Reading Group Etc.

For some reason, yesterday was a mostly gloomy day for me. It started out all right I suppose. I woke up before the alarm and lay in bed for a while. Then, because my computer was sitting right there, I turned it on and picked up where I'd left off the night before, studying poems for the reading group. I find "preparing" Chinese poetry in this way very tedious. I never learned to enjoy Chinese poetry at all until I went to China and started learning it the way Chinese kids do, just by memorizing it and not worrying so much about allusions or hidden meanings. But for this reading group stuff, for me at least, it was back to the old way, the grad school way, lots of dictionary work. At least my classical Chinese has improved.

The reading group itself though... well, the Lama canceled at the last minute, so we had it without him. It's just never as fun without him. Add that to the fact that the subject matter doesn't do much for me... On the up side, I did sort of "lead" the discussion by virtue of the fact that I probably know the material best. Or at least the culture. Another positive aspect of the experience was that one of the group members, a painfully self-effacing "permanent adjunct" art historian--I'll call her SoSorry--really came out of her shell and gave us a bit of a presentation on our poet's connection with Chinese painting, complete with pictures. I like it when SoSorry does things like this, despite the profuse apologies that usually come with it.

Near the end of the session we got into an involved discussion of whether poets in the Tang edited or altered their poems (shi) after writing them. It's an interesting question, probably an empirical one, but none of us knew the answer so we argued from various related ideas. I argued that they didn't do much editing because of the occasional nature of the genre. One of the other members of the group argued that they did by analogy with Japanese poetic tradition, which he knows much better. Anyway, I ought to try to find out.

Another group member, E.T., followed me down to the el and wanted to chat. Periodically she gets lonely, and I feel for her. But she has a really difficult personality (previous post partly about her here). When I finally extricated myself, I was good and ready to go home.

Back at home, I put in a decent afternoon of work, but it's one of those ebb points in writing. I have the outlines of what I want to say, but to actually write it I have to put in some time casting about and finding some concrete evidence. I tend to feel back about myself when I can't put in the pages. So though I did some good investigations, no increase in the word count, sigh.

Another thing that was weighing on my mind was I got a call from one of the Chinese boys I met a few days ago (described here). In some fit of camaraderie, I'd exchanged phone numbers with him, and he called to see if I wanted to do some language practice. Mind you, I don't usually go giving out my phone number to strangers I meet at the bus stop. But sometimes you just have an okay feeling about someone. And in fact, I had a perfectly okay feeling talking to him too. He was perfectly polite and correct on the phone (also knows I'm married, I made sure of that), just a friendly gesture. So I decided to try meeting him for coffee and language exchange; I should really try to make more Chinese friends, and maybe I'd be less intimidated by people who aren't crusty academics. Still, after I agreed I felt very nervous. I always do when I commit to some social activity, especially with someone I don't know very well, but with pretty much everyone. I just have an unreasoning dread, though it almost always turns out fine. Pocket of Bolts, when I told him, encouraged me, saying it's a good idea and I should go for it. Well, we'll see how it goes.

I had a good long workout in the evening, and a late dinner: brown rice, a fried egg, some jangjarim (sp?--soy sauce cooked beef), and kimchee, sliced cucumber salad on the side. As for the evening, I just frittered it away. Can't be working all the time. I missed Pocket of Bolts.

In the middle of the night (i.e., around 3 AM) he woke me up with a phone call. His ankle was hurting again and he couldn't sleep. You'd think I'd be annoyed to be woken up at such an hour, but not a bit of it--it gave me such a warm feeling that he should do that. In Chinese, the sloppy concept we know as "love" has finer gradations. There is aiqing, the "in love" feeling, heart-thumping passion and all that. And there is qinqing, the intimacy of daily togetherness, a family-feeling which is even deeper and more constant. Don't get me wrong, there's quite a lot of aiqing in my relationship with Pocket of Bolts, but in this case I was very much filled with qinqing. When someone you love so much needs you, even in a small way, you are deeply happy to be needed.

Working Late

Yesterday Pocket of Bolts got up at a quarter to five for an early morning departure. I got up to have tea and breakfast with him, then fell asleep over my desk. I spent the morning doing various small tasks, then headed down to U of C. It was stormy and wet, a drizzle rather than a proper rain, not really cold, just windy. I went to Professor Blue Eyes' seminar, which went well enough. I'm pretty behind with the reading, but I'm doing my best.

After class there was a talk (in Chinese) by a graduate student I don't see very often because he's spending the year abroad. It must be very hard to work on this early writing stuff. He presented a somewhat plausible idea, only to be decisively shot down by several senior scholars who were present. I'm pretty sure they were only so candid with him because he was ethnically Chinese, but ouch, how awkward it was. It reminded me of certain prospectus defenses at my grad school, though of course there was different cultural stuff going on.

