" 'M'sieur le Mayor,' You'll wear a different chain! "

[hermionesviolin]

This was gonna be a bullet list, but we know I fail at that.

Monday

I saw my first "First Night 2007" sign Monday morning.  And then that afternoon Mary Alice was talking about New Year's Eve plans.  Oy, planning.

I also registered for spring semester.

I forgot to mention when I posted about Messiah that the program says "Les traducciones en Español del texto del Mesias se pueden obtener en el lobby" and near the beginning I was watching two women sitting at the front of the audience, one signing to the other.  This made me want to be fluent in a language other than English (a recurrent desire, though one that has been dormant for a while).  One problem, of course, is that I know without practice I would lose any language skills I acquired, which makes taking classes less appealing.

Also: I've been thinking again (in part due to one friend's prompting) about what to do with my massage table.  I should really look into purchasing Japanese screens so I could cordon off the living room in my apartment.  Though I know from experience that the appeal doesn't actually translate into practice for a lot of people.  [This of course also brings up questions about whether I want to try to pursue an actual certification in massage therapy.]

In honor of the snow, I put flannel sheets on my bed for the first time this season.  Though I've had dark purple sheets on my bed all summer (brill, I know), so seeing the light purple on there now weirds me out.

Inspired by one of the icons I have, I GoogleImage searched for "aurora borealis" and added the text of Isaiah 9:2, creating a future-dated Christmas entry, in the expectation that I will lose my Advent joy at some point during the season and will want a reminder.  (Though Jennifer Walters has a blog entry problematizing the light/dark dichotomy.)

Tuesday

My mommy sent me back with cookies this weekend, and I've been sharing them at lunch.  Eric's favorites are the sherry cookies [aka Gram Reese Cookies, or cookie cutter cookies].

Michelle: "Where did these come from?"
me: "My mommy made them.  From scratch."
Michelle: "What kind of time does your mom have that she makes cookies?"
me: "Actually, she kind of doesn't.  But this is what she does, instead of buying Christmas presents for people."
Michelle: "But these are the prettiest cookies ever."
Eric: "She made them for me."

Andy (to someone looking for Prof.B.): "We've got the brains of the operation right here -- Elizabeth."

Katie (after doing a batch of scanning): "These are done.  The other two papers have like a chastity belt on them."  [Referring to the industrial strength staples.]

Trying to read/review Ulysses this week(end), I was hugely not into it (cue also: worry about what to write my paper on), but class tonight was enjoyable.  We did some dramatic readings [yes, we're still on the "Circe" chapter].  Larry sits in front of me and when we were leaving at the end of class said to me: "Next stop, Broadway?"

One section we did was when the ladies accuse Bloom of obscenity (starting mid-p.380 in the Gabler edition).

The prof asked for a volunteer to be Mrs. Bellingham.  When no one responded, he said, "She's the one who has the line about 'Venus in furs.' "  I raised my hand.  He had us read our own stage directions, and she enters: "in cap and seal coney mantle, wrapped up to the nose, steps out of her brougham and scans through tortoiseshell quizzing-glasses which she takes from inside her huge opossum muff"  Tamar (sitting behind me) laughed and I felt a bit chagrined that I hadn't gotten the naughty pun before :)  [Oh, musesfool, I thought of you 'cause Lenehan uses the word "quim" at one point in the chapter.]

Hi, can I take Lisa home with me?  She's always really smart and she's good at dramatic readings, and the stage direction for her character (p. 381): "in amazon costume, hard hat, jackboots cockspurred, vermilion waistcoat, fawn musketeer, gauntlets with braided drums, long train held up and hunting crop with which she strikes her welt constantly."  Oh, and she said "Don Juan" the Byronic way, which wins points with me.  That passage also has one of the funniest lines in the whole book: "sent me in double envelopes an obscene photograph, such as are sold after dark on Paris boulevards, insulting to any lady.  I have it still."

I saw silvermousepad at the T when I was coming home.

Comments

[sk8eeyore.livejournal.com]

Yay, we'll be studying medieval theology at the same time :)

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Yay!

[speacechilde.livejournal.com]

One problem, of course, is that I know without practice I would lose any language skills I acquired, which makes taking classes less appealing.

Don't discount the Internet. I watch S4C band llydan all the time via my laptop...b/c, well, where in NC am I going to find Welsh speakers?

And if you pick something less obscure, I'm sure you'll have tons of options.

Welsh!

[onwingsofeagles.livejournal.com]

You speak Welsh? My brother was born in Wales when my parents were there for my Dad's Fulbright fellowship. She had to learn some Welsh b/c so many people wouldn't speak English for her -- she said it was the hardest language in the world!

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

I'm more concerned about my own ability to communicate than in keeping up my ability to comprehend (though hearing fluent Spanish -- either on the T or on film -- reminds me how poor my comprehension is (despite having taken years of the language).

I often find myself wishing that I and everyone I'm around knew sign language so we could communicate non-disruptively.

[vikingkangaroo.livejournal.com]

I know that when I was reading Ulysses I really was super-intriuged by Bloom's relationship with food - partly because it was a class on Jews in Modernist literature, and Bloom's all "Mmm, pork," but there's a lot of food/appetite related material to explore, if you're interested in that sort of thing and looking for a topic.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

I had no idea you had read Ulysses. (And Ulysses is so huge and difficult that I'm impressed by the idea of a class in which it's only one text of many.)

I'm thinking of focusing on sex in the "Circe" chapter... somehow. Your suggestion is definitely something I'll keep in mind, though, thanks (and food, sex, religion, and literature are of course all so intertwined in this book).

[vikingkangaroo.livejournal.com]

There was only actually one other book for the course - Henry Roth's Call it Sleep, which is stunning. It was an intensive interterm course at Hampshire in January '05. I personally love Ulysses, though not unconditionally. Did you know that there's aparently a cartoon based on it? I think it's only the Circe chapter, but still.