Department of Household Science

At a small university like the U o'C, you tend to develop connections and associations with people in multiple ways. For example, S. was in my introductory humanities course. Then we lived on the same floor for my second year, and then she was a TA for my required biology course. I knew her through my drama friends, and her best friend from undergrad is a first cousin to my best friend from undergrad.

So, guess who I ran into crossing Queen's park today? Hint: she gave up her Bio degree for an English one and just moved from Chicago to do her PhD here...

so I cleaned out the freezer.

Morfudd: Look, it's Celticist Roommate's old ice pack!
(five minutes)
Morfudd: Oh, it's History PhD Student's old ice pack!
Kilted Baker: It was a long year, wasn't it?

The landlord came today and fixed the plumbing, hurrah!

When working out your budget for the summer in Excel, always remember to label your items. Otherwise you might add in August's expenses twice, and you'll still be getting over the adrenaline panic twenty minutes later.

need to get a haircut!

Any Toronto salon recommendations?

I am trying to read a book. I say "trying," because the first signature is arranged as follows:

Table of Contents
(Blank)
Page vii, General Editor's Foreward)
Page viii, Author's "Retractatio"
Front Matter (What do you call this first page that only has the title on it?)
List of Books in Series
Second page of Front Matter
Copyright Information
Page xiii, Third and Final Page of Editor's Preface
Page xiv, Acknowlegdements
Page 1, First page of Chapter I
Page 2, Second page of Chapter I
page ix, Second page of Author's "Retractatio"
Page x, Third and final page of Author's "Retractatio"
Page xi, First page of Editor's Preface
Page xii, Second page of Editor's Preface  
Page 7-10, Seventh through Tenth page of Chapter I
Page 3-6, Third through Sixth page of Chapter I
Page 15, Fifteenth and Final page of Chapter I
Page 16, First page of Chapter II
Page 17-18, Second and Third page of Chapter II
Page 11-14, Eleventh through Fourteenth page of Chapter I
Page 19, Fourth page of Chapter II

From there it progresses in proper order. You may thus discern the frustration caused when one finds note 47 on page 14 reads, "See n. 14 above".

The pages are, in fact, printed in this order-- it is not a mistake in gathering the signature. Someone at Boydell & Brewer may have lost a job over this.

I'm sick in bed (and less three or four vials of blood), but you should still go to the Julian of Norwich event at Church of the Redeemer.

For those of you in Toronto, I'm reading at a service for the 635th anniversary of Julian of Norwich's "showings" at Church of the Redeemer on Bloor & Avenue. (7:00 pm, Tuesday May 13.) The service has been arranged by DT, and it consists of a talk on the visions, a reading of the complete short text, and some hymns. Then, during the coffee & cookie service at the end, we speakers are to "fan out" into the crowd and press hazelnuts into the hands of the congregants. This is the part of the service that has my cheeze-radar up and sounding the alarms.

I told him I had experience as a lector and he gave me the long bits. Now I'm going to go try to feel better enough that I don't throw up/faint at the lectern.

Lessons we have learned from this term: do not take three courses at the same time that all have professors you would like to work with in the future.

How *does* one write an abstract for a paper? (Aside from much faking, of course.) Is there a guide for dummies?

The good news: my rib is probably not broken.

The bad news: "contusions of the muscle" and muscle strain can actually take *longer* to stop hurting.

Worse news: now I have to
But I felt well enough to putter around the kitchen today, and Kilt Boy took me grocery shopping. It's really exciting to do dishes and go grocery shopping after being taken care of for over a week. Makes me feel like a grownup again.

(Other signs I'm feeling better: I'm up late doing my class reading. It's been a long time since I've been awake past 11 for any reason other than piercing pain in my side.)

three grad applications to go, one more paper, and the sleep schedule is officially screwed.

Just in time for stressful forced familial happiness, too!

Vanessa! Remember the day in Physics 131 when Jaeger propelled himself across the room using only a rolling stool and a fire extinguisher?

