it's great and all that we have cleaning people for our flat, and i'd really like to be nice to them and appreciate them, but sometimes the things they do are just completely baffling. about two hours ago i went to take a shower and start my day, and noticed that they had removed the shower curtain from the bathroom and from anywhere in the flat that i can see. they've left their supplies in the hall, so i assume they will be back...but seriously, why just abscond with the shower curtain? what could they be doing with it for two hours? they do know that the morning is when people take showers normally, right? sheesh. guess i am stuck waiting and so opportunistically writing in here.
this has been a good week for correspondence. i sent some mail out, i heard back from excited people to whom i had previously sent mail, which generates that warm, gooey feeling inside, i talked to my family on the phone and remembered their voices, and i've cleared out about half of my endless email-writing to do list. also i received two substantial parcels in the mail, one of which included 150 pages of short stories by the utterly strange but delightfully intoxicating george saunders from a fellow adoring fan who wanted to share - these are from his new book that is yet to be published. gosh do i wish i could spend the day eating it up - instead i have brecht and nietzsche on my lineup, and really i have no complaints whatever about that work, though my academic life is so populated with german thinkers right now it is amazing.
yesterday in my divinity class we passed our hour by with a sometimes hilarious but informative discussion on marxism and its strengths and weaknesses, and the misinterpretations from which it has suffered - and people were so hot and bothered, showing their true colours - we had quite a few marxists among us. i am doing my class presentation on nietzsche which means i will probably end up writing my essay on marx. this is a little terrifying. it means i will at some point be saying "i am writing 12 pages on marx and historical materialism and the relationship between religion and ideology." but it is good to keep the bar high, ever good. also in my architectural history class the current professor of the musical chairs lecturing game (who i really like) was talking about modern buildings and their proud external proclamations of their innovative steel frame structure. he started talking about this famous fancy store in london called..selfridge's i think? just as he would any old building and then he said "actually i worked in this building for a year once, on the fifth floor up there as a helper in santa's grotto. it was a deeply weird experience for me. all of these children would queue throughout the entire fifth floor and be sooo excited about seeing santa and then they would get onto his lap and wet themselves. so we had to have several santas in full costume and all standing by and we would yell "dry santa! dry santa!" to bring the next one out. anyway, this was the transatlantic model taken from the chicago school..."
sometimes school is lots of fun!
i saw the french film "cache" or "hidden" as they call it in english last night, and i highly recommend it. it is rather disturbing, but most of the good ones are. it was an interesting companion piece to these other movies i have been seeing about accountability and colonialism, etc. incidentally, in my marx discussion yesterday this one british guy was talking about how he doesn't feel middle class guilt. he shrugs and goes for a cup of tea, i suppose. middle class in lifestyle and mind as i may forever be, i am still rationalizing lots of things about life to myself all the time. an interesting human feeling, the sense of entitlement. or perhaps insouciance, or both.
the other day in my inbox i received the unbelieveable news that six of my revered friends from baltimore are coming to edinburgh in march at basically the best conceiveable time for me. i don't know what to say, i am beside myself. and next week john is coming to visit so we can head to glasgow to see the city and the beautiful shops and above all, one of our favorite bands broken social scene in the flesh. life is full of infinitely good things.
but meanwhile, where oh where is my shower curtain?! i really need to get on with today and read germans and write emails forever until mandy's birthday party this evening. so it looks like it's time to make a wading pool on the bathroom floor. fabulous. anyone want to get their feet wet?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment