Maybe this will make me smarter...

Good evening folks! As there are none of my must-see TV shows on Wednesdays, save an excellent re-run of Road House with Patrick Swayze on CMT (a much underrated guilty pleasure!), I decided to turn off the boob tube tonight and just do some reading. It's funny because in grad school there is so much thrown at you, be it reading, teaching, research, or other day-to-day mundanities (Is that a word?) that you sometimes feel that you need some type of edge to keep you focused and in the game. I am no exception to this rule. Therefore, tonight I decided to put on some Mozart, light a scented Yankee candle, and drink some chamomile tea while doing my work. It seems like something mature adults would do and in all the movies, you always see the "brainy" character in their apartments listening to Mozart in the background as they read some utterly fascinating book about the Mayan Ruins or some shit like that, while sitting in their leather chairs under their framed posters of Chagall or Renoir or some other equally impressive artiste. Well, I have no books on the Mayan Ruins, I have no leather chair, and the best I can do with posters is a Van Gogh on the wall, but something about this scenario actually worked. I felt more relaxed and focused immediately. Maybe it was the Mozart. Maybe it was the Buttercream-scented candle? Maybe the chamomile? I don't know, but it worked. They say that if you play Mozart while you are pregnant your children will be smarter. I wonder if it works for 25 year old, over-anxious graduate students as well. I'll continue to experiment and let you all know... Good night!

Thoughts O' the Day

Guten Morgen everyone! I was thinking this morning about whther I had anything of value to share on my blog today, and decided that I'd just string together a montage of random thoughts. First and foremost, I had a most excellent weekend with my mother. She drove up on Saturday and we went out to dinner and watched basketball and cooked and (she) cleaned. It was just really really nice.

Also, for those of you not yet aware, the Boston College basketball team had a fantastic vistory over Syracuse on Saturday which propelled them to #3 on the Coaches Poll. We are starting to be touted as the fourth #1 seed in the March Madness brackets. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we finally get the respect we deserve. Go BC!!!

Mom and I also watched a really cute movie on Sunday night, Shall We Dance, with J.Lo and Richard Gere. I came into this film with no expectations (thankfully) but was pleasantly surprised. The acting wasn't the best and it was kinda cheesy, but this movie had some of the best one-liners I've heard in a long time. My favorites: "A heterosexual man who loves to dance in sequins walks a lonely path" and "Sometimes you find other things in the Po'"(meaning Potpourri). I have to hand it to J.Lo, whatever you may say about her acting, singing, and choice of men, that girl can dance!!! She really is a hell of a dancer.

Okay, well those are my random thoughts o' the day. I was re-reading my last post re: the corpus and man do I sound bitter. I think I hurt the corpus' feelings so I'm going to refrain from talking any more trash on it in the future. Have a good day!

Tournament of Stuff

Okay, so this evening I reconnected to the randomest website I know and wanted to share: Tournament of Stuff. My friend Phil introduced me to this site a year or two ago and it's awesome. Apparently a friend of a friend of Phil's set up this site that pits random, everyday objects against one another in March Madness style brackets. Then the guy writes a little paragraph in favor of each of the items (so you can make an informed decision of course) and then you vote which one is better/cooler. I love this site because it's just so very random! One week you may have dust bunnies up again matadors and then the next week you'd vote for either Mayor McCheese or Mardi Gras. Therefore, I'm trying to spread the word on this website since I've been doing too much real work today to have anything else interesting to contribute . So check it out and let me know what you think... Night all!

P.S. Happy 16th birthday to my little cousin Mallory!! Whoohoo!!

Liberalism: bane or boon?

Ever wonder at what point it became a negative thing to be called a liberal? I'm not usually ultr-political, but I've noticed within the last year that, for some reason, being "liberal" is considered to be a bad thing, shunned by "compassionate conservatists" everywhere (Don't even get me started on compassionate conservatism!) I really don't understand how being open-minded could be a bad thing. It's like the either/or mentality of this year's past elections. When did religion become mutually exclusive to Republicans, or patriotism for that matter?

Anyhow, I was reading the Economist the other day and I saw this fabulous article about liberalism as a word (remember I'm a linguist, so I read stuff like this) and I thought I'd share it with all of my left-wing, W-despising, want-to-become an-Ex-pat-so-I-don't-have-to-deal-with-Social-Security-privatization friends. Enjoy!

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3353324

Reed & Em at Pisticci's 

Mo & Phil at Pisticci's 

Back to Bumblef*&^?