After that, I went over to the library. I hadn't been able to log in to the computers there, even though technically I should be able to. Finally, I approached a guy at the circulation desk. He was clearly an undergraduate. He suggested I try computers on the second floor and "if that doesn't work there might be something I can try but I don't want to get your hopes up." I went upstairs and tried but it didn't work so I went back. "It probably won't work," he said defensively, and I reassured him that it was okay, I appreciated whatever he might be able to try. Then I was able to go back to him with the news that it HAD worked. We were both disproportionately happy!

Then I stayed in the library scanning articles until after nine. It's nice because scanning is free, while 12 cents a copy can really add up.

When I got finally out, I was so hungry that I indulged in a Subway sandwich. (I hadn't eaten dinner yet.) They're pretty good if you don't have them very often. I took the slow way home because it just felt too late at night to take the sketchy fast way. Not that I had anything of value on my person, but why take chances.

I still had preparation to do for my reading group in the morning, so I took my computer to bed. It's not a good substitute for Pocket of Bolts. I tried to do work until I simply dozed off, around midnight. A pretty typical day.

Home with My Computer

Yesterday was such an uneventful day that I feel it necessary to give you a "paint-it-like Pollack" picture just to apologize for how uninteresting the post is going to be. The picture is an illustration of my activities such as they were, namely sitting with my computer in the house all day. I worked, I played, I blogged, I sent e-mails. I sat here like a lump. Actually it was really pleasant and relaxing. There was only one really fantastic piece of progress I made, which was to find a citation for an important quotation I wanted to use in my dissertation but was unable to because I had gotten it from a lecture in China and the lecturer didn't give a proper citation. It has taken me over a year of sporadic searching to find it, but I finally managed it!

Pocket of Bolts came home right after his class and we pretty much spent the afternoon having some quality time together. We were ships passing in the night (and in the day) for the past week--when one of us had a day off the other was busy, and vice versa. Then this morning he had to take off very early for a conference he's going to for the whole weekend. So instead of putting in an afternoon's work yesterday, we spent time together. We are such total newlyweds, billing and cooing more than ever.

Among other things, we stowed our deck furniture and our bikes in storage for the winter. We looked at the hermit crab Intrepid, who was crawling around (very rare occurrence). We chattered and cuddled, and failed to go to the gym. A nice afternoon.

In the evening, we watched TWO episodes of Battlestar Galactica, so we could finish out the disk. I made some sort of degenerate pad thai for dinner, degenerate because we were missing quite a number of ingredients (including ginger and lime!--I used green curry paste and Rose's lime juice), and had to use two different kinds of noodles to make up a full amount. Still, it was tasty. Homemade frozen yogurt for dessert. It turns out that frozen yogurt is pretty much cheaper to make than to buy. I'm still experimenting, but it's really pretty easy, especially compared to ice-cream. In this case, I mixed a 32 oz container of plain yogurt with a cup of sugar and dumped it into the ice-cream maker with a teaspoon of vanilla. Near the end of the processing, I ground up some frozen strawberries in the food processor and added them as well. It came out pretty tasty, though a bit on the too-soft side. (The ice-cream maker is old...) Pocket of Bolts thought it was a bit too "yogurt-y," which is to say, there was the slightly sour under-taste of real yogurt. I think I could get around that by using flavored/sweetened yogurt instead. That would make it even easier to make.

Anyway, now I'm baching it until Sunday. As usual, the prospect makes me both anxious and a little pleased. Sometimes I do really well when I am completely free to set my own schedule. Other times, I fall down a hole of degeneracy, play solitaire all day, stay up half the night, forget to eat or eat too much. We'll see how it goes...

Indian Summer Days

Just for the record, I'll say a few more words about my recent activities. On Monday, I finally forced myself to finish an application that I really didn't want to do. I was unhappy because it felt like a bad fit, and I hate trying to talk myself up as something I'm really not. It also made me unhappy because part of it required me to go back to some of the intellectual interests I had in college. They were right for me then, I suppose, when I was much more confused and alienated than I am now. But going back to them brought me back to thoughts of sadder times. Apparently, it also brought me back to the worse habits of those times, because the application was due ON Monday, and I didn't finish it until around 1. Then I took the train down and hand-delivered it, two plus hours which were made happier by the warm weather and the fact that I was doing some very light but fascinating reading (see Book Draft post).

As for the rest of the afternoon and evening, I frittered it away completely. I can't remember much about it except that Pocket of Bolts was at a talk and I had an English muffin with an egg and a slice of turkey bacon for dinner, also some fresh pineapple. I finished off the day NOT by working out but by just going over to the gym and sitting in the steam room.

Yesterday Pocket of Bolts and I got up reasonably early to vote. We vote in the same building that our gym is in, about half a block away. The population density around here is so high that there's a polling place about every block, can you imagine? We ran into our landlord and one of our neighbors while standing in line. We didn't wait in line too long incidentally. The atmosphere was very cheerful.

After that, I ran around doing a variety of errands, and then headed off to my seminar at U of C. It was interesting, but more draggy than usual, more mechanical. There was an election party I wanted to go to up near Evanston, and I could just hardly wait for time to pass so I could get up there. Still, I took notes dutifully enough. I also managed to a run to the library afterwards and photocopy some reading for the Thursday class. Then off to the party! The streets and trains were incredibly empty. It was like the whole city had headed off to Grant Park, which, when I saw the crowd on TV, seemed about the long and short of it.

