A very pleasant weekend. Saturday night K. and I stayed in and studied - she prepared for today's Greek test and I started my paper for Philosophy of Language - my first paper in grad school, which makes me nervous. On Sunday, I turned out two loaves of honey whole wheat bread, which came out beautifully - the yeast loved the honey and it rose like mad. Very nice toast.
People are always astonished that I have time to bake bread every week, but it's not really that difficult. I mix and knead, but the yeast does most of the work, after all. I just sit around and read the news or do homework while it's rising and baking. And the people who express astonishment that I have time for this sort of thing also confess to watching VH1 and spending hours on Wikipedia. I get very annoyed, trying to defend the ways in which I spend my time. I feel like Jane in Laurie Colwin's story "The Boyish Lover":
... Jane began to feel embarrassed by her salads, by the dish of pears she kept on the coffee table. The attention Cordy lavished on the details of her life was beginning to make her feel not singled out and appreciated but freakish ... they had passed some point of no return - somewhere where discount pillows and imported strawberry jam cannot meet (Laurie Colwin, The Lone Pilgrim, pp 29-30). (Why yes I am a grad student, why do you ask?)
Anyway. I baked my bread and I started my paper and did all my logic homework for Thursday and then it was time to go to the orchestra. K. and I decided to get dressed up - I even wore gloves, an affectation I hope I was able to carry off. They were merely wrist-length, not opera length or anything like that but needless to say I did not see anybody else wearing gloves. It did keep me from picking apart my fingers during the performance, however; an unexpected boon.
The music was lovely - they did a Samuel Barber symphony which was absolutely thrilling. I'm not much of a girl for the classical music, but it was like magic, the musicians were able to produce such sounds. Then this soprano came out and did some folk songs, which wasn't really so exciting - I don't care for vocal music really (sorry LCA). Finally, they did some Elgar Variations, one of which Value Theory Lad informed me was one of the most beautiful pieces of music in the world.
It was splendid, but it would have been even nicer if I weren't so socially awkward - I was stuck talking to Value Theory Lad, and I found myself just saying all kinds of inane things. I would really like to be friends with this fellow, but that certainly won't happen unless I learn how to converse like a normal person. There must be a book I can read. Something.
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4 comments:
i keep going through your old smith blog trying to find the post where i was visiting you. when was that?
umm... october 2004, I believe.
TCA Advice column: talk to him about who he is; where from, how he knows stuff, who is his family, what are his enthusiasms;stuff like that. This is not to butter him up or make you feel less awkward. It's because he sounds like an interesting PERSON!
The bread sounds interesting, too.
if you find the book about saying clever things to people you wish to impress, TELL ME WHAT IT IS!!!!!!!
No offense taken on the no-vocal-music thing. Speaking of sopranos, it's a good thing you aren't able to see the musical- the lead female actor has precisely the kind of singing voice you detest.
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