I'm back from my (too short) visit to the city and I'm trying to remember why I left in the first place, especially as I look out the window at the snow here. The trip to NYC was fabulous and I now feel the saturation of real culture that I was missing for the last few months. My friend Mo kicked ass on her Comps and we celelbrated in style at the fabulous Italian restaurant Pisticci's in Harlem. The pics I'm including are from dinner there. I was also able to get my fill of Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, Sephora, and other NY faves, although I'm a little disappointed in Ann Taylor's Spring line:( Oh well! I gave a tributory salute to Coach as I walked by in the West 80's and savored the joy I only feel when sipping a Dunkin Donuts french vanilla iced coffee with cream and extra sugar (Hey, I enjoy my coffees!).

Funny thing though. I guess the sedentary and & driving lifestyle of State College really does affect your ability to walk long distances that you're used to living in the city. I wore my brown boots out on Saturday while walking around Union Square and down Broadway. After a few hours my feet hurt so bad that we had to duck into a DSW to by some new tennis shoes for me. i swear my feet are still swollen from walking. Of course, when i lived in NY, walking 40 blocks was no big deal. Now, I drive half a mile down the road if I want to buy some milk. I'm such a lazy ass:)

Two highlights from my trip though were 1) Dinner with my friend Jimmer at this awseome German restaurant called The Heidelberg on the Upper East Side. Not only was it named after my fave German city, but the waiters were all forced to wear Lederhosen (stereotype much?) and i had the best Jaegerschnitzel I've ever had, with real, authentic Rotkohl. It was awesome!!! I miss good German food. 2) Breakfast with Mo, Phil, and Reed at Kitchenette. I had the "Gretel" which is french toast smothered with glazed pears and cinnamon (Still drooling). Soooo gooodd. Actually, I just noticed the trend that my highlights all have to do with food. Hmmmm, what does this say about me???

Okay, well that's all for today. I updated my PSU webpage a bit, so you can check that out. Have a great day! -Em:)

Heading Back to Civilization

It's been 5 months, but yes, Emily finally gets to head back to civilization for 48 hours of raucous, unadulterated fun. I'm headed back to NYC this weekend and I am pee-my-pants excited about it, if only for the fact that New York has an Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, and Dunkin Donuts-- all of which are sadly absent in Happy Valley:( In all seriousness, my friend Mo is taking the first part of her Comps on Friday and we're going out to celebrate and kill off all those brain cells she's been harvesting for the last few months in preparation. For those of you not yet acquainted with the joys of Comps, they are the set of exams/papers that you must pass in order to get the priviledge of writing your dissertation (note sarcasm). The pleasure of Comps is on par with being strapped down and forced to watch only Jim Carrey movies for the rest of your life. I'm getting misty-eyed just thinking about it. Anyhow, passing this major milestone is worthing of a grand celebration and as such, I raise my goblet to the gods of rock and salute you Mo!

As a final note, I've added links to Mo & Phil's website as well as to baby Davis' website, my funny friend Stephanie's new baby, whom she refers to as the Human Milk Tick. I love that girl!!!

Oh, oh, oh! I finally broke down and bought a digital camera, so I may actually have RECENT photos to put up soon of my trip to NYC. Whoohoo technology!

Yay! My webpage is up!

Man, do I feel like a cool kid today! Not only did I remember to post to my blog (which kinda sounds like remembering to brush your teeth or something) but I finally was able to connect to the PSU server and post up my website. It's still a work in progress but at least it's there and it looks okay, if I do say so myself. Of course, now that I sold my digital camera on Ebay to pay my electric bill, the only digital pic I had of me on my computer is 3 years old. One day I'll buy a new camera, oh and write my dissertation, but until then this will have to do!

Check out my new personal webpage: http://www.personal.psu.edu/students/e/f/efr108/index.htm

Before I logoff, I just wanted to send a shout out to my parents who finally dipped a toe into the pool of the 21st century and bought a computer today. Whoohoo! It only took till 2005, but hey, better late than never!

Post-Superbowl Thoughts

So it's the Sunday after the Superbowl and I was thinking about all the random things that I've seen and heard over the weekend. First of all, I need to give a shout-out to the Philadelphia Eagles, who tried their best to topple the Pats and nearly did:( Poor T.O.! He did a pretty good job his first game back, but they just couldn't contain the Pats' passing game. My favorite part of the game was the 180 the halftime committee did by introducing the most sexually harmless musician of all time to follow Janet Jackson: Paul McCartney. Folks, this couldn't have been more tame than if Kermit the Frog had been their instead singing "Rainbow Connection". While I enjoyed a lovely time watching the Superbowl with friends at Hooters (yes, Hooters), the volume on the big screen was low so I didn't get to enjoy the raucous creativity of most Superbowl commercials this year. For those of you who also missed, what is often, the best part of the Superbowl, check out the Superbowl Ads website for recaps (Can you believe this site exists?)

