I Can't Think of Anything Cute to Say. Oh, Kittens!

When I went to college the first time around I lost weight--a lot of it. This time around I seem to be gaining weight. This is not okay. As an undergraduate I tended to "cook" frozen and boxed foodstuffs. Now I'm mostly cooking things from scratch, though I can't say they're especially healthful recipes. One would think that actually cooking food would be cheaper and healthier. As far as I can tell it's not--on either count. Of course cooking a meal for four and then eating half of it (or all of it) doesn't really work in my favor. Maybe I need to shop at Trader Joe's--apparently they have a lot of packaged foods that are healthy-ish? I wouldn't know because I've lived on the West Coast for over four months, and I still haven't made it to Trader Joe's. That's a shame. Of course we haven't talked about alcohol which I didn't drink as an undergrad. mostly. Since living in Seattle I have tended to pick up a six-pack every time I went grocery shopping. Now therein probably lies the major problem. But it was nice to come home from class and open a beer to relax or have one on a Saturday afternoon while watching TV. It's also cheaper than wine which you have to drink pretty quickly once you open it anyway. And while I have hard liquor, I feel that it's best not to drink that on a daily basis. Just saying. So I have decided to cut beer out of my daily routine for the moment and save it for nights at the pub.

In other grocery news I discovered a very small British section at QFC. I bought a notorious Yorkie chocolate bar--It's not for girls! (So of course when we were in London all the girls had to buy one.) Anyway, I'm very excited about this discovery. Also, I am completely incapable of shopping on a budget, so send any budget tips you have my way.

When I was at SUU I had class every day, so I walked. a bit. This quarter I have class two days a week. Some days I don't even walk out of my front door--this is just a little bit sad. I should at least walk to campus which means hiking up a giant hill--Seattle is a city of hills; just like Rome--which would be good except I take the bus to campus because my classes are at 8:30 in the morning, plus--the hill. However, now that the days are warming up I should try walking around Ravenna Park and find the energy and time to make it to Green Lake Park somewhere during my four-day weekends to walk the 2.8 mile trail. So in my attempts to stop being a total lard ass, I am working on a playlist full or peppy, energetic music that's great for brisk walking (and, theoretically, working out). Here's what I have so far, in no particular order:

• "Nth Degree" by Morningwood. As Dain says, it's perfect butt-shaking music. You just can't help yourself. And it pushes you to go louder and harder: let's go!
• "Spark" by Tori Amos. I'm not sure why but I've always found this to be a great walking song, probably because of the music video.
  
• "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked" by Ida Maria. The title pretty much says it all. A fun, bouncy song about getting naked.
  
• "21 Things I Want in a Lover" by Alanis Morissette. A strong beat to push you while letting you think about the traits you want in a lover.
  
• "Professional Widow" by Tori Amos. Sometimes you need a scathing song with raging harpsichords to get you going. But remember, we're trying to sweat out toxins, not create new ones.
  
• "Twin Cinema" by The New Pornographers. A fun, indie rock song.
• "Buenos Aires" from Evita. A musical number, you ask? Yes. "But you're flesh, you are meat / You shall have every breath in my body." All over a Latin beat.
  
• "Just A Girl" by No Doubt. Because everyone needs some No Doubt.
• "That Time" by Regina Spektor. Because it's peppy. So is "Dance Anthem of the 80's." Just watch the music video.
  
• "Out Tonight" from Rent. Remember, we're working out to go out. Tonight.
  
• "Big Wheel" by Tori Amos. A sassy number with honky-tonk vibes. "M-I-L-F / Don't you forget."

What songs do you listen to to get you going?

In other news, last week we had poetry group which is lovely. After banging my head working on effing JavaScript, I got to relax and discuss "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot. I like Eliot's poetry, but I much prefer The Waste Land. However, it was a more than a little depressing because of certain tragic similarities I have construed between Prufrock and myself. Anyway, I get to pick for next month, and I've pretty much all but decided on Sunstone (Piedra de sol) by Octavio Paz. I'm excited!

So I love English, and sometimes I wonder what I'm doing in library school. Megan suggested that my theory based program is trying to crush my spirit, and this quarter it's succeeding. Now that we're half-way through the quarter, I can tell you I don't want to be a cataloguer--I have no idea what we're even talking about anymore in my classification class. Research Methods is what it is. I rarely do the reading, and I hate research. Algorithmic Thinking and JavaScript--need I say more? My Info Policy class is actually interesting sometimes, though I think I would rather be in the other section. However, this is where I learned that Britain didn't read 1984 and is basically a police state with surveillance everywhere. Now I don't want to live in London anymore. Anyway, hopefully once I get into the electives I'll be more excited and actually learn how to be a librarian. Some have said it's like law school, you need the degree to get the job, and then you learn how to do whatever you're doing on the job. I really thought I wanted to be a librarian, I guess I should have just done more research to be certain. Oh, now I see the connection.

One last note. Yesterday I watched The Lion in Winter (the 1968 version) which is, just wow. It's not quite King Lear but then Shakespeare didn't write it (James Goldman did). But if you want a dysfunctional family and court intrigue look no further. It was so intense that last night I had dreams that Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn were manipulating my other dreams against each other. It was very surreal, but then that's the nature of dreams.