Look with your eyes, not with your hands.


Such a minute fraction of this life do we live: so much is sleep, tooth-brushing, waiting for mail, for metamorphosis, for those sudden moments of incandescence: unexpected, but once one knows them, one can live life in the light of their past and the hope of their future.



A grad student muses on her life, film, friends, politics, reality televizzle, and music.

 
Just a tomato between here and there...

I'll be the first one to admit that my retirement is off to a rocky and unproductive start. While I was still in the grind of school, I looked forward to these stressless spring days with a laundry list of self, home, and intellectual improvements that remain anything but done, many of them, only half-heartedly started. I signed up for my gym membership; I am just disappointed that they don't hand over the thinner thighs when you sign on the bottom line. Although I don't do daily, that corporal resolution is not a completely lost cause. I keep saying that all I need to do is get into a routine, but that doesn't seem likely since my hours, plans, and whims fluctuate with the week. Also on the list was the sincere ambition to really hit the ground running when I got to Wisconsin by beefing up my film knowledge - largely of history of the industry or some baby-step theory I could trudge through myself. This is slow going and I can tell you all about the first 20 pages of about five books, but don't ask beyond that - time is dwindling, but I am sure I'll be able to concentrate better when it's 100 degrees outside, my sister is home to distract me, and summer weekends are given over to impromptu trips to the Cape, Boston, or the Big Apple - all under the guise that I can't do this once I've moved. Denial just ain't a river in Egypt, you know.

If the close proximity of the move wasn't already self-apparent, it really hit me today. Perhaps, the highlight of my early taste of retirement, semester off, limbo, downtime - whatever you want to call this eight-month block - the thing I have most looked forward to is my summer vegetable garden. I can't wait for fresh and bright tomatoes, cukes, green beans, onions, green peppers, and fresh basil for salads and such. I am actually looking forward to the garden itself too, like the little projects that force you to be outside on a nice day like weeding and watering. But my father and I were looking at plants today and it started to scare me - tomatoes, depending on the variety, need between 70-90 days to grow from a seedling to salad bowl. When you do the math, it is suddenly apparent that if I get them in the ground Memorial Day (something that will be more than difficult when I am pomp and circumstancing that day) then it seems my father will be reaping my harvest when he gets back from Madison, sans moi. He told me I can cheat the system by shelling out for half-grown plants at a greenhouse so I can get some of the goods, but still, scary to think that we're talking the time between seed and tomato standing between the here and now and the there and then.

All of that aside, my trip to Providence was good but exhausting for no good reason. I am obviously back to my warm weather induced narcolepsy and today all but blindsided me. But it is always nice to see my sister and we moved most of her stuff out today, leaving a little to come home with her on Tuesday. I am infatuated with the Providence Place mall. It is shopping elevated to a higher spiritual level - I found my Mecca. We had a whole bunch of fun in the Gap Body store, Crate and Barrel, and then off seeing A Mighty Wind, Christopher Guest and Co.'s latest go at defining the mockumentary. Out of the trilogy of Guffman, Best in Show, and now this, I still think the dogs take it for the most laughable picture. I read some reviews, so maybe my viewing was tainted, but I agree that this is darker than either previous attempt. I still think it's worth your $9 come show time, but many of the characters seem to be built on something either than an absolutely ridiculous premise. I mean, everyone is a spoof in Best in Show, everyone is far-fetched - and the puns are sharp - yuppies, white trash Floridians, gays, rednecks, dumb blondes - no one is spared. Granted you get your freaks (see New Main Street singers / cult members, and plenty more) but this doesn't come across with the same intensity and folky-types remain the main target. I think Eugene Levy really controls the movie and his character is pivotal and responsible for changing the mood and tone of the film. I'd gladly go back and see it again with my Dad, but realize that this movie is a departure from previous efforts. But in the end, I always enjoy watching the same cast don new personas. Having seen this, I now turn my cinematically wide-eyes to Down With Love, the charming 1960s styled flick with a pill-box hatted Renee Zelwigger and the ever dashing Ewan McGregor. Thankfully, the trailers are better than the crappy website, but I am lined up with money in hand to see this one.

My book sell back scam yielded only a crumby $63. Providence sells back books using the Barnes and Noble database. I think Midd might use a different system, because I sold back 37 books and netted between .50 and $2 a book. I might be delusional in my increasing age, but I remember getting upwards of $6 on certain academic printings. An average obscure poli book goes for $30 new, it makes me cringe to sell it back for the price of a diet coke, but I was glad to sell back these 37, dump ten more in the freebie pile, and drag some of them home that seemed worth the muscle power of lugging them up and down stairs and then devoting them shelf space in my room but not take to Madison. Onto greener pastures, take that U2, there are things you can leave behind.

I am getting off easy for Big Momma�s Day � as my mother devotes the day to her mother, and I therefore, get off with a card and chinzy gift (wine glasses this year). I will be tethered to the register from 12-5 tomorrow (let�s hope it�s the register and not the fitting rooms like last Sunday, that was dreadfully boring). I have another job interview on Monday for the evening part-time job I�ve been hoping to get for a while. More info after the interview and I pass the basic skills test � but it is another retail job, thankfully hawking neither clothes nor housewares and not having anything to do with food, but I think it has promise just the same of being half-interesting, having a good discount, and not a terrible work. Give up? Keep wondering and I�ll tell you as soon as I know.

Awfully wordy tonight� but let�s give a birthday shout out to Mr. Dan �I am finally 21� O�Shea and Ms. Virginia �You Aren�t Suggesting I Look Much Older than 21� Bourque on both making it another year.
posted by lmjasinski at 10:34 PM