Well, he made the Chicago news page:

http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/07/071219.physics.shtml

Unfortunately, there does not appear to be video of him dropping the bowling ball from the cherry-picker-like contraption they used to change the lights in the lecture hall.

He was such a good professor.

I really love the movie "Mystery Men"

Even better is watching my father watch it for the first time.

I told my High School that I would attend the recent grad reunion this afternoon.

Let's be clear: I can't even get on the bus route that I took to high school for four years without feeling like I'm hyperventilating from all the anxiety that comes from fellow teenage girls. I didn't even realize how miserable I was there until I got to college and realized that I didn't know how to be friends with girls without fearing that they secretly hate me.

And Munaf moved to Santa Fe with his Ben, so there's really nobody I want to see from High School.

But, it would be pretty awesome to see Leroy (history teacher), Liz (math goddess), and Jonathan (English teacher).

Maybe I should check the yearbook to remember the name of the Newspaper adviser before I go. What was her name? I only spent four hours a week with her...

that, in fact, I *must* clean my room before I leave. I am psychologically incapable of leaving behind a messy room.

I had a dream last night about the International Medieval Bibliography. I don't want to talk about it.

Last night, I dreamed that 'craic' was actually a Scots Gaelic, not Irish Gaelic, word.

Let me make this clear: I had a dream. About a word. From a Celtic language. I do not know.

In the dream, I was terribly embarrassed about having thought it was Irish and having defined it as such to holomorphic.

I'm going to attribute this to Language Madness and lie down with a cold compress to the forehead. Or, you know, brew some coffee and read some Latin. Yeah, Latin.

Please stop burning.

Love,

Morfudd.

* Tea with T. and Kolya, reading them Dafydd ap Gwilym in Welsh.

* Vigil mass at St. Basil's with a free-association homily, and trying very hard not to make Eye Contact with Emilie.

* Watching "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" with other members of the MA class. Never having seen it before, I spent much of the experience writhing in pain.

* The World's Worst Gin & Tonics, at the pub with the MA class.

* (Yrs. Truly and T. simultaneously rub their tired eyes.)
T.: Jinx... it's okay, I release you... I won't constrain you to silence...
K.: What? Are you constraining the woman I love? I'll fight you in a duel for her love. Pistols or swords?

Yrs. Truly: That's it, I'm out of this conversation.
Resident Brit: What's going on? I'll take your place.
Yrs. T: They're fighting a duel for my love.
R.B: Oh, then, you're on your own.

* Anglo-Catholic Service at Smokey Tom's, and singing "Be thou my Vision"... and being the only Soprano-type in a three-pew radius.

* Brunch & Coffee with T. & Kolya: Yrs. Truly: "I can't get the Huevos Rancheros... I'll want them to be just like the Huevos Rancheros at the Med in Hyde Park, and that can only lead to sorrow and heartbreak."
Kolya: "My dear, it is far too early in the morning for heartbreak, and I haven't had enough coffee for it."

* Buying an Oxford Study Bible for $2 at the Trinity College Booksale. I also bought a book in Welsh, but I'm not yet entirely sure what it's about (I think "Wanderings of Carmarthenshire" is the best translation of the title.)

* Affirming that K. doesn't mind if Celticist Roommate and I refer to him as my "Platonic Boyfriend"-- in turn, however, he has threatened to refer to me as his "Platonic Presbytera" (which has the added benefit of alliterating.)

* Reading with Kolya in the Hart House Quad, removing my Sunday heels to walk in the grass, and taking advantage of the floaty Sunday skirt and Collegiate Gothic background to strike a few ballet poses.

* Watching Platonic Boyfriend read the first few pages of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead (given to him by T.)... only a few weeks after I introduced him to Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. "It's so much fun to watch you begin to read books I love... it's like watching someone discover a good chocolate!"

* Evensong at Smokey T's (I swear I'm not becoming an Anglican, but it was just what I needed.)

* Red Sox, 11-2.

* Remembering that I have some Latin parsing due tomorrow. Cachu.

So today we're going to Smokey Tom's. Well, I am, at least.

Furthermore: I love my MA classmates. I'm not looking forward to April.