When it knocks you down
Argh, so I totally fail at the LJ again. In my defense, I seem to fall into a pattern near the end of the semester:
1) Stress. I have tons of stuff to do, and I don't want to do it, so I post on LJ instead.
2) Relief! It's over. I don't want to do anything at all, so I don't post. "It's just for a few days," I say. "A vacation, I say."
3) My life settles into a pattern of...well, uneventfulness. This, by the way, is why I always need to be taking a class or working over the summer, and why I'm always ready for the school year to begin, because when I don't have school or work or I'm not hanging out with my friends, what do I do? Read porn on the internet. Watch kdramas. Spend way, WAY too much time playing inane games. Eat nothing but salami and cheese sandwiches for weeks on end. I think on one or two days last week, I didn't even get dressed. I've got a deep-seated core of lazy. And how do you write about your life when you don't do anything?
But now I'm back in sunny Chapel Hill, and I tell you, I'm not really going to have much time to be lazy this semester, because I'm taking four classes and teaching one. If I didn't already have misgivings about taking four classes, my dad certainly gave me some, telling me repeatedly how crazy an idea it was, but here's the thing about the classes I'm signed up to take:
1) Old English--kind of necessary if I ever want to get a position as a medievalist in an English department
2) Medieval Cosmopolitanisms--sounds awesome, I think it's the only medieval class offered in Comparative Literature this semester, and it's with a professor I've already had and liked, and so I can build up those professional relationships
3) Roman Lyric/Elegiac Poetry--subject matter I love, a professor I've already had and liked, and it helps me to keep one foot in the Classics department, which could be helpful if a Latin teaching position ever becomes available
4) Medieval Philosophy--I'm probably going to frigging hate it, I'm not going to lie. But medieval philosophy's really something I ought to know something about if I'm going to work with medieval literature. It's like nasty-tasting medicine, or my theory class fall semester last year--I don't like it, but it's good for me.
I don't know when these classes would be offered again, but probably not any time soon. If push comes to shove and I start losing it, Medieval Philosophy will probably be the first to go, but I really want to give it a try.
But before work, fun! And by "fun," I mean, "my sadly neglected music meme."
Day 01- A song that makes me happy
Day 02- A song that helps me clear my head
Day 03- A song that makes you laugh
Day 04- A song that reminds me of something
Day 05- A song that has a new meaning to me every time I hear it
Day 06- A song I can always relate to
Day 07- A song that is my guilty pleasure
Day 08- A song I liked when I was younger
Well, I think I've covered the early 60s pop saturation of my youth with the Beach Boys and Glen Campbell, so instead I'm going to go in a totally different direction:
"Dare to Be Stupid" by Weird Al Yankovic
You always remember your first Weird Al song. Or, at least, you do if you're me. I had just read Dave Barry's Bad Song Book after finding it my mom's nightstand a few hours before, and so funny song lyrics were fresh in my mind as I jumped into a carpool with...who was it? hurkon? plutofriends? Dakota? Whoever it was, they did me a great kindness when they played "Albuquerque" off Weird Al's Running With Scissors. I often cite Crowded House as the reason I listen to music, but the first CDs I ever went out and bought on my own were Weird Al's. I still didn't really get the idea of listening to music for music's sake, but I certainly got the idea of listening to music because it was funny. My parents heard a lot of Weird Al in the car while I was in middle school. And here's the thing--I still really like Weird Al. Since I listen to more than three musical artists these days, he doesn't get the play on my iPod he would have gotten if iPods had existed when I was twelve. But when I'm down an in the mood to listen to something funny, and I've already gone through all my Arrogant Worms songs, I crank up "My Baby's in Love with Eddie Vedder" or "Yoda" or "Gump" and let the mixed powers of humor and nostalgia cheer me up. Nowadays, I actually understand the lyrics of "Dare to Be Stupid" a lot better than I did back in the day, so it's even funnier to me. This is a song that takes me back to carpools in the old minivan, or babysitting my brother's friends after school on Mondays, and I freaking love it.
