Lately we've had the first bit of cold weather worthy of the name. Okay, so it hasn't got below freezing yet, but it's been cold enough that I want a coat AND a scarf, cold enough that I jammed a blanket up against the window for added insulation (the heat isn't on in our apartment yet) and we slept under the down comforter all night without kicking it off.
It was cold enough that I decided it was finally time to take my venerable grey full-length coat to the Korean cleaners to see if they could repair it. The repairs lady spread it out on the counter and looked at it with terrible disapproval.
Well, I admit, the lining is literally in tatters. Even inside the sleeves it's all torn up, and the "pockets" communicate directly with the interior. Don't ask me how it has gotten so bad. It still looks more or less flawless from the outside. But if I ever accidentally walk around with it open I get embarrassed because the torn-up lining shows.
The Korean lady shook her head sadly. "Need new lining."
"Can you do that?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. "One hundred twenty."
"A hundred and twenty dollars," I said with gentle dismay. "I could get a new coat for that."
She nodded agreement. "Sorry."
I should have had the lining replaced while I was in Beijing. I thought about it so many times, but just never got around to it. I bet in Beijing it would have cost me 120 RMB--if that.
Now such a dilemma. I mean, I really could get a new coat, but I love the old coat and it looks fine from the outside. And I just GOT a new coat, only it's not full-length. It's not a matter of money; it's a matter of fondness.
Pocket of Bolts says, "Just keep it around until the next time you got to Beijing." I suppose in a way that does make sense.
Well, for now I'll wait and see.
My students and I finished midterm week today. I was vicariously stressed out for them, but also quite proud. Even the slow ones tried really hard, and I could tell they really studied. I am going to reward them by doing something with the class which is going to be more work for me but very good for them: conducting it as an immersion class from now on. I think it's about time, but not being a native speaker, it's a lot more work I have to put in. Well, it'll probably be good for me too.
I am sitting in a Caribou (coffee shop) hanging out and getting ready to start on dissertation work. Progress has been slow but steady-ish.
We just finished watching Unforgiven, which I had never seen before. I was very impressed with it. As Pocket of Bolts pointed out, it put a lot of emphasis on the fact that real events are messy. The English Bob/Duck of Death incident was particularly hilarious and riveting.
It's interesting how, in light of our schedules and how tired we tend to be at night, we very rarely manage to watch a whole movie in a night. Even a one-hour TV episode can be little taxing, though we managed with The Wire because it is just so incredibly awesome. (I have just finished watching Season 1.) But Unforgiven took us three (non-consecutive) days, even though it was pretty exciting too. Well, it's been a busy week...
I've also been reading a lot. I finished Absalom, Absalom which I found good but a little too repetitive. I admit that the surprise ending did surprise me though, and it had quite a lot of really good moments. I also read The Sun Also Rises which I loved. Hemingway is quite a change from Faulkner. I pretty much flew through the book. I liked the beginning, and how understated his injury was, the how the bulls and steers comparison was just sitting there waiting to be made but he never made it explicit.
I had been reading LeCarre's Tailor of Panama in the gym, and I finished that too. I had been a little frustrated with it because of all the lying. It made me very uneasy, but then maybe the gym was the wrong venue in which to read it. Anything I read in the gym gets read so slowly that I ponder it endlessly and it seems epic. So the Tailor of Panama was an epic pack of lies. What I should do is read some real epic in the gym, something that can stand that kind of treatment. I'll have to think on it.
Finally, I'm about halfway through The Warden, by Anthony Trollope. It's a book Pocket of Bolts borrowed from one of his colleagues before I went to Beijing, and I was somewhat interested in it then, but left for Beijing. PoB still hasn't read it, but since I talked to that colleague of his again on Saturday and she said something about the book, I got interested in it again. It seems like it's going to be trivial at first, but gradually you realize that people's very souls are at stake. And that's really the way things are--books are so often about such big things, but small things bring out what matters about people just as well, maybe better.
Well, okay, better get on with dissertation work.
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