Being Sick, School Work, Walking About, HP Podcraft, and sundry other things from the past couple of days...

BLOT: (15 Nov 2010 - 12:32:01 AM)

Being Sick, School Work, Walking About, HP Podcraft, and sundry other things from the past couple of days...

Showering when you are sick is a different sort of thing than showering when you are well. You take the latter for granted. It is just to get clean. When you are sick though, you feel each shower. The first shower you have right after getting better is the marvelous one, the milestone. It thrills your spirit and washes away that sorry, flu-filled chapter from your life. The one you take while still sick? Strange, unwordly affairs. Your head is spinning, the water if flowing, your sinuses are annoyed, and your whole body feels tired. Soapy and tired. Then you get out, and you do feel more refreshed, better hydrated than you have been all day—or a couple of days—but also kind of clammy and cold. Ah.

Last night, around 7pm, Sarah and I went to Frizzles on Jordan to get some custard sundaes and plays card games. We settled on Rummy, and and she a chocolate and peanut butter affair and me a caramel and cashew set up. Every thing was going well but I could tell something was wrong. About half way through my sundae, I had to just bail on it. It was making me feel tired and weird. I ended up throwing that bit away. Didn't want it around me. I did finish some soda I had—Barq's rootbeer—and we did finish our Rummy game—she one, if just barely. By the time I got home, though, I could tell something was wrong. At the time, I figured it was some momentary imbalance, like getting winded after a flight of stairs or those days where you can't quite wake up. It has now been about 28-hours, and I feel worse, if anything. I even sent in a letter asking for a sick day tomorrow (the weird way our schedules are arranged, I'm not sure it is guaranteed I can get it). Which is the first that I think I have ever asked off at this job. Last Christmas, I went with a sore throat so bad that the act of working the reference desk that day ended up with me losing my voice for over a week. I figure: let's not repeat.

In less sick news, most things have been well. I have settled into the end-of-the-semester lull that sharply wraps around the end-of-the-semester rush. All focus is on two things. The first, a presentation, will be done this Wednesday (assuming I have not given up the ghost to strange microscopic bugs, of course). The presentation is, as far as planning goes, mostly done as is. I just have to give the thing (and it will only be one quarter-hour). The other is a mock conference proposal, which I have mostly written. I am waiting for one grade back before I fine tune the elements down into a brisk, bodice-ripping romance about the struggles of fair Memory imperiled by the harsh, rugged machinations of swarthy E-text.

Glancing back over the past week (it has been about eight days since I have written an entry about myself), not a whole lot has occurred. Worked all day on Sunday, and then Monday through Wednesday are mostly blurs. I know I worked Monday and Tuesday, and had class on Wednesday, but any particulars experienced are largely lost. I cannot even remember watching anything in that time period (surely I plunked down to seem show or another) and did not really read anything until Thursday. It was, essentially, a dead time period for me. On Thursday, though, Sarah and went and walked around Research Park for a couple of hours. I snapped pictures. I love the colors this time of year but rarely actually photograph them. Friday I went back to work and then hung out some with Sarah and we watched Sherlock (the newest BBC adaptation). Maybe. Maybe that was Thursday. We did walk around on Friday and tried to get some more pictures but the camera's batteries died in the middle. I have maybe a dozen good shots, possibly less, and I may post them in a couple of days if no more good sunny Fall days look like they are quickly forthcoming.

Saturday was mostly a build up to our date. We did finish Sherlock (it only has three episodes so far) and that's about all I remember of that. I got sick, and now my brain is half gone.

I have been reading the new Stephen King compilation: Full Dark, No Stars. Almost done with it and likely will finish it tonight. It is four stories. I guess you could call it two novellas (130pp and 110pp or so), a long story (30pp), and a longer story (about 60pp I think). It probably counts as three novellas and a short story. Whichever. The first one is about a farmer who kills his wife to get her father's land, and it goes awry. The second is about a woman who is assualted and left for dead and then she plots for revenge. Both are ok. Both go on for too long. The rape-and-revenge tale especially could have saved a good thirty pages and kind of got down to it. The third story, a deal-with-the-devil bit, is possibly the most refreshing take on that story since Faust. You get to the end, just knowing how it will turn up, and go "Oh." Not read the fourth. That's for after I finish this post.

I'll finish by sending you over to HP Podcraft.com. It's the HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast. Has been going on for nearly two years or so, I think. It runs mostly weekly, with breaks here or there. Mixes together literary discussion (of the better sort, not endlessly decontextualized close readings) with humor, pop-culture reference, horror, and just friendly banter. I am working on catching up (about half way there) so that I can read along, which sadly...by the time I get there, they will only have about 1/3 of the stories left, it looks like. Ah well. As an on-topic addendum, have also been discussing the re-literature-ization of horror on Goodreads.com (that linked discussion board, Literay Horror, has a number of topics about horror as more than just empty sets of thrills). If you can see that (and I don't know), you might find it interesting to check out. If not, then you can get some of the vibe by Nick Kaufman's LJ-entry: "The Cult of Not Mattering: How Horror Fandom Is Its Own Worst Enemy".

LABEL(s): Me in 2010, Horror.

BY WEEK: 2010, Week 46
BY MONTH: November 2010