guess who got a bath this morning?

i really want to finish up old scrap books and begin new ones. i guess i will add that to my “To Be Accomplished” list for this summer.

last weekend i picked up a blender with the Best Buy giftcard i had received from Christmas (took my long enough). i was hard pressed to decide between the blender and coffee maker or a vacuum, but since i had recently picked up a bevy of fresh fruit from the grocery store (and since it is summer-ish) i went with the blender. yesterday morning i broke it in and make myself a blended fruit breakfast. it was pretty good.

the ingredients included:
Vanilla Protein drink
1 banana
1 handful of blackberries
3 jumbo strawberries

it was decent, but in the future i will refrain from the blackberries as they almost made the drink too tart (the protein base was sweet, so it saved the day). i am thinking of adding more strawberries and a little mango next time.

summer reading.

I have compiled a “must read” list of literature to tackle over the summer. I stole the ideas from a much larger list and cut it down to 10 novels, thinking I probably wont be able to finish 50 books over three months (especially if I end up taking a summer class).

This was all inspired by the copy of Frankenstein that I picked up while at a bookstore in Utah. It was only $4 as the bookstore was going out of business, so I decided it was a sign from the Great God of Literature that I needed it. And who am I to ignore his messages?

The List:
1984 by George Orwell
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

The Beasts

Can you guess who got suckered into presenting during the poster session at the Honor Symposium? i has backbone nao? But hey, why not? It’s not as if I hated my school and despised every second i was stuck on campus [wait a second....] I must be a glutton for punishment, because not only did I agree to do this ridiculous symposium, but I am going to be tutoring on campus part-time this summer.

This can almost be simplified into your typical love-hate relationship, except I do all the hating and they, apparently, have nothing but love for me.

it’s the final countdown.

Interesting email: apparently I was nominated and selected to speak about my Victorian Studies thesis at the Honor Symposium in May. I received the notice from Dr. E today, thanking me and giving me the time to be there. Okay….. This is all peachy for them, but since no one asked me if I would do it I am a little taken back. I assume there was some miscommunication, and someone assumed I was asked about this and confirmed. So I emailed Dr. E and explained I had never been asked if I would speak, so she responded by asking, and I further responded with “I’ll have to check my calendar.” Honor symposiums look good on CVs, but I don’t know if that is motivation enough for me to commit to doing my alma mater any favors. You see, I hate LU. A lot. A few professors I adore, but it is not enough to redeem the school. Due to academic politics, however, I have to at least be civil so long as graduate schools are going to be in touch with LU regarding transcripts/recommendations/etc. Lame.

In other news: I received an email confirmation that the city received my application for the position of library assistant in circulation. That doesn’t mean much to me, but at least I know that I managed to work my email. 

I have to get back to paper writing. Ideally I’d like to be finished with eight pages today, but I also have to read E.P. Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class.

I really, really hate the end of the semester. And so does Coco, as you can see she’s been waiting for me to cuddle with her all morning/afternoon but (besides walking her and Zero) I’ve just been too preoccupied.

Baked Goods.

M took me to the bakery he used to work at. it was really cute; filled with adorable little pastry treats. There was even a little station to buy (and refill) olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Ideally i’d like to buy our baked goods there, because it just seems so much nicer to me than buying bread from the grocery store. Besides, how can i resist any place that makes such adorable sugar-critters?

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In other news, I switched my seasonal clothing. All the sweaters and turtle necks went into boxes, and out came all the skirts, summer dresses, and tank tops. Part of me would really like to plant some flowers to celebrate the spring, but I don’t care too much for the landlord and since we’re leaving once our lease is up in July I don’t completely feel like bothering.

Really what I should be doing is working on my final papers…