Today has been like a yoyo.
But my mind wants to say 'banana'.
I think it's safe to say that my mind is weird.
Also, new icon to celebrate Julia's return.
Might make it my default, actually.
Bad tiemz: I had to get up at 8 today for a 10am seminar, but I didn't wind up actually getting up till around 9. Breakfast had to be scaled down to a andful of frosties, which are still in my bedroom from last night. I left the house at ten to ten, so I had to peg it down to the Chemistry building (they've just built a whole new building pretty much just for English and History, yet they didn't build any lecture theatres. What is wrong with these people?) to get there on time. Fortunately I made it, and then it turned out that the lecture was late because Hamish couldn't get his powerpoint presentation to work.
Good tiemz: It was a really interesting lecture tho, about the French Revolution and how it affected British politics and literature. Really fascinating. And then I had two hours break. Because, less good, I've only just realised how spread out my Thursday is. It's always the Thursdays- last year I had twelve-hour Thursday, and now this. O well.
So yeah, anyway, I had two hours break, so I went up to the Gallery to read my Romanticism anthology, and I read some stuff on the French Revolution by Edmund Burke and Richard Price, which were really interesting and actually very short. Which is always nice.
Bad tiemz: At noon I went to get some lunch, and realised, just as I was almost at the fron of the queue, that the apparently vegan sandwich they've started stocking in the union shop isn't vegan. Seriously, hummus and pepper- WHY IS THIS NOT VEGAN? It doesn't even say it has any milk products in the ingredients, just in the allergens. Agh. So I got a burrito instead. Which was cheaper, but I really wanted a sandwich. And it was cold. If they're going to sell these heatable things, would it be too much to ask that they provide some kind of self-service microwave? I mean, my sixth form had one of those. True, the thing had never been cleaned, but at least we had one.
Good tiemz: But then I saw JULIA'S BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And everything was right in the world. I'd have stayed to squee longer, but I'd be late for my Romantic Period seminar.
The seminar was brilliant. My tutor, Helena is really lovely, and the class just went so well. She knew no one was prepared for it, because it turned out that it was the MOLE admins' fault for not giving her a folder on there, so she just explained the course to us and told us that she wanted us to play some part in shaping it, and she'd focus parts to what we were interested in. Then she gave us all a poem by Wordsworth and just asked us to do a little close reading in pairs, and then we analysed it stanza by stanza. And the discussion went really well, and I said my bit in the bigger discussion, so I really felt fulfilled with it. And then Helena said that she wants us all to do a short introduction and a close reading of a text one week, and me and my partner Katie are doing Wordsworth and Coleridge in week 6.
We're gonna be a week behind the lectures for a while, so we're doing all the contextual French Revolution stuff next week. So I have to read Burke, Price, Mary Wollstonecraft and Helen Maria Williams, which is quite good because I've already read some of them. But I'll probably read them again and make better notes. And the week after is 'Caleb Williams', and I've decided that I'm going to take charge this semester and make sure that i really have time to do all the reading.
I had another hours break after that, so did moar internetz, and then I had my Renaissance Lit seminar. Which was also brilliant. I have another great tutor, Sylvia, the same woman who spent ten minutes having a laugh with us at the start of her lecture earlier in the week because she couldn't find the light switch in the auditorium. She's really enthusiastic and friendly. And she says she's going to put a bit more emphasis on reading aloud in her classes than a lot of tutors do, because the Renaissance was a far more oral culture than ours is, and reading the poems aloud gives you a whole new understanding of them. She wants everyone to read a short text aloud at some point, and I'm quite tempted to pick my favourite Shakespeare sonnet and start practising now. I love performing poetry. I won a poetry reading competition when I was 16.
Bad tiemz: I thought, since I don't know what time Somerfield closes, that it'd be easier to go and get my shopping after the seminar and wait in the union till USLES auditions than to go home and come back, and I'd try and find a gold marker to make the 'DRUNK AND GAY' tee with. But... lesson: 4:30 on a weekday afternoon is not a good time to go to a supermarket. And a carton of soya milk, a litre of sunflower oil and a bag of potatoes is not something you wanna be carrying around for an extended period of time. Fail, Emily, epic fail. On top of all that, I couldn't even find a gold marker, despite going to the stationary shop right down the end of the shopping centre. And my shoulders hurt.
And then I got back to the union to find that Aunt Irma had made her appearance. Cue flashback to my thoughts this morning, when I noticed the warning signs (I don't know if anyone else gets this, but my nose and gums start to bleed tiny amounts when she's about to arrive), but thought that I still had a couple of days, and since I haven't wanted to leave my room for the last few days, I haven't had chance to do any washing, so I'm running out of knickers but I have quite a few thongs left. And I thought how sensible it would be to wear knickers just in case, but no, I thought I'd go for a thong instead. Clever.
Good tiemz: I bought a packet of bourbons and got to USLES auditions pretty much as they started. Harry, Colin, Sam, Krisi and Emma were there, and Eleanor and two French girls turned up a bit later, and Charlie a bit later than them. We had a great time trying out different roles. I was Peter Pan, which I wasn't too proud of because I thought my voice was a bit too much like my narrator voice from Snow White; then I was a mermaid, which I really enjoyed because the mermaids in this version are really cackly and witchy and cool, and I put on this really hoarse voice, and just by chance, I had all the gayest lines :-D ; then I was a pirate, which I wasn't huge on because I can't do the pirate voice, but Emma's Captain Hook was amazing; and then I was a Lost Boy, which I really liked. The Lost Boys scene was so dirty- I loved it. I'd quite like to be a Lost Boy, I think. I've asked for any role, but preferably male. I just really want to play a boy this time.
Then at about 7ish, we realised that no one else was likely to turn up, so we left a sign on the door with Colin's number on it, just in case anyone did, and went to Interval instead. And I decided to order three bar snacks (what? They're three for £5.50) and eat them all myself. Which was nice. Only now I feel like a bit of a heffer. I only had one drink, and passed the rest of the time just in general hilarious USLES conversation. And the Rocky Horror night is definitely happening! Possibly next week! Which means I need to wash my stockings. Colin hasn't seen it as well, so that should make it extra funny.
I walked home with Harry, and I've offered him some of my sketches, just in case we do a RAG show this year. He wants to do one, but it'll be very close to Peter Pan. He thought that if a lot of people want big parts in Peter Pan, he might draft some over to a RAG show instead.
And, possibly the best thing that's happened to me all week, Helen came in just as I got home, and gave me hugs and explained that she'd been really stressed the day after Population, and told me what had happened to her finger. And I apologised for Monday night, and she thanked me for the wine, and gave me a glass. So everything's fine now! I feel so happy again!
So yeah, that was a long and probably less than interesting account of today.
Tomorrow is the Lemonfresh treasure hunt, which should be fun. Lemonfresh is a society dedicated purely to alternative socials, so all kinds of people will be going. I know Amy's going as well tho, so we'll probably be on the same team.
And I'll probably bake my cake tomorrow, if I have time. But I need to do some writing for the Forge- I need to do a 500-word Comment piece on the reduced funding for the union, as well as two single reviews for the website. I can't even remember what the singles are, but I have little slips for them. One is by U2. But anyway, they're all due tomorrow evening.
I really want to submit something to Route 57, the uni literary magazine, as well. I was thinking I might send them The Driver's Seat. But before I do, could someone remind me exactly what you need to do for that post-it-to-yourself thing, just in case?
I can see good times ahead.