dispatches from oz

 I forgot what a profoundly retarded show Alias is.  I won't go into it, because there are just too many points to mention.  For one thing, J.J. Abrams seems to think that "biological weaponry" is like, one thing that requires one vaccine.  And I don't really know anything about real intelligence work, but my sneaking suspicion is that Alias bears absolutely no resemblance at all to real espionage.  For one thing, I doubt the CIA spends lots of time looking for semi-mythical Dan Brown style mysterious artefacts.  When Emily and I used to watch it, I think we were too caught up in the sexual tension between Sydney and Vaughn to pay attention to the fact that everything about the show is either wildly implausible or outright illogical.  

It's ridiculously stormy here.  Not freezing but so, so windy and rainy and haily.  Especially at my house it is loud and drafty all night long.  I know it will be far colder in Chicago, but at least there I will have proper heating.  

I saw Harry Potter last week and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Now that there are no new books to look forward to, I am just so overwhelmed by affection and nostalgia that I don't mind that the movies are not perfect.  And this one was actually really good, funnier than the other ones, something I always thought was missing.  

Other than that just working to finish everything.  Have been baking lots of cupcakes, drinking lots of tea with honey and lemon to ward off the swine flu, listening to NPR podcasts and starting to decide what to take home and what to get rid of.  

Also, happy 40 year moon landing-iversary.  I felt so bad that I didn't know the name of the third Apollo 11 astronaut, the one that stayed in the command module and didn't get to walk on the moon.  His name was - well, actually still is - Michael Collins.  Anyway I felt really bad about that so I read his whole wikipedia page.  He didn't want to fly again after Apollo 11.  I wonder why.  He would have been slated to command Apollo 17.  

Oh my GOSH I am watching Alias at the same time as I am typing this and I just have to interject, SYDNEY, WAY TO GO, TELL JOHN HANNAH THAT YOU ARE A DOUBLE AGENT EVEN THOUGH HE KILLED YOUR FIANCE AND IS A MENTALLY UNSTABLE BRAINWASHED HIT MAN.  ARE YOU RETARDED.  

Ok.  Sorry.  Anyway that's all I've got.  

So I have been having REALLY weird dreams and the latest was a series of zombie dreams.  In some of them, I was fighting zombies, but in the last one, another Harry Potter book came out and all the characters were on the run because there had been some sort of zombie apocalypse in the wizarding world (in was unclear whether it also include the Muggle world).  It was really dark and scary, and we were all like, "Hmm, it doesn't really fit with the other books."  Other than that, we didn't seem to think there was anything off about it.  

Two month gap = parent's visit, Alix's visit, birthday, Justin's visit, data gathering, emotional turmoil.  Will probably not be detailing all that.  

Rant:  There was a coup in Honduras.  A military coup.  And it hasn't made the headlines, not once, because the headlines for over a week now have been all Michael Jackson all the time, despite the fact that main gist of the story - i.e. that Michael Jackson died - was grasped by all immediately.  I just think a military coup is more important news than the fact that a celebrity who died last week is still dead.  

It seems my life has only two speeds: furiously madcap and quiet to the point of dull.  Last week was the former:  expected Fulbright visitors, manic pipetting in the lab, excursions to Perth highlights, unexpected visitors, massive dinners, and excessive drinking.  This week is the latter:  desk work, empty apartment, lots of sleep, not a single email in my inbox this morning.  As a result I alternate between sleep-deprived and rushed and bored.  It's a problem. Oh well, soon enough I think it will all be madcap.  At least it will be interesting.  

News items:

Actually have data!  Yes.  Very good.  May finish project after all.  

Alix is coming to Perth!  So exciting and unexpected.  What will we do?  I don't know.  Frequent the chocolate shop and drink wine, probably.  

I mentioned earlier I am flying back to LA on August 25.  If you will be in Southern California that week, let me know.  Not that I will have time to do anything other than sort out all my crap in preparation for moving to Chicago.  

