Resolved in April

1. Done! Admittedly at the expense of my drafting assignment and law & lit revision, but whatever... I dinnae care! (that might also be because I am so close to being done with law school I can smell it, and because I had a margarita for lunch).
2. 28.4%, which I was surprised to discover is lower than last month (by a massive 0.3%!). Hurrah! It's been a pretty revolting month, healthy living wise, and the next few weeks does not bode well, either - cinco de mayo, Senior Week, graduation, etc. Ulp. However, the bar review starts fairly soon thereafter, and I think I'm going to have a much more regimented life, which leads to more gym time, which leads to less bodyfat. In theory. It's still lower than the 29% at the start of the year.
   
3. Big nights out... hmm... well, wine club was cancelled a couple of weeks ago, and we had a dance party. All four of us at a friend's place. I also went to Optimo, which was AWESOME (apart from the plan that to stay awake whiskey would be the only liquid to pass my lips). And danced my behind off at a wedding this weekend. So not too bad, although there's not much on the horizon. Rats.
   
4. Classic movies not really happening either, although TOH and I are off to see a Chaplin double bill tomorrow, which should be sahweet. I loved, loved, loved The Great Dictator - even though it took me three attempts to watch it (kept falling asleep - that doesn't sound good, I know, but the same happened with Dr. Strangelove and that's heaven). We also progressed on the Coens, having seen O Brother again. Mostly, we have been watching It's Always Sunny... sigh, love it SO.
5. Hmm, after Bleak House I've read almost nothing. Started Crime and Punishment, but really, have been having reading assignments for school and so nothing. That'll change next week, I swear... finish C&P, and then move on. Books for fun - I cannot wait!
6. Indeed, we have more flowers from yet more vases that I purloined. Oops.
7. Hmm, again, nothing new. I've really been feeble and not cooked much at all. I made pie again, but that's not new anymore. DAMMIT! I will try something next week when I can be a domestic goddess because I will have NO MORE LAW SCHOOL.
8. Nothing cultural. Nada. Except a transvestite brunch in DC. That counts, right? Going hopefully to the Brooklyn Museum of Art and/or the Botanical Gardens this weekend. That counts, definitely. Even if it's in May.

Echoes

Coming home always feels like stepping into an imprint of my memories, but like a spot the difference puzzle - some things have shifted to a different place, changed colour, or simply vanished. While I know that things can't stay the same, and my expectations have changed over time, it's weird when you walk down a road you've walked down countless times, and you're reaching for something that just isn't there any more. It's disorienting. Particularly when you idealise the place. Not that I think Catford is the bomb.com, because it's really not; it doesn't have to be, though, because it's home, and that's far more affecting than some former paradise you once had a great holiday.

Today, I came home, and all those feelings and processes have resurfaced. The beauty of crossing the Thames, reminding me just why I feel the absence of a river where I live in NYC (maybe Brooklyn and crossing the river daily will change that, as and when we move?), and those sights that have been there for centuries, the cobbled together houses and Southwark Cathedral at Borough, the rooftops seen from the train; all these felt familiar, warm, comforting. The blossom in full effect, bluebells out everywhere, people cutting their hedges in their front gardens - front gardens! - were glorious. Yet I crash back to earth, with the ugly, stripped, mutilated magnolia tree in a garden of a deceased neighbour. She was a sweet lady, always friendly, and her garden was always heavenly in spring - anything you could name, bursting in colour. But what really hit me, every time, was the sight of that magnolia in spring - huge, dripping with the weight of its petals. And it's gone, to all intents and purposes. Why would you do that? Why not cut it entirely, rather than desecrate it?

One of these things is not like the others

A copy of my email to New York Magazine:

To the Editor:

I recently received the first issue of a new subscription to NY Mag (April 28, 2008). I was excited, given I use the website all the time. I opened the article on Gossip Girl with a little trepidation - another piece about how it really captures something truly zeitgeisty of the NYC / privileged teenaged lives, etc., etc. Instead, my concerns were focused on the diagram of the interwoven lives of the characters on Gossip Girl.

