Happy Birthday, Rod Serling

RS was a fan of the Christmas spirit, despite the fact that he was Jewish. He once described himself as a Christmas present delivered unwrapped (born on Dec. 25, 1924).

It's late in the afternoon on Christmas day, and Bizarro is lying beside me taking a nap. The lasagna will come out of the oven very soon, and I believe dinner will be set shortly. It's been a good couple of days here at the Bizarro household in Cleveland, though I will feely admit that I really wanted to be with my family gathered at Pat & Beckie's last night. They passed the phone around when I called so I could briefly chat with everyone - even Owen! I went into a bit of a funk after watching "White Christmas," that being Mom's favorite Christmas movies. I perked up later on, though, and then of course was the midnight unwrapping of gifts and eating a petit meal around 1:00 am. Needless to say, I slept in today.

Yesterday we hit a couple stores, including my favorite Italian grocery this side of the North End - Alesci's. It was like heaven; I could've spent the entire day in that place. I fully intend to return tomorrow and buy some home-baked bread, and more capicola (and I didn't have to pronounce it "cappa-cola" for the guys at the meat counter!). The smells and sights really bring back a lot of sense memories from childhood.

Also had a glorious trip to Half-Priced Books with a gift card from the in-laws, and came home with a few prizes, including the director's cut of Blade Runner, and a Twilight Zone-themed collection of short stories edited by Carol Serling (RS has one story in there which I haven't read). The fluffy purchase was a tarot card set with Egyptian iconography and supposed hieroglyphs.

The days have started to meld together as they often do here, with all the sitting/lying around that goes on, so I have made a point to do yoga and journal and DO things as often as possible. It's so tempting to fall into that spaced-out state that this house seems to encourage. I'm doing my best to keep myself pulled together in that respect, if for no other reason than not to gain 5 lbs before I get home.

And speaking of which, it's time to take the lasagna out of the oven. Happy Christmas, all !

Horno Tostador

Holy shit I am SUCH a nerd! I just re-read my last post and realized that I really do sound like a total geek. Oh well. If the tennis shoe fits... (oblique reference to the 10th Doctor's choice of footwear). Damn, see? There I go again.

My students had to write a detailed description of someone or something or someplace for their first paper. The first paper off the stack I read was, in fact, a biography of Vincent vanGogh. How do you say "HUH?" in Chinese? But it's okay; we had our conference today and she gets to rewrite the entire thing. She did have some description of a few of his paintings, but 85% of the paper was about how he got kicked out of everything because of his problem with authority, and how he went nuts, and how he cut off his ear, and how he shot himself.

Oh well. Whaddyagonnado?

Tomorrow we go to the campus museum (which isn't bad for what it is). Had to give them a crash course in art appreciation, which I didn't appreciate because you cannot teach someone how to appreciate art in 3 days. Not only are they supposed to understand what they're looking at, then they have to write a paper. I am not down with that. At all. But it's not my call. *shrug*

Even with teaching a class and four conferences and a trip to grocery store, I was still home by 4:30 today. This is a schedule I can live with.

Didn't sleep well last night, though. Insomnia and multiple wake-ups during the night. Don't know why. I'll be hitting the hay as soon as I am well-entertained by Chip Coffey and his Psychic Kids tonight.

But first, dinner, laundry, and to finish the book of short stories I've been reading, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li, which apparently has been made into a movie of the same title.

P.S. We bought a new toaster oven yesterday. The box is in English and Spanish (today's title). Finally, after being married 3 years, we're starting to replace all the old and busted bachelor/bachelorette stuff with grown-up stuff. The only downside to eloping is not getting the cool wedding presents.

The Week in Revue

It's been quite a week. I temped for four days, still getting over the hideous cold that knocked me on my ass last week. Managed to get both syllabi done for my two classes, and today went in for the 30 minute faculty meeting at Out of Town University. For the record - it takes me 1.5 hours ONE WAY (yes, that's right, 3 hours of driving for a 30 minute meeting and another hour and half to get the rest of my paperwork done)). This is a one semester deal for me, that's for damned sure.

I also helped to take care of Salty Miss Jill's animules over the weekend and early part of this week. I wouldn't mind having a kitty but I'd have to take allergy meds every day of my life and I'm not too keen on that idea. Thankfully I'm not allergic to dogs, so when we eventually have a house, one of my first priorities will be to bring home a fuffy (that was my childhood name for our dog, Duchess).

Yesterday PMP called on the spur of the moment, and we had our traditional Target-run and dinner at Wok Village outing. We were both tired, but it was great to see her after an entire summer of being PMP-less! I was supposed to go to Salty Miss Jill's place for a drink later, but she and her hubby were out with their out-of-country guests. Just as well - I got one of my syllabi done last night as I was watching Ghost Hunters (my new obsession).

I have the entire weekend to relax, catch up on personal stuff, and write. I am saving Monday for last minute school-related stuff, and I'll be going into the Local College to get my keys and say hello to people. I feel so comfortable there, and I'm left alone to do whatever I need to do. Granted, they still treat their adjuncts like shit, but I do love teaching the class.

Okay, we have a problem here. We have an infestation of what appear to be fruit flies. I say "appear" to be fruit flies because they look like fruit flies but they don't seem to be going for fruit. They like to hang out on the bathroom mirror and the kitchen sink, and the garbage. I have a feeling they've come from next door. Our apartment manager was talking about how the cig smoke we're always smelling can come through the giant holes around the pipes, and he took a look at them - sure enough there were gaping holes where the pipes came in, and smoke discoloration around those holes. So he's going to have the maintenence guys fill the holes with something or other made for such purposes. I'm hoping the fruit fly problem will go away soon thereafter. I remember we had this problem last summer, too. It's totally gross, especially when I come in the bathroom and they're on our tooth brushes. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

I need to organize my desk and prepare my space for the coming onslaught of the semester. Once that's done, I think I'll kick back with a book and pretend the world doesn't exist. I've been trying to read "The Bastard of Istanbul" by Elif Shafak for weeks but I'm having a hard time getting into it. It's too bad, because I had high hopes for it. I'd heard an interview with the author on NPR and requested the book for my birthday, which Bizarro was so kind to indulge. English is not the author's first langauge, and it does feel awkward in parts. But that's not even the real problem. The problem is she goes on and on about shit that doesn't matter to the characters or the story and I have little patience for that. I call it the "Anne Rice Syndrome." Spend four pages describing the wall paper, meanwhile the character is perched in a chair somewhere and you have no idea what's going on. I'm gonna try to give this book another pass and if I'm still not moved to give a crap, I'll shelve it and find something else for the weekend.