The party was jolly, lots of good snacks, champagne toasts when the results finally rolled around. Then Pocket of Bolts and I headed home. Strangely, while running to catch a bus, I broke the strap of on my show, which is really too bad because it is my favorite pair of shoes which I wear everyday. It's such a sturdy pair of shoes too, I was most surprised. I will have to try to get it repaired somehow, or maybe Pocket of Bolts can jerry-rig something. But it was almost impossible to walk with it broken, so I had to walk home from the bus-stop in my socks.

Obama! (Under the WIre)

I have failed to post about yesterday because I was out partying to celebrate today! Today is much better than yesterday was anyway. Both days have been Indian summer in Chicago, no coat and too warm in a sweater weather. Only a few miles away Obama is having a heck of a party. I have no stomach for crowds, so I watched the results roll in at the home of a colleague of PoB's. It was a stretch, but we managed to stay for the speech. Pocket of Bolts and I both found it really quite touching. The guy must have been exhausted, but he looked great. The exhaustion worked for him, just making him seem serious and patient and dignified. Hurrah for our country! For once I think I may actually feel proud to be an American.

Changing Times/Feasts

I have been sleeping badly again lately. It goes in cycles, and whatever it is that has me waking up anxious varies. Yesterday it had to do with the time change. I had vaguely seen something about it but wasn't sure. Then I worried about whether the clocks would be set right. We have a supposedly auto-re-setting alarm clock, and I had my phone as a backup. But I never trust the alarm clock. As it happened, this time it did better than my phone, which rang an hour early, causing me considerable confusion.

Managed to drag myself back to the conference. It's not that it's so unpleasant, but it did remind me of China, and was definitely outside my field. Also, I was stressed about an application I had been putting off most egregiously. In the event, though, I did make it there, only missing one talk. I listened dutifully to the rest of the talks while devouring donuts. For some reason, my craving for donuts has grown to monstrous proportions. They are cheap and wonderful and comforting, but unfortunately terrifically caloric. I do my best to resist this craving, but I am powerless when there's a huge box of donuts being enthusiastically urged on people ("they're just going to be thrown away..."). I managed to limit myself to two, but that still comprised more than half my normal daily caloric allowance.

The conference drew to a close and there was a fantastic brunch buffet to celebrate. I partook in that as well, most liberally: scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, bagels with elegantly sculpted cream cheese and a "salad" of bite-size lox, red onion, and big capers, brie and baguette, small slices of steak with horseradish sauce, a delicious caesar salad with big curls of salty cheese, and a dessert table with cakes, fruit tarts, chocolate covered grapes (!) still on the stem, and so forth. I did forgo the champagne, but that's the only thing I denied myself!

After that huge meal I rolled down to the library and did a bit of research for my wretched application.

My good friend H was in town with her husband for the big religion conference, and after several attempts, we decided that I would meet her downtown for dinner at around 7. That left me a weird amount of time, a little too long to stay around campus, a little too short for going home. I decided to go home and at least drop my stuff though.

On the way I met two young Chinese fellows. They seemed a bit lost, so I decided to ask them in Chinese where they were trying to get to. Of course, they were more thrilled to talk to a Chinese-speaking white person than they were interested in finding their way. They were doing a year-long MA program, but had so far only been here a month. One was a journalist in China; both were from Zhejiang. It was a little nostalgic. After spending all that time in the conference where my lack of Chinese language skill was glaring compared to most of my fellow Americans, here were some people who were extravagantly impressed by my ability to communicate naturally. Of course I knew better than to feel too good about it. They'd've praised me to the skies were I a lot worse than I am. But I did have friendly feelings about the encounter.

After an hour at home I hopped on the bus back downtown. I had a to walk a few extra blocks to get to the restaurant. There was a sprinkling of rain, and yellow leaves were swirling around. It was strange going out so late. The restaurant turned out to be a very fancy steakhouse. Having embarked on the path of sin, I decided to continue along it. I split a steak with H, had a glass of wine, broccoli with garlic, several rolls, and even key lime pie. I was full to bursting. The company was good. H's husband told me the best possible bad news regarding a job I had been applying for at their university, namely that my application looked great, and if it weren't for the fact that they were looking for something completely different from my specialization... I was okay with all that. The company around the table, all Daoism scholars, was very jolly.

I walked back with H all the way to their hotel and we talked warmly. I always dread trying to set something up with her, but as usual was glad that I did.

