Preludes And Nocturnes

I’ll post about my weekend later on as Jim and I are about to head out and try to score us some discount last-minute Broadway tickets (they sell any remaining tickets for that evening’s performances at 25-50% off). It’s great if something you want to see has been playing for a while and it isn’t selling any more. We’re hoping for Fiddler on the Roof or Wicked or Rent or a few others. Spamalot is still selling out and we might just have to consider it ‘not happening’ for us this trip.

Right, but thesis. Got my supervisor’s comments today. *Whew!* Major major whew! Looks good. I’m still almost not wanting to just believe it, I think there must be a catch somewhere… but she pointed out the standard editing issues (passive voice *doh*, split infinitives, some rep of terms, some wordy sentences, etc), some unnecessary sentences, and she doesn’t like my subtitles (I do, but whatever). Um, there are two spots I’ve found where she asks me for a single line reference to a theorists.

This is about it. Aside from those two citation requests it is all minor editing.

Overall she said it was superb, and specifically she said the final three chapters of analysis and conclusions were excellent. She stated that I’m to input her corrections and suggestions, those from my two committee members when they are in, and then to hand in my final version.

…. um, I’m still thinking I’ve missed out some huge request for a re-write on a chapter. And I’m not going to do the complete dance of joy until my other two committee members have weighed in because goodness knows if they might have something more to say… but I guess I really have to start dealing with the idea that this might be almost done.

… wide-eyed stare

… slight happy hop

She actually used the words Excellent and Superb. Oh, and “a joy to read” and “well done.”

yay!

xoxo
jenn

My supervisor has finished her comments on my draft and turned them in to the department secretary. They were then put it in the mail thursday, and given that monday is a holiday in these parts I suspect I’ll get the commented thesis by tuesday or so.

Kinda makes me want to barf. But ah well, it will be good to actually get some feedback after all this time. I know my supervisor rather well so I know she was planning on marking it up very thorourly. Again, I know this will be good… still makes me want to hide under the table though. And there is still too many days before it will get here for me to be in knots the whole time, so I’m trying to just not think about it too much. I’m so very very much hoping for things like “give a quick definition of these terms” and “expand on what you mean by this” rather than “why didn’t you use so-n-so’s approach to post-colonial theory for your analysis? Go find her work, read it, and replace chapter two with it.”

Erp. But, nothing to do about that right now. Just have to wait to get the feedback.

And still no word from my other two committee members. They have until June 8th, so that is fine for now.

So Jim and I are heading out about the town today. We’ve thought of having a walk through the East Village and then to the farmer’s market to get some veggies and the like.

*wave*
jenn

I went to order from you today, and yet again you were stupid. In the past I tried to send international order once and after going through the whole process there was no way to indicate that the sender (me) was from Canada. This meant I couldn’t fill out the form and I didn’t mail the gift. I emailed you about this and you never replied.

Today I went to send my sister a gift certificate. I’ll be sending her something else - quite frankly it isn’t hard to find an online gift to send someone. Your webpage is wrong. You are charging GST on gift certificates and this is not correct. I had to call your 1-888 number and talk to the woman for a few minutes before she suddenly went “oh, you’re right… gift certificates don’t get taxed. This was supposed to be fixed!”

I’m currently looking into how to report you for this. I’m guessing it has been going on for a while and I’m sure it is some sort of fraud. If nothing else, it is yet another reason I thought of not ordering from you. But, I wanted to send my sister a gift so I tried to just order through the phone number. All went well until she told me the ‘flat’ shipping rate. It was $8.

For an envelope.

Excuse me?

Now, it isn’t that I don’t love my sister another $8 worth. But see, I’d rather just go with amazon or any number of other places and actually give my sister that additional $8 to spend. You have lost my business again. And I’m not going to try and order from you again. And I’m taking you off my wishlist - see you used to be one of my top players there as I really do love your products and I really do love giving your products but I’ve had it with all the issues. You are that beautiful sensitive boyfriend who just has one too many late night melt-downs and runs off into the night expecting me to follow and make everything okay.

Run away silly little boy, run away. I’ll not follow. Even though your bath products are amazing.

I’m off to check out some other amazing online businesses that won’t piss me off.

Signed,
Me

I like sharing these menus, and this one actually gave us a little menu on a card when we chose our dinner. So you are getting more detail then we’d be able to remember. I think you’ll be able to tell when it is me talking. So this is from TABLA (Indian inspired fine dining).

Chef’s Market Tasting Menu

Drinks: Tablatini (me), Pomigrantine Gimlet (jim)

Hudson Valley Fois Gras Torchon. With Spiced Rambutan and on a Ginger cookie. So really, fois gras on a ginger snap. Super yummy!

