Just because you can zip them doesn't mean they fit.

The euphoric state produced by being able to zip my "skinny" jeans this morning without that tug dissipated quickly as I regarded my reflection in them. I think they must be what caused my dizziness in the elevator. Note to self: don't bend over in a moving elevator to rummage for car keys in bag on floor and straighten up suddenly as the elevator bounces to its stop. Especially not while wearing jeans that may be cutting off circulation.

"Those are really cool boots! Where'd you get 'em?"

La nueva novela de CRG

El convento de Dos Mundos

Going to see CRG tomorrow at Stanford is an opportunity I cannot miss, but for the first time EVER I'll be missing a seminar. And it's Peluffo's class and the reading is Eva Perón. I so much would have loved to hear what she has to say (Peluffo, not Perón, I'm actually getting a little impatient with Evita's memoir).


Also, have chosen to take Friday off...so thankful for Monika and Matt, who will be covering. At least Friday is test day. And speaking of, again, so thankful - Monika is doing the finishing touches to Test#3 as I write. Doing the test was another stresser that made this week so out of the ordinary. Yet, it became something salvific. Below, I reproduce Monika's ingeniously creative e-mails along with an e-mail of mine. The Skype conversation referred to in my missive served to pull my head from where it was entrenched (my ass) and placed it gently back where it belongs.

From: m
Subject:=?iso-8859-1?q?RE:=20Examen=203=20todav=EDa?=
To:todos
Date:Wed, 28 Nov 2007 07:05:30 +0100 (CET)

Estimados hermanos,
Que no corra la sangre y que haya paz. Sus sugerencias aún están llegando a los buzones de este santo monasterio. Sus peticiones serán atendidas debidamente, disculpen a la hermana Valerie, que ha sido rápida y veloz en su ejercicio espiritual de componer el examen 3. Gracias, hermana, los hermanos de la Congregación de TA´s del Santo Suplicio te lo agradecemos. Ahora, en la noche, me retiraré a mi celda y meditaré profundamente con la ayuda del señor(oh, Norma, que todo lo ves) e inspirada por ella,llevaré a cabo la mejor de las tareas para que todas las sugerencias queden debidamente atendidas para mañana a la hora del ángelus (o sea, bien prontito). Que la paz sea con vosotros,ave.
La hermana Sor Teo de Loteria

From: V
To: M
GENIAL! Casi escupí un buche de vino tinto sobre el teclado de "mi precioso". ¿Tengo tu permiso reproducir esta carta en mi blog? Y, de veras, discúlpame...sí hice unas correciones, y no sabía que te estaban enviando más, pues no me han llegado ningún
otro e-mail...¿quieres pasármelos para que pueda ayudarte? No quiero que pases demasiado tiempo en este examen...bueno te busco en Skype...o te hablo por teléfono.
V.

From:M
To: V

Estimada madre superiora, Sor Valeria de los Ángeles,
su Excelencia puede reproducir esta misiva en su diario o bitácora internáutica sin agravio alguno para mi persona ¡Por supuesto! Es un honor. En cuanto a las
correcciones, no se preocupe ni se desvele su señoría, que ya fueron enmendadas. Mañana añadiré aquellas otras de la hermana Angélica y del padre Fray Omar.
Ahora me voy a la cocina, donde el padre Fray Alvariño se encuentra preparando unas viandas como cena, creo que precisa ayuda...
Un devoto abrazo,
La hermana Sor Presa de los Exámenes y Papers.

---

Bah Humbug

Each year I am less and less in the Christmas spirit. Like everyone else, I am appalled that the Christmas commercialism begins so early. Even the food doesn't appeal. Red and green don't look nice together. I guess there are also some personal reasons why I no longer feel the magic or enchantment or the warmth of the season. The last time I felt it was when we went to MT to the brothers' houses. But that can't happen every year. A large part of my attitude is a reaction to hearing Christmas music in not even mid-November.

I realize that every year there are fewer Christmas songs that I can even tolerate. Some of them follow, along with their antitheses and some are quite incongruous and I cannot even begin to explain why they've made the cut or haven't.

1. "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (but not "Jingle Bell Rock")
2. "Do You See What I See?" (but not "Little Drummer Boy" or -gasp-"Silent Night")
3. "Blue Christmas" (but not "White Christmas")
4. "Good King Wenceslaus" (but maybe not "We Three Kings")
5. "The Office Xmas Party"(but not "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer")
6. "Silver Bells"(but not "Jingle Bells")

LaLaLa #2

Although not a huge fan of this style of naïf art, I was kind of looking forward to going to the Grandma Moses exhibit at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento with Sylvia. When I was in 4th grade, our beloved teacher Mrs. Sisson had us study Grandma Moses. The artist was an amazing person, having started painting in her 70s and painting so prolifically. The exhibit was lovingly curated and viewers paused longer than the average time before each painting, sucked in to what Sylvia called the artist's "mind maps" of her village. Even I spent a lot of time looking at the detail and vaguely remembering Mrs. Sisson's lesson. I think we read a book, watched a documentary and did paintings of Poplar "in the style of..." Some of those paintings, would definitely have been less cheery than the endearing and actually quite elaborate "Sugaring Off" (below). Just imagine muddier snow, rusted-out rez cars instead of horse-drawn buggies, way more dogs running around and a few passed-out drunks up alongside some of the buildings. Title would be "Sleeping It Off." Yes, just add making fun of Grandma Moses to the list of reasons why I'm probably going straight to hell.



