Friends-iversary

This weekend we celebrated welcoming the potential new cohort to campus. With happy hours and lectures for all the would be scholars, we had a jolly time. Moments of laughter and good cheer not to mention snooty jokes flitted around the room. At one point I found myself sitting in the middle of a two person bench sandwiched between members of my cohort. With my arms wrapped around either side I thought about how it had been one year since I met these strange, quirky nitwits and how grateful I am to be surrounded by such a terrific group. They are supportive and kind, while still being able to give and take a little dish. When there are two types of academics: the know it alls who live and die by research and proving how brilliant they are; and then there are those who know they are smart enough to play the smart kid games and appreciate the others in the room as part of a larger contribution. Lucky for me, my cohort friends are the second group of people- the ones that make the drudgery of academia amusing and doable. I wouldn't have liked a program that stuck too close to the high browed snobbery of the ivory tower.

So of all the things that welcome weekend reminds me of, it's a simple phrase tossed around the office regularly:

I love my friends.

Cooking relief

I'm typically the person in the department who does a lot of stress baking. But lately I've not been so stressed as in previous semesters. Today I was closer to bored than anything. I went to the grocery store, picked up plenty of groceries for the week, and came back to bake pumpkin bread. It's a wonder what little habits come back and give purpose again. Sure, it's exhausting, but now the apartment smells great, I've completely drained the lingering stress from my body. Little habits that happen to be both productive and stress relieving.

Keep cooking friends.

AFI top 100 list

After far too long, I have finally finished watching all of the films listed on both the 1997 and 2007 edition of the American Film Institute's top 100 movies. There were some hilights, there were some low moments.

Low moments: the really long epics especially the ones with racist overtones. Even for it's historic value, Birth of a Nation doesn't stay in the category of 'overtones' and instead just blatant. Plus, the 3 hours with intertitles was a bit much. Not much of a fan of the highly ranked Lawrence of Arabia. Especially the part where women were on screen for less than 30 seconds of the ghastly long production featuring many sand dunes.

Highlights: there were lots of magical actors with tons of repeat performances. Meryl Streep, Dustin Hoffman, Jimmy Stewart, Jack Nicholson, Kate Hepburn and crew all had some remarkable performances. So worth it in that capactity.

If you need a year long (or if you're me- 2 year) project, stick with the 2007 list. It cuts some of the eeek moments from the 1997 version, and keeps things a little more modern for you young at hearts.

Night at the opera

After many years of waiting to be in the same place as a production of Madame Butterfly, tonight the stars aligned. Knowing that I'm a nerd of a different generation and no significant other to bribe/seduce into seeing a 3 hour opera, I took myself on a date and sat admists the families and elderly couples. I cried (of course I did- what did you expect?), and it was totally worth it.

Here's what I've learned in grad school: sometimes you have great friends and you do great things together. Sometimes you have great friends with other priorities and that can't stop you from doing what you want to do. So look yourself in the mirror and say, I'm an independent woman, and I'm dressing up and taking myself on a date to the oper because I can. And it really is rewarding to be so totally self reliant that no one can sneeze at you making your own decisions- nor can they complain to you about making them go do something they didn't want to do.

(PS: Pinkerton is a jerkface and the whole audience was so peeved at his character that they booed his curtain call. Sure, nice tenor, but what a terrible human.)