Fluke tartare and California Osetra Caviar. With green mango, local apples, and coriander seed. Mmm, the fruit made this very nifty and added crunch.

Rice Flaked Black Sea Bass. Wild mushrooms, roasted four chillie broth. My comment was that it had been coated in riced crispies.

Rawa Crisped Soft Shell Crab. Daikon, spring onions, ramps, toasted spice curry. I’ve not had soft shelled crab before. You eat the whole thing. It is super cool.

Stone Church Farms Dulcair Ducks. With Morels, peas shoots and pickeled lotus root. Mmmm, this was four thin slices of duck that was soft and tender.

Seared Wagyu Beef and Braised Brisket. With ramps, spinach and baby taro. Ramps are like leek/potato. Again, very very yummy.

Moscato Cranberry Granite with blood oranges. Alcohol slushy with fruit.

Choclate-Hazelnut Souffle with gianduja* iced cream and hazelnut brittle. Ummm, yeah - could I please have five more? My comment to Jim was that the souffle with the iced cream (I mixed them a bit on my plate) was like those microwave cake n’pudding things I used to make as a teen. He laughed and didn’t say outloud that we apparently could have just nuked some birthday dinner for me.

Happy birthday lemon tart with candle. Yay! No singning! Just a lovely tart with writing in chocolate along the rim of the plate that wished me happy birthday.

Chai Tea with Steamed milk and those little mini cookies/desserts. This was when the food started to hurt me. Yeah, we walked home.

*dictionary dot com: a finely ground smooth mixture of chocolate and nut butter, such as hazelnut, almond, or pistachio; also called nutella. (okay, now I know why it was so good!)

Yeah, go ahead and pronounce that as walk Aboot in your heads if you like. I don’t believe myself to have an accent but *some* people like to point that one out to me. Met up with Julia (prime) today for a loverly time! We met at our usual - starbucks at B&N for about 2 hrs of chitchat with a coffee (and a small piece of chocolate cheesecake for me, cinnamon bun for her). We then looked at home books, and she bought me a copy of BR Myers’ “A Reader’s Manifesto: An Attack on the Growing Pretentiousness in American Literary Prose” for my birthday. I actually stood in the store and read a fair bit of it before we left. Interesting little book which I may or may not agree with- but which seems to be a nice read and kinda fun to explore.

So then Julia and I wandered a bit and ended up heading down to a Mexican Restaurant we’ve been to before. We both had wonderful brunches with yummy iced teas and another long chat session. Then we went down to peer into some shops and walk and talk some more eventually rounding back up north a bit to where a street fair had been set up for the day. That was fun as we poked about the stands and chatted with the soap making fellow (ahh, I’ll give him a plug as well since he gave up both free samples to take home). By the time we reached the end of the fair it was after five and we had pretty much been talking non-stop since before 11… so it was time to head home. My feet are tired and I’m totally sleepy now and rethinking my cheerful “oh, I’ll make dinner tonight” as Jim headed out the door this morning (to his weekend course scheduled today and tomorrow). I was planning on grilling some veggies and chicken with his stovetop grill. Super fun and I bought eggplant and mushrooms and peppers and zuchinnis for this in particular yesterday while at YuppieMart.

Reason number fifty million I love him? If he came in the door and I was lazed out on the couch with the pitiful pleading of “sushi?” he would just smile and agree. On that note I think I’ve had sushi all but two days since arriving here. That would be seven of the nine days so far. Four times now for dinner - and we’ve opted for some lunch sushi (twice from the sushi chefs at our GROCERY STORE who custom make brown rice salmon and tuna sushi for us as we shop, and once eating out at Monster Sushi down the street after meeting a friend for coffee that morning).

Yeah, if it were crack I’d feel the need to enter a support group. Luckily it isn’t crack. SEVEN OF NINE DAYS! Hey! Seven of Nine [/star trek]!!

Oh man, I’ll talk to you all later.

*rolls eyes at self*
jenn

Just decided to go on up and see the Met. Took the subway up to 81st Street and then wandered for half an hour through Central Park to the Museum. I especially wanted to look at the paintings and zoomed in on the Modern Art Collection. Do take a look at the page and see some of the art. I especially think of Cali with this one (okay, with any Matisse piece - and there are many in that collection). There was a special exhibit of Diane Arbus‘ photography which was awesome! We spent about 2hrs at the museum and then decided to find us some food. Jim thought there was a great little vegetarian restaurant on 86th St and Lexington so we walked the 15 minutes over there.. and over some more… and a bit more… So then we found a nice looking Greek restaurant to go to and had some yummy bread, red pepper something or other, shared greek salad, and a lovely fish dish with feta and peppers and onions and veggies.

