If I could have anything . . .

...anything at all right now, I would simply wish for 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Is that so much to ask?

Between traveling to Boston and back, the boot-camp-like regime of BU's orientation (even us parents had our every waking hour scheduled to the hilt!), and the "what-fresh-hellish-muckup-will-strike-next" motif that underscores my workdays these days, my body seems to have decided that the hours of 3:30 - 5:30 a.m. are best spent awake. My brain does not like this.

But Boston was lovely, and only slightly rainy. Once freed from the rigors of the indoctrination program at the University (we didn't drink the Kool-Aid), intellikid and I had a day and a half to further explore the city she'll call home for the next 4 years, financial assistance package willing.

On Friday, her shiny new college ID card got her free admission to the Museum of Fine Art, where we spent several hours before heading to Chinatown for dinner. Saturday we breakfasted at a coffee shop that was NOT Starbucks, and overheard the fellow at the next table say to his companion, "Sorry it took me so long to get back to you, but -- damndest thing -- I came down with the swine flu." To test the stalwartness of our own immune systems, we then went to the New England Aquarium, jammed ourselves in among the thousands of other visitors, and made inappropriate lip-smacking sounds while viewing tanks of crabs and other seafood.

To date we exhibit no symptoms of the H1N1 virus. But we're already sick of life back here in Bubbaville. Sadly, I am too tired to do anything about it.

Out of the ashes of defeat

There was once a time when I considered laptop computers an excess. This morning however,with the electricity suddenly gone off, I am glad that my employer provided me one of these technological extravagances, so that I can write my blog post instead of doing something more productive like weed the garden or catch up on reading for my class.

Speaking of weeds, that is not a cigarette in my hand, so don't worry that the stress of my life's current frenzied pace has started me smoking again.

I didn't start smoking until I was 20, perhaps in part to emulate Fran Lebowitz, whose sarcastic wit seemed a cousin to mine. I also dropped out of college around that time, because if Fran didn't need a college degree to get paid to write, then neither did I.

I quit smoking in 1998. My writing habit, however, persists.

I finally returned to college in 2004, and found it difficult at first to sit down to tackle my creative writing assignments without a Salem smouldering in a nearby ashtray. (As for smoking after sex, well, I pretty much gave the sex part up in 1998, too, but have not --yet-- forsworn that pastime. I just haven't found a new, er, brand worthy of the effort.) My blogging habit began in '05, with a post to JournalSpace entitled "English Majors Gone Wild." Today my posts are not so prolific as they once were, but I feel compelled to keep a foot in the blogosphere, in part because of the intresting personal connections that have resulted.

The talented and punderful jadedj is one of my longtime blogging buddies. In the aftermath of jaded's unfortunate defeat in what history will surely record as the Blue Yak Banner Brouhaha of Ought-nine I offered j the opportunity to create a custom header for my blog. I acknowledged that PRS doesn't have the same prestige as TBY, but what I lack in number of followers and quantity of posts, I make up for in massive amounts of je ne sais quoi.

Electricity has returned! So now I can proudly unveil the result of this collaboration, my new Post-Raphaelite Sisterhood blog header:


My deepest gratitude to jadedj, who has earned a lifetime membership in the Sisterhood, along with my Aunt Binky's Curry Dip Recipe (as soon as I can get it transcribed!)

Have a good week, everyone. Next Sunday I'll be back to tell you all about Freshman / Parent orientation at Boston U!

A Case for Civil War

I know how to solve the US auto industry's woes.

We should bomb Detroit.

Since massive amounts of aid money follow any act of US military aggression, it seems only logical that an invasion of Detroit would bring billions of dollars of much-needed aid to the region.

And taxpayers would be less hostile to "Reconstruction" plans than they are to "Bail-Out" schemes.