I hadn't been to the Crocker for over a year and was surprised at the construction and expansion project. The museum is really one of the state's best art museums and allegedly the oldest West of the Mississippi (and the Crockers were related to Elena Poniatowska). One of the coolest things about the permanent collection is that most of the art has a plaque that offers an explanation/interpretation of the work and alerts viewers to special details (e.g. looking beyond an obvious fireworks display in a painting and noting that flames are shooting out of Mount Vesuvius in the background). These explanations, surprisingly, are not in the least bit patronizing.

But the very coolest thing was the 2nd floor's center gallery. The paintings there are now hanging salon style. (See page 3 of exhibitionlayout.pdf)

I must have seen this style of hanging art before. But I either don't remember it or am such a peasant I actually haven't. Both are very real possibilities. Since I would never dare profane the space of a museum with my camera, I'll let Tommy Huynh's photo that I found on flickr.com illustrate this gallery that had me absolutely enchanted.

I figure that since I credit the photographer it's probably OK to copy his photo that he probably wasn't supposed to take in the museum in the first place anyway.

__________________________

Sylvia showed me Thrift Town out on Arden after we left the museum. A pink and orange paisley button-down shirt, a burnt-orange linen blazer that I hope will make me look like a professor and jeans that have a henna tattoo iron-on detail on the end of the legs and in a size number that made me very happy (never mind that I can't really sit down in them...they'll be my museum-going jeans).

Advice

Was thinking about my mom's words of wisdom today - other than the typical "say please and thank-you" type. Somewhat incongruously, instead of sitting me down for a proper feminist "sex talk" she just handed me her copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves (first edition), saying, "Here. You're an advanced reader. We can talk about it afterwards if [read mathematically iff ] you have any questions." Never sentimental, she didn't offer a loving yet cautionary speech when she dropped me off at college the first time. She just wrote the first 3 of these gems on the little notepads the RA had hung on our doors. The rest were passed down over the years when needed.

• Keep your room clean.


• You know where the clinic is. If you have to, use it.


• Don't fuck up.


• Always have a "Plan B".


• Don't drink from the swizzle stick. It's tacky.


• Handwrite thank-you notes (but not if you've said thank you in person). Don't type them. It's tacky.


• No matter how much a man tells you he loves you, never let him see you putting on your pantyhose.


• Don't wear white shoes (or linen) or drink gin and tonics after Labor Day or before Memorial Day.


• There's always money for travel.


• If you see_____(insert name of current or former stepdad), don't talk to him or give him any money.


• Don't open your wedding gifts at the reception. It's tacky.


• Read. (unspoken and understood)


• Read quality books, certainly, but a good trashy novel once in a while won't kill you.


• Oh for God's sake, Valerie, STOP cracking your knuckles! You're going to have arthritis by age 25.


• You should get a dog.


• Vía radio now, but always at the moment I most need it, "Don't worry.....'bout a thing..... 'Cause every little thing..gonna be allright."


• To be continued when memory serves...

I do try to follow all of these, but haven't done so well on the wearing of linen and drinking of gin and tonics only between Memorial and Labor Days. Mom actually gave a dispensation of the linen thing after living in Rosarito for a few months. And the g and t's...well, sometimes we just have to extend the season, due to mitigating circumstances and/or temperatures. Oh, yeah, and those thank-you notes...

A writer's writer writes about writers, writing...y mucho más

Tusquets, 2001


Started the study-reading of Javier Cercas' Soldados de Salamina. It raises interesting questions about the value of literature written by authors who supported and/or were part of the falange. Excellent transition de parte de la profe. Cristina, from Cela to Cercas. Soldados is quite an easy, compelling "read" and from the first few pages, it's evident that the story would translate smoothly into screenplay. Indeed, the filmic version (click for the excellent site) of the novel was extremely sucessful and nominated for an Oscar. I look forward to seeing the film next week - the protagonist appears to have undergone a sex change. As much as this novel can "pass" for literatura popular, there is a literary weight to it which enabled its being used in this seminar and as subject of critical works. Of particular interest are the writing about writing angle, the above-mentioned question about questionable authors and the nods to or strong presence of other authors, here especially to Chilean author Roberto Bolaño (who died, age 50 at the apex of his career in 2003 Obituary in the UK's Guardian Unlimited). Instead of citing the first sentence of the novel here or even the first mention of Bolaño (in which Bolaño reveals to the narrator that he has read and liked both of his books and displays the worn copies to prove it), I'd like to copy the following. It's now perhaps a bit eerie...definitely a tribute to Bolaño mixed with a bit of respectful competitiveness on the part of Cercas...

"Esa tarde, mientras escuchaba con creciente interés la historia exagerada de Miralles, pensaba que muy pronto iba a leerla en uno de los libros exagerados de Bolaño, pero cuando llegué a mi casa, después de despedir a mi amigo y de pasear por la ciudad iluminada por farolas y escaparates, quizá llevado por la exaltación de los gin-tonics yo ya había concebido la esperanza de que Bolaño no fuera a escribir nunca esta historia: la iba a escribir yo" (164).