shooz

thankfully, travel prep is starting to wind down a little here. i've booked my transport to the airport, picked up some pounds at the currency exchange, and in a moment of last-minute shopping madness, purchased two long-desired items of clothing that i quickly justified as part of my "teaching wardrobe": a black sweater vest and a new jean skirt, both drastically on sale, of course.

now i'm not the only one preparing for an overseas teaching adventure. bardiac made a list of travel to dos today, the reading of which made me reflect on my own preparations. while she is checking off practical things, like doing her taxes and cleaning out her office pre-depart, i've been squandering my time, attempting to come to some sort of final, executive-ish decision about the shoes i plan on taking with me. as many of you know, i am a woman footwear obsessed.

here are the finalists ... i think:

1. my trusty "new york" boots -- those bitchin' boots by the designer chocolat blu that i picked up on sixth avenue during my visit with L & S this spring


2. the mythic red franco sarto boots -- i mean seriously, how could i not?


3. these sweet skecher flats i picked up the other day in a moment of shoe panic ("wait! i don't have any comfortable black flats! how will i survive?!")


4. and last, but by no means least, my much-loved running shoes (nike air perseus -- i've run in this shoe for three years now, and no more achilles tendon probs ... knock wood)


i know, i know. 4 pairs of shooz. might this excessive array of shoo choice be contributing to the agony i'm experiencing concerning the weight of my luggage? nah.

something tells me ...

that wonder woman never had to worry about whether or not her suitcases were going to exceed the maximum baggage allowance weight posted by the airline when she flew around in her crystal jet, saving the world.

have i expressed exactly how much i *hate packing?

xmas reads

xmas day and boxing day are two days that i completely indulge. i eat xmas cookies for breakfast, drink hot chocolate by the gallon, lay around in my pjs until i begin to suspect i've gone a bit smelly, and i devour books that have nothing whatsoever to do with my dissertation. when the 27th hits, i'm back to 'work'; those two days of biblio-indulgence usually get me through till reading week.

here's what i've managed this year:

1. lawrence scanlan's the horse that god built: the untold story of secretariat the world's greatest racehorse

what can i say, i'm on a racehorse kick (see #6 below). ever since i've thought seriously about writing on 19th-century Turf culture (cf. a proposal i sent off last week for a month-long fellowship in california), i've been reading books about racing history, and lots of dick francis mysteries. not too impressed with this one though. it reads more like a bunch of articles (badly) written for sports illustrated, a publication that scanlan obviously holds in high journalistic regard. ick.

2. franklin w. dixon's (aka the stratemeyer syndicate's) the hardy boys: hunting for hidden gold

nostalgia much? in this one, frank and joe escape from chicago gangsters, survive a plunge from a steep cliff into an icy river, disarm a masked gunman on the roof of an abandoned saloon, and narrowly escape being shot while climbing into a booby-trapped helicopter. oh yeah, and they fend off a pack of hungry wolves in a cave using only flashlights. and they manage to put away a big time crime boss named, wait for it ... big al. not bad for a xmas day's work, huh?

3. scott mccloud's understanding comics: the invisible art

mccloud offers a theory of the form, written as a comic book, of course. if you're interested at all in graphic novels, i can't recommend this one enough.

4. nick hornby's high fidelity

this one and #5 kind of go together. #4 reminds me of a friend that i miss horribly, who, incidentally, gave me #5 as an xmas present this year (along with a few other appropriately rock 'n roll accessories. lovin' the ernie ball shirt, babe!).

5. the rough guide book of playlists: 5000 songs you MUST download

didn't read this one from cover to cover, but browsed through it for a few hours, making notes about stuff i want to download as soon as i'm on a decent connection. the list includes the recommended playlists for 10 000 maniacs, and the jesus and mary chain. i have to vociferously disagree with the recommended chet baker playlist, however. how could they leave out "the thrill is gone" from on green dolphin street? and chet's "but not for me" from the album of the same title is a much better cut, in my opinion, than the one listed from chet baker sings.

oh gawd. i sound like i should be working at championship vinyl. and fronting a band called barrytown/sonic death monkey/the futuristics/backbeat.

it's only 12:45 here in bookland. i think i have enough hours left in the day to make my way through most of #6: dorothy ours's man o'war: a legend like lightning. yeah, another horsey book. might need to go for a run first, though. just so i can pull my own secretariat move: "she's moving like a treMENdous MACHINE".

in transit

i'm in the middle of packing up my life here in preparation for my january 1st departure for the ol' drizzly isle where i will reside during a four month visiting fellowship in an edifice i have taken to affectionately referring to as "ye ol' damp, mouldy pile of brick" (not sure what's going on with all of the "ol'"s), also known as herstmonceux castle. the landscape of east sussex awaits, and i'm excited. i'm also sad to be leaving behind my life here where i have been truly happy, even if it's just for four months.

this has been a week of goodbyes (as i'm heading to my mom's for xmas today before flying out of pearson on january 1st), and those that know me in real time know that i absolutely suck at goodbyes. i blubber like the giant sentimental slob that i am. as i try to cram in as much time as humanly possible with those i love, i've been listening a lot to this band, the handsome furs, and their first album, plague park, has become the music of my farewell. i was fortunate enough to catch them on wednesday night at one of my favourite live music venues here in town, the grad club.

"heaven help us if the library caught on fire ..."

i just returned from the library where the librarian checked my books out *by hand. no, no. not by scanning them with a little barcode scanner thing, as the library catalog is shut down for upgrades, but rather by writing down my card number and the barcodes and call numbers of the books by hand ... with a pen ... on a really long list of paper. while waiting, i noticed the name of an illustrious colleague as the first, er, customer on the list for today.

i wanted him to stamp my books vigorously with one of those old school stamper things and slide them across the counter like marian the librarian in the 1962 warner bros. production of the music man. come to think of it the librarian did look a little like robert preston.

a musical dance number in the main floor common area with all those jenns from soc shuffling around in their uggs would have been fab too.

i'm a whole new woman

there are some days that i wish i could just channel my inner cj ...

damn it, do i ever miss the west wing

the west wing

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