sundries, now with footnotes!

I am still ridiculously tired. I feel like most conversations I've had with Patty since we've gotten back have involved me mumbling incoherently and vaguely pawing at her. She tells me it's okay to be sleepy, and then I declare that it's boring. I did go to bed stupidly early last night and forced myself to sleep until 9am today, so hopefully that will help, even if I did wake up in the middle of all that so that we could watch "Fool For Love."

Leading us to Obligatory Buffy Commentary: Oh god, I really am Spike.

Patty: "Did you write bad poetry?"
Me: "Everyone writes bad poetry at some point."
Patty: "Did you use the word effulgent?"
Me: "Entirely possible."

Also, hey, James Marsters can act.

Today we went to the farmer's market and Trader Joe's. In addition to things like asparagus and ramps, we got stuff for our illegal fire-escape garden, including more herbs and a bunch of tomato plants. Assuming it doesn't rain for ALL OF JUNE this year, I figure we're already ahead.

New Yorkers! London has ruined us for Indian food. We have lots of good places in NYC, but nothing that comes close to what we've experienced in the UK. If anyone has any recs for places with awesome jalfrezi, dopiaza or bhuna, we want to know.

Last night or this morning or something (tired, can't remember), I asked Patty to go with me to what will be my 20th reunion at Hewitt^{1, 2}. Despite not graduating from Hewitt, it was ten years of my life, and they've said I'm welcome so I've decided to go.

This is, of course, rather fraught for me, and led to Patty asking why I even wanted to go.

"I just want someone else to see it, to know it's real. When I talk about it, no one believes me. Plus, you'll really like the library."³

"Won't I be at your side?" she asked.

"Maybe I'll be at yours."

Predictably, all of this raises the eternal question of what to wear. ( This isn't as easy as 'wear what makes you comfortable' )

But here's something, two somethings, I've never told you, and I guess it matters. First, Hewitt has a terrible reputation. Second? The Hewitt motto is "By Faith and By Courage" and the crest and all involves tall ships at sea. The weird thing about me isn't that all the pieces of me don't seem to fit, it's that they all actually do.

Holy crap! Deadly airborne fungus! Fuck Oregon!

A lot of people deserve blame in the global financial collapse that isn't done with us yet: Goldman Sachs, Iceland, real estate speculators, skankwire.... Wait, WHAT? Also, seriously, who the fuck names a porn site "skankwire"?

Tommy Tomita, the Japanese jazz tour guide of Harlem.

This should go without saying, and I've probably said it before, but I'm so sick of it: I loathe, LOATHE that "Gwen-bashing" is more or less a genre of fic in Torchwood fandom. It really disgusts me.

---

¹ Wow, check out the graduating class photos along the staircases. White dresses mandatory, with advance approval required from the school, because if two girls got the same dress, that would be really embarrassing. I remember girls used to bring in custom sketches of dresses, and we wondered if people would get something really fabulous to get multi-use out of it -- debutante ball, wedding -- but people had the resources that that wasn't necessary; or, if they didn't have the resources, wasn't relevant, since they'd never be a debutante or have a big deal wedding.

² Also? That staircase? Only seniors and faculty members were allowed to use it. Everyone else had to use the servants' stairs.

³ Woah, shit, that reading room thing in the upper half of that photo is new! It's pretty cool, but I wonder how much it mars the effect of the library as I remember it. It had once been the formal dining room in them mansion that housed the Upper School. I used to take French in the servants' quarters.

why I watch Doctor Who

If you do watch the show, you'll find this a bit too shippy and too focused on Rose over Martha and Donna, but, this utterly, utterly captures why I love this show nonetheless. If you have not finished the main part of Rose's arc, this has spoilers. If I'd never seen the show before, this would make me watch it, and having just been in London it's a gut punch for me like it wouldn't have been a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4YpH6TgqCY

vid by seduf - full info

found via sexonastick and elisi