Very productive day today. Didn't end up skimming after all -- read through Robert Young's White Mythologies: Writing, History and the West. Somehow, every time I look at that book I think it's going to be about the Wild West -- cowboys and stuff, or at least Utah and stuff. But no, it's about the Occidental West, the European West. It's actually a nice, pretty clear, recap of most of these post-modern, post-structural major theorists I've been reading, summarizing their positions, putting them in relation to each other. I pretty much knew what he said, but it served as a good review, reading through it.
After that, I went to the Aveda store in the Hancock building to buy more hair goop, because I was out. It was a nice little break -- I let the Aveda lady put various make-up things on my face, and then let her convince me to try some other products of theirs. Aveda stuff is pricey, but smells nice. I use make-up so rarely that the stuff I bought will probably last me a very long time, so I don't feel as guilty about spending the money. Not quite as guilty, anyway. And at least I'll have foundation that actually matches my skin tone if I decide I need some make-up armor for my exam. (Which is somewhat doubtful -- I know quite a few women who seem to think of make-up as something like armor, but I still feel like it's more of a mask, most of the time.)
Oh, huge excitement! We must interrupt this journal to note that Minnesota has just scored a fabulous overtime goal, taking them to the play-offs! Congratulations, M'ris! I have a lingering fondness for Minnesotans from the time when Kirstie was living there and Kevin and I were driving up to St. Paul to visit her. So I was cheering for Minnesota all night (Kevin is something of a hockey fan, so there's been a lot of hockey in the background of my studying the last few nights), and the underdog Minnesota players worked so hard and were so determined -- yay, team! Good job! (Minnesota also stomped the Lakers in basketball tonight, so a big night for Minnesota. :-)
Okay, back to the subject. What was the subject? Oh, right. Make-up. Yah, enough about make-up. After the little Aveda expedition, I walked over to Borders and read a slim little book from my list, Bringing Out Roland Barthes, by D.A. Miller. Rather charming, actually -- a very personal reflection on Barthes as a gay man (and a gay man that the author had something of a crush on), mixed with some lit. crit. I liked his personal bits better than his lit. crit., but it was all fine. And very short. Hooray for very short books!
And then after that, started a *third* exam book, Alma Gottlieb and Philip Graham's extremely entertaining Parallel Worlds: An Anthropologist and a Writer Encounter Africa, which I'm about halfway through now. Will probably finish it in the morning, as am getting tired. But if you're at all interested in some of the anthropology/writing/ethics stuff, I recommend this. There's no actual lit. crit. in it -- just two white people who lived in a small African village for fifteen months, trying their damnedest to be respectful and ethical, while trying to deal with all kinds of difficulties. Good writing too. Graham had published at least one story in The New Yorker at the time they went to Africa, and there's quite a lot about him having writer's block in those conditions :-). My committee clearly gave me this book as a reward for slogging through some of the other stuff (in fact, I think I vaguely remember them saying something along those lines about this book in my original exam list meeting).
I’m a Lakers fan from way back, so I can’t join ya in cheering on the Timberwolves, but the Wild/Avalanche game was just amazing (heck, the last few games were). This is truly a wondrous time of year for hockey fans. :^)
Yah, the hockey games were all a lot of fun. V. distracting!
I don’t actually have any strong emotions about the basketball game — we weren’t really watching it, and it’s pretty much impossible for me to care about sports unless I pay fairly close attention to the actual game. 🙂 Just couldn’t help thinking that Minnesotans must have been pretty happy.
Poor Colorado, though.
WOOOOOOOO! 🙂
They kept saying things like, “No one thought they could do it!” And I kept saying to the TV (because I’m becoming my grandfather and talk to the TV), “*I* thought they could do it!”
Hi Mary Anne,
Sorry for the comment on Ameena and you and the big decisions about hair on Sawnet y’day. Not very helpful, i know. I thought about the hair thing seriously : ) while driving back after dropping my son off at Montessori, where there never seem to be any moms with long hair around, makes me feel like i’m shirking or something! Having seen your pictures–i think short hair would suit you just great. It just seems like such a huge big decision to make with no easy way to undo damage (unless extensions?). May be you could go a few inches every 3-4 weeks. By the time Summer hits, you should have the cut you’re dreaming of now, except it wouldn’t have been drastic change. Also, you say somewhere that it’s something of a trademark feature for you, so please be cautious : ). Of course there’s always the woman in that Fitzgerald novel who cut off her hair so people will look at her instead of her hair.
Just as i said that i don’t know why i keep coming back to read here, you mention Robert Young who’s on my committee! And then i remembered that when Robert *Newman* left USC–where i was a few years ago–it was to go to Utah as Dean of Humanities. It’s such a cosy world : ).
Argh — Maya, I think I must have accidentally deleted yesterday’s SAWNET digest without reading it. Is it archived somewhere? Do you have a copy of yesterday’s?
The main problem with cutting in successive chunks is that it limits the flexibility of what the hairstylist has to work with on a short cut, especially if any layers happen before the end. It seems better to just bite the bullet and do it if I’m going to. 🙂
The long trademark hair is gone, btw. It was long long long for a decade or so, but most of that got chopped off to shoulder-length last summer. People seemed startled, but got over it. Most of them, anyway.