December 13, 2006
Results
I just finished my marking and printed out my own essay! And so the toiling is over. Which is not to say that I get to reenter the world as yet, as I’ve been neglecting my creative project for the last five days, and have a mess of short stories to write over the holiday. It just means my seclusion becomes less intensive and much more pleasant. I am now reading Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which I chose because I never saw a review for it short of raving. And it is an amazing novel so far, but so brutal. I can’t read too much at once.
December 6, 2006
Mochi
Mmm. One of the benefits of where I live is international delicacies on demand. Yesterday I had a hankering for mochi, which was one of my favourite treats when I lived in Japan. And so I just picked some up on my way home yesterday, and am snacking my way through the toil. I’ve been displaying strange side effects from an overdose of undergrad papers however: I’ve been preoccupied with Petula Clark all the live long day.
November 30, 2006
Back to work then.
The next almost-three weeks will contain just about no fun. Except for one day off (for Christmas baking of course), I will be hard at work marking 5 papers a day, writing my own essay, writing my own creative stuff and tying up other odds and ends, and doing my shifts at the library. The prospect is dreadful, but the idea of a Christmas holiday with all that done is delicious. On December 15, I plan to sit down and finally crack open my copy of the latest Drabble. This all means that if I am here now, I really should be elsewhere. Back to work then.
November 22, 2006
Raise a glass for everyone
The unexciting thing is that our household is a bit ill, but we have to pretend we aren’t because there is too much to be done (and one of us has to go to work afterall). And that the next few weeks are coming on like an onslaught and I don’t feel well enough to ward them off. And that Homeland Security is now consulting with Horatio “Trigger Happy” Caine, but that actually is sort of funny. We like to keep track of how long it takes for an episode of CSI Miami to go off the rails. Last night it clocked in at about eleven minutes.
The exciting thing is that I got a haircut and I love it, and it is very short. And that Stuart’s birthday is on Thursday, so naturally I’ve got cake baking ahead of me. That my much adored PK is in town this weekend and we’ve got a lunch date Saturday. And that we’re just days away from it being appropriate to start playing Do They Know It’s Christmas. And most of all, that come New Years, we’ll have a Kate!
October 22, 2006
Pickle Me This turns 6!
It’s a big week here in PickleTown. You’ve probably noticed that Pickle Me This has had a makeover. What you might not be aware of is that Pickle Me This turns six years old this week! Though this blog has only lived here since March 2005, we’ve have been around longer than I’ve known the word “blog”, in a variety of incarnations. Not that you’ll be able to find them easily. The last thing I need is someone airing out my filthy early-twenties-angst dirty laundry. No way. We’re all cleaner-than-clean here at Pickle Me This now, but even though our history is mostly inaccessible, it is loooong. So let us celebrate. All birthday greetings may be dropped in the comments box, of course.
October 13, 2006
Nigel
I never mentioned that the story below was my submission to the McSweeneys Thirteen Writing Prompts Contest. A losing submission, obviously, but I still wanted to share it because I had fun with it.
