blargle, argle, bleagh. you know those days when you don't really want to speak to people in any kind of language they might understand? it seems like my day has turned into that. had some minor miscommunications earlier that gave me a bit of stress, but am okay now, except for the blargle language issue. which i don't think is all that bad right now, especially since i'm at home.

as usual, i have work to do. but i'm not really doing it, or not all of it. i'm doing my readings and lit searches, of course, but i'm not doing the harder stuff, the stuff that takes a bit more brainpower. like writing articles for the mag i work on. yes, yes, i'm only stressing myself out more in the end, etc., etc. But it's so much easier to just read a novel... or watch American Idol... (yeah, it's on tonight. and, like the car wreck that it is, it's impossible not to watch. yes, that's right *impossible*. i totally need to leave the house more. like, be *forced* to leave the house. i'll get over it; it's a phase, etc.)

in totally other news, i've been experimenting with pumpkin. no, just in the kitchen, just as a foodstuff. pumpkin is versatile and good for you. and it's orange, which is nice. i've been mixing it with ricotta and cinnamon and heating that up, making muffins/pancakes, whatever. a little pumpkin goes a long way. i fully intend to get sick of it soon enough.

Perhaps it's because I'm avoiding all the work I have to do this week that doing laundry and washing the dishes has made me feel happy and good about myself. I shake my sorry head. The thing is though, that I can go for a month, yes, even more than a month, without doing laundry. And I'm not even wearing the same clothes over and over again. See, I must've known that I would be poor again at some point, so while I was working I managed to buy a lot of clothes just for that purpose. Yes, just for that purpose...

Some of the clothes are wearing out though. However, there are some good second-hand stores here and I have picked up a few newish items that help the wardrobe situation. I do miss shopping though. I'm not sure if when I have a job again I will pick up the shopping habit with the same gusto I once had. I mean, by that time I'll officially have a masters in media studies and have lived in montreal for 2 years, which, combined, should make me 'more aware' of my 'modes of consumption', n' stuff. But if getting a high off buying $200 pants on sale for $35 is wrong, then I don't wanna be right.

Again, I shake my head.

It's going to snow again tonight. But it's warm (-5), so that's good. I wish I had snowshoes. A friend has some cross-country skies to give me, but I need boots to go with them and don't really have the spare cash for those. And, apparently, cross-country skies have to be the right length for your weight and height or else they don't work. Interesting. I'm just tired of not getting to be outdoors very much and I figure snowshoeing or x-country skiing would let me be outdoors and stay warm at the same time. Next winter, oh, next winter I will be ready.

Dear Everyone-in-an-Uproar,
It was only a boob.
Love Robyn

P.S. How I cheer Janet's boob for making a superbowl appearance! There's really nothing I can say that Jon Stewart didn't last night on The Daily Show. So smart. e.g., let's watch bone-breaking, vertebrae-cracking action for a couple hours, broken up by ads (sex! power! cars! power! beer! erectile dysfunction meds!) and then a halftime show apparently all about conspicuous consumption, cock and sexual innuendo and, Oh lord! a boob! go to commercial! ah, a horse farting and a woman's face going up in flames, now there's family values. Is the U.S. the last place in the world where this could be a scandal? I'm quite sure that even Canada would just shrug its shoulders - I mean Alanis is always showing her boobs, plural.

oh. god. new mountain goats cd. i read about it the other day and then i forgot and now it's on the radio! if i have to eat oatmeal for a week, i'm buying this cd. at this point i'm such a mountain goats addict/lover that there is no alternative to not running out and buying each new album as it comes out. it's just love. so much love.

so much work to do, yet so much work not done. but it was the weekend, the *weekend*! i didn't even waste time watching the superbowl. mostly because if i had watched it time would have moved slower. holy crap, i'm so glad i'm not into football. i managed to catch beyonce's national anthem and then, by some miracle (haha), i turned on the tv to see miss jackson belted out (gasp) 'rhythm nation'! and then justin timberlake came on stage! i was all, whoa, and then i was all, i'm turning the tv off.

i had to keep turning the tv on and off all evening to check to see whether the game was over yet. it never was. until it finally was. and then there was a post-game thing. why do this? for *all-star survivor*! of course. and it was good. i know i shouldn't watch it b/c it's not so good for the blood pressure, but i can't help it. i've stopped watching csi and law&order and such shows because i figured out they were giving me nightmares (and, yes, what i suspect was boughts of high blood pressure - i have low blood pressure, and i think it just tends to shoot way up sometimes. no happy medium there. i realized that i even have to drink half-caffeinated coffee now! garr. and sugar = bad.)

anyway, all-star survivor is all tension. everyone knows how to play the game and everyone's freaked out a bit. oh, tv...

i did finish reading 'the thorn birds' yesterday. i had forgotten that it was a fairly depressing book really. i did enjoy it though - and for an historical, 'epic', romance type novel, the writing is decent.

i haven't started a new novel yet. instead i've been reading a book about facial disfigurement. there are a lot of first-person accounts in it, so it's pretty fascinating. and bound to give me a few nightmares. i can only remain academically detached for so long, y'know. actually, not for long at all. i'm all for objectivity and love objectivity, but i don't think it's the same as detachment. and i wouldn't want detachment really.

and blah blah blah. stop.