this semester has been a hectic one for me. being the brilliant person that i am, i decided to take four literature classes. why? it’s beyond me. fortunately, though, after 4:15pm this afternoon, i will be on a short three day break. that means i don’t have class wednesday or thursday and, even better, no work wednesday through friday! amazing. i love thanksgiving. i know it’s a total immoral holiday to celebrate with such enthusiasm, but it’s the best. really. i’ll break down its amazing-ness. first, you get the day before the holiday off, too. you’re feeling good, because for the past day you haven’t done anything except pick at the delicious food that’s been bought for the special day. if you’re a good person, you’ve also been considering what you can contribute to the big dinner yourself. personally, i like experimenting with desserts. yes, delicious, carb-filled, desserts. on wednesday, you can also catch some awesome marathon on tv. it’s either james bond films or clint eastwood movies or trilogies (star wars, lord of the rings, etc) or, my personal favorite, the Twilight Zone marathon on the sci fi channel. after you’ve watched the same show or series of movie for about six hours, you realize you have to go to bed. you get under your sheets, all excited and jittery but then you drift away dreaming of turkey and pie and stuffing and cranberry sauce and gravy fairies and football gods. then it’s thanksgiving. i would describe all the warm feelings this word inspires in me, but no. a simple mention in an ol’ run-of-the-mill post is not enough. that’s why right here, right now, i’m promising a Thanksgiving Special blog post coming this thursday, right to your computer screens. awesome. it will be great. i promise. 

last semester i went to this academic conference where i presented a paper. it was in march and in minneapolis. at first, i was excited due to the mere fact that one of the guest speakers would be the incredible demi-god, Neil Gaiman. i’d never been to minneapolis and just assumed that it would be a boring-as-heck city. also, i would be sharing a hotel room with a someone else who was going alone and was not looking forward to it either. however, it turned out to be an awesome experience. i turned out loving minneapolis. it’s a simple, friendly, green city with a great downtown area and so much to see and do. my hotel roommate also turned out to be a really great gal from NY by way of NJ. she was totally saving about getting around on the bus and sharing the experience with her was a really fun time.

the reason i’m bringing that up is that the same conference will be happening again this coming march and deadlines for papers were due a few days ago. i was feeling uncertain as to whether i really wanted to submit or not. finally, i decided that i did and submitted a paper i wrote this past summer about john milton’s marriage ideals. i should be hearing back in a couple of months whether my paper was accepted or not, but i’m hopeful. this year’s conference is in st. louis which is a major drag. i mean, st. louis? come on! i’ve been there once, and it wasn’t that great.  but it’s fine. i don’t even know if i’m going yet obviously. it would be nice to, though. going to conferences like that where everyone there is interested in pretty much the same thing you are is kind of a really cool experience. but it does get tiresome. since it’s like one hundred percent english majors at these things, it gets a little crowded with all the fat heads and inflated egos. we all think we’re so great and smart and intellectual. i mean, i love being there, but i won’t pretend to be really happy the whole time.

on sunday, i was feeling very French. i grew out a moustache, listened to the Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain soundtrack all afternoon, put up an Eiffel tower wall sticker up, and consumed cheese and wine all day. i’m just kidding about the first and last things. those are horrible stereotypes. and in proof of my apologetic commitment, i’ll show you a picture of my tower! it’s pretty neat. also, i guess i’ll be signing off so i’ll include some other pics of my humble room. enjoy!

Tags: existential ennui, holiday, minneapolis, minnesota, neil gaiman, room with a view, st. louis, thanksgiving, twilight zone

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 10:31 am and is filed under me, people. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.