Getting excited about Chicago.  New wardrobe, new city, new everything.  Hoping the girls will move there too!  

Getting cool in Perth.  Buying boots.  

Congrats to the Pep graduates!  

Hmm, no more real news, just felt I should post.  Maybe I should do a big post with all the movies I've seen this year and what I thought of them.  There's a lot.  But it would be a little depressing b/c so many were disappointing.  Star Trek tomorrow.  From the previews, it looks like the WB in space.  Which I am all for.  

xoxo

Even if a lot of us die from swine flu the ones who are left will still have Mozart's Requiem.  

 It's Anzac Day (well technically not anymore I guess as it's after midnight) and I've been drinking since 2:30 pm and I think I've had like four meals since 11 am?  I had a sandwich when I got up...well, got up for the second time as I went to a dawn service for Anzac Day then back to bed.  Then bread and nutella at one.  Then lots of beer at the RSL (not a meal) then frites, nachos, and pizza (and more beer) at Little Creatures then massive curry-fest (and lots more beer) at Lauren's.  Anyway what I'm trying to say is I love Australia?  And I'm going home (home-ish?) four months from TODAY and I regret that.  

Three years ago I left Florence on a grey April day, packing a taxi full of luggage at the curb outside viale Milton 41, the precious detritus of an eight month life.  We crossed the Arno in a thin intermittant drizzle and drove toward Pisa, into the Tuscan hills, greening with the promise of spring.  If one thing was clear on that surreal day, it was this:

nothing would

ever

be the same again.

And so it has proved to be: this inextricable scar, this persistent nostalgia, this ache of the unforgettable and irretrievable: these remind us that in some sense, now and always, we are still in the taxi

leaving Florence.  

 Australian Target sucks.  Ok that's all.  

I know I haven't been updating but life has been so busy!  And good.  When I go abroad I feel like I have a charmed life.  Not that things go so badly when I'm in the States, but both my years abroad have had a quality to them.  Things go right, things fall into place...a charmed life.  I'm sure if I lived abroad permanently it would disappear.  So that's why I have to keep doing it this way - the occasional magical expatriate year.  

Australians are sensible and take four day weekends at Easter.  However, everything - and this includes grocery stores and bottle shops - is generally closed on public holidays like Good Friday and Easter Monday.  This has led to problems for me in the past, as I forget to anticipate this.  This time, I planned for it, but I still don't like it.  I was gratified when Lauren confessed the same thing last night - "I feel weird about things being closed tomorrow."  We both have this nervousness about it, and consequently have a planning-for-the-siege mentality about it.  "What do I need?  Am I out of milk?  What if I run out of wine?  Better stock up!"  Which is ridiculous - it's 24 hours, and it's not like we go to the grocery store every day anyway.  But the fact that it won't be available somehow bestows a tinge of panic to our American souls.  

Anyway it's been such a productive week!  I extracted fifty samples and ran gels and finalized another draft of my manuscript (we're getting close to a final final draft now!) and organized my flight back to the states (august 25) and did a major grocery shopping and signed a new lease and wrote sonnet a birthday card and cleaned my entire apartment (like Cinderella scrubbed on my hands and knees!) and planned a fab glam picnic and cooked a nice dinner.  And tomorrow I will pay my electric bill and go shoe shopping!  

On the downside, someone STOLE my camera at the pirate party - as someone pointed out, that goes with the theme...but I'm still pissed about it.  Still, it was my little digital - totally replaceable - not my SLR.  And I only lost the pics I took at the party, as I'd done recent backups.  And then I dropped my ipod down the stairs but it still works.  

And now I'm making a lovely pizza for dinner on our cafe sandwich press (yay for madi!).  

xoxo

In preparation for the big Pirate Party and as a reaction to last weekend's excessive consumption and lack of sleep, this week was Laura and Madi's week of health:  no alcohol, regular meals, ten o'clock bedtimes.  We had some lapses midweek, but tomorrow is the last day!  And then on Saturday we will party it up!  Arrrrr!