Hey

Ok, so I'm in Madison.

I came up here Sunday night because the boy was in the ER with severe dehydration due to a nasty case of the stomach flu. He's much better now, (although his stomach is still "wubbly".) I am going to be gone for awhile in Madison taking care of him and trying to get some reading done. I will be back in town this weekend. I miss you all!

Later,
KT

I should be sleeping.

But really, what is the point if I'm going to wake up every two hours coughing?

Yes, it's true - all that stale library air, fluorescent lighting, and bad nutrition has made me sick. Standing on the very threshold to the wide-open porch of spring, I boldly step forward and -- sneeze.

to repent for current grumpiness and the bitter rant that I wrote, posted, and then took down after realizing it was pointless and sad, I will direct you to a site that has the most eerily horrifying things I have ever seen, and which I really thought only existed in obscure Buffy episodes or really really bad xxx fanfic about androids.

And no, it's not a virgin mary - but I bet that they could custom make one for you.

DO NOT open this page in the library. Seriously. It is offensive and pornographic.

It's the realdoll.

I am particulary amused by the FAQ page - ok, who would want to open their closet and find one of these hanging by its neck-loop on a peg on the wall? Also, as pointed out to me earlier - why buy the doll for $5000 when handjobs go for $20 on the street (and from real ladies too?)

News and entertainment.

Ok, I can't really back that last part up, but I do have news.

I signed a lease this morning. That's right, folks, the apartment hunt is over. Location is perfect - 2 blocks from Lakeshore Drive and the red line. Price is perfect. Interior has 10 ft ceilings, hwf in living room and bedroom, nice kitchen, 12 panel oak doors with original hardware and a SUNROOM. That's right, I will be able to get skin cancer INDOORS (aren't you jealous?) So anyways, the boy came down to see me this morning and we signed the lease (yay! boy is finally actually really really for sure moving to Chicago because I HAVE HIS NAME ON A LEGAL DOCUMENT (and suddenly all my little pipe-dreams that have been floating around about how cool it would be for the both of us to be in the same city are actually coming true).

Ok, so I'm sappy about it, but you should see the smile on my face right now.

So that was my morning - Ahhhhh...

And this afternoon Kerri, Allyson and I went off to Oak Park for a vintage clothing and jewelry show. Fun... expensive, but fun. Kerri, of course, looks just great in everything and I hate her for it, while nothing fits me (all those people from non-modern midwestern America are so small!). The tiaras, however, were amazing.

Then back to HP for dinner with the ever-charming and totally spiritually uplifting Noelle. Man, when you are fried, she is always the nicest person to hang out with. So, I would just like to indicate that Noelle rocks. Post dinner we went and did naughty decadent book shopping at Powells (myself ending up with the Joy of Cooking and Mimesis, while she found two cookbooks that look delicious). Ah, extravagant expenditures on the self.

I just got home about an hour ago, called the parents, and generally am giving myself the night off. It's been a book a day this week and I really really needed some moments for the eyes to regain function. Ahhh De Man, will I ever forget you? Not without drugs, I'm afraid.

So this week,

Tess
Frankenstein
Mysterious Stranger
Aesthetic Ideology
Walden
Ideology of the Aesthetic (pending)
Of One Blood (pending) or Beyond Aesthetics (pending)

gah. That's about... er... 2000 pages. Oh my eyes bleed.

Weekend madness and ensuing hermitage

My sister came to visit me in Chicago this weekend! Yay! It was great to see her again (we live way too far apart) and we had a lot of fun.

Friday evening: she arrived chez moi about 5ish and we scampered down to Pizza Capri on Sheffield and Belmont in order to grab some delightful "shroom" pizza. It's always fun going out in the city with my sister because everything makes her happy (and she gets these really wide eyes). Dinner was, obviously, delightful and then we were going to meet up with Jett for drinks. He was delayed so we drove down to the loop to scope out a place called Sugar, which, unfortunately, had a $10 cover. Clearly I am too poor to be payin for the priviledge of sitting inside some bar, so we wandered back up to Boystown to meet Jett. We arrived @ the Twisted Spoke a few min. before he did, so we grabbed some drinks and hid in the back room. Jett arrived and I thought, hell, I need another drink. Upon wandering up to the bar and waiting for the drink, I encountered a very very drunk fellow (about 25) that wanted to arm-wrestle. Inexplicably. I couldn't get away from him, so I thought, "why not", and proceeded to whup his ass. The first time he wasn't trying (of which I informed him) and the second time he just wasn't strong enough. Rather annoyed at his loss, he turned back to the group of friends who saw this happen and encountered a mocking. I was busy paying for my drink, and apparently in the meantime he had concocted the scheme that in order to save face he was going to MOON me. I'm not sure how the logic of this works, as it really isn't saving face to drop trou' in the middle of a biker bar on a Friday night, but that's what happened. He pulled those fuckers all the way down to his knees and bent over.

