All I Need

What a deliciously weird and wonderful day! Part of its charm is its inauspicious start; I could have sworn that today was going to be awful. I got up at 6 to go to the gym, which was a real struggle considering it was raining and cold. At the gym, I had slim pickings with regard to television. See, I go to this gym just for the TV monitor in the treadmill. Yes, I can watch any show I please as I run. The problem is that there really isn't anything on at 6 am, unless your tastes gravitate toward Saved By The Bell or Vh1 playing Sarah Boreallis's (sp?) song on loop (God I hate that song). Anyway, I decided to watch The Today Show. By the time my run was over, I was thoroughly depressed. The topics? Rising airline costs, floods in the midwest, the anniversary of Iraq, the biological predisposition in humans to cheat on their significant others, and the high probability of having Alzheimer's. Now I know why I read so much celebrity gossip. When I'm done I feel smug or satisfied. 

Anyway, this sort of television viewing actually sparked a super interesting conversation with Dan. And then we flipped through my J.Crew catalog, where I found the perfect bridesmaid dress. In my excitement, I showed them to A., who kindly pointed out that the $385 price tag may be a little high. But not to fear dear readers, we found a suitable alternative!

This is actually a four season suit from J.Crew. Now picture this on my bridesmaids and this on my maid of honor: 

Wouldn't this look great? Plus, these dresses are so practical; my special ladies can wear them long after the ceremony.  Your thoughts?

I showed these to Dan and he loved them. We really got into the wedding planning mood, which had never really struck us. Somehow googling information about Guanajuato was just what we needed. 

Beautiful. 

In other good news, I may have a research opportunity. This professor told me that two of my advisors had said "great things about me." Plus, someone I really admire wants me to read his paper! I am so flattered. 

Good news all around. Now if I could just pretend the world around me isn't crumbling...

Good Morning

So it's Thursday morning and I am sitting all by myself in the East Lounge in Rackham Graduate School. I am trying to revise the ethnicity list for the new version of the Comparative Prelim, but I am finding it difficult, nay, impossible to concentrate. A friend of mine in college (I suppose we were friends... definitely on friendly terms, hung out a couple of times) died. He was badly burned in a fire in Seoul and his family was raising money for his medical bills. I contributed and was looking periodically at the facebook page reporting his status. Last night, while working in the Ford School, I checked it and to my utter surprise, he passed away. I never entertained the notion that he wasn't going to make it. His sister uploaded a journal entry he had written. It was much more profound than anything I've jotted down in my moleskin notebook (or on this blog, which goes without saying). He was utterly alive and aware that he was living. I am often torn between the concepts of living for the day and living for the future. Too much emphasis on the here-and-now can, on the individual level, lead to disaster for the future, and on the aggregate level, a hedonistic culture. Yet continually planning for that day that will never come robs life of all of its spontaneity, and, inevitably, some of its beauty. In his journal entries, it seems that he had a perspective on the world that I sorely lack. He knew he was part of a bigger thing. He saw the failings of society, but he didn't linger in his pessimism or freeze in the futility of individual action, something I do. I am saddened that the world lost such a reflective and intelligent individual. 

It's All Right

I'm back in Ann Arbor and Reality has just sucker punched me. I have SO much to do. The good news is that I'm on track with my raw food diet. I actually feel really good, especially after a week of gluttony. In other news, the girls were really happy to see me! Both of them have been jumping onto my lap and rubbing up against my legs. In some ways, it's good to be back.

100% Committed

I'm going to announce it here...I am going to eat only raw foods for the month of March.*  Dan is taking the under. I will update this blog with my progress.

*I am not counting my birthday or Easter.