Kafka Under the Wire

This post is entirely for the sake of having one on November 2. I will blog the actual day I had tomorrow morning, which is a much better system for me. For now, in the seven minutes I have remaining, I will just say that I've been reading up a bit on Kafka. This is for the sake of a certain application I'm working on, not for my dissertation thank god. The first thing to say is that when I thought about The Castle (probably the Kafka work I know the best) a great heaviness came over me as I remembered those times when I was studying it so intensively. So much modernist literature has a cruelty in it, toward the characters, the readers, the whole framework of reality. Then, reading some basic theoretical takes on various of the shorter works, I also remembered how fascinating Kafka is. He created a dark world but it is a whole world, a true microcosm that has room for as much as the real world has room for, but in miniature. I remembered the dark and interesting times I had when Kafka was about all that was rattling around in my brain. I came up with an idea or two. But my time is nearly up. More on my day when I get up tomorrow morning!

Statehood Quarters

I have fallen off a bit in my daily posting discipline, but I have recovered in time for NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month, November). Not that I can promise anything interesting. In particular, I was very useless today. There's a paleography conference going on, which I spent all day at yesterday, but I just failed to make it down there today. It was all too much. Then I spent a lot of time trying (and failing) to get a prescription filled. It turns out that if the doctor writes one number in the date slightly indistinctly, everything goes to hell. It was very frustrating, especially because the pharmacy was busy and they made me wait an hour and a half before they got around to telling me this. Meanwhile, I tried out a new coffee shop called Kahawa House. It was cute, very neighborhoody feeling. The only thing was, it wasn't our neighborhood so it felt a little odd. I didn't get any work done. In fact, I didn't do any work all day. Nowhere to go but up, from here.

On the bright side, I did a very nice shoulder focus lifting workout. For cardio tried the treadmill, but didn't like it. It shakes my head around too much. Pocket of Bolts' best man is in town, staying with us. We went to dinner at Joy's, good cheap plentiful Thai food. We (or rather PoB's friend) came up with a brilliant scheme of having statehood quarters that were the actual shape of the state and proportionately sized. Alaska quarters would rip your pockets and you'd be in danger of inhaling Rhode Island quarters. Hawaii quarters would come in sets of five and you'd have to keep them together or they wouldn't be worth anything. Washington quarters would have a lot of delicate filigree up by Puget Sound which would break off easily and invalidate the quarter if it broke off. Vending machines would have to have fifty different slots. I was practically falling on the floor laughing. It was the funniest idea I've heard in months.

Green Birds

Yesterday was a strange day for me. I left early to go to U of C. Almost the first thing of note that happened was that I was hurrying to catch a train and I fell on the escalator. I caught the train and then looked at my left hand, which had born the brunt of the fall. It was totally black with grease, but under the grease there was a long, shallow cut on running vertically on the outer palm. I have no idea what was so sharp and so dirty on that escalator. Happily, I had some hand sanitizer, and had sat in a seat where someone had left their newspaper, so I got myself cleaned up more or less. It was a startling way to start the day.

There's more though. When I got out at the Garfield stop as usual, I had to wait a long time for the bus. While I was waiting, I looked about me vaguely. The freeway was rushing by under my feet. People were shivering and complaining about the cold. And suddenly, a small ways down the street, I saw a flock of birds rise out of a tree. This is not an unusual sight in October, which is after all a season of migration. But these birds were green, and I don't mean brownish green or dark green or yellowish green--I mean bright grass green, GREEN. I couldn't believe my eyes. They rose out of the tree, flapped around, settled back down on the grass--and they were the same color as the grass. They might have been tropical butterflies, but too big. They might have been parrots, they were that green, but parrots don't live in Chicago. San Francisco maybe--I saw The Parrots of Telegraph Hill--but not Chicago, not with frost coming on, surely! I walked partway down the street, rubbing my eyes and trying to get a better look. No one else seemed to find it the slightest bit strange. I still couldn't quite make out the shape of the birds, but there was so much traffic, I was worried that if I crossed too many streets I'd not make it back if a bus came. So I gave up and decided it would remain a mystery.

Later, at home, I told Pocket of Bolts about the surreal green birds. I suggested that perhaps I had been hallucinating, but thought hallucinations were a kind of on-again off-again phenomenon, and I had looked at these birds for a really long time. He said he was sure I wasn't hallucinating, and said I should google it. "Google what?" I said scornfully. "Green birds?" "Green birds Chicago," he suggested. You know what? Google knows everything; Google holds the key to (nearly) all the mysteries in our lives. I did the search he suggested, and sure enough, actually did manage to track down the green birds of Chicago. They are better known as "the Hyde Park Parakeets," a flock of feral Monk Parakeets (a sub-tropical species native to Argentina). (The photo at left gives you a sense of how green they were--not my photo, just found it on the web.) According to a web-site devoted to this fascinating phenomenon, "Chicago probably has the harshest winter monk parakeets face in the world, and it has been speculated that they survive exclusively on bird seed in backyard feeders during the coldest months." Well, now I have actually seen them.