Upon hearing about this, my friends have all asked the same question. You would think it would be something like "did anyone else see him?" answer: the whole bar, or perhaps "what did you do?" answer: took my drink and walked right around him back to my table, instead the FIRST question everyone asks was "was it a hairy ass?" answer: no, dears, it was as beautifully smooth as a baby's bottom. How this gets to be the first (and usually the only) question is beyond my comprehension, but there it is.

Post this debacle, we abandoned the Spoke and headed down for some dancing at Roscoe's (a really really cool gay bar with "the most good-looking men I have ever seen in one place" according to my sister). This is so true. We had a blast, I haven't danced so much in my entire life.

After crashing back at my place we awoke early Saturday to catch Kerri in the loop. A bit fuzzy headed and bleary-eyed, we arrived at the Art Institute and picked up the ever-perky Kerri (especially when thrifting is concerned). We hit all of our major stops (Village on Roscoe and Unique on Sheridan) before meeting up with Al for some delicious Indian goodness at Tiffin. After that, more thrifting (unbelieveable deals) and my buy of the day which is a brand-new-still-has-the-tag-on Kenneth Cole silk dress in brown for $5. Swanky! We couldn't meet up with Karin and Eric for dinner, so we caught food and watched Kill Bill vol. 1 and 2.

Sunday we did the shopping thing, hitting all the major oraganizational shops and Trader Joe's before I had to send my sister back off to the wilds of Wisconsin.

Monday: Reading, like, all day (Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Frankenstien)

Tuesday: Studying in HP with Karin, lunch at Salonica, dinner at Noodles etc. (Eagleton's Ideology of the Aesthetic, and De Man's Aesthetic Ideology)

Today: Reading Walden and meeting up with Becky in Gurnee for dinner.

Tomorrow and all weekend: Study Study Study Study - I will be a hermit and actually get what I have to get done, done.

Oh, and I forgot.

Got my class evals back... They Like me! I mean they really Like me!

I know, I know - I haven't posted in awhile.

And, of course it would be really really pointless for me to give a "catch up" post now because nothing too exciting has happened. Essentially it would be a long list of possible apartments visited, times drunk, food eaten with friends, and, sadly, primarily lists of books read.

Thus I will begin anew. As I push myself deeper into the elusive hermit-life of the orals-student, I have begun to miss people more. This is strange because really, I see everyone all the time. My problem is that I have become so used to seeing everyone all the time that any non-seeing of people (perhaps my 8-hour stretches in the Regenstein) tend to excite a kind of anxious loneliness. This is in complete contradistinction to my previous undergraduate hermitage where I really had no problem disappearing for weeks at a time (communicating with others only at meals and the occasional passage in the hall). Actually, I only really became a social person when I managed (through heavy medication) to control my constant anxiety about studying which made me work way, way too hard on everything. This is probably uninteresting in the most part, but what is interesting is the result.

The past few weeks I have feel the need, nay, the compulsion to tell people how wonderful they are, how much I love them, and what good people they really are-and-they-should-know-that-because-they-are-just-too-cool-for-words. This isn't to say that I don't truly feel that these people are all that I say they are, but rather that I think I'm freaking everyone out or perhaps making them think that I am secretly in love with them. Apparently I am afraid that as soon as I drift out of the picture for a few weeks everyone will forget me. Or perhaps it is because I am so invested in the idea of really letting people know the good things that you think about them, that I feel compelled to deliver all of my encouragement at once before I have to run away again. Odd

Anyways.

Other than my random compulsive friendliness, I've been studying a lot - met with my orals advisors sequentially MTW, so I am pretty fried right now. I'm on a 6.6 item a week schedule, so I will be disappearing more and more often into the oblivion of the library. Today was Algic Researches (Native American Folklore) and 100 Years of Folklore Study by the American Folklore Society. yay. I also read some De Man.

Also, I am currently in spring-food-mode which includes: seafood, chicken (a little), fresh veggies, fruit, and soda. I've been eating faux-seafood all week and craving salad. Things that are out: Beef, pork, cream, soup, coffee, desserts, and any bread that is not in sandwich form. This happens to me every year about this time (I gain weight over the winter, I lose it over the summer - such is the cycle of the depressive academic Wisconsinite)
Oh dear. This is why I haven't been posting. Well - I will keep you updated with random viscissitudes and the excitement of my sister's visit this weekend! YaY!