super secret spy business

And weeeee're off- for another exciting week of work and work and work and stress and family! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's true. Family is coming here. And not just anyone's family- my family! The younger brother'll be here from Tuesday to Saturday, and then the father shows up from Saturday to Tuesday (yes, you read that right, and no, they won't overlap at all). I'm really excited, especially about taking them to class with me. Nervous, too. My class better do their homework those days! Otherwise it's doom! Doooooooooooom!!!!!!!!!!!! It'll be a nice change, but also mean a little less time for homework. Oh well, everything'll get done. For the second weekend in a row, I actually accomplished a lot, including making huge progress on my 19th century paper (nothing is written, of course- that would be ridiculous). I feel good about the amount of work that I did get done, though, which is a nice feeling. Emily and I are also going to start M.A. exam boot camp soon- lots of reading and studying. Oh, the fun.

Everyone's probably getting tired of me talking so much about school, huh? So, ummm, do you think I would make a good spy? Every time I watch Alias (every.single.week) I imagine that I'm Sydney Bristow and get to run around the world, fighting bad guys and wearing cool outfits. Is this healthy, people? Could I hack it as a real spy? And would all the awesome outfits come with the job? And if not, would I still want to do it?

I've reconciled with "Storytelling" the Belle and Sebastian soundtrack for the movie of the same name. Until pretty recently, I didn't appreciate it much at all, but finally the love is creeping in. Wait, do any of you care about that?

In other news, I really want to see Pieces of April again. Oh dear.

My iTunes just switched into "Das Model" by Kraftwerk. I always feel like I should be in a dance party circa 1980s when this song comes on. Sadly, I never am. Now, back to Belle and Sebastian. And that's the way it should be.

Oh, I'm boring. I'm going to bed!

But where would this "dream house" be?

I'm going to be the coolest doll ever! But how am I going to carry all this stuff? In a cool purse? Or maybe just put it in the Heather-suggested house. These ideas, I like. If only real life were like this. It would be so much simpler!

I have a secret that I'd like to share with the group- I sort of like "A rebours," the latest addition to my list of "19th century books I've read." This is not supposed to happen! I should be saying things like "Hi, my name is Gina and I'm a 19th century hater." Bah! What is happening? The book I'm writing on, that's different, because it's sort of a one-off (and really cool, except for the tearing off of fingernails from dead people and all). But this book? By Huysmans? Nooooooo. Noooooo. This is bad, people. I just need to remember how much I dislike Balzac. And the new book, "L'oeuvre" by Zola? Nope. blegh. I actually wrote at the top of the page "Realisme, tais-toi," which literally means "Realism, shut up." That pretty much sums up how I feel about that. Note to people who may like the 19th century- the views expressed on this, um, thing, are the opinion solely of one crazy, overworked, and slightly deranged grad student. They are to be taken with perhaps two grains of salt. Or three.

I had a great coffee-break with Steve today (on the subject of coffee, the impossible has happened- there is NO COFFEE IN MY HOUSE! This is a problem people, and a big one at that. Help! Ok, end digression here). We got to talk about our papers for the aforementioned 19th century class, and I realised that a lot of the words spouting out from my mouth made sense. I think this was the goal for grad school. I can come up with decent ideas and have intelligent discussions about them. That's not to say that I don't have bad ideas (because seriously, I could be in a book called "Bad ideas and the people who have them"), but occasionally something comprehensible comes out of me. And that's always good. But anyways, comme je disais, we talked about term papers (eep! week 7!) and then about other stuff. I try to keep really personal stuff out of this blog-thingie, because I'm not sure if anyone would want to read them, or if I'd want anyone to read them. But I have to say this- I mentioned a piece of advice that Toni (love!) gave me, which is that to get to the right person you have to go through a lot of people, including some that you think are the right one. This helps put a lot of things in perspective for me, and it helps to think about that when I get sad about certain things. This is now the end of the overtly personal part of le blog.

Now, everyone go listen to some Belle and Sebastian.

take that!

Oh my god, it's been a week and a half. Umm, sorry? There were Amazing Race finales (meh) and song-teaching (at least they thought the dancing around was funny) and grading,grading,grading (let's not even talk about that) and research on decadence (NOT the same as in English, folks) and fetishism and feminism (and all for the same paper, hmm, interesting). Not an excuse, just the truth. Nothing but the truth, people.

