E Pur Si Muove

Every time I take a long hiatus from blog writing (i.e., after every post), I feel an obligation to write an Earth-shattering blog post, worthy of a month-long absence. This never happens. I've had lots of great blog posts in my head over the last few weeks, yet I haven't managed to put any of them down on paper...or a black background. So my insights in this post will likely be minimal. I'll start with a recap of the past month.

I moved back to Westchester on the 14th, and I've been here ever since. Well, except for the 8 days in a row where I went to the city. That was fun. Being unproductive has reached new heights here in the best of all possible Chesters. I haven't totally slacked on my running, but I've slacked a little. I've jogged my 1.5 miles a bare majority of days I've been back. It's really far less fun (but more convenient) to jog on a treadmill. The scenery sucks—even if the single spot on the white wall does keep my eyes focused—and I can always see exactly how many seconds/hundredths of a mile I have left. And my speed is constant the whole way. I could actually really feel it when I went from 4.8 miles per hour to 4.9 miles per hour. I know: You're intimidated by my speed. Don't try to hide it. I can just imagine all those nights you've stayed awake, tossing and turning, wishing you could run a 12:15 mile. I'm practically a fitness goddess.

I've read one novel since returning to the Chester. If you've followed the hyperlink, you've probably figured out that Special Topics in Calamity Physics is awfully pleased with itself, kind of trashy, somewhat overwrought, and 100% fun. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good read with a tight ending and gratuitous literary references. If you love quote-dropping intellectuals or love to hate quote-dropping intellectuals, you'll enjoy it. And don't let the title fool you: It doesn't have significant quantities of physics.

I've gone to Slave a few times since being back, including one visit with Andrew, who was in the NY burbs for the first time, and one visit with Cat, who's (temporarily) back from a crazy year of teaching English to English people. I watched an amazing Canadian TV series with V (on Jess's recommendation), and I've seen a few lovely movies around here, alone and with members of the fam.

Speaking of the fam, I've gotten to spend loads of quality time with my mom, some with my sister, and a little with my father. Natalie has just moved into a gorgeous new apartment not too far from my old apartment, so I may be seeing even less of her over the next couple of weeks. They have a dishwasher. A dishwasher! When I was her age, we didn't have dishwashers in our apartment. We didn't even have running water. If we were lucky, we could make the rats lick our dishes clean. If you got the plague, too bad! At least it wasn't cholera.

(That last part isn't true. When I was her age, I did have running water. But I also had the landlord from hell and a hallway littered with his nephews' half-empty food wrappers. So I'm surprised we only had mice, not rats, in our kitchen.)

Since I have so much free time (and I have to put off cleaning my bedroom for as long as possible), I've fallen head-first into CONSUMER CULTURE. (Dun dun dunnnn!) It's not as bad as it sounds. I'm not buying unnecessary stuff, I'm just spending a long time looking for the things I need for my apartment. If I need lamps (and I do), why go to Ikea when I can look at every goddamn lamp on the Bowery? We (Mom and I) did manage to find some great lamps at non-insane prices. However, if you are a person who likes lighting and enjoys giving people gifts of insane prices, I would be happy to point you toward the work of an artist I rather admire. Just saying. If that's what you want to do, I'll return the lamps we bought.

So, other than imagining the beauty of my future apartment, what have I been thinking about? Well, there was that Obama New Yorker cover a couple of weeks back. I thought it was cute...reasonably funny for the magazine, although nowhere near the greatest New Yorker cover of all time. Some people said it's the NYer's responsibility to censor themselves and put out covers that aren't going to attract the kind of negative attention and misinterpretation this one did and may have done, respectively. I think that media outlets with a broad national audience (Fox News, CNN, USA Today) have this responsibility, but the New Yorker should gear their covers to their audience. And I'm pretty sure anyone who understands their cartoons got the cover. And for those who say "it fails as satire," I might be inclined to agree...that "satire" is the wrong label for this kind of humor/commentary. I don't think that means it fails as whatever kind of humor/commentary it is.

But that's old news.

I guess my thoughts on easy-target-news have been rather limited. Speaking of easy-target-news, though, the Daily Show has begun. I'm going to go watch that. And if you're wondering what I'll be watching this weekend, well...