I got a lot of work done yesterday, actually writing and analyzing. Of course, it's in unfiled notes in OneNote, so I have no idea how many words I got out or even have it in some kind of order. Which makes it easier to add to today.
Around 10pm last night, I started to run out of steam. I had two choices: jump right back in, head first, and force myself back into the groove; or be satisfied with what I had accomplished and go socialize. A friend called. Decision made. So I went to meet my friend at Sushisamba on Park Ave between 19th and 20th Sts. I didn't eat there, just had a glass of Cote du Rhone, but the atmosphere was quite nice (despite the metalwork that makes the ceiling look even lower than it already is - I get claustrophobic, but hey, it's New York), really lovely reds and dark colors, and the bartender was very nice and I had a wonderful time. My friend had a cucumber martini concoction which was delicious. It would make a great summer afternoon drink. Then I taxied uptown to Le Bateau Ivre to meet another friend. Absolutely love that place. It's so French. I highly recommend the Beaumes de Venise, which is a Southern Rhone (of course - my favorite), but they have over 250 varieties of wine by the glass and amazing food.
Then we hopped across town to the Mean Fiddler in Hell's Kitchen, which was this rowdy bar, complete with girls with no rhythm whatsoever dancing on the bar. Talk about a change of pace! It was fun though. Got to have decadent wine and cheese by candlelight and then belly dance to 80s music. Always good.
I've linked a fun article from the Times (A Guide to the French) above, but the first article I read today was about Darfur. What's going on there? we ask. There's no good way to answer that question, but if we have to ask it means we're not paying enough attention. Anyone who knows me at all knows that peace is a big issue for me. Which means I'm very concerned with how conflict is represented. Implications of futility are incredibly dangerous, I think.
I should probably admit, however, that while reading the article, which is only three pages long, I got up from my desk twice, looked something up on the internet, downloaded an album, and made a phone call. And then I read the article on living in Paris and wished I could go... I have a short attention span, yes, we all know this, and multitasking is more effective for me than trying to concentrate on one thing at a time (takes just as long as when I do ten things at once, I'm not kidding - sometimes longer), but I couldn't even read a single article on such a grave topic? For the record, I didn't read the French article all in one go either. Among other things, I looked up Sarkozy's response to a man who told him not to touch him, which is hilarious. ("Casse-toi," by the way, doesn't mean "get lost" so much as "piss off," which makes the whole phrase something like "piss off, poor bastard," or better yet "piss off, dumbass," but it's even funnier because Sarkozy's smiling the whole time, it's so lighthearted. Who tells the French president not to touch them in the middle of a crowd welcoming the president?)
Anyway, today I'm going to continue going through WHALITC for a bit, see where that gets me, maybe shift gears and go through the comments I and my adviser made on my draft, maybe read some more Derrida (Memoires for Paul de Man). I need to go do laundry and to go to the grocery store, but I can still sort of put both off until tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. Either way, I'm going to embrace my scatteredness because it's counterproductive not to.
But first I'm going to send some appropriately inappropriate ecards...
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