Random note- a few weeks ago Steve and I were talking about what accessories we would come with if we were dolls (I know it's a strange conversation to have, but that's totally not the point here). We decided that we'd both definitely have coffee (sadly, probably from Starbucks) and cell phones, and then I might have my pink iPod. So this is it, the next big attempt at a poll- if Gina were a doll, what would her accessories be, and what would she be called? As for clothes, that's anyone's call. After my grave errors against fashion on Friday (this is why I need a roomate- to censor my random fashion impluses! No Gina- don't wear a dress that's shorter than your coat! Just because it was your favorite outfit your sophomore year of college doesn't mean it is anymore!), I'd just hope it'd be tasteful. And pink? Black?

Speaking of that pink iPod, I loaded a bunch of my older music onto it, which makes for some great walking-to-school-music. Anyone who knew me high school to mid college, you know what I mean. The Euro-pop-princess in me returns. And really, who wouldn't be happy arriving on campus while listening to "Beethoven I love you" by the World's Best Kitchen Knives (music theory 2 people- this was "techno theory" music). Sometimes I still feel like that person I want to hate, crusing around campus with le iPod. But it's pink! And little! And my music is SO better than what everyone else has. Or so I think. And I still make geeky mistakes with it (like trying to answer my phone with the earphones still in) that I think make me more endearing than others.

I made chili tonight, and now not only do I have huge amounts of it in the fridge (this was the point), but my entire apartment smells like chili. There are many worse things than this.

As for tomorrow, I have two things to say- Dear Valentine's Day, what did I ever do to you? Love, Gina
and
something wonderful Eliana told me "Well, there are people that have luck in relationships, then there's the two of us."

This year, as celebrating Matt and Gina are cool day (5th annual!) is difficult, I think it's best to take it for what it's worth and ignore all the fluffy hearts and chocolate and flowers and glibbitty globbity gloo, and instead follow Emily's advice and use it to tell the people you really love that they mean something to you. Friends, family, anyone. So there. Take that, Saint Valentine, whoever you are! And please, for something's sake, don't listen to dopey lovey songs all day. I'm going to go with my ever-present "69 Love Songs" from the Magnetic Fields.

Au lieu de nous ennuyer, avec la geographie

Happy Wednesday night, lovely people. Wednesday night means that I'm madly trying to finish my reading for Thursday's class, which luckily isn't until 4 (in the afternoon, god! I know that the U of O is wonky, but really, who would have class at 4 in the morning?). However, there being a limit on how much Flaubert one person can take at one time, I am taking a break, since my limit has been reached. It's a huge book, and she's having us read passages (since it'll be on my exam reading list, I'll have to read the rest later, but there's just not the time now), which cuts down on the reading, but leaves in its wake a trail of confusion, since we're skipping large parts of the story. Oh well- I'll read the rest soon, and I'm not worried about being able to participate in the discussion, since as you all know, I like to talk.

Today I read in Liz's blog (what? you don't know who Liz is? well, I'll give you a while to think about what you've done, then you can write an essay about it and add it to my teetering pile of grading) that she thinks I should write a column like Carrie on Sex and the City, except about random things. That's the nicest thing I've heard in a while. Thanks Liz! Here's my question- would the shoe collection go along with this job? Because if so, sign me up!

Creating this whole song unit for my class has really made me feel like a "real" teacher. Not that I didn't before, but I made all of this from scratch. It's taken a long time, but the class seems to enjoy it (when they're not giggling at me singing along with "Sacre Charlemagne" or Francoise Hardy). After Dad saved me by sending the France Gall song, I lived out my goal of playing the song in class that I've had foooooorever. In case you're not all up-to-date on your 60s French songs, "Sacre Charlemagne" is basically a song where France Gall sings with a chorus of kids about how they're mad at Charlemagne (remember him? that guy? with the beard?) because he invented school, and they thus have to go to school and work, etc etc. I find this song highly amusing and could listen to it over and over and over. The class thought it was funny, but said that they might possibly be driven crazy having to listen to it more than once. Ha. But still, lots of fun. Friday I'm hopefully doing cover versions, but that's still up in the air. Anyone have a copy of "Poupee de Cire Poupee de Son?" It won Eurovision!

Turns out I don't have to write a final paper for Old French, and Gina's going to work with me to read some Renaissance lit for the exams (it's in, no joke, Middle French- really original with the naming, old French dudes). So really, how could it be better? Wooooonderful! Wow, I'm blabbing about school a lot today. Sorry, everyone.

I'm going through Pieces of April withdrawal. Come back, Pieces of April! I'm sorry I sent you back to the video store! I didn't mean it! It wasn't my choice! Peer pressure! It was peer pressure! Please come back! We can work it out- I'll find time for you and my homework. Help!

And on that note, Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm done.