Sunday morning, on the bed two half-eaten croissants
Today:
I was at work when one of the little girls, she couldn't have been much taller than 3', asked me, "Teacher, how come you're so short?" Caught off guard, I found myself defending my height pathetically against a very perceptive four-year old girl. "Hey, you're not allowed to make fun of my height when you're even littler than I am!" This was a week argument. I knew it, but I hoped she wasn't smart enough to respond back.
She was.
"Yeah but all the other teachers are taller than you are! Teacher Elizabeth is WAAAAY taller than you are!" Teacher Elizabeth is a 6' tall black woman. Frankly, she dwarfs me. On one hand, that she was bright enough to make age-based height comparisons makes me very happy. On the other hand, ugh, what a brat.
---
This semester, I'll be making up for the past three relatively readless years of my life. Oh sure, I read a novel once every few months, but honestly, I probably haven't read more than 10 books in the past year. Of those, I read four of them during Winter Break over the span of like a week of idleness (The Watchmen I just finished this weekend! Ughhhh humanity). One day, I'd like to create a log of every novel I've read. Maybe during the summer... Anyway, so far this year:
Jones, Diana Wynne: Howl's Moving Castle
Jones, Diana Wynne: Castle in the Air
Moore, Christopher: A Dirty Job
Vonnegut, Kurt: Breakfast of Champions
Moore, Alan: The Watchmen
Now that I look back on it, that's a pretty impressive list for only the first month of the year. What can I say, I'm a voracious reader, though two of those novels were children's literature (but pretty long children's literature!) and one purely for humor/entertainment. But anyway, these were all pleasure readings. This semester I've got books lined up to the ceiling I've got to read for school.
Dostoevsky, Fyodor: The Brothers Karamazov
Dostoevsky, Fyodor: Crime and Punishment
Dostoevsky, Fyodor: The Double, Notes from the Underground
Dostoevsky, Fyodor: Poor Folk
Tolstoy, Leo: Anna Karenina
Tolstoy, Leo: Childhood, Boyhood, Youth
Tolstoy, Leo: Short Fiction
Chekhov, Anton: Short Stories
Chekhov, Anton: Selected Plays
Akunin, Boris: The Winter Queen
Babel, Isaac: Collected Stories
Bely, Andrei: Petersburg
Bulkagov, Mikhail: The Master and Marguerita
Kataev, Valentin: Time Forward!
Poetry Anthology: The Stray Dog Cabaret
Plus two readers of more short stories.
I think there was one more but I don't know what I did with the book. Anyway, thank God I've already read all of those Dostoevsky books or else I'd seriously be screwed. Dostoevsky himself would be over a thousand pages. A thousand pages of awesomeness, no doubt, but still a thousand pages. Maybe taking three literature classes in one semester wasn't such a hot idea.
---
My roommate's friend has recently had her life turned into a wonderful chick-flick. I don't mean this literally, as in someone has made a movie based on her life. No, rather, her life itself has turned into the plot for a movie.
Just two weeks ago, she was studying quietly in a library when a not unattractive man came up to her, proclaiming that he had seen her around campus everywhere and just had to know who she was. The conversation kept moving, and they realized they had similar music tastes. After an hour-long dialogue, he received her phone number and they parted. The next day, he called her, they met together, ate lunch. Things keep happening, he's a perfect gentleman to her, paying for her meals, wanting to see her, texting her... They see each other often now and, and... and who knows what's to come?
I wonder if I'm jealous. No, foolishness. Of course I am jealous. This is exactly like the plot for a movie starring Jennifer Aniston. And as much as I hate Jennifer Aniston, who wouldn't like to dream of such a fresh, romantic beginning?
Of course, when analyzed, there are so many things that could go wrong in this sort of relationship. He's might end up being a creeper, I don't even like over-attentive guys because they freak me out, in a relationship like this there's so much pressure for it to be a relationship that there's bound to be bumps...
But really, isn't this just like a short story, printed in the newspaper in the late 19th century? Such things were never meant to be psychoanalyzed! They were meant to be enjoyed as they are in their simplicity and immediate emotions and fulfillments.
