Notes from a wandering minstral: February 2006

I just saw Corpse Bride, and it was really fun... so here's a collage.

Nine to go!

Berkeley also doesn't love me.

In other news, I had a really yummy porcini mushroom pasta sauce for dinner! (I had it with pasta. And a piece of British bacon. And a salad of baby spinich with fresh musroom on top. Followed by a digestive biscut.) And I got hair accessories yesterday because my hair is now long enough to be either a source of annoyance or entertainment. So today I French-braided it into two pigtails... less Pippi-Longstockingish than it sounds:

Now I have the "Pippi Longstocking" theme song in my head....

Oh, and, yes, I took a picture of the back of my own head. It was a bit difficult... Yes, I'm a spaz. My flatmates were talking today about getting me committed because I was talking to my biscuits. I told them the danger point comes when the biscuits talk back. Albeit, earlier I had been laughing manically about how cute my apple was and how little it suspected that I was about to devour it. It was really cute, too--very small. Ironically, from a fruit stand called The Big Apple. Which has a picture of the Statue of Liberty on its sign. Despite being located in Birmingham, England.

Yale

...is a no. At least I have one PhD decision! Yay! It makes my eventual decision that one bit easier! Yay!

But I'm a bit sad because Yale is indeed supposed to have a great program, and C---- M---- is there, whom I like, and besides it's a bit disappointing to know that someone is immune to my charm.

Ten to go!

Wandrings

As advertised. However, not many ballads, songs or snatches this week. But as I mentioned, I went to London last Tuesday to the BL. Renewing my reader's pass was as easy as showing them my reader's number and driver's license. Although one of the admissions officers asked me initially if I was SURE I was renewing it. Guess I didn't look old enough to have already had a reader's pass. And I'd even put on a blazer for the occasion. :) Had a lovely lunch with my friend Emma in Islington at a restaurant (have I finally learned to spell that?) called S&M--for Sausages and Mash (what were you thinking?). Mmmmm, sausages and mash. Had a bubble and squeak mash--has cabbage and peas in. And really good ginger beer. Then returned to my lovely copy of Tristram Shandy with marginal notes.... think they might be by a guy named Thomas Grenville. Returned totally knackered on the train and was just starting to get the Valentine's Days blues when I walked into my flat and discovered that Andy had sent me a dozen roses. Is he sweet, or is he sweet? (have to have a think about that one.)

Then on Thursday went to Oxford. Hung out with Maeve and Renata--and introduced them to each other. Went to the Bodleian, where getting approved to look at my books was much more difficult, but finally accomplished. Duke Humphrey's Reading Room is lovely. Mmm, dark wood and books.... Got what I really needed to get done done on Thursday, so spent Friday wandering Oxford with Renata. We went to a theology lecture (interesting) and rehearsed with her choir. Wonderful to get to sing with a group of confident, talented musicians again. And to sing with Renata again! We were the second soprano section. :)

And on Saturday, I went on a uni-organized trip to Stratford and Warwick with my three female flatmates. It was fun... Warwick was great. Kind of kitschy but fun. A lot of waxworks... including waxworks of Victorians, which I find funny because Ruddigore at least implies that they were seen as "resorts of impiety / Placed by the moralist under a ban."

And speaking of Ruddigore and impiety, I gave a talk at the Bham Postgrad Forum on Monday. 25 minutes. On Gilbert and Sullivan. It was fun. Nervewracking but fun. And it seemed to go over well. So I'm happy.

And I should go work on my essays.

From the 1898 Weekend Party section--waxworks of Victorians... yay.

Live peacock and pecock topiary

Mound with the oldest part of the castle seen through an arrow slit. (yes, I like trying to be artsy)

Warwick Castle

Pretty castleness

More waxworks of Victorians.

The Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford, where Shakespeare is buried

Shakespeare's grave

Charles I waxwork and portrait

From the battlements

A lane in Oxford (as part of my lane series)

Shakespeare's Birthplace

Oxford--Magdeline Tower from the Botanical Gardens

The Bodleian -- or part of it

Sad news

Just a little note to tell you all that my grandfather died yesterday in New Hampshire. We knew he had congestive heart failure, and so it wasn't that unexpected, but, naturally, still sad. He was 88 years old, I think. I got to see him last summer, and I talked to him on the phone a few weeks ago. I'm still a bit not sure of what to do in terms of what degree of normality I should attempt, but I'm still going to London tomorrow, so that'll at least provide some structure and distraction.

Speaking of tomorrow, happy Valentine's day, everyone. Friends are good things to have, even -- or espeically -- at a distance.

News of the worLd

Hello, dear readers. Sorry I haven't posted in a bit, but there's not too much to tell. Except

Next week (starting Monday) is Week 6! You know what that means? Private study week! No classes. Now, I love my classes, as you know. But I'm particularly excited about this study week because.... I'm going to libraries! Not just any libraries, but the British Library and the Bodleian. To study marginalia. :) I'm excited... (bounce, bounce, bounce) The BL has annotated copies of Tristram Shandy and Clarissa that I'm going to try to see, and the Bod has a number of books that I'm thinking of looking at, and I might go to the Law Library there....

But one of the coolest things about going to Oxford will be seeing Maeve and Renata! Yay. And reading in the Bod. With Maeve. :)

And I'm going to have lunch in Islington with a friend from Cultural Inquiry when I go down to the BL. I'm just popping in for the day on Tuesday--spending a romantic Valintine's Day with books.... Bless 'em.

And I've got a fair start on my essays. The Rochester one I've got 2,000 draft words on, and the Marginalia one I've got 3,600 draft words on. Each is out of 8,000. So, slowly but surly, as one of my parents' students supposedly wrote on an exam...

And tomorrow I'm wandering around Birmingham with my friend Marie. And I'm reading The Woman in White in my odd moments, and trying to relax about stuff.

So, that's basically the news with me.

Oh! And I have had salads with avacado in for the last two lunches running! And cooked mushrooms! Mmmmmmmmmm....

What shall I have for dinner? More mushrooms? I'm like a hobit....

London

In case you couldn't have surmised from the captions on the photos below, I went to London today to see Cirque du Soleil's Allegria. I went with my friend Nanjala and her flatmate--now my new friend--Anna-Marie. We were quite an international group; Nanjala's from Kenya and Anna-Marie's from the Netherlands, so we represented three continents. Rock! :) And a lovely time. Walked around Kensington, lunched at the Kensington Wagamama (if you don't know about Wagamama, you must check it out), saw the show in the Royal Albert Hall, walked around a bit more, missed the tube stop by accident, turned around, walked back, went back to Euston, and caught our train. And now I'm tired and full and sleepy. And remarkably less stressed even though I need to work extra hard tomorrow to prep for my classes. But it doesn't really matter. I saw people doing mind-bending contortion, trapeeze leaping, fire-twirling (which made me miss the Monkeys--this was cool, but it did make me nostalgic for Primal Scream), clowns, and surprisingly cool music. Mmm. And good friends, relaxing times, chit-chat, and trains.

Good times.

Happy birthday, Nanjala.