Down and Dirty, Madtown Style
I had a nice little break last night from the usual humdrum Thursday night routine... getting out early after a kind of crappy colloquium talk (a Chicano documentarian) and then escaping to one dive bar (the Caribu) with Eric and Laura, grocery shopping, and then onto another wonderfully dark and smoky dive bar in another part of town, Mickey's, with a big group of Filmies until midnight. But it was a nice and much needed break after what has amounted to too much work and grading lately. Now my cupboard is filled with snacks and goodness and my dive-bar deficiency has been effectively remedied.
Going into this weekend... I really feel a desire to put everything on hold and just have fun, but at the same time, I know that is completely impossible. But hopefully there will be a better balance between work and play than the last few work / grading-intensive weekends have been. Tonight Laura and her housemates are having a potluck dinner party, which I think will be a lot of fun, and then tomorrow night my friend Kate is having a birthday extravaganza... which I also think will be fun. I hope to get some reading and my laundry done, but I think it can all be accomplished. About every 6 weeks or so, I seem to devote some time to the life necessities of laundry and food-procuring... it's a good balance, but it needs to be done. Lots of reading assigned for this week, grrr... and I also want to do the old theater hopping routine at some point and catch up on the popular cinema that is just beyond my grasp.
I've been working on the Reunion more and more, and trying not to let it take up more time than it should / its worth. But it's a fun little distraction, much like rebuilding my music library is also a fun little distraction that takes up more time than it should. But our distractions keep us interesting, right?
Not much else to report - it's getting colder and grayer and the leaves are falling. My students gave me mid-course evaluations today (which were largely positive) except for the observation that I am holding them to a too-strict and high grading standard, which is pretty accurate. But they seem to like me and think I am accessible and interesting. So my resolution for the rest of the semester - more in-class speaking exercises, less bookwork, and more cushy grades... sounds more fun for me too. I think I can do it...
posted by lmjasinski at 3:08 PM
