The State of the Elizabeth.

Oh skimming 400 pages.  At the beginning i kept getting sucked into reading the story and having to stop myself.  I read the trilogy for the first (and up until now) time the summer after the first movie came out (of course i still haven't seen the movies and probably never will) and during this half of the semester felt like i might appreciate it more reading it after this class, but it's bloody long.  And i was rather bored the first time and don't foresee my enjoyment increasing any considerable measure.  But it means so much to so many of my friends.  However, skimming Fellowship for my paper (I totally didn't read it for class earlier this semester when we were actually assigned it.) has confirmed for me that really i don't ever need to read it again.  Proof that i am a sap however, i cried at ( spoiler? and no, it's not at all what you think it'll be, because my sappiness is so random sometimes )

I'm done taking notes and am off to sleep shortly.  This paper will so get done for Friday.  w00t.  (She said we could hand them in next week if we needed to, but i have a seminar paper and an exam, plus i have to do reading journal for this entire second half of the semester, so i really wanna get the paper done for the original deadline of this Friday.)  P.S. I'm sorry, but i totally channeled Ethan&Giles during the Saruman-of-Many-Colours scene.

( This, oddly, was the most striking -- to me -- of all the Gandalf bits i read. )

My seminar paper is only 15-20 pages?  Damn.  That's so much less imposing than the 20-30 page range i thought the assignment fell in.

I was the only person who wrote on The Eyre Affair.  Skarda read mine as a break from all the Mary Reilly papers and said something about it being a pleasure to read a well-written paper :)

Got the invoice for the Eng. Dept. t-shirts.  One of the screens was free?  Yay us.  (And they totally didn't charge us for the typesetting fee.)  These are gonna be like the cheapest shirts ever.  (Dunno if we'll get the same awesome deal for cheap shirts when they reorder in the fall, but as i won't actually be involved, i'm less than concerned.  Though i really do hope they do preorders.  I'm totally gonna be checking in ‘cause i'm a bitch like that.)  It makes me sad that the Classics Dept. changed their t-shirts from their old "More fun than an Atreid family reunion" slogan.

My flist exploded when the Serenity trailer came out.  wisdomeagle and i can spend the next 4 months being the only unspoiled Firefly fans.  Yay us.  (Elektra Barbie reminds me of Inara.)

one more day of classes left...

This morning:

Body: Yay! 8 hours of sleep.
Brain: Stupid bint.  We have a class to go to, you know.
Body: Hey, you're the one who turned off the alarm.  We all know how well the "I'll get up in just a few more minutes" thing works out.
Brain: Shuddup. And what's up with this runny nose thing?  I don't remember approving that.
Body: ...

Not as amusing as Sharon, i'm sure, but so it goes.  (We all have our gifts.)

Zia plans to become my favorite stalker.

Emma was disappointed at my lack of consistency -- i was willing to go to Elektra to see the Serenity trailer but am now avoiding it.  Really it was my willingness to see the trailer at first that was inconsistent since i'm such a non-spoiler girl.  I hear the Boston Commons showing sold out in 10 minutes.

I went to work and Stacey already had my nametag in her hand by the time i got to the desk.
Me: You're so efficient.
Stacey: I learned it from you.
[She's forever making cracks about how efficiently i work, usually with comments about how it just means i get assigned more work to do.]

Ann: "Stacey, can I have...?"
Stacey: "Only if I can borrow Elizabeth to do this." (to me) "How does that make you feel?"
Me: "Kind of used, actually, like a bargaining chip."
Stacey: "Yes!  That's the word I was looking for.  I just couldn't think of it."
Me: "That's why i'm the English major."

I got my first graduation gift today.  (Well, if we don't count my parents giving me BtVS-on-DVD early.)  AJ called me amazing, among other things.  And when i left at the end of my shift (the last time i'll be working there, save one day when i'm working because she won't be in that day) she said it was so weird that i won't be coming back, and so she just wasn't gonna talk about it.

The card read:

What will I do!
and Stacey do...?
Thank you so very
much: loyal, true,
reliable and never
at a loss.
...and coincidentally
Congratulations!
Fondly,
Ann

And i got a lovely bracelet--which i can't manage to fasten myself.

Why are we having alcoholic gelato again?  No sign, but there was an empty brandy bottle and an empty liqueur bottle next to the bowl. I felt for Emma.  There was also an overabundance of raisins in the gelato.  (*looks at menu*  rum raisin ice cream.  ah, that explains things some.)

Went to RCFOS Senior Banquet.  Had cheap wine (the brown labels on the bottles said so) and got a flower.  I feel like such an interloper in that group.

I reiterate that it will be interesting to see with whom i stay in touch (nevermind what kinds of new friends i make).

---

Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson is getting press everywhere from Mother Jones to NYTimes.

freethegayboys wants "a long and detailed account of why you are part of a fandom, any fandom"

A critic who attributed all of Hamlet's hesitations to the idea that the prince was actually a lesbian masquerading as a male would be "in contact with the tecxt," because the focus of the discussion, after all, would still be Shakespeare's play and not the Manhattan telephone directory or the odes of Pindar; but one might question whether such contact would be of much use to other readers
-from "Multiple Readings and the Bog of Indeterminacy," Chapter 7 of The Pleasures of Reading: in an ideological age by Robert Alter [page 223]

Someone needs to write that retelling of Hamlet.  (And no it will not be me.  I just don't like the play that much.  Though i so need to rewrite As You Like It with all the gay character motivation.)

"The medium sized world is making a comeback..."

You know the Jolt has really exploded when we actually get official college e-mail about it.

Apparently the Jolt includes the terrific line: I can just see our 50th reunion: "Ah, yes. It was during the spring when the Great Pinworm Scare was just beginning to gain momentum..."