I get it, that you had to colour code the different types of relationships, but I am interested to know how long and hard you thought about the decision to categorise "attempted date rape" as the same type of thing (colour = purple) as "hooking up" or "losing one's virginity." You separated sex from dating-type relationships - hence blue for boyfriend/girlfriend, which is an interesting concept, too, that sex of the one night stand type is removed from the sex in a relationship. Date rape may be closer to the general sex continuum than stranger rape,* as it may result from what started as a romantic encounter, but it troubles me that it's so easily put alongside consensual sex, given repeated studies about the closer relationship between power and rape than sexual desire and rape.

Yours, a potential unsubscribee.

* [note that I use "may," because I'm not sure how I feel about this at all. Talking to a friend who watches the show regularly, she said that he was kissing forcefully and had to be fought off - so it was not as close to rape as the magazine makes out. But my point remains, I feel, and I'm not in any way justifying or excusing date rape. I think it's just as damaging and dreadful]

Laid back... relaxed...

Yep, I feel the sunshine. It's such a ridiculous mood enhancer to know that it's going to be fairly warm out, no matter what, until October. So it occurs to me to talk about things that are making me happy rather than grumpy for a change.

1. Midnight Boom by The Kills - I'm just lovin' it, lovin' it lovin' it (like that). Sort of a cross between the White Stripes and the Fiery Furnaces with, I think, a real Pixies sensibility thrown in - the way they use her voice to cut through everything really minds me of Kim Deal, for some reason, particularly on Cheap and Cheerful. URA Fever and Sour Cherry are worth the purchase on their own.
2. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. A friend lent us it and we've only just got around to watching it, but it is genius. For the abortion episode alone - particularly as it's got Taylor from The OC in it - sheer awesomeness. I love working out which one is the worst human being in each episode - and it's always, always, ALWAYS Charlie.
   
1. Other tv shows currently loving - Torchwood, Buffy re-runs.
   
2. Annoyed at (STILL) - waiting for new Pushing Daisies.
   
3. Outside drinking. Holy cow I've missed it. And it's time to bring out the rosé - hallelujah.
   
4. Maria moving back to NYC - hurrah!
   
5. Football - two victories last weekend, for the first time ever, for the two teams I play on. Playing at this time of year is utterly perfect - and at the moment two two matches are the sandwich to my weekend, and love it.
   
6. Rediscovering the good songs from The Great Escape by Blur - and yes, there were a few - I love Entertain Me and He Thought of Cars - I'd completely forgotten that song...
7. BLOSSOM! It suddenly appeared from nowhere, and so now I can have lunch in the park, with the sun on me and enjoy scent. The smell of hyacinths is glorious, hypnotic - there's a patch of purple ones right by our football pitch in Chinatown, and it's wonderful. The magnolia and cherry trees are out, and I am just extremely happy about it all.
   

Of course, I wouldn't be me without a grumble - bad things about better weather are, of course, self-tanning streaks and having to maintain fairly decent toenails. But I can manage that, of course.

Four and counting...

I only have four classes left at law school. It's utterly terrifying. I really am almost done - I've even registered to take the bar. Ulp.

So, slowly, I am having my last ever last class of the semester. Tonight I had to say goodbye to my legislative drafting class. This has been absolutely fantastic - I've learned so, so, so much. Even more exciting has been sharing the class with politically active people who know so much about the inner workings of New York - both State and City. Several people in the class work for politicians, and one of our profs works for the judiciary. So tonight, in our last class, we talked a bit about the bill & statute we're drafting for our final project (on testing criminal defendants for HIV where there was a chance of transmission), but had a few glasses of wine, some pizza, and gossiped about what's going on in the government in NYS. I find my anger so often directed at the Bush Administration, I don't pay enough attention to what's going on around me, on a municipal level. This class was absolutely great, and I'm really going to miss it.

As for law school... yep, that too. I expect.