Go Look Up Babel... Now

So cold! The weather has morphed from the loving calm that sailed through the beginning of the week to this she-demon force that rails wind and rain upon us. I'm watching the weather from my desk through the side doors and I do not want to leave here to go to class. The rain is falling in a sheet at a 45 degree angle. A 45 degree sheet, I stress! I have no umbrella. Is class all that essential in the long run, I ask you? I think not. But, we're discussing Babel today in Russian. He is quite the trip - funny and morbidly depressing all at the same time. Isaac Babel, go look him up. Right now. (I can see you not moving. Shoo!) For him, I will head out into this - it's not as though I don't like rain. It's nice to wander in when it's warm and lovely to listen to at all seasons indoors - but it's cold. I don't want to walk in it, just listen to it - especially since I'm going to get dripping wet and then have to squelch through class. Sorry, this is becoming perilously close to a whine. I will close before I descend into a sulk or - horrors! - a whinge.

Chocolate... Yum (WOL)

So-late. Must-keep-eyes-open... (snoozing sounds) Work and school have taken a dislike to me lately - I might need to sacrifice a chocolate cake to them this weekend to get back in their good graces. Yum, with lemon icing. No, strawberry! Well, maybe lemon... I'll get back to you on that decision. I just struggled home after my late class on Japanese literature. It went pretty well, I loved the book for this week. It's called The Broken Commandment and it's absolutely beautiful prose. He was heavily influenced by the French naturalists while he was writing it, so not only is the story captivating, you get an incredibly detailed and lovely image of the world that Segawa is moving through. For those of us without the luck to have ever been to Hokkaido, it makes you feel almost as though you have seen those mountains and valleys - and that you desperately want to return. I also learned quite a bit about the class system in Japan during the Meiji, which was fascinating all on it's own. There's my recommendation for your week: chocolate cake and The Broken Commandment - go forth and indulge!

Catsday (WOL)

Today was a great day - despite even having to get up at six in the morning. After work and classes, I went out to lunch with the Best Roommate Ever (BRE) at this new Asian restaurant in town and then we went out to the Second Chance Animal Shelter and played with the kitties for a couple of hours! They're so cute and nearly all of them were lovable. There were a couple who were very, "Right, well you can talk to me, but there will be no petting - I'm not sure you're worthy." Very dignified cats, they were. Then there were several kittens who went mad when they discovered that there were new playmates and the cats who really just wanted to take over our laps and be snuggled to death. Very relaxing. I was all over fur when we left, but I definitely want to make time to go back. There are kits in need of cuddling - how can I resist?

Doors and Doors

Yipes! Sorry about so many Written Off-Line posts at once, but it was quite the busy week. Well except Sunday - but I wasn't driving to campus to post blogs on my day off! I love you, but not that much.

On a completely unrealted note, I decided today that I like side doors. Front doors make you feel majestic, of course, expecially if they're ornate in some fashion. Side doors, however, seem as though they are letting you in on a secret, giving part of themseves to you as a gift. You 'enter' a front door, but you can 'slip in' through the side. Much friendlier, don't you think?

Dozy Days (WOL)

Today has been a very homebody day. I didn't have to work (Hallelujah!), so I just curled up in bed with all the books I needed to read - and maybe a few I didn't, heehee - and luxuriated the day away. I still didn't get all the reading I needed to done, it piles up so fast, but I feel so much happier and relaxed. Truly books are mana for my soul. Yay Sundays!

At Dusk (WOL)

The sky was perfect tonight at the very first touch of dusk. The clear blue sky with smokes of white almost-clouds gleaming proudly, as the darker fingertips of dusky-gray began to steal around the curling edges of the sky. I love the word 'dusk.' It's a very different thing than 'twilight' or 'sunset.'

Coming Up Roses (WOL)

My headphones gave up the ghost a few weeks ago and fell all to pieces. They had a good, long life - for headphones - and I mourned them appropriately. I went looking for a new pair today at Walgreens and finally managed to find the perfect pair. I'm picky with headphones. I don't want normal ones that smash your hair down and I don't want earbuds (OW!), I like the ones with the ear pieces all by themselves. Surprizingly scarce, they are. But I found them! Anyway, Walgreens already had all of their Valentines stuff up (big surprize) so I went to cuddle a few of the bears. What should I find instead? Candles. I'm always susceptible to candles, but these went one step further. Rose-scented candles. Real ones, that actually smell as close to a rose as you can get without being creeped out, rather then the main lot of supposedly rose-scented candles clearly made by someone who had never smelled a rose in his life. Or did so only with a very strong head-cold. I gave in to them almost immediately and they are now decorating my bookcase. I know that when I feel low, all I will have to do is go by and inhale to feel straight-away transported to a rose garden. And who can feel unhappy surrounded by roses?