I suppose from a blogging point of view the rest of the day is a bit anti-climax. I made it to campus, did some research, took a while to settle down, but finally got down to work and wrote my daily two pages of dissertation. I found a really nice comfortable sunny spot to do that in. At three, I went to the paleography class. At four hours a session, it's amazing I can keep focused, but it's actually really interesting. The class has no structure whatsoever. The teacher just flits from one character to another. Gradually, though, I am getting the feel for certain principles, begin to recognize certain forms, and acquiring more familiarity with the vocabulary of the discipline. I am learning something about the less obvious ways that character forms are related. A long time ago, I took a Chinese Historical Phonology class, where we were encouraged to think of etymology as inextricably linked with phonology, and were studying the changes in the language and explicitly NOT in the script. Here it is the reverse. The phonology figures peripherally, and what is of most concern is development of script forms. It's like the other half of the coin. Both sides are interesting. This side is actually a bit more accessible.

It was a cold night, and as I made my way home, I realized my phone battery was totally dead. Usually I call Pocket of Bolts to let him know when I'm on my way home, and I was worried that he'd be worried. He was a little worried, but is a steady chap. Our apartment was warm. He and I have been vying with each other in nostalgic cookery--foods from our childhoods. Last night he made pot-roast in the crock-pot, traditional recipe, Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup and all. Surprisingly, it was really quite good!

Plants are Good Company

Yesterday was another very quiet day. I just stayed home and sat on the couch. I ate things, did work, played some solitaire, did more work. You get the idea. Because it was supposed to get down below freezing on Sunday night, we brought in all the plants. I'm not sure if it did get below freezing but it's nice having the plants for company in the house. They have been out on the back porch all summer, and look unusually flourishing and happy.

Sometime in the afternoon, I went out and did the grocery shopping. It was very cold outside, a windy and grey day. Occasionally a little ball of ice would fall out of the sky, but it wasn't really precipitating in any serious way. Later Pocket of Bolts came home, and eventually we made it to the gym. Going to the gym in the late afternoon leads to late dinners: we sat down to pasta romano and green salad with citrus-pomegranate dressing at around eight.

We have gone back to watching Battlestar Galactica again (i.e., the new version), and are trying to rescue the colonists from their failed experiment on New Caprica. It's not easy, since Cylons are so sneaky. If that doesn't mean anything to you, never mind. Just doing a little geeking out.

Apple Picking

Yesterday we had a fine adventure. We had been wanting for some time to go to an apple farm, since we are in such good apple country. Of course since we don't have a car it's a pretty big feat of planning. Since most of those places close after Halloween, though, this weekend was our last chance. Pocket of Bolts reserved the I-Go (car), we put all our work and stress on hold, and went off to Indiana!

The first thing we did when we got there was get coffee and hot cider, and pumpkin and apple cinnamon donuts. Then we headed off to the corn maze.







I had never been in a corn maze before and found it pretty fun. Pocket of Bolts said that this one was less dense and difficult than some he had been in. It did have some interesting features though. It was made to be on the "border" between two different states. On the Indiana side, there were stumps labeled with Indiana cities. On the Illinois side, Illinois cities. Part of the game was finding the stumps. Of course we wanted to find Chicago, and eventually we did find it.



Another cool thing was that there were some bridges where you could climb up and look down over all the corn in the maze:




After the corn maze, we went on to the main attraction: apple picking. The trees were just laden. In season right now at that farm were Fujis, Blushing Golds, and Sundances. Those were the ones we liked best. There were also Red and Golden Delicious, Galas, and McIntoshes, but we didn't want any of those.




Walking down the rows of heavily laden apple trees reminded me so much of the farm where I grew up. It had to do with the smell of apples starting to ferment, and the taste of slightly underripe apple in my mouth. We walked all around through the mud and tasted everything. Of course we also brought back a mixed bag of tasty tasty apples. They taste so much nicer when you get them straight off the tree than bought from the grocery store!

By the way, note the reappearance of my old grey coat! I have had that coat for a really long time, and the lining was in tatters. I hadn't been able to find anyone who was willing to repair it, apparently a big and difficult job. Then I made the acquaintance of a seamstress, who did the alterations for my wedding dress. She said that of course many people weren't willing to reline a coat, but SHE was trained in Germany, and of course such a thing would be no problem. So my parents took it to her and got it relined (also cleaned). The new lining is lovely, actually nicer and heavier than the old lining. Now that the wind is getting chilly, it's nice to have my old coat back.

Keeping Still

The hexagram for yesterday was Gen, mountain doubled, "Keeping Still." Certainly it was a propos. After a late start and pie for breakfast, we walked to another of our favorite haunts, Cafe Avanti. We got there around 11, and I at least stayed there all day. It's a pleasant place. They have free wireless, abundant electrical outlets, comfortable tables, bottomless coffee, and tasty food. I have a particular fondness for their tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich special. It took me a long time to get started working, but when I did it was quite productive. Pocket of Bolts left at some time in the afternoon, but I stayed until a quarter to six. Back at home Pocket of Bolts made tasty tortilla soup and salad and we had lots more pie for dessert. A quiet pleasant Saturday!

Pumpkin Time

Yesterday I had to get up early and go to the Lama's reading group. I never want to go but I always love it once I get there. As usual, I got a later start than I meant to and had to bike. (That is the fastest way to get to DePaul from my house as it turns out.) We read more Zhuangzi, and just like last time, I got very excited about a possible paper I want to write on the subject--I mean, someday when I have time.