---
"Happiness does not depend on external causes but on our attitudes to them." - Leo Tolstoy
--
"There is no such thing as happiness, nor ought there to be, but if there is any sense or purpose in life, this sense and purpose are to be found not in our own happiness, but in something greater and rational. Do good!" - Anton Chekhov
I was at work when one of the little girls, she couldn't have been much taller than 3', asked me, "Teacher, how come you're so short?" Caught off guard, I found myself defending my height pathetically against a very perceptive four-year old girl. "Hey, you're not allowed to make fun of my height when you're even littler than I am!" This was a week argument. I knew it, but I hoped she wasn't smart enough to respond back.
She was.
"Yeah but all the other teachers are taller than you are! Teacher Elizabeth is WAAAAY taller than you are!" Teacher Elizabeth is a 6' tall black woman. Frankly, she dwarfs me. On one hand, that she was bright enough to make age-based height comparisons makes me very happy. On the other hand, ugh, what a brat.
---
This semester, I'll be making up for the past three relatively readless years of my life. Oh sure, I read a novel once every few months, but honestly, I probably haven't read more than 10 books in the past year. Of those, I read four of them during Winter Break over the span of like a week of idleness (The Watchmen I just finished this weekend! Ughhhh humanity). One day, I'd like to create a log of every novel I've read. Maybe during the summer... Anyway, so far this year:
Jones, Diana Wynne: Howl's Moving Castle
Jones, Diana Wynne: Castle in the Air
Moore, Christopher: A Dirty Job
Vonnegut, Kurt: Breakfast of Champions
Moore, Alan: The Watchmen
Now that I look back on it, that's a pretty impressive list for only the first month of the year. What can I say, I'm a voracious reader, though two of those novels were children's literature (but pretty long children's literature!) and one purely for humor/entertainment. But anyway, these were all pleasure readings. This semester I've got books lined up to the ceiling I've got to read for school.
Dostoevsky, Fyodor: The Brothers Karamazov
Dostoevsky, Fyodor: Crime and Punishment
Dostoevsky, Fyodor: The Double, Notes from the Underground
Dostoevsky, Fyodor: Poor Folk
Tolstoy, Leo: Anna Karenina
Tolstoy, Leo: Childhood, Boyhood, Youth
Tolstoy, Leo: Short Fiction
Chekhov, Anton: Short Stories
Chekhov, Anton: Selected Plays
Akunin, Boris: The Winter Queen
Babel, Isaac: Collected Stories
Bely, Andrei: Petersburg
Bulkagov, Mikhail: The Master and Marguerita
Kataev, Valentin: Time Forward!
Poetry Anthology: The Stray Dog Cabaret
Plus two readers of more short stories.
I think there was one more but I don't know what I did with the book. Anyway, thank God I've already read all of those Dostoevsky books or else I'd seriously be screwed. Dostoevsky himself would be over a thousand pages. A thousand pages of awesomeness, no doubt, but still a thousand pages. Maybe taking three literature classes in one semester wasn't such a hot idea.
---
My roommate's friend has recently had her life turned into a wonderful chick-flick. I don't mean this literally, as in someone has made a movie based on her life. No, rather, her life itself has turned into the plot for a movie.
Just two weeks ago, she was studying quietly in a library when a not unattractive man came up to her, proclaiming that he had seen her around campus everywhere and just had to know who she was. The conversation kept moving, and they realized they had similar music tastes. After an hour-long dialogue, he received her phone number and they parted. The next day, he called her, they met together, ate lunch. Things keep happening, he's a perfect gentleman to her, paying for her meals, wanting to see her, texting her... They see each other often now and, and... and who knows what's to come?
I wonder if I'm jealous. No, foolishness. Of course I am jealous. This is exactly like the plot for a movie starring Jennifer Aniston. And as much as I hate Jennifer Aniston, who wouldn't like to dream of such a fresh, romantic beginning?
Of course, when analyzed, there are so many things that could go wrong in this sort of relationship. He's might end up being a creeper, I don't even like over-attentive guys because they freak me out, in a relationship like this there's so much pressure for it to be a relationship that there's bound to be bumps...
But really, isn't this just like a short story, printed in the newspaper in the late 19th century? Such things were never meant to be psychoanalyzed! They were meant to be enjoyed as they are in their simplicity and immediate emotions and fulfillments.
---
"Happiness does not depend on external causes but on our attitudes to them." - Leo Tolstoy
--
"There is no such thing as happiness, nor ought there to be, but if there is any sense or purpose in life, this sense and purpose are to be found not in our own happiness, but in something greater and rational. Do good!" - Anton Chekhov