"It is not a novel to be thrown aside lightly. It should be thrown aside with great force."

-- Dorothy Parker

Dislike: Unchecked snobbery. I loathe and detest the "there's only one way to do this, and it seems that only I (and maybe some privileged people that I assosciate with) am privy to this fabuolous know-how" attitude. There's only one way to dress, one way to speak, one kind of music to listen to, one genre of book to read, etc. (and I'm talking about particulars here, not moral vs. immoral, which is obviously the primary deciding factor in any situation) Okay, I know that I can be a huge snob sometimes, so this probably sounds hypocritical to some, but 1) I never act that way intentionally and I try to knock it off when I realize that I am & 2) I still dislike it in other people. I guess the heart of my gripe is that I hate that, at twenty years old, I'm still being told (implicitly, more often than not) that I have to act a certain way to "fit". Being condescended to makes my teeth itch.

/vent

Back home, after a day of flying and driving that felt like it would never be over. But it was, eventually, and I slept in my own bed last night (a nice big one, and it's all mine!). Today I went to Mass in the freezing cold (literally, it was freezing outside) and mourned the fact that, while there is still snow on the ground from the last snowstorm, it's gotten rather sad and greyish-brown. The good news is that it's supposed to snow on Christmas Eve...three cheers for a White Christmas. I also received belated birthday presents from my family, watched Kung Fu Hustle (at long last) with my brothers and my father, read a little, cleaned my room, and lounged around while luxuriating in the fact that I could do absolutely nothing all day if I felt like it and it wouldn't hurt anything. And by "anything" I mean my GPA. However, I did tell both of my bosses that I would work over break, so I suppose I should call them tomorrow and I will have to start reading Paradise Lost in the near future. But Milton isn't so much of a chore. It's so lovely to be home again! I feel so taken care of...my family may be crazy, but they love me a lot.

(I can't believe I didn't blog at all this semester)

Right Here
(is where it hurts)

Fistful of Love -- Antony & Johnsons
Fix You -- Coldplay
Snow Come Down -- Lori Carson
Unplayed Piano -- Damien Rice & Lisa Hannigan
Romeo & Juliet -- Dire Straights
Ache For You -- Ben Lee
Miss Misery -- Elliot Smith
Amen Omen -- Ben Harper
Good Woman -- Cat Power
Friend is a Four-Letter Word -- Cake
We Both Go Down Together -- The Decemberists
Hear Me Out -- Frou Frou
My Lady's House -- Iron & Wine
Gagging Order -- Radiohead
Car -- Built to Spill

a mix

but my heart cried out for you, California

Eight days until I head back to Cali.

382 pages of Don Quixote left.

One more day of work.

An infinity of laundry to do before I can start packing...

Ten Precepts from The Art of War That Never Made It Past Sun Tzu's Editor

Cormac McCarthy rocks. He has rocked (in my eyes, at least) ever since I read All he Pretty Horses (which even ended up being a good movie with Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz in the lead roles), and he's still on a roll. His latest book, No Country for Old Men is just as disturbing and chillingly, thoughtfully beautiful as All the Pretty Horses and Blood Meridian (which I couldn't put down until I was done reading it, and gave me nightmares, but I keep rereading it anyway), for example. I love McCarthy's disregard for punctuation and his brilliant, sparing use of words. If you haven't read any of his books, now is as a good time to start.

from All the Pretty Horses:

It was dark outside and cold and no wind. In the distance a dalf bawled. He stood with his hat in his hand. You never combed your hair that way in your life, he said.
Inside the house there was no sound save the ticking of the mantel clock in the front room. He went out and shut the door.
Dark and cold and no wind and a thin gray reef beginning along the eastern rim of the world. He walked out on the prairie and stood holding his hat like some supplicant to the darkness over them all and he stood there for a long time.

If the little doughnut shop of horrors didn't have cameras monitoring every square inch of the store, certain people would've had their coffee spit in at least once by this point in the summer. Seriously, though: I really don't enjoy having trash thrown at me just because some people (I'm endlessly amazed at all the ways in which adults can disappoint me) still can't handle hearing the word "no". And for the record, I don't like being called a "skinny white bitch", either. Gosh people, have some manners...it just would never cross my mind to talk to a complete stranger the way that some of these people talk to me every morning.
Every day is an intense lesson in humility, to look at it positively.

(There are decent people, too, people who ask kindly, "Do you ever take a day off?" and then press crumpled bills into your palm after saying the magic words "please" and "thank you".)