Afterward, I chatted with the Lama outside the building and accidentally made him late for his next appointment. (Oops!) We are both too busy to actually hang out, but we always have lots to say to one another.

Next, I biked back north. I was looking for the Buddha Bowl place but couldn't quite remember where it was, so ended up at Einstein Bagel instead. Then there was a fancy cupcake shop next door, so I went in to try a fancy cupcake. It was tasty but overpriced. Then I biked to the coffee-shop that PoB and I call "good Caribou" and sat there proofreading my cover letters for the next round of jobs. Actually, they needed it--many mistakes. Good Caribou is next door to a copy shop, so I went there and got the final copies made, then biked to the post office and got those sent off. That makes it a productive day right there.

Back at home, PoB and I procrastinated going to the gym but finally did make it there. Afterwards, we had the MOST delicious dinner, grocery store roast chicken (cheap quick and healthy dinner!), black rice, and a superbly tasty salad that PoB made. We watched the last episode of season 1 of Madmen, and I have to say I'm nearly won over. It's really a nicely put together show in fact.

After dinner we had meant to do a bit more work, but neither of us felt like it. So we carved our pumpkin instead. Without further ado...








After carving, PoB made roasted pumpkin seeds. He has a special secret recipe, and they were incredibly delicious. I made pumpkin pies with the inner scrapings. Usually carving pumpkins aren't so tasty, but neither of us had any complaints about this one!!

What a lovely evening it was, really lovely. Outside there was a big storm, thunder and lightning. Inside it was cozy and romantic, with good smells of roasting and baking and pumpkin.

Eight Jewels

Yesterday I got a late start. I did what has become my usual morning routine--made a blog post, studied the day's hexagram (it was "Coming to Meet", heaven over wind), and then tracked down some sources. It is much easier finding things now that my files are reorganized!

Then I had an early lunch and headed down to U of C. I decided to take the red line el all the way down to Garfield and just ride the #55 bus over. I had tried it before but been a little creeped out by what I perceived to be the bad neighborhood at the red line Garfield stop. I had been assured that it really wasn't very bad, though, so I had a go. In fact, it wasn't so bad. For one thing, the bus stop was right in front of the el station. For another thing, there were lots of other "U of C types" waiting for the bus too. It was also a much faster route, clocking in at only an hour door to door.

The class was interesting as usual. Professor Blue-Eyes (as I shall call him) guided us through some oracle bones and talked about the general divination practices. As often happens to me in graduate seminars, I felt both excited/interested and a little wrong-footed as regards the things I said. Sometimes I worry that my manners aren't good.

I went home the same way as I came, and on the long uninterrupted train ride back, I actually managed to do some good dissertation research and thinking. Pocket of Bolts had a talk and reception to go to, and then after stopping by briefly at home he went out to a bar with one of his buddies. So, we were "ships passing in the night" as we call out when we have these incompatible schedules. Actually, I had a pretty productive evening, and managed to write up almost two pages based on the research I had done earlier.

Also, I made this delicious "Eight Jewels" dessert, which has become a regular favorite now that I have assembled all the ingredients: glutinous rice, sugar, candied ginger, dried fig, red dates, pine nuts, and coconut. Not quite eight "jewels" but since it's just for me, I don't mind. It was tasty!

Self-Indulgent

Yesterday I was in an unusually self-indulgent mood, I mean, unusual even for me. I had decided to go and work in the downtown library, but didn't make it there until 10. Then, before I got in the door, I got lured by the siren song of Dunkin Donuts. Here's the thing about donuts, the goodness to price ratio is incredibly high. As is the calorie count of course. However, I guiltlessly indulged myself with a lovely double chocolate donut, devoured outside the door of the library. It was a cold day; I was planning on working hard. Somehow I just felt like I deserved it.

Inside, it took me a while to get started. I had decided to warm up by copying out a passage from a classical text. It's an interesting way of reading, very different from translating because you start getting the feel of a text while still being able to defer decisions about what the text means. I was enjoying it immensely so I kept at it for something like an hour. Then I did get down to work.

At 2 or so, I went out and had lunch at Panera, half sandwich and cup of soup. Then a quick pass through the clearance section at Old Navy where I bought a slightly silly dress for $4.99. At that price, you can't lose, right?

For dinner I made tacos. It is a meal I remember my mom making often when I was a kid. It turns out to be the easiest thing--you just prepare all the ingredients, put them in separate bowls, and everyone makes their own. Between us Pocket of Bolts and I managed to polish off a pound of ground turkey and a dozen or so little corn tortillas. We were very intently watching Madmen, which was especially interesting tonight.

Later we actually got to the gym to work it off. I spent nearly an hour on the elliptical at heart rate 150, intermittently watching TV and reading. I watched a history channel program on the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. It was extremely dramatic and exciting, though perhaps rather exaggerated. Certainly a big asteroid hitting the earth is a catastrophic and disturbing event. Then I watched something about the Chicago Seven, the late 60s conspiracy trial regarding the 1968 Democratic Convention riots. I got sucked into it because the courtroom scenes were done in rather handsome animation. I was a bit disappointed even that everything else was real footage, because the animation was so cool.

