Manic Monday

There is a strange man outside my window standing on a ladder and trimming the hedges that line the fence. I am so glad I wasn't naked in front of my window as I often am (j/k, but seriously...). Mel was supposed to pick me up from school today but that just didn't happen. I wasn't that happy since I missed class on Friday also, but what can I do? I just feel kind of silly because I was ready to leave at my regular time and I should have just called her earlier to make sure she was on her way. So I could have gone to school in reasonably good time but I just didn't call her. Stupid me.

The weekend wasn't very fascinating. I spent most of it holed up in my room and filling out online grad school applications. I loathe the application process. All I kept doing was regurgitating the same information on different forms. It doesn't change that much from one school to the next and I certainly am not giving each school a different thesis proposal, so why can't they have some sort of centralized system where I fill out one massive application with all the information they could ever want and then distribute it to the schools I specify? I know they are able to do it for undergraduate applications, but I think they must feel that if you can get through the graduate application process in a sane manner, then you must be sort of qualified to get into the programs. Let's just hope this theory is correct. My other big problem now is funding... where will it come from and how can I guarantee that I will get it? I will have to do some massive praying that the Government of Canada grants me SSHERC funding. At the same time I already have a nice bank loan that will probably be exhausted by the end of this year. Maybe I should just work and pay it off but I kind of feel like I have the momentum to keep going with school. Might as well get it all done before I burn out and still don't have any career prospects.

Besides the Superbowl, I also watched 'The Village' and 'Maria Full of Grace' which were two very different movies but still very interesting. Both, I found, had themes about escaping one world for another. I have to say that I generally like movies made by M. Night Shyamalan. I like that he explores basic human issues and while the basic plots don't have to be too intricate, there is a depth to them that all people can relate too. It is definitely minimalistic storytelling at its best. My favourite so far has been 'Signs', and since I know that you have not seen it Dave, I will not discuss it at length.

In music news, Cassie passed me a copy of the Scissor Sisters album and I LOVE it! It definitely reminds me of Elton John music from the 70s which reminds me of my childhood and listening to songs on the radio with my mom. I'm going to listen to it a little more and probably listen to the words a bit more carefully this time, rather than revelling only in the sounds of the music. I have a tendency to only focus in on one aspect of an album in the first listen so I usually have to go back and absorb it over and over again before I understand it fully.
However, that does not stop me from loving an album from first listen. A lot of the music I own, I have bought on a whim and I would say that 90% of the time my instincts are right. I guess in the last year the only truly awful thing that I have heard is that album by The Streets that Dave bought in the summer. That was so shitty, I wish we had sampled it a bit before buying it. It just goes to show you that not all buzz is worthy. We should have chucked it out the window on the highway, but it also has beer coaster potential.
Anyways, I better get back to work... there is a lecture later today on Scythian Archaeology given by Nancy de Grummond of FSU, so that is my afternoon accounted for. I may just go back to bed now seeing as I am nowhere near campus and I could use a few extra minutes of sleep. I'll see y'all on the flip side. Take it easy.

~D.~