Ah, sickdays -- like some sort of vacation from hell, trapped in my parents' house with a deep chest cough and no medication but some sort of infrequent-use inhaler that, while it allows me to take a deep breath, is not curing my bronchitis.

This is apparently because I am idiotic and can't even manage to set up a doctor's appointment correctly.

This does not bode well for escaping from this place anytime soon.

I suppose while I am lying here, wishing I could taste the lentil soup I've been eating and also wishing that I could remember tae ryun four, I should get some things done, such as:
-finding a thesis adviser
-finding a thesis source base
-finding nommy recipes for vegetarian food

I also might explore the mysterious world of Hulu, the online television player. Other than that I have two books which I'm alternating between (Julie and Julia, by Julie Powell, and Skeletons at the Feast, by Chris Bohjalian), and after that I'm out.

More updates later, I suppose.

home front update

I've been home four days, and so far I have hair cropped short enough to frame my face, an ankle brace with reinforced stays that actually supports me, a very filthy pair of riding jeans, pain from kendo in my neck/shoulder that will not go away, and a lingering numbness from my right elbow down to my hand.

I'm still tired, only vaguely sleeping at appropriate times, but pleased enough to be back and able to do at least some things right away. Work starts on Monday.

cold turns your breath into clouds

It is anything but cold here, right now, in the gasping, record-breaking Lyonnais heat. I lay in the coolest room in the apartment with all the windows open, and dream while I am supposed to be studying.

I've been listening to this song a lot, possibly because the video is too cute for words. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4sa2HoXpsE&feature=PlayList&p=3C7EDDA78EE64DDD&index=1).

I am realizing that some combination of being physically inactive and living in the Land of Pastries has done some pretty serious damage to me. I'm not looking forward to having to buy new clothes for riding and for work when I get home -- hopefully something a summer at the barn and in the dojo can help me fix.

By the way, two songs that are really good to jump around in your underwear to are:
American Hi-Fi, "Flavor of the Week"
The All-American Rejects, "Give You Hell"
My weakness for bad pop-rock will probably never die.

I'll be home in nine days!

bisous?

As I sit here frantically striving for some sort of thesis topic to present to Professors Rossman and Reed, I have one headache inducing, worry inspiring thought -- France is not done with me.

Or, should I say, I am not done with France. Despite the myriad tribulations this country has put me through this semester (and, inadvertently, in semesters and years past), it seems my thesis will be nothing other than a careful treatment of some aspect of French history.

I need to be putting my energy into thinking up that thesis, I think, not blogging about it.

notes on other blogs

"Self-pity, needing someone, and the bittersweet sense of self-reliance. There must be an archaic, non-English word for that experience. (Probably French?)"
-nightmare brunette

The best I could think of was "débrouillardise" (resourcefulness), but I'm not sure it really carries the bittersweet combination that she's searching for.

The quote is an excerpt from a short piece on cities, loneliness, and life in your mid-twenties. I am very interested to see what the next handful of years brings me.

Now, back to the teeny world of note recopying.

listening to: mixes from ML
reading: blogroll

well you put on quite a show.

This is the first book I want to read when I get home. (http://openlibrary.org/b/OL2196866M/Above-the-river)

I never thought I would actually feel like I was living in a James Wright poem.

listening to: Take A Bow (remix) // Rihanna
reading: nothing much

Maybe it will be a little countdown tradition?

It being precisely five weeks until I go home, I am taking this moment to compose a short list of places I just can't wait to go.

1) The dojo. Uptown, downtown, class, or workout, I can't wait to get back to being the eternally-abused brown belt.
2) The barn. I would be happy to reek of horses, leather cleaner, and hay-dust.
3) Bodo's.
4) The downtown mall -- I hear it's having a facelift?
5) The nest.
6) My huge, low, down-comforter-dominated bed at my parents' house.
7) Proffit Road.
8) The Lawn-proper, The Corner, steps of the Rotunda, Old Cabell, Harrison-Small, and of course ALDERMAN.
9) Greenberry's.
10) Daedalus Books.

listening to: ML's mix (rap side)
reading: notes for Souveraineté et Mondialisation