I'm procrastinating from working on my Eng 319 paper, so I thought I'd post a blog entry. Had a super fun weekend, so, it's time for an update!

Friday: I ran into everyone (Karuna, Laura K, Laura E., Beth, etc) while walking around campus, and found out that Korisha's science symposium presentation was starting at a quarter to three in the afternoon. So until then, I read Stoppard's Indian Ink while sitting in Pratt Library. I didn't understand anything about Korisha's speech except that this flame retardant stuff could be put on a couch or something. We weren't brave enough to ask how you'd get the charred stuff off afterwards...

Anyway, then we had hoped to go on a picnic, but I didn't get back to my room till after Beth had called -- so unfortunately I missed out. Andrew got here at a decent hour, and we decided to take a run out to the liquor store in Chicopee. I'm slowly acquiring Andrew's taste in beer... Magic Hat, mainly. Anyway, then we attempted to watch Cold Mountain, but Andrew promptly fell asleep. Warning: If you haven't seen this movie or read the book, I might spoil the ending for you.

OK. So I found it supremely frustrating, the ending. I didn't sit through over 2 hours of Jude Law's character overcoming one impossible situation after another, somehow surviving everything, just to watch him get killed because he's freaking stupid and wanted to run up the side of the mountain looking for the bad guy without anyone backing him up. One does not get through all that crap without being extremely cautious -- so why would you take the guy one-on-one when your group outnumbers his (Georgia, the two girls, and the beat up father). I found that rather stupid. When Andrew woke up, groggy as hell for a shower, I told him that he's not allowed to ever run up a mountain after someone with a loaded gun. He nodded. Not sure if he really got that.

Another frustration with the movie: Whatever happened to complex characters? The bad guys are unbelievably bad -- they're beating up on old women, babies, children, killing people left and right. It seemed a tad too simplistic for me... Few people are all bad or all good, and the most interesting "bad guy" characters are like Shakespeare's Richard III -- people we can sympathize with (even just a tiny bit). Then Renee Z.'s character -- the classic tomboy "type" who has the easy-to-follow habit of listing everything. Nothing to figure out here -- she's the tough girl with heart. So, in conclusion, if I want a Civil War movie, I'm going back to Gone With the Wind.

Saturday I had an alum/ student luncheon, so Andrew sat by the lake making phone calls. It was quite fun (the luncheon) -- I spoke to an alum from class of like, 1948... she used to live in the Delles and loved it because she and her friends learned how to sneak in after hours. Two demerits and you were out! She also said something interesting about naked photos of students to see if their posture improved over the years... bizarre! My alum was a perfect match -- her mother (who had donated money that apparently was used toward my grants) and she were both English majors at MHC, and from the bay area. So she was glad to hear I'd be continuing on.

Then we went shopping -- I wanted a skirt, tank tops, & earrings. Found everything, and Andrew came upon the perfect birthday tote bag. Got out at a decent time... Then we coordinated with Korisha, Beth, Emily, & Kathleen for a trip out to Osaka. Sooo good... then Andrew & I went to Faces briefly, and then back to the dorm. Got ice cream at Blanchard (Andrew was pleasantly surprised), and then back in my room I read submissions for Verbosity while Andrew slept.

Sunday we went for brunch at the Roadside Cafe, which was, as usual, very yummy. Then we sat out on Amherst's town green for the entire afternoon (I got a bit pink, and Andrew had some burns). I did my reading, and wrote a poem while waiting for food at Fresh Side. A bit more shopping (I needed fun summer flip flops), and then we had dinner at Blanchard (I had gotten Trader Joe's sushi... nothing like Osaka's, but still better than dorm food). We had a pretty quick Verbosity meeting... Andrew and I went to Big Y... then we ate a whole tub of Chunky Monkey while watching DHs.

Today it was sunny, again, yay! Had a supremely frustrating Stoppard class (ARGH! Someone actually suggested that Stoppard basically has no right to have a female lead character due to the fact that he is a man). I dropped in on Kathleen's floor tea with the college president (amazing strawberries, that's all I have to say). The conversation pretty much centered upon dining halls, heating concerns, and the new dorm. ESB dinner was great fun -- we're trying to decide on next year's stuff, and I think we're going to try to have a grad school meeting in a couple of weeks.

Now, back to paper...!