yes, i watch the gilmore girls

dear friends,

when i am embracing the fact that i do not have a y chromosome i occassionaly like to watch the gilmore girls.

recently, i watched this episode. and, i am officially declaring it awesome.

awesome,
cam

(the return of) irresponsible consumption day

dear friends,

i try to keep my life simple. i get rid of one old thing the minute i get something new. i don't have knick knacks. i like grocery shopping when i just buy what i will use immediately. but, i can't deny that i am a commodity fetishist. during my first foray into teaching marx to girls who were thinking about the next purse they were going to buy, i too used shopping to cope with being alienated from my labor. it was back in 2004 that i declared my first irresponsible consumption day. it coincided with pay day and mcgill free friday (another much beloved tradition). lately i have felt very much like i did in those mcgill days-- too much ra-ing, too much ta-ing, too many papers all in progress, and all work all the time. and i will do some work today, but:

the girls of wallace 129 are going to zoe. i am going to buy clothes and dress like a princeton undergrad (well, as much as is possible for someone who consumes more than just salad). today i am going to buy whatever i want. even if it is gold lamee. or fur. or i will only where it once. i am going to wear some of this new stuff to the re-opening of the graduate student bar (possibly even breaking my boycott on any club that involves standing in line). and when i get into said bar, there will be mass irresponsible consumption of alcohol.

for one day i am going to ignore the structural problems and root causes of my malaise and shop and drink and be merry.

cam

ps- don't judge! i almost declared it sugababes appreciation day.

i'll tell you what i want, what i really really want

dear friends,

this is the record that i most want, even though i have all the mp3s on my computer. the next round of f5ing for show tickets begins march 2nd.

this is the record that i nearly bought because i have purchased nothing at p-r-e in the last three weeks. oh, wait. except cornelius. and that was peer pressure. may go back for the lovely feathers. why was i so unwilling to part with that extra $2.99. also to be filed under f'reals? is this.

this is the record that i least want to hear. it is also the most inadvertantely hilarious article of all time. it is also further evidence that montreal would be a far better place without rue cresent.

this is the record that i most recently got from lala.com and the inspiration for my latest appreciation day. to celebrate, please take some time out and watch this. this is just objectively one of the best!songs!ever!.

in other news saturday night i helped a friend of a friend film an independent movie's club scene here in princeton. dancing sober. new but not unpleasant. likely to go dancing again thursday. and yes, i am hoping they will play some spice girls.

slam your body down zigazig ah,

cam

that time i went on a date with a serial killer

dear friends (or more accurately watchers of my facebook status),

some of you have inquired about the details of my felon-dating past. so here's the story. when i first moved to the town i went to undergrad in, i started volunteering at a low income restaurant. [patrons pay $1 or what they can and waitresses bring high quality food to their table-- a soup kitchen with far more attention to the dignity of the human person] it's a very special place and i won't name it because i would hate for its reputation to be tarnished in any way. i still go back when i am in town and have a great many friends who still volunteer or eat there. i started working in the kitchen and quickly made friends with my adopted irish grandpa paddy and the largely elderly crowd that staffed the place. the assistant co-ordinator was this guy named jason who was late 20s/early 30s and was dating a teacher who would stop in now and again. we were friends but he was definitely not on my radar for a million reasons. anyway, over the next couple of years i would become more and more involved with the place and the people who ran it and who ate there. there was a nasty split with the catholic church i went to that involved the restaurant changing locations and most of the catholic volunteers quit to start an alternate service but i stayed on. i brought friends. and by the peak i was working there 4 days a week. one of the friends i made there was a woman named veronica (name changed to protect the innocent) and she and i would have lunch a couple of times a month. one day she told me that jason had a criminal past and that he had just recently been out of prison. having heard nothing like this from anyone else who worked there, and since it seemed super out of character for someone who was shy and artistic and spent his life running a soup kitchen, i attributed it to veronica's sometimes tenuous grasp of reality. she had been battling schizophrenia for the the last 20 years and the illness and the meds made her slightly delusional sometimes. for instance, the conversation about jason's criminal past also included a story about how he had proposed to her at one point but she said no because her family and doctors would not like it, but if she were to get married i would be one of her attendants.