Day 09- A song that makes me want to dance
Day 10- A song that makes me cry
Day 11- A song that reminds me of summer
Day 12- A song that reminds me of my best friend
Day 13- A song I sing to in the shower
Day 14- A song I like hearing live
Day 15- A song people wouldn’t expect me to like
Day 16- A song that holds a lot of meaning to me
Day 17- A song that annoys me
Day 18- A song I have as my ringtone
Day 19- A song I'm currently obsessed with
Day 20- A song from a new album I'm waiting for
Day 21- A song I want to dance to at my wedding
Day 22- A song that would be the theme song to a TV show about my life
Day 23- A song that makes me angry
Day 24- A cover song
Day 25- An acoustic song I love
Day 26- A song by my favorite band
Day 27- A song I make fun of
Day 28- A song that reminds me of my significant other
Day 29- A song currently stuck in my head
Day 30- A song I haven’t listened to in awhile
Also! After taking my dad to the airport this morning at 6:30, I came back to my apartment to sleep some more, and I had a series of wild dreams. Different things happened in them--in one, I drove wildly away from the YMCA; in one, I was riding a motorcycle on a cliff, and across from me on a facing cliff was a gorilla, also riding a motorcycle; in one, a nun was delivering me a package--but they all started from the same place. I dreamed that I woke up and it was storming, and so I went to hide in my closet, only to wake up again within the dream. But this time--and all the other times I woke up in the dream--I couldn't get the sleep mask off my face, so I couldn't see anything. I don't really understand how I could see the gorilla or the YMCA or all the other stuff later in the dreams, because what would happen is that I'd wake up in the dream, think, "Oh, thank heavens, I'm finally awake," and then reach up to take off the sleep mask, only...I'd take it off, but then I'd open my eyes and it'd still be there. No matter how many times I took it off, it would still be covering my eyes. One of my major goals in each successive dream was to make myself wake up somehow so I could finally take the mask off. I must have gone through a half-dozen iterations of this cycle. Weird.
1) Stress. I have tons of stuff to do, and I don't want to do it, so I post on LJ instead.
2) Relief! It's over. I don't want to do anything at all, so I don't post. "It's just for a few days," I say. "A vacation, I say."
3) My life settles into a pattern of...well, uneventfulness. This, by the way, is why I always need to be taking a class or working over the summer, and why I'm always ready for the school year to begin, because when I don't have school or work or I'm not hanging out with my friends, what do I do? Read porn on the internet. Watch kdramas. Spend way, WAY too much time playing inane games. Eat nothing but salami and cheese sandwiches for weeks on end. I think on one or two days last week, I didn't even get dressed. I've got a deep-seated core of lazy. And how do you write about your life when you don't do anything?
But now I'm back in sunny Chapel Hill, and I tell you, I'm not really going to have much time to be lazy this semester, because I'm taking four classes and teaching one. If I didn't already have misgivings about taking four classes, my dad certainly gave me some, telling me repeatedly how crazy an idea it was, but here's the thing about the classes I'm signed up to take:
1) Old English--kind of necessary if I ever want to get a position as a medievalist in an English department
2) Medieval Cosmopolitanisms--sounds awesome, I think it's the only medieval class offered in Comparative Literature this semester, and it's with a professor I've already had and liked, and so I can build up those professional relationships
3) Roman Lyric/Elegiac Poetry--subject matter I love, a professor I've already had and liked, and it helps me to keep one foot in the Classics department, which could be helpful if a Latin teaching position ever becomes available
4) Medieval Philosophy--I'm probably going to frigging hate it, I'm not going to lie. But medieval philosophy's really something I ought to know something about if I'm going to work with medieval literature. It's like nasty-tasting medicine, or my theory class fall semester last year--I don't like it, but it's good for me.
I don't know when these classes would be offered again, but probably not any time soon. If push comes to shove and I start losing it, Medieval Philosophy will probably be the first to go, but I really want to give it a try.
