Bearshorty's musings

Happy Birthday, Misha!

Papa bought the tastiest bagels this morning – very crispy.

I finished Stephen Fry’s autobiography. I really enjoyed it. Mostly because of his humor and because he actually tells of less than good stuff that he did as a teenager – he did spend a little time in jail over stealing a credit card. And I do enjoy reading about people’s childhoods. I’m actually looking forward to the next bit – ages 20 to 40 – that he is writing now. I need to get that when it will get published. Now, I think, I will get back to the biography of Catherine the Great or at least the next section of the book before I break with some fiction.

We went to Brooklyn for half a day. First, Papa and I went to visit my grandparents where I helped set up their emergency cell phone. Then we joined Mama on Brighton and walked around a bit on the boardwalk. It was such a sunny day with lovely blue skies. Mama was in a snit, though, so the walk was not as enjoyable as it could have been. We did have a nice lunch. I had a very delicious chicken with vegetables and tomato juice.

In the afternoon, I finally started a new cross stitch project called “An Interesting Book,” which is a small cross stitch of a bear sitting on a toilet with blue underpants around his ankles and wearing pink slippers and reading a book. Hee. Hee. I bought it in June at a book market in Minsk. It really amuses me. I’m not ready for a big project yet, I’ve been doing smaller ones for a year and a half now.

I also went rollerblading for 45 minutes today, which makes me feel good. I need to make more effort to work out even if I don’t get to the beach to rollerblade. I do have an exercise machine in my room, maybe I should use it. I did break out my little free weights and did some stuff while watching “Real Time with Bill Maher.” I didn’t even realize that the show premiered on Friday. Usually I watch it a week later with weekend breakfast but I caught it today. I think because the media gives so much coverage to the tea party, it seems like the country gone insane. But I do hold hope that most people are actually sane and the minority is just loud.

Laura just came over because she needed her nursing paper proofed. It is much easier to edit someone who at least has intelligent points to make. She was looking at my cross-stitches and thinking of trying something like it. And getting the Kid into that too. That would be cool.

I need to get some grading done tonight. I think I will start with a paper that I know will fail. I usually pick up speed and desire to grade the more grading I do. Like a snowball.

Today is 90 degrees outside and I had to wear teacher clothing which did include black pants. I did put on my purple shirt that was more weather appropriate. But I knew I was heading to the city tonight for dinner with my friends and a movie, so pants were really necessary for all the air-conditioning.

I woke up early, before my alarm clock, which often happens on teaching days. So I read more of Stephen Fry book.

Today was a teaching day and my students and I were discussing the first reading: an excerpt from Jane Goodall called “In the Forests of Gombe.” In her article, Goodall talks about a transcendent moment that happened to her in the forest when she was grieving her husband’s death. She felt outside of herself, a part of the larger world. Her article is really about her religious beliefs and her certainty that the religion really does not interfere with being a scientist. She mentions an encounter with a bellhop in Texas during a fundraising trip. He loved her work but, since he was religious, he was concerned with how religion fit with evolution. She reassured him with her own ideas. Personally, I do not see the conflict between religion and science. I think people can’t separate their beliefs. However, I also don’t think that scientists should be extremely religious to the point where they impose their own beliefs on their work or refuse to accept information that would contradict their beliefs. Region needs to be flexible too. Most of my students never heard of Jane Goodall. The discussion went ok, I think. One class found the article dry and boring, the other liked it. I find that is always the case.

I need to drink more water before my classes. By the second class, my unsteadiness was coming back for the first time in months.

After my classes and getting pizza, I went to one of the program directors and showed her a writing sample of one of my students. The girl was really misreading. So we looked up her scores and decided that moving her to a reading class would work well. We sent her emails but I don’t know if she would respond. That actually took quite some time to sort out.

I took a bus to the history department to give the secretary the Health form to take care of. Our university decided that part time students don’t deserve health insurance unless they are half time or supposed to graduate. So I have to go around with forms. Since I was on the main campus I also picked up my check (which looks right this year) and some of my stuff that Medusa left in our office before she left for a new adventure.

I took the train into the city much later than I originally planned. It didn’t help that I just missed train as I was coming to the station. On the train, despite feeling all kinds of tired from a long day I graded the reading homework from one of my classes (I forgot to collect the homework in one of my sections) and then I read more of September issue of National Geographic. I started the article on King Tut’s Tomb and the new DNA analysis done of mummies. Most fun fact - there is an Italian Institute of Mummies and the Iceman.

I met Marianna and Yeva for dinner at a sushi restaurant at midtown. It was a decent place, but I think I like the Brooklyn one better. I got a bento box since I wanted a little bit of everything. After dinner we went to see “Eat Pray Love.” Yeva and Marianna both read the book and wanted to see the movie. I haven’t read the book nor did I have much interest in the movie (I’m neural on Julia Roberts) but I did want a nice girls night out. I actually liked the movie. I liked that the main character felt like a real woman with lots of faults and that her decisions were not perfect all the time. And that she was learning to get control of her life back. Since the movie and the book were based on real life, I can forgive the happily in love ending too. To me the movie was not about the romance at the end anyway. It was really about this one woman’s journey to feel happiness in her life. And I found it amusing that the movie starts by acknowledging that most people are mostly worried about personal relationships even if their lives are horrible by our standards. If was a nice movie and it was perfect for an evening out. I felt happy just to be with my girls.

Janna was going to join us for our evening out but her husband got really sick a few days before with a mysterious illness with high fever. She took him to ER instead and kept us updated through the evening. They suspect meningitis which is really crazy!

I got home by 12:30am. The bus had to do a bit of a detour, but still it took about an hour, which is nice. Today was a very good day.

I got up at 6:20 this morning to make breakfast for my Dad who just had to bitch about the thickness of his oatmeal later. Next time, I’ll just sleep in.

I had Work Orientation today, so I had to go up to campus. There is no new book this year, like we were promised. But I’m so tired of the articles I taught in the last few years, so I’m going to pick new stuff anyway. It might be more work for me to come up with new assignments but I really need something new. It was nice to see many familiar faces but I got a bit melancholy too. Work friends are very different from normal friends, it is sad sometimes.

I went to the library to pick up Stephen Fry’s “Moab is My Washpot.” It has been waiting on hold for me. The prose sounds just like him. It is really funny. I’m actually really happy to be reading a real book and not just stuff on the internet. Lately few books were exciting, so I’m happy to be reading again.

Highlander “Till Death” This episode is hysterical. I saw it before, when I was in Season 2 and now I get to watch it in context. Valicourts and their kinky sex games with swords and rape fantasies. Methos and Duncan living together and acting very married themselves. Fitz and Duncan both trying to win over Gina and being very silly. I had a grin on through the whole episode, I just adore it.

“Burn Notice” summer finale. These last two episodes felt like a filler for a pretty good season until now. The balance between main and episodic storylines felt off. I really like the addition of Jesse to the team this season, so that part is good. But the Main Bad Guy doesn’t seem that bad, plus he is dead pretty quickly. Michael getting shot is not much of a cliffhanger since we all know he will live. He is a main character after all. New episodes will return in November – so it is a pretty short break. Michael asking the client’s dad to get a submarine was really funny. Still, this episode would have been better if they focused more on ongoing storyline and not on episode-job story. Fi and Michael talking like grown-ups is always welcome on TV. She tells him about the stake-out kiss with Jesse and they talk it out reasonably. I appreciate it.