After we ate we wandered over to the East River and walked along the pathway down to the 59th Street Bridge and then in to Lexington. At that point we grabbed a cab home and caught the final Next Top Model and American Idol. I feel it has been a full day *wink*

In other news, I’ve never actually eaten dates before other than in something. Sounds rather unimportant except that Jim bought a container of dates and ate one only to have the thought “ohmygod, these are as good as date squares.. if not better because I’m not eating dessert, I’m eating fruit!” Why couldn’t I have figured this out before? So yeah, my new dessert. Good think I come to these big cities to figure out high culture stuff like the fact I love dates.

Go wild girl.

xoxo
jenn

It is my birthday, and for the third year in a row I’m able to spend it with Jim! Yay! But for the first time we’re actually spending it in nyc. We’ve gone away each other time (savannah one year and Philly - to go to Morimoto’s - the next). I got to meet the Iron Chef, in case I hadn’t already told you all this fifty million times! This year we are spending this birthday here and our theme this month is ‘classy tourists in nyc.’

This morning Jim woke up before me and went across the street to get us both non-fat lattes, so I woke up to two of the best things ever: snuggles and coffee! He’s gone on to ask me what I want to do for my birthday day and I said read my book and play sims2 to start. I also want to do some yoga and go for a walk. We might wander down to a scarf shop Coral went to while she was here. I’m very excited about that idea as there are many many pretty scarves for me to buy. They are silk. They are in very pretty colours. Yay!

Oh, on a side note what I don’t want for my birthday. In case anyone was thinking of making me a craft…

And then tonight Jim and I are going out for dinner to an amazing Indian restaurant in town here. Very woohoo. I might wear my black pants with my pretty blue top (the one with the lacey edges), or I’m going to wear my cute little strapless dress. Very simple dress in a bit of a A-line that is a little stretchy across the boobs with a pink ribbon and a little bow. Then it just runs a simple line to above the knee. That is only depending on if I feel like shaving my legs *hee* so we’ll see about that.

And to confirm that I have the best fiance in the world, today for my birthday day Jim is cleaning the apartment and not letting me help. I just get to be in the cleanness and everything. He’s even going along and throwing things out. It is like beyond my dreams (really - those of you who know me in person know this is like my crack). He’s coming up to me and saying “I’m just going to throw these old placemats out and stop saving them. Oh, why do I have the box to the phone still sitting here. I’ll recycle that too. Hmm, I’m just going to comet cleanser the top of the microwave and the sides.” To anyone who hasn’t met me, if I had to pick a TV show to represent my views on life it would be Clean Sweep. It gives me chills to see people clean out a room leaving only functional/pretty/loved items.

Ohhhh, he just moved the kitchen garbage can to sweep behind it and get the little gritty bits from the tough to reach spot! Really, I couldn’t ask for much more for a birthday day! (And again, I’m actually not joking. At all.) My roommate is going to read this and pee her pants laughing. It’s funny because it’s true [/Homer Simpson].

And I’ve already had many many wonderful presents. Leone gave me my gifts before I left home - a totally ‘me’ cookbook on low-cal veggie and fish and light type meals. She said she took one look at it and said “jenn!” Then she also got me this little sinful book of amazing desserts that tended to have the words chocolate, creamy, and mmmmmmmm in their titles. Perfect gift! Mom and dad and Julia and Jason were all super wonderful and got me Amazon gift certificates! I love those as I’ve got a wishlist a mile long and I love going through making multiple combinations of what I could get.

Okay, with all that said I’m off to read some of my book and maybe get a kiss from my boy.

xoxo to all,
jenn

So, I don’t think I’ll be reading any Orson Scott Card anymore. I was just reading Peter David’s blog about Card’s comments on Star Trek. Now, I wasn’t too pleased with Card right then and there. And I really couldn’t care less about ST, but I’m not a fan of being a poo-head to people who really enjoy a particular aspect of a genre. Especially in how the message was delivered. I mean, an sci-fi person certainly can have an opinion about ST and all, but it is the whole being a pissy-wank about it that bugs me. You know people, there are nicer ways to say things and, in the end, what’s it to ya eh?

So then as I’m reading the comments on David’s blog entry I find out that Card is a wank in so many ways. He is totally homophobic.

*sigh*

This is one of the few things that will push me over the deep end. Sorry. No more of Card’s books for me. I went on a little search to see what he wrote for myself, and I was not impressed. He is one of them. You know what I mean. And I could never support someone like that again with my money. And quite frankly, I’ve got so many books to read and so many authors I love that I won’t miss him.

