Category Archives: On Screen

I need a hug. And some bleach. Mostly the hug, I think.

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I am having a seriously rough day, y’all. Egon is not loving the crate life (as evidenced here), and his pain meds, after the last dose, made him pretty sick with some digestive symptoms I can’t even describe to you, that is how foul they were. I will not be surprised if the clean-up experience leads to some PTSD. I’ll just tell you that he sullied two different crates, one of them twice, and I had to throw away two blankets. OMFG.

There’s been minor stress at work — nothing major or worth mentioning, but enough that it’s bothersome and on my mind and it seems like one more little thing on top of it all could be the last straw. Don’t push me ’cause I’m close to the edge, as Grandmaster Flash says.

So! To cheer myself! A list of good things:

1. I taught Shakespeare’s sonnets today and one of my students alerted me to this, starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate, my favorite Doctor/Companion duo:

Hooray for my nerdy students!

2. Speaking of The Doctor, the second half of season six arrives on disc next week!

3. I have already purchased the champagne for post-race consumption in Savannah.

4. There is a delicate pitter-patter of rain outside. Look, I’m reaching here.

5. For the moment, knock wood, the dog is quiet.

And how are YOU today?

Homebody Weekend Goings-on, Books and Movies

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Yesterday was my nine-mile training run, the longest so far in my half marathon plan, and it went exceptionally well. I’m pleased that I’ve been able to meet the longer distances again with no problem and to keep my long-run pace just a smidge ahead of where the McMillan pace calculator says it should be.

After my long run, however, the business hit the fan. I don’t know what it was for sure, but something I’d eaten at happy hour the night before did not wind up agreeing with me. (And I wasn’t alone! We’re blaming the deep-fried pickles.) Luckily the angry backlash didn’t strike during my run, but rather well afterward. Nonetheless, DAMN. I spent the rest of the day lying pathetically in bed. The only thing that sounded appetizing was a real-sugar Mexican Coke, which I happily downed while picking at some various lackluster selections from the Earth Fare deli case.

[273/365] Real Coke
While it surely is miserable to be stuck at home all day when you’d planned to be doing Other Things (even if said Other Things were merely working at a coffee shop while grading papers and running a couple of errands), it wound up being OK. I am still borrowing W.’s supersized TV with the internet apps built in, so Netflix and Hulu were streaming their way into my living room in glorious high definition. When I didn’t feel like watching, I read a bit on my Kindle. Hooray for technology!

I started Bret Easton Ellis’s Rules of Attraction, which I picked because I wanted a sort of slightly hip, contemporary campus narrative à la The Secret History. And he and Donna Tartt both went to Bennington together, which inspired the college settings in their work, and such, so I thought this seemed like a reasonable thing to reach for. Uh, that is not what this book seems to be. I’m not sure I’m a fan of his prose style at all, but I am going to keep on reading and just see. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll just re-read Donna Tartt for the umpteenth time, you know?

Eegs the Intern
Today I felt much better so I made my way to the coffee shop and began grading papers in earnest, did some grocery shopping, finished today’s quota of papers at home (Eegs helped out again, as seen above), and I decided to reward myself. Since my gentleman friend is out of town this weekend, I made it the girliest night possible: chick flicks, wine, and a DIY manicure & pedicure. (Fire-engine red and dark grey sparkles, respectively, because I know you are curious).

Movies I have watched since dinner:

1) Love and Other Drugs – Gyllenhaal and Hathaway are both adorable and charming and charismatic in general; the movie is clever and funny and totally predictable. I giggled a bit and got a little misty, too, but I have no need to ever see it again.

2) Charlie St. Cloud – I watched this mainly for the sailboat porn and secondarily for the love-story possibility, but it was so eye-crossingly awful that I spent the entire film texting, browsing the internet, and editing photos while only 40% paying attention. Oh well!

3) A Summer in Genoa – This one is interesting enough to make me want to watch it. It’s sad and compelling and personal. It’s also one of the only times I’ve noticed a hand-held camera in a negative way. Normally I like that style or just don’t notice it, but in this case it was a bit disconcerting — especially as the Netflix thumbnail and description made this seem more like a Hollywood B-movie with slicker production values if not a great story. It’s good — better than what Netflix suggests –, but not what I expected. Also, I prefer to think of Colin Firth as he was in, oh, any movie in the pre-jowl years.

So what’ve you been up to? If you have any 1) hip, contemporary campus narratives; 2) sad/funny young romances; or 3) charming Colin Firth flicks to recommend, please do so! Other media recommendations are also being accepted, though at a lower priority at this time — thank you for your consideration!

