oh, dear, oh, dear...ok, it's not that bad. it's only been since wednesday (well, actually tuesday night, but i won't quibble). there are a trillion things i should/could/would write about, but unfortunately not enough words or time to write about them all...it's been a long week. do changes in the weather make everyone more susceptible to Life Changes as well? i suspect that's the case. the winter jackets come out and suddenly everyone realizes that if they don't do whatever-it-is now, it'll never happen. snow will fly (well, this is philly--cold rain will fall) and still they(/we/i) won't have found love/articulated a political philosophy/changed the world/whatever.

in any case, if you see me walking around looking confused and vaguely irritated, it's because the content of that last paragraph has taken up seemingly permanent residence in my brain. luckily, the fantastic amounts of phlegm that had been occupying space in my head all week seem to be on their way out, so there's plenty of room up there.

outside my head the world continues in its normal course, mainly. on friday i went to the single worst political action i've ever seen, a tiny pro-choice event on the steps of the PA state capitol. to tell the truth, i was embarrassed to be there. it was poorly organized to the point of near-nonexistence and managed to take a really important issue--the global gag rule--and turn it into an opportunity for some extremely self-important women to read bad poetry at us. i kept thinking, how nice for you, that you can be so privileged as to take a policy that kills people all over the world and make it an issue of *your* free speech, *your* sex life, *your* sex-positivity, *your* issues with eating disorders, *your* ...whatever.

uggh....but at least i got to hear some awful woman from penn state dramatically state that she would "birth parking garages." i wanted to take my "it's not about you" pin, make it into a fifty-foot banner and drop it, equally dramatically, over her head.

not much else to say about this week. i am a terrible academic lame-ass. it continues to be unseasonably cold here. we are still having fun fantasizing about The Household for next year. oh yeah, and the bookstore/coffee shop we're going to open while we're at it. and the grey cat, a la earl at twice-sold tales, who will populate the bookstore part of it. and i'm talking about fundamentalism at protestant community today. fun stuff.