Tell Norrell I am coming
Things I have learned this week:
1. I love kitchen scissors.
2. One should not drive long distances wearing high heels.
3. I am a workaholic.
4. Ensemble television shows are negatively affected by the death/departure of a female lead.
re: 1. Is there really anything I need to say about this? Kitchen. Scissors. My scallion consumption has quadrupled just because of this addition to my cutlery.
re: 2. I have a new commute three days out of the week, and I've learned through foot-pinching trial and error (and a brief and uncomfortable attempt at driving barefoot) that I need to bring a pair of driving shoes (read: LL Bean sandals) in the car and switch into work shoes right before I get there.
re: 3. I have sort of always known I was an over-scheduler and an over-achiever, but I never thought I was a workaholic, simply because I didn't want to stay at work all the time - there were so many other things I wanted to do. Which, well, case in point.
All of this is to say, my new commute means I have an hour each way to listen to audio books! Reading while driving! As I was waiting for the new books I'd requested to come in to the library, I decided to load Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell onto my iPod. Yesterday, I listened to the chapters where Drawlight is named Leucrocuta, Strange is insane, and Lascelles breaks up Childermass and Mr. Norrell. I would drive any number of miles to listen to Childermass' voice. Simon Prebble voices him with this Northern English accent, full of o's and u's and abbreviated-sounding y's. I am especially found of his "other"s and "understand"s.
re: 4. I've been watching the first season of NCIS and it amazes me every episode how different the team felt with Kate. I've talked about this before, about how Kate is on the same level with Gibbs in some ways, having more experience than DiNozzo, but at the same time, she and DiNozzo operate as a team under Gibbs. And then, DiNozzo is the Gibbs expert, informing Kate on Gibbs' habits and what his moods mean. And when she's gone, the team changes - not because of her death, in this case, but just because she isn't there anymore, and the balance has changed: Dinozzo becomes the expert, Gibbs the authority further away from everyone else, and Ziva becomes partly who McGee as the New One, partly who Kate was as the one who doesn't understand the way things work.
I also keep having the same conversation with kjabernathy about what season 5 of Babylon 5 would have felt like with Ivanova. Beyond the plot arc, the mere presence of Ivanova changed everyone else on Babylon 5 - she was dark and harsh, sarcastic and pessimistic, she was hurt and she was strong, and she gave Sheridan an ally but also emotional trainwreck to deal with, Garibaldi someone to butt heads with and not always win. She was intensely human and she was a pain in the ass but she was also a unique fire the show was sorely missing in the last season.
And all of this is to say that kjabernathy said last night, when we got to talking about how we never got to see John and Delenn's wedding, "Imagine what that must have looked like. You know that Ivanova must have been the best man and Lennier the Maid of Honor," and I really, really need to write that story.
1. I love kitchen scissors.
2. One should not drive long distances wearing high heels.
3. I am a workaholic.
4. Ensemble television shows are negatively affected by the death/departure of a female lead.
re: 1. Is there really anything I need to say about this? Kitchen. Scissors. My scallion consumption has quadrupled just because of this addition to my cutlery.
re: 2. I have a new commute three days out of the week, and I've learned through foot-pinching trial and error (and a brief and uncomfortable attempt at driving barefoot) that I need to bring a pair of driving shoes (read: LL Bean sandals) in the car and switch into work shoes right before I get there.
re: 3. I have sort of always known I was an over-scheduler and an over-achiever, but I never thought I was a workaholic, simply because I didn't want to stay at work all the time - there were so many other things I wanted to do. Which, well, case in point.
All of this is to say, my new commute means I have an hour each way to listen to audio books! Reading while driving! As I was waiting for the new books I'd requested to come in to the library, I decided to load Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell onto my iPod. Yesterday, I listened to the chapters where Drawlight is named Leucrocuta, Strange is insane, and Lascelles breaks up Childermass and Mr. Norrell. I would drive any number of miles to listen to Childermass' voice. Simon Prebble voices him with this Northern English accent, full of o's and u's and abbreviated-sounding y's. I am especially found of his "other"s and "understand"s.
re: 4. I've been watching the first season of NCIS and it amazes me every episode how different the team felt with Kate. I've talked about this before, about how Kate is on the same level with Gibbs in some ways, having more experience than DiNozzo, but at the same time, she and DiNozzo operate as a team under Gibbs. And then, DiNozzo is the Gibbs expert, informing Kate on Gibbs' habits and what his moods mean. And when she's gone, the team changes - not because of her death, in this case, but just because she isn't there anymore, and the balance has changed: Dinozzo becomes the expert, Gibbs the authority further away from everyone else, and Ziva becomes partly who McGee as the New One, partly who Kate was as the one who doesn't understand the way things work.
I also keep having the same conversation with kjabernathy about what season 5 of Babylon 5 would have felt like with Ivanova. Beyond the plot arc, the mere presence of Ivanova changed everyone else on Babylon 5 - she was dark and harsh, sarcastic and pessimistic, she was hurt and she was strong, and she gave Sheridan an ally but also emotional trainwreck to deal with, Garibaldi someone to butt heads with and not always win. She was intensely human and she was a pain in the ass but she was also a unique fire the show was sorely missing in the last season.
And all of this is to say that kjabernathy said last night, when we got to talking about how we never got to see John and Delenn's wedding, "Imagine what that must have looked like. You know that Ivanova must have been the best man and Lennier the Maid of Honor," and I really, really need to write that story.