Bits and Pieces

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Things have been trucking along quite quickly and busily, such that I haven’t been spending as much time writing here as I would normally like to. Life has been great, in fact — everything that’s keeping me busy is something positive. How often can you say that?

[264/365] Sprints
I mean, don’t get me wrong: I was just handed 75 literature essays today — essays I must grade — but that’s all part and parcel of my job and, as you know, my job this year is something for which I’m especially grateful. I’m viewing the long series of grading sprints in my future as a challenge on par with interval training runs. Bust out that timer, red pen, and coffee and bring it on.

At any rate, I thought I’d gather a list of updates and such:

I have officially hit a new personal distance record for the year after completing my eight-mile run this past weekend. I ran all eight miles at the high school track.

Saturday Track
Yes, that’s 32 glorious laps. What possessed me? Well, my friend H., who herself is a badass running sensation, had organized a run/walk for charity, and she asked people to support either by joining her for laps or by donating. Can you believe she ran 74 laps? Badass. Anyway, a bunch of us were out there at the track with her, each of us with our own mileage goals and running at our own paces, but it felt like a nice, communal kind of workout nonetheless. Who knew track runs could be … fun? At any rate, onward and upward, friends: it’s nine miles this week.

In other health and fitness news, it’s now been well over two years since I started getting back in shape after graduate school, and over a year since meeting my weight loss goals. I keep thinking I should come up with some kind of brilliantly inspiring post about maintaining healthy habits and weight loss, but I’m not sure where to go with it. At this point my habits are just that: habits, and boring ones at that. Aren’t you glad I don’t document every single mile run or bowl of oatmeal eaten? Yeah, me too. Nonetheless, there are things to be said, in a more thoughtful manner, about what all this means to me. I will reflect on it a bit more and see.

Piper the Dog
Between my dog and W.’s two, we have a giant pile of cuteness. They are some seriously adorable and sweet dogs, there is no denying. But then, we leave them all alone at one or the other of our houses when we go out and we come back to find scenes like this:

[268/365] Irony
Yes, my copy of Eating Animals was eaten by an animal. Oy. Other similar casualties have included a useless, crappy yoga DVD I never used, my Firefly boxed set, W.’s Simpsons Season 8 boxed set, and a few cardboard coasters. All of these were taken off their respective shelves (not left on the floor or anything) and demolished by this dog’s tiny jaws:

[267/365] Oliver the Dog
Any ideas on how to prevent this, short of installing all shelving at least 6 feet above the floor? This is the same dog who, while he only stands about a foot high, got a chocolate bar off the kitchen counter and ate most of it (he was fine — had some stomach trouble and was pretty hyper, but fine). The little dude is determined and ruthless. (But so, so cute and sweet. Sigh.) Helpful ideas are appreciated!

In entertainment news, we have watched the first five seasons of Doctor Who (and are waiting for season 6 to be available on disc/streaming, so please don’t spill any plot secrets!) and are now making our way through Mad Men, which I’ve seen all of but W. hasn’t. Both of these series are so, so good. I loved the feeling of discovering something new in Doctor Who, which I hadn’t seen before, and I also love getting to go back and appreciate the old episodes of Mad Men while sharing it with someone else for the first time. Good stuff. Now if only I can convince him that we need to do Friday Night Lights next.

And finally: can anyone help identify these freaky bugs?

Bugs Doin' It
The bigger one was about 2.5-3 inches long, if that helps. The two of them stayed glued stock still in this position right at my front door almost all day Saturday, only disappearing some time after nightfall. No one who has seen the picture can tell me what they are, or what is likely to happen when they inevitably invade my home and possibly try to eat me. How gruesome and painful a death is in store for me? I need to know.

Summer Loving

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Why hello there! I have a moment in the midst of this crazy work week to post an update, and while I have Other Topics brewing in the back of my mind, I thought I take this time to make a list of all the things I am obsessively loving at the moment. When life brings you stress, make a list of good things. Always works.

[170/365] Kindle!

My new Kindle is fantastic – I have dithered for years about buying one, and finally put one in my shopping cart about a month and a half ago. It took me a while to pull the trigger, but I love it. Reading on it is easy and fun, downloading new books is a breeze, and I don’t have to clutter my house with my silly leisure-reading books. I can save shelf space for my Literary Intellectual-Type Books instead, and walk around reading the latest ridiculous vampire novel with no one the wiser. Oh yeah, baby.