Lots (of Meat) and My Diagram

Yesterday, after a slow start, I managed to work some more on my job talk. I typed in an outline and did some thinking. Today I need to flesh it out and actually do some of the research.

Had leftover chili and corn tortillas for lunch, and must register a correction to yesterday's post: the big beans didn't totally dissolve this time, as I found a couple. They are huge, maybe favas? Lately, I have also been enjoying lowfat cottage cheese and a spoonful of jam for "lunch dessert."

For some reason, I got behind and had to rush to get to U of C in time for paleography class. I had to sprint two blocks to catch the #6 bus (but I did catch up with it)! Once there, though, I enjoyed the class very much. Paleography seems to be a field that consists mostly of accreted bits of knowledge, with a few general principles that have slowly been developed. Sometimes I feel like it's just one damn thing after another, but other times I pick up interesting bits of trivia. Yesterday, for example, I learned that the character for "many" 多 (duo1), which is always explained as two "evenings" (on the principle that "night after night" is "a lot" of nights) is actually two chunks of meat. Presumably TWO pieces of meat is "a lot" of meat. Furthermore, the character for meat, 肉 (rou4), was often used in place of the "many" character. So instead of "many sons" you could have "meat sons" (though it would have had a different pronunciation, and still would have meant "many"). Isn't that odd?

On the way home, I started thinking about my Yijing diagram. Every few years, I get started thinking about it and how to make it--a diagram that illustrates the paths of change from one hexagram to another, organized by degrees: so two hexagrams that are only different by one line will be directly connected, but two hexagrams that differ by two lines will be connected through some other hexagram. It's easy to think about but hard to draw. After I got home I kept working on it, even temporarily sucking Pocket of Bolts into the endeavor. A major breakthrough came when we started representing the hexagrams with two digit numbers instead of drawing them all out each time. The numerical representation also helped in recognizing patterns that aren't necessarily obvious from just the hexagrams. Also, they are faster to write. I got closer to finishing than ever before, but still had a very hard time finding a symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing way of arranging the row of 20 (hexagrams that are half weak and half strong). Reminder to self: this project always turns out to be a time thief. Stop spending time on it!

As of yesterday, Pocket of Bolts and I have been married for a third of a year, i.e., four months. Coincidentally, the heat came on in our apartment yesterday too, so we got to celebrate the occasion by being nice and toasty warm.

By the way, the Asian news list I'm on has been having a discussion thread regarding the echo wall at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Here is a very cool looking old picture of a debonair Australian fellow trying it out. And here is a panorama view. I have very fond memories of going to the echo wall with Pocket of Bolts and him figuring out the trick.

More Muscles

Yesterday morning I succeeded in working on my job talk for a while, something I've been having a really hard time with. I have a big 14"x17" newsprint pad, and I did some brainstorming with a blue highlighter. Working in such a childish, cartoonish way was really helpful in taking the pressure off. Today, I need to type those notes in and seriously get down to work.

Around noon, I put some "special beans" in the crockpot. "Special beans" are a strange bean mix that we got at the Korean supermarket. Some are gigantic (but they always dissolve completely). Others that I can identify include black beans, red beans, chickpeas, and green peas. But there are other kinds in there also I think. It's a huge colorful bean mix, with which Pocket of Bolts likes to make vegetarian chili. We cook up the beans and then add TVP and lots of other tasty ingredients. It makes a delicious chili. Even though we're not vegetarians anymore, we still enjoy eating veg food sometimes. It gives the body a clean feeling.

After getting those started, I did another thing I had been avoiding--I went and did a lifting workout at the gym. I had done 25 lifting workouts and then stopped for several weeks. Then I was dreading starting again because I knew it would be really hard and I would have gotten weaker. I had gotten weaker. But as Pocket of Bolts said, the longer you wait the worse it will be. So I steeled myself and did it. Workout 26 was thankfully a "whole body" workout, which means that every part of me hurts, but no one part is excruciating.

I did not have a very productive afternoon, I must confess. Maybe I was tired from the workout. In any case, I wasted time. I thought listlessly about the bit of dissertation I'm supposed to be working on... but didn't actually work on it. The best I can say is that I did some reading for the Book of Changes seminar. Oh, and memorized a hexagram, "Fellowship", heaven over fire.

Reorganization

Yesterday was meant to be a proper work day, but somehow we woke up late. Then the morning just kind of got dragged away. We shook ourselves out of lassitude to go out to Brown Elephant (I found a sweater and a couple little shirts) and to do the week's shopping. We spend a lot less on groceries if we do meal planning and shop all at once, so we're trying to get back into that.

We had hummus and pitas for lunch, with arugula from our back porch, together with some vegetable soup and fresh pineapple. It was an amazingly homelike domestic sort of lunch.

