so much drama today; it has been quite exhausting (none of it, thankfully, involving me). T was jilted by P who is sharing a flat with G who has taken to going for long walks with L in whom T has been confiding her heartbreak, and somewhere yesterday there was a misunderstanding about something, and there have been people in and out of our flat all evening crying and upset and hugging and swearing eternal friendship and getting upset and misunderstood all over again and it is all making me very glad that i am not part of the drama. L & G are currently having dinner in her room with the door closed, so i suspect the drama has not yet found a resolution, but in the meantime i am going to boil some rice, cook some parsnips, and await M, with whom i am having supper in lieu of our planned drink because we both forgot it was sunday and the pub is closed.
OMG i almost forgot - in other class drama news: T shaved his beard. he has gone from looking like mr. unabomber al-qaeda mountain man to looking like a normal person, not to say a TOTAL HOTTIE. (no-one needs to get worried here; there are only four days of class left, he is only 23, and he still has a unabomber personality. i am just appreciating from a distance.). he didn't want to do it - he was trimming it and somehow the trimmer got stuck and made a bald spot, so he had to shave to keep it even. several people, me included, actually failed to recognize him when he came in this morning. funny. also C has come down with the deadly flu bug that has been getting everyone, which makes me think my days of good health may be numbered, but i will step up the obsessive handwashing, eat my vegetables, and hope for the best.
in vaguely related news, i am noticing a phenomenon that i don't think i have ever really come across before, probably because the majority of my friends have been vaguely medically-related for so long now: everyone here will be sitting around talking about some medical topic with a moderate to severe degree of misinformation ("i knew this dude who had totally bugged out eyes because he had like some nerve problem, called like exothyralmus or something, and they told him his eyes might fall out" or "when my dad was in hospital with colitis, they had this theory back then that morphine was bad for you, so they didn't give him anything at all for pain, but now they like know that it is better to give as much morphine as the person wants" or "jamie lee curtis has this thing where she's like a man from the waist down and a woman from the waist up") and no-one, but no-one, will ask me, 'hey, is that true?' or 'what is actually the deal with xyz condition?' i don't say anything when it happens (as it doesn't really matter particularly to me what people think jamie lee curtis looks like with nothing on), but it just strikes me as really odd that people wouldn't ask. as if you were discussing a weird deep sea diving phenomenon that you had vaguely heard of that sounded totally crazy and you had a professional deep sea diver sitting right next to you and it didn't occur to you to check in with them about it. i mean, it's not as if i am guaranteed to know the answer, by a long shot, but i can at least have a better crack at it than most art-students. does anyone else think this is weird? i think it is weird.
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finishing this at 11 pm, after a very nice supper with M, who is SO ENGLISH, for lack of a more unifying descriptor. he is funny, terminally grumpy, and has a total tin ear for languages (he said, for example, that they had gone to 'sinky terry' in italy for three days, and that he had stopped off in 'vee-hers' for supper on the drive back; it took me a couple of minutes to put together cinque terre and vihiers out of that). he is still not happy, and is wanting to change his plane ticket to leave early; his problem, i think, is that he is very smart and not very social, so if he doesn't have the hypersmart part of his brain plugged in and lit up, he doesn't have a lot else to keep him occupied, and he gets cranky. he did maths, maths, and physics for A-level (in high school) and math at university, which he liked because he didn't have to study: you either get it or you don't. one of _those_ people, in other words. *cough that sounds like "my father" :) i am still totally intrigued by his dietary choices: he is not only vegan at this point, but is oil/fats free (his contribution to dinner was cabbage leaves stuffed with curried rice/peas - very good, fresh strawberries - very good, and a yummy syrah - very good, but hunh?? you're allowed to drink wine (we killed the bottle between us, hence the subject line) but no olive oil? don't geddit. he apparently stuck to plain pasta and boiled vegetables all the way around italy, which i think might be an imprisonable offense, but never mind. dinner was fun, and that is what counts.)
time change this weekend - a lovely lovely sleep in, with time for a morning run in full daylight for a change - which of course we then paid for by losing our afternoon painting light. i ended up with my nose about an inch from the canvas for the last hour, totally cross-eyed, and i suspect i shall have to repaint it all tomorrow, as i probably got all my colours mixed up. oh well, so much piss, as french plumbers say.
but apart from the fact that i can't see it, i am reasonably pleased with this painting; it doesn't look anything like S-J, but at least it looks human (ish) which is a significant improvement, i think, and there is a good chance i will be able to finish it by thursday. how i am going to manage to transport two still-wet paintings in the car, then onto the TGV, then onto the airplane, then into K's car without making a complete mess of everything (while also carrying a big pack and my rolly suitcase) is a whole different question. i may be reporting soon on the interesting toxic effects you get from trying to dry oil paints over the radiator in your room; stay posted. perhaps someone has a hairdryer. hmmm....
in political news, two items of importance:
1) i have taken a solemn oath to run out into the street screaming if obama wins on november 4th (please note i will be in kiel, a place where they are not used to screaming people in the street, so this is a big commitment on my part; i hope the universe is paying attention to how much i do not want mccain to be president) and 2) please spread the word to all california voters that it is reeeeeeeelly important to vote no on prop 4 (parental notification for abortions) which is a big pile of caca. most teenagers tell their parents anyway; those who don't usually have a really good reason not to (incest/rape/child abuse/dysfunctional parents); to have to get official notification is enough of a disincentive to many teens that it would drastically increase the number of unwanted babies and later term abortions (late term abortions = yucky, higher likelihood of complications); and it makes NO SENSE since once you get pregnant you are considered legally an adult able to make your own medical decisions whether you have turned 18 or not, and there is no reason for abortion to be an exception to that, except for the loony christian right wingers who want it to be. so vote no. please. please. please. and tell everyone you know to vote no as well.
many thanks to my sistah who made me larff with the funniest recipe for spanakopita i have ever read (and likely will ever read, given how infrequently i read spanakopita recipes), to J. for sending me my new yorker what is making me sooo heppy, and to B, who said my blog was brilliant (brilliant! me! thereby making up for some of the other things he has said about me ;)....)
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