Mmm, scrambled eggs in the dead of night.

All I ever post about is food

I think it's safe to say that I've been eating a very healthy diet here in Hopkins. Kidney beans and brown rice, black bean soup, whole wheat bread, rotini with tomato sauce, and, of course, copious amounts of spinach. But of course, when Jim brings us coffee cake, it would be both rude and foolish to decline. Living alone, if there's flan, I can have as much as I like, so perhaps I can be excused for enjoying it with every meal for two days. And sometimes, like today, the only thing one wants for lunch is hot buttered toast and cafe au lait. And that's okay, too.

...and it glows in the dark. 

Contradiction 

Kep models the helmet 

Solitude is Bliss

I absolutely love this new lifestyle of mine. I can stay up until midnight with a friend, eating flan and decorating a bike helmet with mathematical symbols and watching Wittgenstein; I can get up early and go to the farmers' market; I can bake bread and quilt and eat lunch with my housemates. This afternoon this girl from Tibet is going to show everybody how to make Tibetan dumplings. So, yes. Everything is good.

So true. 

Hopkins House kitchen 

Plant-sitting for Sara Katz 

Laura Ingalls Wilder would be proud. 

The sugar issue

So I've decided to stop eating so much sugar. At Smith a common complaint is that the meals are lousy and the desserts are fabulous, and it's certainly true that they tend to sugar us up, particularly around exams. When I'm in Buffalo, we rarely have desserts, but there are always cookies and things lying around and so whenever I'm home I just hoover them up, because I am a grazer and because I am always hungry. This summer, however, I am on my own. Now, I'm not going to buy cookies or anything because it's a needless expense and I am a cheapskate, and I'm not really inclined to sit down and bake a cake of an evening, so I figured my sugar intake would be dramatically reduced this summer. And perhaps it has gone down somewhat, but it's not as low as I expected. On the first day of work, Jim brought in a tin of raspberry bars. They were small, about 1" x 2" x .75", but I probably ate one or two of them a day for as long as they lasted. ("You should eat these," said Jim. "Even if they're not very good- because they'll be even less good tomorrow.") On Tuesday Kep came over and offered to make custard, and I love custard, so she made me some. Yesterday someone made Rice Crispy Treats to share, so I had one of those, and then another half of one after lunch today. Also today Susie, one of my fellow summer Hopkids, offered me a slice of leftover birthday cake, so I had a tiny piece, and then a couple of hours later Lauren offered me a cookie, so I had a cookie. I've actually had a ton of sugar today.

Also today I made tomato sauce, which was good, for dinner and for lunch I had the last of my red beans and rice, spinach, and a piece of bread and cheese. For breakfast I had bran flakes and a banana. Most days when I'm hankering something sweet, usually after dinner, I have a slice of bread and jam, which seems to get the job done, and I like to think it's healthier than other things. Tomorrow I'm planning to make bread. Now I'm going to work on my quilt, and it will all be very Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Wild Nights in the Queen City of the Lakes

The alternative version of this story can be found here.

I was out on Elmwood last week when I ran into an old friend from high school (which is practically an oxymoron) who's at school in New Orleans. We chatted a little bit and then she asked me if I wanted to go out that night. "I don't know anybody in Buffalo so we can't go to parties or anything but we could see what's happening on Chippewa," she said.
"Well, okay, but I don't have any ID," I hedged.
"No problem, I'll fix you up before we leave," she replied breezily.

"Oh my god Caroline what'm I going to do?" I cried when I got home.
"You're going to go out on Chippewa and have fun," she replied.
"But I'm too young to go to bars! What if I get arrested! Think of the scandal!"
"I don't think it would be that much of a scandal," said Caroline.

That evening, my mum did my makeup while I stood around and wrung my hands. "What if we're killed in a DWI accident?"
"Do try not to let that happen," said my mother placidly. My friend came by in her dad's car to pick me up and we went to her house where we had a glass of Merlot as she used my Smith ID to make a very fake looking fake ID using some laminate she just had lying around.

I have to say, although since puberty I have looked forward to the time when I can go out on Chippewa, the bar scene in Buffalo on a Thursday night is pretty grim. "There are no guys here," my friend lamented. "Hey, we're not from around here," she drawled to some older men. "Where's kickin' tonight?" No place was. I didn't have anything to drink, largely because I was painfully aware of how young and out-of-place I looked. "I should really not let you get away with this," said the bouncer when he saw my ID, "But just for tonight."

We ended up chatting with some guys at the Crocodile Lounge and my friend invited them to go shoot some pool at another bar. They got increasingly drunk and as this happened, one grew boistrous and the other gloomy. My friend flirted with the rowdy one all through the game of pool and subsequent beer pong while the other lugubriously told me about his divorce, his collection of Johnny Cash mp3s, and how much he loves being a chiropracter. (Oh my god, so much.)

It was an interesting sociological experiment and all that, but I was just as glad when my friend decided it was time to go home.



"Of course we're not shocked- we assumed you'd be going to a bar," said my dad when I told him about my evening.
"I assumed you were just going to sit around in her house and smoke pot," my mother chipped in.

This is why I never really had any adolescent rebellion.

