7 Quick Takes

- 1 -

I'm wrecked. This is a very useful phrase that I picked up in Ireland to describe the level of my tiredness. I have to be careful not to have another flare-up. It's because I was putting in too much time at the library this week, trying to get information together for my paper. I'm a little concerned about my time frame, especially if I'm going to be getting things and/or going to get things in Zurich, Paris, and Oxford. Hopefully everything can be ordered. But it's also because the libraries aren't open all the time here, so instead of being able to work in the morning and evening and taking the whole afternoon off to rest and recupe, I end up having to spend all day in the library almost in one stretch because it closes at 6pm (and also for 2 hours at lunch - like, who does that?). So it's kind of rough on the system. Hopefully once I get over the initial beginning-research hump I'll be able to spread out my work in a more sane fashion.

- 2 -

Directly related to the above post, I left judo a half hour early this evening. I was so tired I was shaking (again). It was time to call it a night. I just get so frustrated that I'm not anywhere as good technically, or as in shape physically as I used to be. I forget what I'm supposed to do during sparring and I off-balance to the rear a lot well, because of my rear! There's a lot more of it now than there used to be, you see. Anyway, wicked frustrating. The guys are really nice about it though, I have to say. If they weren't I would have quit already. But they encourage me and take time to explain what I can do better, and some of the best ones loosen up a bit so we can work on techniques and timing instead of just muscling around. It's a really good club, I'm so happy to have found it.

- 3 -

On a related note, and then I promise that I'm done with judo stuff for the evening, I just signed myself up for a training weekend in Lyons with the club. Road trip! I hope I don't end up sharing a room with any dudes. If I understand it right, we'll drive in Saturday, hit the mat right away for training with the club there, and break for dinner. Stay in a hotel that night, see a bit of Lyons the next day, then go home. Should be fun, I think. 

- 4 + 5 - 

How could I forget this: Toni Morrison and Dick Marty were given honorary doctorates today at my university, and I remembered (and borrowed some headphones) just in time to watch their speeches by simulcast. It was supposed to be about human rights; Dick Marty spent 30 of his 40 speaking minutes dragging the US through the dirt and not really making a point. One more guy spreading hate and making it more difficult for people like me to live in places other than my own country. But Toni Morrison was actually very good. I was a little wary because her books are (very good but) kind of radical, and aside from the obligatory dig against "young white women who aren't feminists", she made some very good points. Basically, they were that she couldn't understand why she had been asked to speak about human rights and women's rights, as if, you know, women aren't human. [THANK YOU! Now can we abolish "Women's Studies" departments while we're at it? Talk about restraining the advancement of women - let's isolate ourselves so we can study and/or whine about how we're isolated.] She also said that women need to stop being violent to one another, and not just physically; and that when a women does violence to another person, it's a woman who needs to be the one to stop her. I was waiting for the obligatory "abortion is a good thing and a right!" nonsense, but actually instead of that, she even made mention to "when a woman slaughters her children", which I'm sure went over the heads of everyone listening but was an important point nonetheless. Baby steps, and all that. An interesting historical moment, watching these speeches. I can't say I was edified by them, but they were ... interesting.

- 6 -

Experiment Skinny Jeans was a success today - I wore them for the first time just with regular sneakers, and I didn't feel the need to go home and change all day! That was the last hang-up I had about wearing them, that is, wearing them with regular shoes and not just ballet flats (which kill my arches after a while). I have strange neuroses. Don't ask; I might just tell you. It would seem, more than 6 years after they first appeared on the style scene, that I've finally come around to wearing skinny jeans. It helps that I have great legs, if I do say so myself. May as well show 'em off from time to time.

- 7 -

I need a massage, like whoa. In lieu of that, I am going to go eat a cookie with chocolate on it, and go read in bed. Because, you know, that's what someone in the last few weeks of her first quarter-century does in a happening European city on a Friday night. 

Actually, that was depressing. Now I'm really going to bed. 

Don't forget to head over to Jen's for more, less depressing Quick Takes!