But before work, fun! And by "fun," I mean, "my sadly neglected music meme."
Day 01- A song that makes me happy
Day 02- A song that helps me clear my head
Day 03- A song that makes you laugh
Day 04- A song that reminds me of something
Day 05- A song that has a new meaning to me every time I hear it
Day 06- A song I can always relate to
Day 07- A song that is my guilty pleasure
Day 08- A song I liked when I was younger
Well, I think I've covered the early 60s pop saturation of my youth with the Beach Boys and Glen Campbell, so instead I'm going to go in a totally different direction:
"Dare to Be Stupid" by Weird Al Yankovic
Click to viewYou always remember your first Weird Al song. Or, at least, you do if you're me. I had just read Dave Barry's Bad Song Book after finding it my mom's nightstand a few hours before, and so funny song lyrics were fresh in my mind as I jumped into a carpool with...who was it? hurkon? plutofriends? Dakota? Whoever it was, they did me a great kindness when they played "Albuquerque" off Weird Al's Running With Scissors. I often cite Crowded House as the reason I listen to music, but the first CDs I ever went out and bought on my own were Weird Al's. I still didn't really get the idea of listening to music for music's sake, but I certainly got the idea of listening to music because it was funny. My parents heard a lot of Weird Al in the car while I was in middle school. And here's the thing--I still really like Weird Al. Since I listen to more than three musical artists these days, he doesn't get the play on my iPod he would have gotten if iPods had existed when I was twelve. But when I'm down an in the mood to listen to something funny, and I've already gone through all my Arrogant Worms songs, I crank up "My Baby's in Love with Eddie Vedder" or "Yoda" or "Gump" and let the mixed powers of humor and nostalgia cheer me up. Nowadays, I actually understand the lyrics of "Dare to Be Stupid" a lot better than I did back in the day, so it's even funnier to me. This is a song that takes me back to carpools in the old minivan, or babysitting my brother's friends after school on Mondays, and I freaking love it.
Day 09- A song that makes me want to dance
Day 10- A song that makes me cry
Day 11- A song that reminds me of summer
Day 12- A song that reminds me of my best friend
Day 13- A song I sing to in the shower
Day 14- A song I like hearing live
Day 15- A song people wouldn’t expect me to like
Day 16- A song that holds a lot of meaning to me
Day 17- A song that annoys me
Day 18- A song I have as my ringtone
Day 19- A song I'm currently obsessed with
Day 20- A song from a new album I'm waiting for
Day 21- A song I want to dance to at my wedding
Day 22- A song that would be the theme song to a TV show about my life
Day 23- A song that makes me angry
Day 24- A cover song
Day 25- An acoustic song I love
Day 26- A song by my favorite band
Day 27- A song I make fun of
Day 28- A song that reminds me of my significant other
Day 29- A song currently stuck in my head
Day 30- A song I haven’t listened to in awhile
Also! After taking my dad to the airport this morning at 6:30, I came back to my apartment to sleep some more, and I had a series of wild dreams. Different things happened in them--in one, I drove wildly away from the YMCA; in one, I was riding a motorcycle on a cliff, and across from me on a facing cliff was a gorilla, also riding a motorcycle; in one, a nun was delivering me a package--but they all started from the same place. I dreamed that I woke up and it was storming, and so I went to hide in my closet, only to wake up again within the dream. But this time--and all the other times I woke up in the dream--I couldn't get the sleep mask off my face, so I couldn't see anything. I don't really understand how I could see the gorilla or the YMCA or all the other stuff later in the dreams, because what would happen is that I'd wake up in the dream, think, "Oh, thank heavens, I'm finally awake," and then reach up to take off the sleep mask, only...I'd take it off, but then I'd open my eyes and it'd still be there. No matter how many times I took it off, it would still be covering my eyes. One of my major goals in each successive dream was to make myself wake up somehow so I could finally take the mask off. I must have gone through a half-dozen iterations of this cycle. Weird.