where are you from originally? From Colorado. Well, where did your parents come from. Iowa and Illinois, with a smile. She told me she was polling people who were walking by and asked me who I was voting for. Not wanting to get in a fight I said that I did not know. She asked me how I felt about the debates. I said I thought that Kerry had done a good job. She went on to tell me she was a Kerry supporter and why. I was pleasantly surprised. She was 93 and yet surprisingly liberal and progressive. She said that we never should have gone to Iraq, that it was hurting our boys and hurting my chances of finding a husband. Well, I guess not that progressive. It was a nice conversation.

Tried to get a pumpkin smoothie at Jamba Juice, but rats, foiled again. But!! I think I can make them with my...(in the voice of the announcer from the Price Is Right)... brand new blender!

Fruck!

"Why are the stacks in the basement and the computers on the second floor?" wailed Katie.

I am excited for my new books to read. I have to work out in an hour and my tummy is positively bursting with boba. Smooth move Katie.

Anyway, the point of this post is to get you pysched for another political anecdote, which I will relate later. Let's hear the hype, people!

(Note: I just had to edit this post because I made so many typing errors. I wonder if you can have typing displexia? My worst offenders would be "differnet" and "nad." Last week I was IMing an old post-doc and I actually typed "key" instead of "yes" which is, like, embarrasing to the red face extent. He is Suisse and must be thinking, "I can speak French, German, and English and this dumb mono-lingual American can't even speak her native language!")