All-Alone Weekend

Another totally unlucky for everything day, especially big things. Good thing I didn't do much the whole day, then!

I did some translation work in the morning, alternating with reading one of my new books, Mirror Mirror, by Gregory Maguire. It is the story of Snow White transposed into Italian history in the time of Lucrezia Borgia--quite a good idea and pretty well-executed too. I liked it. I liked it so much that I ended up reading the whole thing. Oops!

It reminds me of one summer when I was (as usual) doing a long-distance relationship. That was back when I was living in my hometown, though, teaching Chinese two hours a day, and doing some editorial assistant work for a professor another few hours a day. So aside from the regular routine of these responsibilities, I kind of let myself go the rest of the time, and ended up reading a book a day almost every single day! In fact, I had to set myself a limit and not read more than one book a day, because I noticed that if I did it had an averse effect on my disposition. Because of this limit, I would sometimes race through the day's book, and then feel at a loss for what to do with myself. I read everything I could get my hands on, none of it terribly high-brow though. I think the longest book I read in a day during that period was Caleb Carr's The Alienist, which was over 700 pages. I was up until 2 AM!

Well, I don't have that kind of time anymore, but it was fun to be irresponsible and read all of Mirror Mirror, just this once. Of course my English language books are a bit limited--after this one, there's only one other. Of course I could get them from the library or the bookstore. But the ones in the bookstore are fiendishly expensive (imported) and a motley selection. And the library mostly doesn't allow Western language books to circulate…

Oh yeah, or I could be working on my dissertation.

In the afternoon, I went to the grocery store. It was an inauspicious day at the grocery store. The place was mobbed as usual. I forgot to weigh my tomatoes and ended up abandoning them at the checkout (you have to weigh produce in the produce department--checkers have no scales). Then the barcode on my bell-peppers was screwed up, so I had to abandon those too. Apparently, big things like buying produce were right out, today.

I did buy some dry beans though, and after a late lunch of egg and cheese, started a long slow-cooking bean soup going. It might seem like the plainest thing in the world, beans boiled up in water and salt, with a little garlic, onion, and herbs. But I'll tell you, it was such a Western-food taste, it was like heaven! See, Western food is available here but it's all fast food. Even the Italian food here is mostly either just pizza or spaghetti. When you haven't had basil, oregano, or rosemary for months, it tastes amazing even in something so plain as bean soup. I guess making bean soup is a small matter, because despite the inauspiciousness of the day, it came out just fine.

A lucky day for sacrificial rites, and also for weaving. Not so good for praying or seeking favors. That's okay, I didn't want any favors from anyone anyway. Wish I did have time for weaving though…. I was reading in Moby Dick about Ishmael and Queequeg weaving a sword mat, the deterministic warp, the weft of free will, and careless Queequeg tightening the cloth topsy-turvy with the sword of chance. A grand image.

I spent most of the day working on correspondence. For those of you responsible for assembling and sending me my January care-package, thank you so much! I loved it! Letters of more personal and detailed thanks are on the way.

Also, here is a joke picture. It's titled, "Colin in China."

I did some more translation too, and toward the end of the day finally managed to put in a few good hours of work on my Song dynasty character essay project.

I watched the Shiji lecture on television. I admit it is a bit appealing to be in a place where they give televised weekend lectures on one's dissertation topic...

In the evening I went back to the grocery store because I'd eaten up all the bread and had no breakfast food. I succeeded in acquiring peppers this time, also some rice to throw in my bean soup and make it a complete protein, the next time I make it. I've really missed cooking. I used to be a regular subscriber and reader of Food and Wine, if you can believe it. But my kitchen here is a disgrace for anything but soup or deep-fried things...

Not much else to say about the day, I guess. I'll try to be more interesting tomorrow, but no promises!