anyway, flash forward to my final year of university. i get a really awesome haircut. i come into volunteer one day and jason comments on said hair cut. then another day he hugged me. the finally he just asked me if i wanted to hang out sometime. now, aside from being a little suprised that this was happening-- my dominant emotion was guilt-- veronica was madly in love with him and i didn't think i could go out with him--even once without being a backstabbing bitch. but my roomates and friends seemed to think one date wouldn't be breaking the girl code and kindly pointed out that it was not like i had anything else going on, so we tentatively planned to go to the movies. as it happened, the day he picked was valentine's day. this whole thing led to much anxiety for the 22 year old me whose romantic past had including things like "hanging out", "coming over", "friends", "not my girlfriend", "whatever," "trading mix cds" (although not yet: the pretend marriage, and yes i did steal this list from the article on whimpsters). he specifically asked me to do something. he was going to pick me up at my house. except i was 22 and i lived in a student ghetto house of girls who maturely hid around the corner in the living room to try and get a good look when he came to the door. could i really be with someone over 30? anyway, the anxiety was for naught because we went to see chicago (his idea) and i am pretty sure he feel asleep and in general the conversation was fine, but i am not attracted to people who are literal. banter is important to me. anyway, i decided he was nice and nothing so awkward happened that we couldn't still work together but we wouldn't be going out again. and i think he felt the same way because soon thereafter he started dating another volunteer and then later a teacher.

flash forward to last winter, i get an email from a dear friend who still volunteers there, saying something to the effect of thought you would want to know about jason and a link to this article. turns out veronica was right! and, on top of that he had just reoffended! so, there you have it. that's the story of how i went on one date with a sex-offender. the only thing that really traumatized me was that it really brought home the idea that there is no "look" of a criminal. you wouldn't have suspected a thing. but i am not going to live my life afraid of things, so i choose to focus on a God who might have spared me from a lot worse. the wife in the article is the school teacher he started dating that year. and, it just gives me a ton of perspective--things in matters of the heart could always be worse.

and that's my true story.
cam

woman vs. laundry

dear friends,

i am presently doing more laundry than i have ever done before. ever. its making me rethink my position [and the general icrm resistance] on the grey sweatsuit revolution. [see website for manifesto and documentation]

hell, i'd wear white pants these days if they were clean.

i have also reached the marx point on my generals reading list. perhaps interaction effect.

raise your skinny fists like antennas to downy.
cam

the week in review

dear friends,

now that i am slowly weening myself off the valium-type drugs, i have the energy to entertain you with some miscellany and to sorta keep up with my new year's initative to write more (both academically and personally).

sunday- carried large pile of books [this will become relevant later]. worked on report on women and religion for the 'seminal figure in political science' (sfips) i work for [this will become relevant later as well]

monday- started to feel old and arthritic. finished report for sfips. decided last minute to apply for this afterall. [fingers crossed for summer in dublin]. went to makedas. [one word resto review: go!] back was really bad by evening's end.

tuesday- pain equivalent to the fiery intensity of a thousand burning suns. decide not to go to doctor. instead buy thermacare. have 3 hour conference call with sfips research team. i painfully pace office because sitting hurts too much. sfips tells us anecdote about hanging out in libya with general khadafi over the holidays.

wednesday- go to health center. nice physician's assistant pete hooks me up with the drugs and says the books i carried on sunday were the likely culprit [grad school injury!]. at cvs i pick up copy of jane magazine. inside there is an interview with elijah wood. he makes reference to miss lavell white's song "if i could be with you", which i promptly purchase on itunes (don't judge-- i was on valium). and besides, it is a good song. i have uploaded it for you.

thursday- putting on socks still quite difficult. discover back pain is not good in winter months or for people who prefer wearing skirts and tights. while on floor trying to put on socks motivate myself by making comparisons (that will likely see me going to destination:hell transportion: handbasket)to daniel day lewis in my left foot. i also remind myself it is not the family way. my dad has had steel beams dropped on him by forklifts and declined tylenol prefering to "walk it off" and my grannie likes to chop wood for her fireplace at 80.

friday- continue to rock the heating pad plugged into my desk-- which makes it appear as though i am plugged into my desk a la the classic disney film "not quite human" starring alan thicke.

saturday- range of motion improves. stay in butler avoiding sock dilemma. watched jesus camp. again, a case of sociologists could do it better. really was hoping to see more interviews with the kids themselves, but that might be my own bias. post generals i am going to start working on a paper entitled "why colarado?" which will attempt to explain why the state is home to so many homeschoolers and mega churches. some recommended reading:

mitchell steven's kingdom of children

james davison hunter's culture wars and evangelicalism: the coming generation

christian smith's soul searching [note well that dr. smith responds to his own bad reviews]

sunday- things much better. can sit and work (or blog)in long stretches. learn about final fantasy's new project-- an invented country-- take that sufjan. my money is on ploughright.

and that's all the micro, macro and meso i've got.

cam