You all are going to start to think I’m just copying and
pasting, but the weather this weekend was once again grey and windy. And it
thunderstormed last night! This has been the wettest fall since I’ve come to
Macalester by far—it’s been a bit ridiculous. Kind of lovely, sometimes, but
other days I just long for sunshine and blue sky.
(So this was definitely true when I wrote it, but obviously
I’m posting this late. As it turned out, Sunday was gorgeous and blue and
basically the platonic fall day, so you’re getting some pretty autumn pictures
spaced out through here to liven up the text.)
The week before last was pretty unfortunate, mostly because
I had four writing assignments due in two days (ouch) and therefore didn’t get
enough sleep for many nights in a row. And I had started out the week at
Cahoots (as you know),
(observe the rose lemonade and mushroom-and-ham quiche)
getting lots of work done and being really proud of myself
for being very ahead with my homework, but somehow it didn’t carry over into
the rest of the week.
Anyway, I kept telling myself that, as a reward for making
it successfully through the week, I would get to watch My Neighbor Totoro on Friday (an animated film by Hayao Miyazaki).
Which I then did, late in the evening on Friday as the rain poured down last
outside my window. It is the most
charming movie: so sweet, so carefully constructed, so beautifully animated.
One of my new favorites, which is saying something.
Watching it at night, under my covers with a thunderstorm
outside made me feel very nostalgic and a little homesick, but it was
absolutely worth it.
And then, on Saturady, Charmaine and Nico (her boyfriend who
was visiting from out of town) and I went out for a dim sum brunch!! You
probably all know that dim sum is one of my FAVORITE MEALS EVER, so I was very
excited. But I was also a little wary—my previous Midwestern Chinese food
experiences have been distinctly disappointing (to say the least), so Charmaine
and I were worried that even a well-reviewed restaurant (as this one was) would
end up being good by Minnesota standards, not real standards. Luckily, we were entirely wrong!! It was very
delicious, and we even were able to obtain two of my favorite things: rice
noodles and custard buns. Mmmmm…. Poor Nico was a little overwhelmed, as it was
his first dim sum experience (which is TRAGIC), but I think he had fun anyway.
I spent the rest of the day talking to the parents on Skype
and going to Whole Foods, where I obtained many a delicious treat food from my
birthday money from Aunt Meg. I had a glorious dinner (plus a bunch of other awesome dinners).
(You may have noticed that my food treats involve cheese and FRUIT. Oh god, real fruit. I miss it so much.)
(I couldn't resist a raspberry glamor shot. Just look at them!)
And then, in the evening, Mac was hosting a pajama party/ice
cream sundae bar/movie night. Naturally, Charmaine and I decided that
attendance was necessary and brought along with us Hannah, Nico, and Katrina
(who wimped out and wore jeans. LAME.). The movie was Despicable Me 2, which was fun, but not brilliant. There were
definitely some things I (as a societally hyper-aware liberal arts student) had
problems with, but that didn’t really detract from the fun of going to see it
with a big group. Plus, Mac audiences are always way more fun to attend movies
with than any other—they’re so responsive and excited! I also think it says
something good about my college that the attendance and applause for Despicable Me 2 was far greater than
that for Man of Steel. GO MAC!
(Speaking of Mac being awesome….we recently were ranked on a list of colleges with the
smartest students, and we came in 18th! I know these lists are
always a bit fictions (especially given how different they seem to be), but I’m
still proud of us. Here’s the link, if anyone’s curious:
On Sunday, the St. Paul Marathon [of Evil] was occurring, as
it does every year. Each year, my window has been closer and closer to Summit
Ave. (where it occurs), so I notice it more and more. The problem is that all
of these very nice people go stand along the street and cheer along everyone
who passes. It’s some sort of friendly, schadenfreude-istic, communal
experience, which is all very well and good UNTIL SOMEONE DECIDES THAT RINGING
A COWBELL AT SEVEN ON A SUNDAY MORNING NEXT TO A COLLEGE CAMPUS IS AN OKAY
THING TO DO.
Anyway, after a few hours of near-incessant cowbell-ringing
and cheering, I decided that prolonged exposure would, in fact, drive me
entirely insane and escaped off to Cahoots (again) to work. I came back to
campus many hours later in time to head off for a dinner at Pad Thai with my
Feminist Visual Culture class. I was anticipating that it would be long,
silent, and painfully awkward (as these things sometimes are), and was very
much dreading it. But it was wonderful! Everyone was so excited and engaged,
the food was awesome (and I got to take home some leftovers for dinner a few
days later),
(yay satay! plus other goodies from Whole Foods.)
and Joanna told us a bunch of fascinating stories from her
life. She’s had such a rich and varied existence, so she has some pretty
incredible narratives to share. I ended up staying with a few other students
and Joanna much later than everyone else.
All of this added up to a much better beginning for the
week, which luckily translated into a much better week.
(it's like a rainbow!!)
I started it out on Monday by discovering these balloons all
over campus, because apparently I missed out on the memo that Mac students are
having a competition to out-do each other in ADORABILITY.
(you may not be able to see, but inside the balloon is a folded piece of paper with an affirmation on it. naturally.)