I have also been re-watching Parks & Recreation on hulu, which I am loving just as much as ever. This past season was so great I just decided I wanted more, so I started over at the beginning. I’m halfway through season 2 right now. I’ve also occasionally been re-watching old Simpsons episodes at W’s (the guy) house as he has a bunch of seasons on DVD. Back in college my friends and I used to watch two episodes a night, every night, but in the past 10 years I really have not watched much of it. It’s a pleasure to return to. Best episode ever? “Bart’s Friend Falls in Love,” the B-plot of which is Homer’s subconscious vocabulary builder tapes. “But Marge, the boudoir is where the gourmand metamorphoses into…THE VOLUPTUARY.”

Running

We’ve also introduced our dogs. Egon got to meet two new friends: a chihuahua and a Jack Russell – Shih Tzu mix, who are both very enthusiastic and adorable. They seem to be getting along just fine in the park, but all three are boys, so we will just have to see what happens if they all three are in a non-neutral space together. Things could get pissy if you know what I am saying and I think that you do.

Yoga classes have been great as well – I’ve been hitting a class a week or so and would like to do more, but right now I am nursing that recurring hip-flexor injury and trying to take things easy. At any rate, yoga seems to be a good thing. In classes lately we’ve been trying lots of adventurous poses that we had never really done at my gym before. Crow, bird of paradise, head stand, and eka pada koudinyasana. I haven’t been able to do all of them perfectly but I love trying and knowing I am getting better. Today, I tried a headstand for the first time since gymnastics class as a kid, and I was able to do it easily against the wall. Soon to try: no wall, and coming down from headstand into crow.

On the way home, I was treated to this gorgeous sunset:

Sunset on the way home from yoga.

I made the Malabar spinach from my CSA again, and I am currently having a glass of this gorgeous Oregon Pinot Gris (a gift from a friend whose plants I am watering):

Acrobat

while I catch up on blogs. I have about 70 unread posts in my feed right now so I’m about to hop on over and see what you’ve all been up to.

Are you loving anything lately?

I didn’t plan to write a whole post about books and television but this is what appears to have happened. Here you go.

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In my recap of the trip to St. Louis, I neglected to tell you about the most excellent bookstore of all time, Big Sleep Books. It specializes in crime, detective, and noir fiction — aka my favorite sorts of things. The novels I write about tend not to be explicitly detective novels (rather narratives with a mystery or investigative theme), but as far as genre fiction goes, I am all about a good detective novel.

Big Sleep Books


I bought the classic Dashiell Hammett novel The Thin Man and a novel by a Norwegian writer named K.O. Dahl (hello, I will apparently buy anything designated with the initials K and O). I can’t wait to get the chance to dig into these.

Noir


At the moment, however, I am about halfway through the second book in the Hunger Games series, and then there is the matter of my boyfriend David Foster Wallace’s posthumously published novel, The Pale King. I am up to my eyeballs in great reading. Good problem to have.

Speaking of Scandinavian crime fiction, can we talk about The Killing, aka Forbrydelsen? The Danish television crime drama that made it big on the BBC even with subtitles and that has now been made into an American TV drama on AMC? Can we talk, more specifically, about why none of you jerks told me about this?



If you don’t happen to know that I 1) study detective fiction, 2) speak Danish, 3) study Danish narratives, and 4) am obsessed with Scandinavian crime narratives in all forms, e.g., written, cinematic, televisual, then you are not held accountable. How would you know to tell me about this? The rest of you, however, ARE ON NOTICE.

Anyway, this is all to say that I looked all over the dog-gone internet for the original Danish version* with English subtitles and eventually had to download the first season on schmit-schmorrent, if you know what I mean. I would love to become the legal owner of this entire series on DVD, in Danish, if possible. But my point is, I have the entire first season and I am SO exited to start watching it!

*Look, I know it makes me sound like a pretentious dork-nozzle to insist on seeing the original Danish when I’m sure I could watch the American AMC version much more easily, but I’m sure I don’t need to tell you about American filmmakers’ long tradition of taking shows and movies from other countries, remaking them, and ruining them. The Office is the obvious (only?) exception to this. See also above re: speaking and studying Danish. See also also my over-dansk last name. Familien represent, ja?



But before I can start Forbrydelsen I had to finish Friday Night Lights. I finally watched the last four episodes last night, and I think the reason I feel a little dehydrated today is not the wine I drank while watching nor the bike ride and run I went on in today’s 88 degree weather, but rather the many, many sad tears I shed. Absolutely wonderful end to the series. Also, why oh why is this show (and its amazing writers, directors, and cast) not winning all of the Emmys ever? I call bullshit on that.