My room in Hopkins 

My room in Hopkins 

Red beans and ricely yours

Today was my second day as what Jim Henle referred to as a "logic wizard" and I'm really enjoying it. Last night Kendra, Deyvi, Hillary and I all went to Jess's new apartment for dinner, which made us all (Jess particularly I suspect) feel terribly grown up, eating lasagne and drinking white wine in our friend's apartment. The apartment is lovely and very near campus, so hopefully I won't loose track of Jess now that she's graduated.

As for my job, it's going rather well. I'm learning how to work in Linex and use a program called Latex, which is difficult, but already I'm making fewer mistakes and the pages look beautiful. I've written arguments and exercises and typed a great deal of old stuff up verbatim. Here are some of my arguments. Can you tell whether they are valid?

If Condolezza Rice goes to the ball then if the prince is there she will dance with him.
The prince is at the ball.
Therefore Condolezza will dance with him.

If everyone reads the book then everyone will get a good grade.
If everyone gets a good grade then the teacher will be happy.
If the teacher is happy then she will bring us cupcakes.
Joe does not read the book.
Therefore the teacher will not bring us cupcakes.

And my favorite: A valid argument is one in which the premises and the conclusion are true.
The premises of this argument are true.
Therefore this is a valid argument.

One kind of tricky thing about this job, however, is that I need to know the answers to all the exercises I write, which means I have to do what amounts to a great deal of logic homework. Of course, I enjoy doing logic homework, but it's tough when I have to write exercises in Polish Sentential, say, which was the only thing I really never got right when I took Logic 100. I know this is good, though, because it will strengthen my understanding of important foundational concepts.

Tonight I made Carribbean red beans and rice, which was all right although completely unlike the red beans and rice we have at home. I made an enormous amount, so if anyone is in town and is hungry, come on over.

Action Girl

From the Action Girl Manifesto:
RULE 9: MOST THINGS SUCK. That pretty much sums it up. Become a more discriminating person. While you're breaking down and admitting you can appreciate a really good movie or a major label album, also try to realize that not everything that is independent is good. Anyone who seriously likes every album put about by "cool label X" or every comic put out by "cool company Y" is either a relative or has no taste. Nothing is good all the time. Don't "like" something just because it's in the genre you support. Most stuff is lame, period, no matter who puts it out. Don't waste time on things that aren't worth it, and you'll have way more time to spend doing something fun!

This is all well and good, but I am having my doubts. The other day Floss said, "You know, I really just like most things. Even bad things- like, I'll see a movie like Tuck Everlasting that's really not very good, but I'll enjoy watching it. And when people don't like something- like [Friend A] didn't like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I'm just like, what's wrong with you?" I think this is true of me as well- I, too, enjoyed Tuck Everlasting. Most movies and books have something to like- even if I don't love a book, I'm generally inclined to see it through to the end. And I get really upset and annoyed by people who are never pleased by things. These people are frustrating. Similarly, I get very irritated with people who pursue indie pop and comic books as though these things had some intrinsic value apart from the enjoyment you get from them. IT'S JUST POP MUSIC. THEY'RE JUST COMIC BOOKS.

Does this mean that Floss and I are not discerning? I don't know. But it seems to me that our way is, at least, more pleasant for us than the other way would be, because we get to do enjoyable things more often. There's still the fact that we're wasting time on Tuck Everlasting when we could be, say, at a Pavement concert or something, though. So I'm not sure. What's the way to be? I guess as a compromise we'll take another cue from Action Girl:

RULE 6: DON'T WASTE TIME BEING NEGATIVE. Life's much too short. Don't waste time bitching about assholes and asshole behavior. If you can do something about it, go ahead, but otherwise just go on and forget it. If someone's a complete jerk, no amount of your time and energy is going to change them, so why work yourself up? Spend that time doing something you enjoy. If you hate someone, fine, but don't make it your career.

(Actually, the Action Girl series itself, despite some occasional gems, consisted largely of rather insipid stuff. But I love Action Girl anyway, because of the gems and because it's a neat concept, and as a result I'm trying to live up to its manifesto and it's all a little recursive.)

Capitulation

I want to get contacts. [I just accidentally typed "comics"- that would be good, too.] I am sick of being blind when there's weather, I'm sick of having to constantly wipe them off. Sick of dust specks, sick of smudges. I've had enough.
I want to get a cell phone. If I had a cell phone I could use it to make phone calls. I could call into radio shows and talk to Carl Castle or Katie Skelly. I could call my mum who never gets my emails because of her spam filter. [I want to say the phrase "spam filter" to someone in the 1950s and see the look of disgust and confusion on her face. Like a coffee filter that makes your coffee taste like spiced ham. Mmmmm!]
I want a husband like J_m H_nle, only my age. I like everything about him except his unsafe bike riding habits.
I have developed a wrinkle between my eyebrows- a vertical line maybe a centimeter long. I want the cell phone mentioned above to be the kind that takes pictures because then I would take a picture of my wrinkle and show it to you. My skin is very dry so I guess it wrinkles easily, but still! I'm nineteen years old!

It sounds like I may be growing up. As Girl says, "That's it? I don't get a trial?"