I'd like to begin by highlighting a couple of recent and highly enjoyable events. I had a birthday a couple weeks ago or so (I don't think I can do the math in my head), and I "officially" graduated as a Ph.D. with the quick flick of a cheap blue tassel and an even cheaper gold-painted plastic '08. Sorry. I'm actually not trying to downplay the significance or the celebrations of this latter event. I just think it's funny that I paid $50+ to rent regalia that included the cheap plastic '08, which, oh my stars, I was allowed to KEEP. Of course as soon as the tassel was plunked down at home, the plastic '08 came loose--and in fact--that was when I discovered just how cheap and plastic it was. Ah well...
However, the graduation was actually a surprisingly enjoyable event. My parents and my aunt and uncle came, bringing me some 2nd hand antiquey furniture in tow as a graduation present, along with a way cool teapot in the form of Shakespeare's childhood home--a fitting tribute to my new position. I was taken out for a very nice dinner as well, and except for the difficulty of transporting one particularly stubborn piece of furniture into my apartment, the whole thing was really enjoyable. And yet, apparently exhausting.
Because the day following the graduation, and after the folks and the aunt and uncle headed home, I pretty much collapsed. And then I spent most of the next day on the couch. And the past 3 days (including today), I've been pretty much sleepwalking, and I've developed a sore throat to boot. To which I say: What the hell? Is this year finally catching up with me at last? Have I reached this moment of glory only to succumb to petty human ailments? Well, damnit. That pretty much sucks.
What also sort of sucks is that such glory is always short-lived, and I'm back to waiting for the new apartment and the new job and the new life again and waiting out the current apartment, job, life, etc. And I've got a freaking sore throat. And it's so hard to give a crap about much of anything. I had all sorts of goals to fulfill this week. I think I've accomplished one of them, namely, submitting my students' grades for the semester. Which is an important one, and I don't want to undermine it, but I need to go back to doing academic things, and highly practical things (like paying off my student loan), and I just can't seem to manage them. I blame the sore throat, personally. It just seems to be the tipping point. You can't do good work when you're not feeling good.
You can, however, waste copious amounts of time on the internet.
Specifically, I have recently been brought a bit more into the 21st century in the way of contemporary media. A friend of mine has introduced me to facebook, and I'm a bit proud but also a bit ashamed to say I'm addicted. Who can resist a forum that allows you to discuss the significance of the number of young and beautiful but inevitably dead women that appear in the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, while at the same time taking on the persona of a Vampire Temptress and trolling the internet to bite your friends, or throwing a virtual Paris Hilton at them, or being able to send them utube videos of muppets? It's just irresistible, perhaps too irresistible, but still, super-duper cool.
As for the birthday, it was simple and cozy. Before the day itself, I went out to dinner with a few friend to what is probably my favorite local restaurant--Thai food--though I ordered my dinner a little too spicy. Then the day itself was spent baking some very scrumptious cupcakes (what else did you expect?) which I present to you below. This was not necessarily the original plan, but my birthday was a nasty cold rainy day, and staying inside baking cupcakes was quite a nice way to spend it. And the cupcakes were quite lovely--yellow cake (which had a lot of brown sugar in it, so that added to the kind of flavor they had) with orange undertones (a good healthy dose of orange zest) with chocolate buttercream frosting, which was truly exceptional, as several people have already testified. I think when you find a recipe that works, you stick with it--and I will definitely be going back to this version of chocolate frosting--and which was actually pretty simple to make. Check 'em out:
And at the end of the month, I will be homeward bound--my folks' home that is. I guess I can't really call it my home anymore, something my dad also realized more than ever as he extracted furniture from my bedroom there (that is the bedroom that is counted as mine in my parents' current house) to bring up to my bedroom here, furniture that has been in their house since I was a very small child. And I will spend time at the beach. And at my undergraduate alma mater for my 10 year reunion with my friend Phil (who lives in NYC and who I've mentioned at several points in earlier postings). Which is kind of nuts. Which brings me haphazardly to the point buried in this posting, which is: in light of all the significant happenings and changes that have occurred and are occurring or are about to occur in my life, must I give a crap about all the stupid mundanities that represent what is the same as always? Must I give a crap about the work I must do in the job that pays me, but that will only be my job for another month and a half? Must I give a crap about telling my students they can pick up their papers from the box outside my office? Must I, really?
Nahhhh....I think not. I just want to go home and sleep and kick this sore throat's ass.
I'd also just add that blogspot is suddenly not letting be put additional spaces between paragraphs.
Damnit.
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