Worse than Watergate*

After a lazy hiatus, I am back. Perhaps later I will tell you about my traveling misadventures, the new apartment I'll be moving into in May, or the week from hell, part 2. But right now, I'll tell you about my hair.

So, all this week, maintenance is going around my apartment building, adjusting or checking something in all the bathrooms. Yesterday they did mine. It was fine, everything worked properly before they came and after they left. So I don't know if what they did is at all related to what happened this morning.

This morning, after gloriously sleeping in until 10, I got into the shower and began to wash my hair. Just as I began to lather my hair with shampoo, the water began to spurt ominously, but I didn't think much of it and kept lathering away. Just as I was to begin rinsing, the water stopped all together. "Weird," I thought, and stood there for a few minutes, waiting for it to come back on. When it seemed clear that more water was not forthcoming, I got out, wrung my hair as much as possible (still, mind you, with the shampoo all in it!), and checked the other faucets in the apartment, none of which seemed to be working.

It was 10:30 or so. I called the apartment office, only to get a voicemail machine, which was curious since they are typically open on Fridays. Then I go back to yesterday's email and see that, due to repainting in the office, they won't open until noon today. Great.

I then heard maintenance people outside in the hall. I was sure they had to be working on the water issue, and I felt comforted. I decided just to sit and wait until the water came back on. I turned all of the faucets to the on position so that I would hear the moment the water started working again. I emailed some of the people in my cohort to get them to take notes in today's brownbag in case I wouldn't be able to make it.

By 11:20, I was giving up hope, so I decided to brave going out with the gross hair to go buy some bottled water to rinse my hair out so that I could try to make it to the brownbag on time. So I run to a convenience store. I get back and hear the water running. And then stopping. And then a trickle.

I just finished rinsing my hair with the bottled water. The water is back on now and has been for a while. Hopefully it's here to stay. But I missed the brownbag. And am probably going to take a real shower now. Today isn't starting off well.

*Sorry for the corny title. But get it? haha--Watergate! Anyway, it is a good book.

it's only a week.

Do you think it would be okay to leave some dishes in the sink over spring break? Before you start saying, "Hey didn't you learn this lesson over Christmas break, what with the eggnog in the fridge for several weeks?" remember that this does not involve dairy. I will, of course, be removing the already-dead milk from the refrigerator. The dishes aren't gross or anything... a cutting board and various pieces of tupperware that held non-messy things. It shouldn't start smelling in a week. But this reminds me that I need to remember to take out the trash. Yesterday I cut up a lot of veggies for stir fry, and those will smell pretty gross if I allow them to sit out for a week.

I'm not usually this lazy.* It's just that it's almost midnight and I have a whole lot to do before leaving tomorrow.

*That is, of course, a lie. I am usually this lazy.

I'll get it from the library, thanks.

Why in the world does this book cost $225.55 on amazon.com?

Luckily, if you get it from Amazon, you save $14.40, 6% off the list price! Goody.

not sure what this says about me

I love office sounds--keys clacking on a keyboard, papers shuffling, backpacks being zipped. There's something incredibly soothing about it to me. So much so that I'm about to fall asleep. I should go home to get work done, probably.

hey lefties

To people who supposedly hold values opposing Ann Coulter's recent comments, it's kind of hypocritical to respond by saying, "she looks like a man."

(sporadic series) super-cool ancestors: katherine swynford

In keeping with my recent interest in genealogy, I thought I would share with you one of my more exciting relatives. She's my great x 22 grandmother on my mother's mother's father's mother's etc. etc. side. She's got a famous novel and a whole society dedicated to her. I share her lineage with Luke and Travis as well as, probably, a nontrivial number of you.

She is Katherine Swynford, mistress to John of Gaunt (Plantagenet), the patriarch of the House of Lancaster, those of the red rose in the Wars of the Roses. The novel Katherine by Anya Seton, based on her life with John, is widely celebrated as an exemplar of the historical novel form and is consistently rated as one of the top love stories of all time. I haven't read this novel, but am thinking I should now. She's family, after all.

Her children with John, illegitimate until declared legit (when they were well into adulthood) by their half-brother Henry IV (who also included a clause preventing them from ever inheriting the throne), were given the surname of Beaufort.

nevermind waking up at 3am or so

I'm jealous of Soledad and Miles. Their work day just ended.

speaking of genealogy

I was excited to see that I was descended from Charlemagne. Until I found out that everyone of European descent probably is, too.

procrastination irony

In order to keep from doing real work, I've been getting back into genealogy stuff. And, just as I was feeling guilt over stalling on my homework, I ran across an ancestor of mine, Eadnoth the Staller (died in 1069). At first, I thought, "Hey! This procrastination just runs in my blood! I can't do anything about it!" Then I realized that "Staller" probably had more to do with horses than with stalling by doing other things instead of what you're supposed to be doing.

i love sociology...

but sometimes I feel I would be incredibly happy as a historian.

rationalization

As recently described, I have re-discovered Gone With the Wind. But I feel guilty about it. I should not enjoy this book that so clearly glamorizes the Old South and sympathizes with most of its racist tendencies. So, what do I do? I go out and buy books about it. I got in the mail today two books that, I believe, will be very critical of the racial politics of the book.

One looks at GWTW and its female fans, and I suspect it will deal with the balance between its progressive-for-its-time feminism and its larger nostalgia and racism. The other looks at GWTW as a reflection of its historical era (1920s-1940s) and "recasts" it in terms of that culture and its political systems.

Hopefully by reading these more "academic" books about GWTW, I can start to feel less guilty about my love for the original.

Update, 8:32pm: I'm reading the one about GWTW and its female fans, and I'm having a bizarre reaction. I keep wanting to tell these women, "You don't understand it like I do." I somehow want to feel like GWTW is mine, that no one could love it as much as I do. It's weird, particularly given the obvious silliness of it--GWTW is the best selling novel of all time. I suppose it's because for so long I defined myself as "the GWTW girl," and perhaps I'm still attached to that identity. I don't want anyone else to claim it. I mean, I can deal with people being way more into Harry Potter than I am. After all, part of my HP-identity is as a part of a larger fandom. I am a shipper (short for "relationshipper"--I'm for R/H and H/G--Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny to the uninitiated). I read fan-fiction. I am a part of that crazy mass of people who go to midnight book releases and movie showings. With GWTW, it was always just me, and I'm finding it, after all these years, kind of hard to share. I'm not sure what to make of this.

daily optimism

Nothing is ever as bad as it seems. Putting off something because you dread it will cause you to think the absolute worst of yourself and your situation. When you actually do it, you may find that it's not so bad.

I wish I could tell you what this is in reference to, but, alas, no. I would seem silly with my paranoia.