And I realise I’m not good with finding out things about the “real” people behind entertainment. The woman who plays the wife on Everybody Loves Raymond - yeah I heard her on Entertainment tonight or some such show. She was going off on a pro-life/ Teri Shivo rant. I haven’t watched the show since. I tried and thought I could separate it out - but I can’t. I saw her on screen and just kept thinking “ewww, I don’t like you.” And it works both ways, I kinda like the Dixie Chicks more now. I dunno, I find them all gutsy and brass. And ‘hell yeah!” And I don’t think I’d like them if I didn’t already like their music… so an opinion won’t make me like something that doesn’t already turn my crank. But boy it can sure risk making me dislike everything they do. And it is so much in the delivery. I’ve watched shows with a bit of a religious undertone, but done in a rather open accepting way and they’ve not bothered me. But the minute I start getting preached to, or it is being done in some pissy way, or someone is being a dick towards different opinions, yeah I’m not good with that.

I guess for the most part I don’t want to ‘know’ my entertainers. There is just too much risk that it will ruin my suspended disbelief necessary to be entertained sometimes. The most difficult to overcome was my beloved Angel. Oh how I love Angel. I’m a Buffy/Angel shipper from the get go. But David Boreanaz is such a turd. He is a goof. I remember the first time I saw him on a talk show and my eyes were wide as I shook my head going ‘oh nononononono!!’ Rewind! Erase! Started avoiding seeing him from then on. Saw him a few other times and confirmed that I had to keep that guy separate from ANGEL. Managed to do okay with that - but being a turd isn’t one of my total write-off ones.

And as for Orson Scott Card - being a nasty homophobe who WRITES ABOUT IT online and spouts off… yeah, that’s it for me buddy.

So hmmm, do you all find this? Do you hear something from an entertainer and find it breaks the illusion of their writing/singins/acting?

Mystery Mommy linked to this woman’s blog, and most of you know how I go on and on about tv and representation. Ie: positive gay characters, having access to alternative narratives of self, yadda yadda. And that it is a place with responsibility as well as a place for entertainment. So these posts deal with some interesting points about Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) and Revelations (NBC) and organ donation. I think she is making a very important point and I think about how hard it would be so see these shows when she has a daughter who was saved by a liver transplant.

xoxo
jenn

Behold, the Caesar’s Bath meme! List five things that people in your circle of friends or peer group are wild about, but you can’t really understand the fuss over. To use the words of Caesar (from History of the World Part I), “Nice. Nice. Not thrilling . . . but nice.”

Yes - here I am finally getting to that challenge from Liz. It is a tough one, though, and I’ll actually have to try and think of something that my peer group does but not necessarily my circle of friends. I pretty much get what my friends do and like.

1. Pants so low in the waist that they gotta shave their pubes. Nobody can really pull this off well. I don’t just mean low-rise, I mean “ick-rise” and guys do it too. I don’t want to see that ’special place’ while I’m at the mall trying to buy shoes. It makes me feel dirty. And not in a good way.
2. Young parents dressing their young girls like bar-chicks. Pretty much see above.
3. Voting for the BC Liberals. Gah. Voting for a party that only benefits the wealthy does not actually then make one wealthy. Guess what - their money has to come from someone and it is all the rest of us. And I wish they’d please draw the connection to the increased number of homeless in Vancouver and the increased number of young girls standing on the streets in old jeans, hair in ponytails, and looking like they are 12 waiting to earn $20. This is a political party that closed battered women’s shelters, hundreds of schools, and removed the funding to access eye exams every two years. Right, but we got the olympics. *rolleyes*
4. Not understanding the role that feminism has had in everyday life. Not understanding that there is so much work that needs doing to address racism and sexism and poverty in this country. Not understanding that if one likes canada because of how much it cares for its citizens, that means we have to uphold those institutions that do the caring. That we cannot gloat over our equality and access to resources while ignoring Treaty Contracts, cutting access to healthcare and eduction, and not taking care of social programmes/ daycare/ the elderly/ and so on. And despite the PR issues, feminists are the ones who keep working and writing about these issues. That we will only be a caring country if, in fact, we care about other people.
5. Eating fast food. As I just said in another blogger’s comments section - why on earth would I eat food prep’d by someone I wouldn’t trust in my personal space or at my house or on my lawn? Yet I trust them to cook me some meat? I mean, why when I take so much care with my health and my safety and my own personal standards of care with food would I then trust someone who very possibly has shown up to work drunk or high or pissed at the world or picking their nose. And yes, I totally mean to single out fast food. Having had a sister work at one of the local places here in town, I can tell you that these work environments are your worst nightmare and I’d just as soon go out into their parking lots and lick the tires on the cars. These are not happy people. They couldn’t care less about making me safe food.

And now I’ll tag three more. Please don’t feel the need to be as ranty as I just was there *wink* I tag Cali, Callie, and Spawnkitty!
xoxo
jenn