In other news, it's no secret that I love my cheesy TV. Every week, I take time out from studying to watch The Bachelorette on Mondays, Gilmore Girls & One Tree Hill on Tuesdays, and The O.C. on Thursdays. I feel no shame in this:) Everyone has their vices! This weekend I heard 2 disturbing pieces of news about my fave reality show, "The Bachelorette". First, I hears that the second Bachelorette, Meredith, and her hotty fiancee, Ian, finally broke up! What is the world coming to when two people who met on TV and went on several "fantasy dates" and then got engaged after 6 weeks cannot make it work! I'm saddened by this unforeseen turn of events;) Then I found out that on the current Bachelorette, featuring the adorable fellow Ohioan Jen Schefft, that creepy French suitor Fabrice, who FINALLY left the show, is really gay! Don't they screen for that stuff beforehand. I mean, any one can just google the contestants for background checks. Oy! Check out the article I found out about him and his gay pride portfolio. Geez!

Okay, well that's all the good gossip I have today. I sadly have to get back to work/studying. Man, some variety on that end would be nice. I guess I can't complain though. This semester, I only have to come into campus 2 days a week and can work from home in my jammies for the other 5. At least I have my DVDs and mp3s to keep me company:)

First order of business...

Well my first order of business this morning is to send a shout-out to my friend Mike whose birthday was yesterday!! Yeah, 27!! He's a politician in the making (God help him) and at 27, he's one year older to being an acceptable age for a Congressman;) I wonder when he'll be assigned his first eager intern.

Second order... Yesterday my friend Lisa and I waited in line for over an hour with lots and lots of undergrads to get tickets to the Maroon 5/The Donna's concert. Lisa doesn't know any of Maroon 5's music (which kicks ass) and I don't know any of The Donna's. Oh well, the ticket was only $10. It's sad when your only knowledge of a band comes from their commentaries on Vh1's I Love the 90's (which, after the Daily Show, is the funniest show on tv). Seriously, they need to come out with the I Love the 80's and I Love the 90's on DVD soon. You can only buy the soundtrack to the show, which is stupis since most of us already have lots of CDs from those decades. I mean, c'mon, 1999 was only 6 years ago.

As a last note, I watched the movie Vanity Fair with Reese Witherspoon last night. It had the same director as Monsoon Wedding, which was an awesome movie about an arranged marriage in modern times in India. I have to say I was a little disappointed in the film. Reese Witherspoon was luminous, as always, and the set designs and costumes were gorgeous! But the story lacked any real oomph. I just didn't come to care for any of the characters. Maybe if I read the book. I'll bet that's good (Note to self: put on list for summer reading;)

Okay, so that's all for today... Have a good one!

Coffee?

Doesn't anybody just drink coffee anymore? Yesterday I stopped at one of the campus coffee shops to grab a large coffee before class. The process of purchasing a coffee is usually a simple affair there. You go up to the counter, you ask for a large coffee, they give you a cup, they swipe your ID/meal card, et voila! You can now walk over and pour your own coffee. However, yesterday things were much more complicated. At 10 to 6pm, I walked over to the coffee shop and noticed that the line was longer than usual. There were maybe 5 or 6 people ahead of me. You'd think that it wouldn't take that long for them all to go through the previously described coffee buying process. However, on this particular day, people decided that plain old java wasn't good enough for them. The first guy had to order mocha mocha with a twist with a whipped cream sculpture on top, or some shit like that. Then the next girl wanted a flavored cappucino with the cinnamon sprinkled on lightly, like so. Then the next guy ordered green tea that I swear we had to wait for it to be FedExed from China, and so on... So 15 minutes later, a bewildered Emily was able to buy her large coffee and then i rolled into class 10 minutes late.

My point is that I don't understand why people don't just drink coffee anymore. In graduate school, isn't the point of the coffee the caffeine anyway? Why do we need all the frills? If I could, I'd just inject the caffeine into my veins and save the time of standing in line. Of course, I'm not sure if, in the end, it's other people's fault for ordering such extravagant drinks or my fault for actually waiting in line behind them. F*** it! I say blame them!

By the way, for those who actually do want a decent cup a coffee, order from the masters: Dunkin Donuts