I have zero focus today.
Also, there’s now a hot dog stand across the street from GSLIS.
Month: March 2007
I’ve got the senioritis and I’ve got it bad. I think it has to do with coming back from spring break to totally gorgeous weather. I think it also has to do with just not being engaged with my coursework right now and – by extension – being even less engaged in the idea of a few more semesters of (generally unnecessary) coursework. The next round of GSLIS migrations is about to begin, with friends madly job hunting (including SB), and good god, I’m not looking forward to being left behind again.
OK, back to the homework. Augh.
So last night SB and I had dinner at Henrietta’s Table near Harvard Square. I really want to do more eating close to home, so the fact that they listed the sources for their meats and veggies was really appealing. I ordered duck – because really, how often can you get free range duck? – and SB got lamb. After I ordered and started eating the duck, however, I remembered that we had spent a good part of the afternoon looking for the Make Way for Ducklings ducks on the Boston Common.
I guess it’s a testament to the freshness and quality of the food that I couldn’t bring myself to eat the duck (and barely eat the bite of lamb that SB offered me) because it was too much like the actual animal. In Jamie Oliver’s Italian cookbook, he included some really vivid, bloody pictures of the animals he was about to cook – he said that he included these photos because it’s important to understand and appreciate where your food comes from, how the animals have been treated when alive, and the conditions the meat has been in since the slaughter. Intellectually and morally, I really appreciate this – it’s so much healthier for your body (and in general) to know where your food is coming from.
That said, I actually started crying at the dinner table, and was totally mortified. SB was a good sport, though, and had a fantastic duck-and-lamb dinner, while I had a salad. I told him that if this had happened on a first date, I would’ve never called him again. The moral of this story is that Henrietta’s has really fresh and wonderful food (if less good service), and I’m going to be off meat for awhile.
food guilt?
My body has been, for lack of a better word, wack since we got to Boston on Sunday. My stomach’s been overly sensitive, even to things I’m usually OK eating – dairy, coffee (sometimes a problem, but OK lately), spicy or rich things, etc. We’re on vacation, so we’ve been eating out almost every meal, which means more spicy or rich things, more coffee (than usual), and just generally more of everything than I’m used to. This has led to two things: more upset stomachs, and more food guilt.
Since the beginning of the year, I’ve improbably lost ~five pounds. I say ‘improbably’ because the scale has been stuck in the same ten pound range since high school, and I’ve managed to get five pounds below the lowest number mainly through diet and some exercise. Shane Bee keeps telling me that one week of eating worse than usual won’t hurt me too much, but I still feel really bad. It sucks to say this, but I’m somewhat looking forward to going home and eating normally and not hating myself for every special or elaborate meal I have.
That said, we’ve had some great meals:
– North African at Baraka Cafe in Central Square
– Burger and fries (for SB) and a grazing plate at River Gods in Central Square
– Lobster rolls (for SB) at Charlie’s Kitchen in Cambridge, one of SB’s regular haunts when he worked in Boston
– Lunch at L’Aroma Cafe on Newbury Street in Back Bay, not to be confused with Aroma Cafe in Champaign
– Bagels from Brueggers, which are always good
– Sunday brunch shared with (and cooked by) our CouchSurfing hosts – omelets with turmeric, cheddar cheese, and organic veggies and french toast with cinnamon raisin bread
– Fresh seafood (in chowder and on its own at Freestone’s in New Bedford with Jason
belatedly
Happy birthday, Basil! When we get back from Boston, we’ll have ice cream cake to celebrate. Not that you’re actually aware that it was your birthday, or what birthdays are. That’s ok!
Having a great time in Boston eating lots of good food, walking a lot, and spending money (augh). Tomorrow morning we’ll head down to New Bedford, where Sonya has promised me whales. Woooah!
OMG so tired. We left Basil Estates at around 9am CDT and arrived in Boston at around 9pm EDT. No cancellations, thank god, and everything was running reasonably on schedule. I slept for a while on the floor at O’Hare. Our CouchSurfing hosts are very nice – we have the guest room, and another CSer is crashing in the living room. I have no idea what we’ll do tomorrow. For right now, though, sleeeeeep
Beware the Ides of March!
I’m just not focused on school these days. I don’t know if it’s the weather or just being tired or spring break-itis or just the relief of finally making a decision. I have a lot I should really be doing before we leave for Boston on Saturday, but that just ain’t happening tonight. TOMORROW, tomorrow I will do more work. I swear.
On an entirely unrelated note (I swear), what’s this about an uncertain future for Law & Order? Say it ain’t so!
Browser wars
I upgraded to the newest version (1.1) of Camino last week. It was fast and pretty but crashed about every half hour, which is no good as most of the work I do is on the web, and all other Mac browsers just pale in comparison. I retro-graded (back-graded? down-graded? un-graded?) yesterday to 1.0.4, and I have to say, I’m missing the little spell-check already. Camino, don’t let me down!
A post of some substance? Perhaps?
I haven’t been writing here much, and for no good reason, so for that I apologize. The last few weeks have been busy while not being especially productive. I need to remedy that.
I had a good meeting with my adviser two weeks ago in which I told her that I’m planning to leave the PhD program. She was quite kind and receptive, and said that she agrees that this is the best decision for me right now – and not for lack of skill or intellectual ability, just because I’m driven in a different direction right now. I need to get my stuff together for a CAS application this week.
I weighed myself yesterday after yoga and apparently I’ve lost 5 pounds? I’m not sure how, as I’ve been delinquent on both the gym front and the eating better front, but apparently what I’ve done is making a difference. I went to yoga yesterday for the first time in a while, and it was good and challenging, and I was able to do things I haven’t done before. That’s the case almost every time I go, which leads me to believe I should just go more often. Now that it’s nice enough to ride yellowbike, I’m hoping to get there (and the gym) more often.
We’re off to Boston for spring break in a few days, which will be great. I don’t know what all we’ll be doing other than hanging out with Sonya and Jason and kicking around, but I’m excited about visiting a new city with SB.
Just had brunch at Escobar’s, newly open in the ever-expanding downtown Champaign area. Let me tell you – if SB and I had taken the apartment affectionately referred to as “Basil Does Chicago”, we would’ve been here all the time. The food was fantastic without being overly heavy or grossly filling, which is something I really appreciate in a brunch. I’ve heard it’s quite loud in the evenings, but it was quiet and lovely for brunch with friends.
Right now I’m at Cafe Paradiso, ostensibly working on my syllabus for Leigh’s class, which has turned out to be every bit as great as I’d hoped. The class – not my syllabus. For this assignment, Leigh wants us basically to put together a syllabus for a class we’d want to teach. I really feel like I don’t know enough about anything to actually teach a whole course, so I’m reusing/rethinking classes I’ve taken and worked with. It’s an interesting challenge.
latterdaybohemian 