I did a bit of reading and a bit of job market stuff, but mostly just got distracted and squandered the day. Pocket of Bolts went to work out, and I stayed home and made bibimbap, which he loved. For the first time, I made it with actual beef! My dad's verdict would have been "not sweet enough" but PoB liked it that way. Other ingredients included carrot, bell pepper, cucumber, lettuce, shiitake mushrooms, and of course the obligatory rice, kimchee, fried egg, and kochujung sauce. I don't think I'll win any authenticity prizes, but it was a creditable imitation at least of the dish!

After dinner, I finally got into gear and reorganized ALL my files. The proximate cause of this was that there was one particular file I knew should be there but couldn't find. But of course, organizing my files (which were in no discernible order at all) is something I've been meaning to do for ages. I keep re-photocopying articles I already have, because I didn't realize or forgot that I had them. It wasn't until two hours into the task that I actually found the file that I was looking for, but I felt pretty proud when I did. And now things are in much better order as well.

Brunch and the Last King

I like this picture, which I took some time ago, because it gives such a strange impression of flatness and whiteness. This is totally without Photoshop manipulation (aside from changing the size)--it just looked like that when I took it, almost like an artichoke picture inside the bowl.

Yesterday Pocket of Bolts and I indulged in one of our fondest weekend temptations and had brunch at a nearby diner. This is bad on two counts: first, it's paying roughly $20 for food we could make at home for a fraction of the cost, and second, WE make it in a much lower calorie version, with olive oil instead of butter and so forth, so its a tremendous caloric indulgence. On the other hand, it is lovely to sally forth from the house and sit in that relaxed diner atmosphere, drinking bottomless coffee and chattering a mile a minute.

After brunch, we went to one of our favorite coffeeshops and sat there working... almost all day! We'd eaten so much breakfast we didn't even eat lunch. I think we didn't leave there until four. Then we went home; I was suddenly ravenous and ate a big snack. Pocket of Bolts had a long workout while I digested. Then I had a short workout while he started dinner. We had a baked chicken dish, and when I got home I made biscuits. We didn't start eating dinner until after 9--a very decadent late schedule.

Over dinner we watched one of our Netflix, The Last King of Scotland. It was really good. It's a semi-fictional story about Idi Amin, given from the point of view of his personal physician. (The doctor was the fictional part.) The story was fast-paced and exciting (suspenseful, terrifying) throughout. PoB and I usually have a hard time watching an entire movie, but we were on the edge of our seats to see what would happen to the poor guy. Also, the working out of his character development was really skillful. It gave a good picture of how different motivations align and re-align, how a multitude of choices are open to you at the beginning and slowly the sum of those choices begins constrains you until there are no choices left at all.

The movie was also permeated with the roller-coaster of African dictatorship: celebration, hope, rhetoric, suspicion, violence, inexcusable brutality, terror, regime change, and then starting all over again with celebration. The next one promises to be different, and how earnest he is. You don't want to be cynical in case he's the real thing. But is he ever the real thing? Ever?

We didn't get to bed until after midnight, and I slept like a log.

Quiet Home Day

Yesterday was a good and productive day if not a terribly exciting one. After all the racing around during the week it was nice to have a quieter time. I succeeded in writing my two pages in the morning, almost painlessly. I know I'm not writing this in the most efficient way. What I should do is get all the translations done first and then figure out what to say about them as a group. What I ended up doing is having about half or a third of the translations done, and then having to do new ones as I go along. The result is that I feel like a miner: I keep working a vein until it's exhausted, and then I have to go find a new vein, build all the infrastructure, and only then get some more of the good stuff out. So I exhausted the vein and now I have to go searching for the next one, which is today's project.

Back to yesterday, though: after that and a few other small tasks, I actually made it to the gym, where I did an hour of hard elliptical in front of the TV, and then had a long relaxing sit in the steam room. I need to get back into exercising every day, not least because we're paying $2/person/day whether we go or not!! Well, took the first step yesterday.

Had a late and very healthy lunch of hummus and crudites, a toasted piece of flatbread, and some yogurt. Then I had some annoying errands to do, so I just took a book I'm reading for the Book of Changes class and rode the red line down and back, dead to the world outside the book. I also had to do some grocery shopping, since I owed Pocket of Bolts a nice dinner. At the grocery store, I noticed that pumpkins were on deep discount, so I picked one up. This turned out to make things a bit difficult, given that I had to carry that big pumpkin all the way home, together with the groceries. Somehow I managed it, but it wasn't easy!

At home I made Pissaladiere, a kind of fancy quiche, with a home-made whole wheat crust and a pretty pattern of halved grape tomatoes on top. Served with a green salad and my latest experimental dressing (caesar-esque), it was a light but pretty meal. I really like cooking, although it does take energy. I even did all the cooking dishes while I was waiting for the quiche to bake, so I felt pretty darn virtuous, but also pretty tired. We had grapes and Cool-whip Free for dessert, which is always more satisfying than I remember. Then I went to bed really early, slept deeply all night, and didn't wake up until several hours later than usual today. I guess I really needed a rest!