Standing on the Precipice, One Foot Outstretched
Wow. Back in New Haven, and somehow it didn't really hit me how much I have to do already until I got here. Already spent $142 on textbooks, tomorrow I have to go spend $162 on course packets, which are essentially overpriced photocopies that we have to buy through this print center (meaning they can charge exorbitant rates and nobody can do a damn thing about it). I guess it's a good thing I have leftover money from the last couple paychecks. Met up with Shana and Eva tonight, too--S'Wings, of course (tried a new flavor--S'campies--unimpressed). And then yet another How I Met Your Mother mini-marathon with Shana; we're halfway through season 2 at this point. And the To Do list for tomorrow other than buying course packets is certainly no fun: return the 65 library books I have checked out from the Yale library (which will require several trips), return the 3 library books I have checked out from the New Haven public library, meet with Professor Marcus, meet with Professor Mazzotta, watch the episodes of Chuck that I missed tonight, watch How I Met Your Mother, get my stuff together for the first day of class, oh, and eat.
But enough about the daunting future, let us turn now to the joyous two weeks of freedom I just had. The two weeks when I divided my time between books, movies, sleep, family, food, and fun. The two weeks when I bought Glee, Fringe: Season 1, True Blood: Season 1, The Graduate, The Usual Suspects, Requiem for a Dream, and one of the best-reviewed books of the year: Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin. The two weeks when I saw Up in the Air (overhyped but smart and classy and entertaining nonetheless, George Clooney plays himself, Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga are amazing, you could probably take it or leave it) and (500) Days of Summer (really enjoyed it, fantastic script, the most guy-centric romantic comedy I've ever seen (and that's a good thing, I promise, makes it fresh), and in spite of the terror that Zooey Deschanel inspires in my soul, the acting was also quite good). The two weeks when I re-watched all of Glee (yeah, I did, and it was just as awesome the second time around). The two weeks when I read Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics (love Calvino, love sci-fi, but somehow this one was a bit disjointed, not his best), Walter Kirn's Up in the Air (weirder than the movie, somewhat offbeat, but you also sympathized more with the main character in this version), Nick Hornby's High Fidelity (a guy book, sure, but a great one; want to see the movie now), Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys (the best thing I read all break, highly entertaining, reminded me why I want to write), Jose Saramago's Blindness (interesting premise, but the characters are too distant and his style is soooo distracting), and Don DeLillo's Underworld (an 827-page beast of a book, but his prose is gorgeous, and his books always have such spirit that they propel you forward in spite of how dense they are). The two weeks when I got to do nothing and loved it all the more for having done so damn much in the preceding month. The two weeks that are gone.
And to conclude this retrospective glance, as it's the first post of 2010 (happy new year!), I present to you
This is the one where you post the titles of the first LJ entry from each month in 2009. Here goes...
January: 2009: An Odyssey Begins [Stereotypical, sure, but ultimately oh-so-true]
February: Ellipsis… [This would be the emo phase at the beginning of February when I still hadn't heard from grad schools and was desperate for any kind of closure]
March: A Snow Day at BU? Is the World Ending? [No, but yay for days off!]
April: Another Step Closer [Graduation around the corner, IWD wrapping up, accepting the offer at Yale, definitely a checking things off a list portion of the year]
May: Finally, the Final Finals [Sweet, sweet victory]
June: Rediscoveries [Cleaning one's room before leaving it forever is cathartic and nostalgia-inducing, and it results in some interesting finds]
July: With Summer Slipping Past, Giving It a Fighting Chance [I blame the bad rhyme on summer ennui]
August: Watching the Future Draw Ever Nearer [Impatient to get to Yale]
September: Into the Madness [What an accurate description for this grad school life]
October: Brisk [Multiple meanings, all of them true, what a cold, speedy semester]
November: The Life of a Scholar-Ninja [Grad school meets Halloween]
December: Happy Almost-Hermithood As Holidays Approach (Look Closely and You'll See I'm Always Laughing) [HAHAHA. See, I'm still laughing. And standing on the far side of both the holidays and the hermithood, things are even rosier than they were then]
And that's all, folks. Welcome to 2010. Stay in touch.
But enough about the daunting future, let us turn now to the joyous two weeks of freedom I just had. The two weeks when I divided my time between books, movies, sleep, family, food, and fun. The two weeks when I bought Glee, Fringe: Season 1, True Blood: Season 1, The Graduate, The Usual Suspects, Requiem for a Dream, and one of the best-reviewed books of the year: Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin. The two weeks when I saw Up in the Air (overhyped but smart and classy and entertaining nonetheless, George Clooney plays himself, Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga are amazing, you could probably take it or leave it) and (500) Days of Summer (really enjoyed it, fantastic script, the most guy-centric romantic comedy I've ever seen (and that's a good thing, I promise, makes it fresh), and in spite of the terror that Zooey Deschanel inspires in my soul, the acting was also quite good). The two weeks when I re-watched all of Glee (yeah, I did, and it was just as awesome the second time around). The two weeks when I read Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics (love Calvino, love sci-fi, but somehow this one was a bit disjointed, not his best), Walter Kirn's Up in the Air (weirder than the movie, somewhat offbeat, but you also sympathized more with the main character in this version), Nick Hornby's High Fidelity (a guy book, sure, but a great one; want to see the movie now), Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys (the best thing I read all break, highly entertaining, reminded me why I want to write), Jose Saramago's Blindness (interesting premise, but the characters are too distant and his style is soooo distracting), and Don DeLillo's Underworld (an 827-page beast of a book, but his prose is gorgeous, and his books always have such spirit that they propel you forward in spite of how dense they are). The two weeks when I got to do nothing and loved it all the more for having done so damn much in the preceding month. The two weeks that are gone.
And to conclude this retrospective glance, as it's the first post of 2010 (happy new year!), I present to you
This is the one where you post the titles of the first LJ entry from each month in 2009. Here goes...
January: 2009: An Odyssey Begins [Stereotypical, sure, but ultimately oh-so-true]
February: Ellipsis… [This would be the emo phase at the beginning of February when I still hadn't heard from grad schools and was desperate for any kind of closure]
March: A Snow Day at BU? Is the World Ending? [No, but yay for days off!]
April: Another Step Closer [Graduation around the corner, IWD wrapping up, accepting the offer at Yale, definitely a checking things off a list portion of the year]
May: Finally, the Final Finals [Sweet, sweet victory]
June: Rediscoveries [Cleaning one's room before leaving it forever is cathartic and nostalgia-inducing, and it results in some interesting finds]
July: With Summer Slipping Past, Giving It a Fighting Chance [I blame the bad rhyme on summer ennui]
August: Watching the Future Draw Ever Nearer [Impatient to get to Yale]
September: Into the Madness [What an accurate description for this grad school life]
October: Brisk [Multiple meanings, all of them true, what a cold, speedy semester]
November: The Life of a Scholar-Ninja [Grad school meets Halloween]
December: Happy Almost-Hermithood As Holidays Approach (Look Closely and You'll See I'm Always Laughing) [HAHAHA. See, I'm still laughing. And standing on the far side of both the holidays and the hermithood, things are even rosier than they were then]
And that's all, folks. Welcome to 2010. Stay in touch.