I think I offended Murphy again...

1. There was no hot water for a shower yesterday night. It's quite nice that it's not snowing, but on the other hand, standing naked in the tub waiting desperately for the water to heat up while your big toe slowly freezes from testing the water isn't so fun. There was no hot water this morning as well, so I put my hair up (cringing at the non-shampooed-ness of it the whole time) and muddled my way to work, certain that everyone could tell I had not showered. I was seriously debating bringing in shampoo and soap to work to shower at the company gym, but decided not to.

2. I finally scraped together the remains of my motivation and went running again. I may have nearly died a few times on the elliptical, but I made it! Indeed, I made it only to leave the gym and find that it was pouring rain and that I only had a thin sports jacket on. It wasn't snow, this is true, but it was really freaking cold! Thankfully, the hot water worked tonight, or else I would have ... I don't know. Waved my hands around in frustration and yelled at the plumbing? Somehow I doubt that the universe feels very threatened by me...

3. This isn't a Murphyism, but I figured I'd note that I got my "Zombies are the new black" shirt! Thank you for putting together the orders, katie_m! I put mine on to go running and stood in front of the mirror and squiggled with glee. Ok, I was also squiggling because a bit of my blue sports bra was showing and it matched the trim on my socks, serendipitously! Um. Yes. It was happy!

4. My dress pants are usually the type where there's a metal catch in the front, which hooks easily, along with a button to secure the fastening. Unfortunately, buttons are not very securely sewn on or something, so the buttons inevitably fall off, leaving me to rely on the metal catch.

I had been worrying all day about how tight my pants were (they were a bit uncomfortable). So while I was walking up the stairs to go to a meeting, coworker B. called out to me, asking, "Hey, did you book the meeting? The room's full....?"

This would have been a perfectly normal question, except around "Hey," I suddenly noticed that my pants weren't tight! Joy! thought I, in the brief delusion that I had somehow shed six inches from my waistline over lunch.

Screwy, went my brain about three seconds later, as I realized that my pants were indeed looser, but that they were also starting to slide off.

SCREWY! went my brain, as I realized that for a second time, as B. finished his question and waited for my answer, along with four other coworkers.

"Uhhhh......." I said to B., quickly putting my planner and water down on the steps in front of me and desperately hoping that no one could really see me trying to hitch my pants up from my hips and refasten them through the stair railings.

I think this may be worse than the other time my pants have betrayed me (the sad thing is that there is another time!).

How I read Genji

reading_genji is evil.

I'm not actually reading along with the book, because I had to read it once for a paper. My stupid university has this wonderful system for the fall semester in which classes end, students go on winter break, students come back from winter break and have a week and a half of Reading Period, in which they basically cram like mad for finals and write papers really fast. Reading Period ends on Dean's Day, which is when all papers for the semester absolutely must be turned in.

I borrowed the Seidensticker from the university library and basically read about one chapter prior to winter break, being a complete procrastinator. I dragged the book back to Taiwan with me too. This is no small fact! The thing was in hardcover and roughly the size (and weight) of two bricks! Also, I had to lug around other books to read for the paper (several books of and on Noh plays).

Surprise, surprise, I ended up reading only one more chapter at home. So I basically ended up reading all of The Tale of Genji on my 18-hour flight back to school, blearily keeping my eyes open and dutifully turning pages as fast as I could.

I felt like I was in a bit of trouble for my paper, since my one conclusion on finishing the book was, "OMG you skank!!"

In conclusion, attempting to speed-read a 1000+ page book is not a good idea.

Anyhow, I'm mostly just lurking around in the comments, dispensing completely random and unnecessary tidbits of whatever factoids I still remember from college and reccing books that I've only read a chapter of. But! I am having great fun with the snark.

Also, I think Genji needs to have his own LJ. I volunteer to do the occasional LJ-translation of whatever chapter is being posted on, but since I'm not actually re-reading the thing, it will be entirely based on what everyone else reports. Which means... skanktitude and mockery! Er, also, is reading_genji the proper place to post something like that?

And... are there any random bits and pieces of information that people want to know? I have a general mishmash of Japanese history, linguistics and assorted other things in my head, and I can never tell what people may find interesting. Of course, given that the last random tidbit I had was about yang-sucking succubi and the ev0l yin power of the vagina, I make absolutely no guarantees as to scholarly knowledge, attitude, or demeanor.

In which I make some more food

After I attempted to make clotted cream, I decided to move on to actual cooking. This may have been a bad idea, considering how well I was doing with a recipe that largely involved pouring cream into a container, but I plead temporary insanity caused by scones.

Next on the list was 20-clove garlic chicken.

( Chicken! )

( Polenta )

Tree!!!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!1!111!!!!!!1111eleventyone!!!!!exclamationpoint!

I have a Christmas tree!!!!! (thank you cychi for the help!)

It is all sparkly and lit up and has ornaments and smells lovely and is Christmasy and I have carols playing and eeeeeeeeeee!!!!! TREE!!!!

The sad thing is that because it is my tree and not my family's tree, my ornaments only date back to when I moved here =(. So there are only two years worth of history on the tree, as opposed to the twenty-some years of mixed and matched ornaments, broken ornaments, random things that me and my sister did that's at home. But still! Tree!! I put it up and remembered putting up the tree in Taiwan despite no one else in the family really caring and listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Mariah Carey (the only two Christmas CDs we had) and plugging it in to light it up.

I must get a star for me tree now!!!!

To imagine I was almost too tired to get it today! When it was on my car and we were driving back I just wanted to pat it and grin at it and call it George. I named it George before we decorated it, but I think it's just Tree now, because all I can really do right now is squiggle around and wave my hands and yell, "Treee!!!!!!!!!" and jump up and down!

EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!