Then, after class, I spent some time hanging out with Sorcha
after class, chatting about nothing of importance (although I did learn that
she is, in fact, a weather god. Who knew??) before I met Charmaine for dinner
at Grand Central (a newish café near Mac). We had crepes—we split two, one four
cheese and one arugula and mushroom—and then raspberry-jam-topped flourless
chocolate cake. SO DELICIOUS. I would have a picture for you (the cake was very
lovely), but my phone has decided it no longer wishes to hold a battery charge
more than about six hours, so it had already died by dinnertime.
Afterwards, Charmaine returned with me to study in my room
(she’s an honorary roommate, so she spends a lot of time with us). Hannah and
Katrina and Charmaine and I sat around talking doing homework for a
while. Eventually, Hannah went to bed, and then when it got pretty late,
Charmaine gave up on homework in order to draw adorable pictures for a letter
to Nico. Katrina decided to be part-cat and distract me by leaning on my book,
so I threatened to read Saussure aloud at her. Unfortunately, this was not a
deterrent, since she’s a linguistics major. So then we had bedtime story hour,
in which I read linguistic theory while Katrina curled up under a blanket and
Charmaine colored. College, man. It’s weird.
Everybody is simultaneously seven and twenty-eight. Plus a bunch of other
in-between ages. No where else can you switch between five-year-old petulance,
thirteen-year-old-boy humor, and middle-aged existential crisis-ing within the
space of about half an hour.
On Tuesday and Thursday, we had a guest lecturer for YA
Creative Writing (Megan had other commitments—again, last minute teaching
appointment), which I was honestly a little disappointed about. Usually, that’s
exciting—not only do you get a new perspective, but you don’t have to do any
work (shhh…slacking off is a necessary part of the college experience). But I
love my YA class, and I always feel really energized when I leave it, something
I’d assumed I’d miss with a guest lecturer. BUT OUR GUEST LECTURERS WERE AMAZING!!
Tuesday was a YA and picture book author from the Twin
Cities who explained her whole experience of being an author, from beginning
(coming up with an idea, developing that idea) to publication. She showed us
her contract and first editorial letter, talked to us at length about her
experience in the publishing world, and was generally incredibly encouraging.
She made it all seem much less terrifying than I expected, although she also
talked about how long everything
takes in the publishing world. She also has—AND THIS IS THE BEST PART—a free
picture book writer’s salon the first Wednesday of every month. !!!! I most
definitely know what I’m doing on November sixth…
Thursday was a YA and children’s editor at a smallish Twin
Cities imprint. He talked to us about his expectations as an editor, what the
publishing process is for him, and more generally about being a part of the
publishing world. His talk was a little more geared for people interested in
becoming an editor, but it was still very interesting and still kind of
encouraging. I’d kind of assumed that it’d be easier to submit work to large
publishing companies because they’d have enough other revenue to publish little
works. But I think that idea was wrong—it seems like the little publishing houses
are both more invested in the works they produce and more likely to read what’s
submitted to them. That seems obvious in retrospect, but somehow I’d never
thought of it like that.
(there's just so much COLOR!)
I also had a guest lecturer on Wednesday night, this one for
Texts and Power. It was with a documentary filmmaker—Sam Green, director of
Weather Underground and some other less well-known films—and I rather assumed I
wouldn’t be that interested (this is beginning to be a theme of the last two
weeks—Lily assumes everything is dull and boring and is proven otherwise. At
least it’s not the opposite?), but it was a very engaging talk. It didn’t
convince me to become a filmmaker, but I came to really respect Sam Green for
his earnest love of the medium and the intentionality of his work.
I spent the rest of Wednesday night talking to Clara
(because I am a terrible procrastinator and Clara is awesome), drawing a
(ridiculous) postcard for Anna (while I talked!! So it wasn’t even procrastinating at
all!!),
and staying up painfully late to finish my paper for
Postcolonial Theory. I’m pretty proud of how it turned out, although I haven’t
gotten a grade back. We shall see!
Friday, Charmaine came to hang out again in the evening and
we studied for a while. Eventually, we realized that neither of us had eaten
dinner, so we set off to Shish for gyros wraps and a GIANT SLICE OF bailey’s
chocolate cake. Observe that there is, by volume, more frosting than cake. Then
be impressed.
(That pale tan stuff isn't a different kind of cake. It's just frosting. Inches and inches of delicious frosting.)
Saturday was more of the same,
(Charmaine likes to wear my scarf as a hat.)
although Katrina and I also made Charmaine and Hannah (and
eventually, Erin) watch the first episode of Firefly with us, as part of our
continuing campaign to make everyone love the things we love (along those
lines, I have successfully introduced Katrina to the Welcome to Night Vale
fandom. MWAHAHA!).
Sunday was also uneventful, although (as you can probably
tell), I went on a picture-taking expedition. It was also Family Fest this
weekend, which is basically school-sponsored homesickness for those of us whose
families don’t love us enough to visit. Or who have work or whatever. Same
thing.
And now it is Monday morning, and I am posting this rather
later than I was supposed to. Apologies, all! Although, since it’s late, you
all are now lucky enough to get yet another weather update: if Friday was rainy,
and Sunday was the quintessential fall day (as I mentioned at the beginning),
today is apparently the first day of winter. Brrrr!
Love you all!
(Fairfax and I are doing a happy dance (from a card I sent to Clara))
P.S. So…no one can (mostly) be mean to me about my
exclamation point sprinkler this time, but they might be able to say something
about the number of parenthetical clauses in these four pages…
Also caps-lock, but that’s pretty normal for me.
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