pretty vacant

03.11.04 @ 9:14 p.m.

Goddamn. My left eye itches like hell, but I've got a sty or something, because it hurts to touch. GAAAAAH. What am I to do? Suffer through into insanity, I suppose.

I have this little problem with procrastination. I'm indulging in it right now, watching CSI when I am supposed to be working on my final paper for Italian or, failing that, studying for my oral exam tomorrow. I speak Italian to myself all the time (just this afternoon I was explaining the movie Spun and the fact that the Northwest is a big area for meth labs to myself in the shower, as a run through for the oral final). Mostly on trivial things, mostly with bad grammar and a lot of English words thrown in. But it's not too bad. Still, I should either be fleshing out my paper (I have it half written, but since I turned in a first draft, I need to at least take a stab at fixing my terrible grammar) so it's two pages and a bit instead of slightly more than a single page.

Still, I'm not all bad. I spent about two and a half hours in the Knight Library today looking for source material for my final English paper, which is due on Monday and for which I have no thesis or anything. Just an idea that I should be looking at histories of Oregon. One of the things I love about the Knight is the easy availability of very old books. I spent the majority of my time there in the central reference section, which is basically the main first floor. While I was reading, Aaron, my FA (Freshman Interest Group Advisor) passed by and gave me his usual "'Sup?" He's one of those people who gives you the uptilt nod as a greeting and you can't stop yourself from doing it back. I digress. I found this book in the reference section, A History of the Pacific Northwest: Oregon and Washington, published in 1889. The wonder (and the very nice smell of the book) of idly reading a book that was more than 100 years old was slightly ruined by the moderately horrible things the book was telling me. Mostly using the word "savages" a lot and talking about how Indians are lazy, deceitful, and not smart enough to comprehend civilization, so they either attack Americans or follow the British around like puppies. I was horrified and yet not particularly surprised. I think, though, that I need to work this quote into my paper:

The savage insists that the wilderness shall so remain; the settler gives heed to the first great command, "to subdue the earth and replenish it."

...because it kind of fits my vague idea that Northwest literature frequently represents a struggle to subdue a land that, west of the cascades, is trying just as hard to subdue you amidst the rapid cultural evolution of the state. Or something like that.

There was another great looking book that distracted me after I had buried myself in the second floor shelves, an early 1900s book about the great San Francisco earthquake and fire. It was purple with deep gold imprinted letters. It was called... A Complete History of the San Francisco Horror or similar, and had the words "Lest We Forget" across the top. In quotation marks. AND an oval of paper glued to the cloth cover that had a representation of San Francisco as a woman sobbing in Lady Liberty's arms. It was fucking brilliant. I adore books. Maybe I should spend more whopping great amounts of money to study library science and become a librarian or archivist.

Somewhere in the middle there I got distracted and this has taken me an hour to write. I'm kind of pissed that NBC is showing a special on Princess Di's secret tapes AGAIN. I'm sorry, I just don't care.

AND THE FUCKING PHONE KEEPS RINGING! I would tear it out of the wall, but it's all people who want to say goodbye to Bonnie, so good riddance. I will be glad to have the house more to myself again (fewer dishes--I did about a week's worth tonight, which pisses me off because I've hardly dirtied any dishes, what with a lot of eating out or eating not-meals (snack instead of proper food)) and Ena is paying Bonnie's share of the rent when she really doesn't have to. It's still early in the month and probably she doesn't need to pay rent, but she did stay half of February, so I'm not saying anything.

I just hate our phone. There's a wall-mount, elderly, that we can't take off and it's fucking loud.

Enough. To work. (If I can. I bought an "England's Best Logic Problems" today! I'm a geek, but yay! They make me happy.)

[Title: Sex Pistols]

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Previously

fuck it @ 08.01.05
fanciful imaginary sea voyages to come @ 07.20.05
*dies* @ 07.19.05
more ootp @ 07.17.05
harry potter: driving our children into devil worship @ 07.17.05