tavie.com

I have some sort of evil nervous disorder, with jitters and shakes, heart palpitations, shortness of breath and dyspepsia, all without any sort of conscious mental provocation.

On an up note, the snow is really pretty.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 9:06 PM | shower me with attention

Christmas came early for Tavie: fell asleep at midnight, up by 9 a.m.!

We're snowed in at Mint Manor; me and Gina and erin are in front of the fire and the snow outside is so pretty and when it stops we're going to go outside and make Swedish snow lanterns; in the meantime there is knitting, cocoa, fireplace, cocoa, kitties, and a 48-hour Family Ties marathon.

I'm having a lot of trouble making myself stop the cozy and start the homework though.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 1:44 PM | shower me with attention

Friday, December 05, 2003

I've resigned myself to the cancellation of the cookie baking (which was going to be awesome, just like when we were little, with our aunt and her best friend, and my mom and my sister, all here with me and Gina at Mint Manor).

Of course, Gina has pinkeye and Angela (TJ's best friend) has bronchitis, and truckfuls of snow keep dumping out of the sky. So it ain't happening.

But I've resigned myself to it. Now it's cozy, and Gina made a roast, and we're watching Buffy, and she's building a fire, and there are pajamas, and kitty cats, and I'll make cocoa, and I'm trying not to fall asleep. Because I woke up at 3:40 a.m. after less than five hours. Which is actually a personal record for me lately.

Please Santy Claus, all I really want for Christmas is to be able to sleep a full "night" again.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 5:12 PM | shower me with attention

Gina!

Why are you in Tavie's head? 5:09 PM | shower me with attention

FUCK!

First snow of the season and there goes our cookie-baking party tomorrow! It's not even noon yet and it's started snowing.

FUCK!

Why are you in Tavie's head? 11:09 AM | shower me with attention

My Mr Picassohead. Fun.

Kirsten!

Andrew!

Why are you in Tavie's head? 10:20 AM | shower me with attention

Let us take a break from anthropology for a moment (I finished the last response! Nothing left but to read those stinkin' ethnographies and write a lengthy paper on them!) and examine the role of mittens in the act of Christmas merry-making. This will be particularly useful in light of my current projects, which are: the reclaiming of my Christmas spirit, which seems to have gotten lost in the homework and pennilessness of my existence; and the fact that I am currently knitting a pair of Kool-Aid mittens for someone who shall remain nameless.

It's in the giving of a gift to another/a pair of mittens that were made by your mother

Ah, let us substitute "Tavie" for "mother"; I am no one's mother.

Bright copper kettles/and warm woolen mittens

While not strictly a Christmas song, it lists favourite things, as we do when we make our lists for Santy Claus; it speaks of snowflakes that stay on your nose and eyelashes, and silver-white winters.

Couples skating on the pond/Making angels on the lawn/Five red mittens drying on the rack/And needles shedding tannenbaums

Although I refuse to see that Grinch movie because it terrifies me to my very core, I do very much like the Barenaked Ladies song that goes with it. And who better than Canadians to recognize the cozy-fying importance of some nice, warm mittens?

Grandma, nothin' tastes better/Than snow on wool mittens!

Who is this guy? What is this song? I don't know-- but, look! Mittens!

Now we're cooking-- we almost have enough for a Mittens Mix. Let's keep going, Google! I'm creating a Google-collage here!

Who spends Christmas Eve alone/With peppermint tea and a cranberry scone/Knitting mittens for the kitten's paws?/Mrs. Claus!

From that tv-movie starring Angela Lansbury, I wager? I have only the vaguest memory of that. But why would a kitten need mittens, anyway? Because it rhymes? I'm a human, and I don't need cumin*. Now that's just silly.

Snow can wait/I forgot my mittens/Wipe my nose/Get my new boots on

Gee, thanks, Tori. For that. Are we starting to stretch, here?

Raindrops on roses /and rabbits and kittens /Bluebells and sleighbells /and something with mittens/la la la la la la something with string....

Okay, now this is getting ridiculous. I've definitely exhausted the topic. Back to work.

*Well, sometimes I need cumin. I am a huge fan of Indian cuisine. Which is itself almost as warming as a nice pair of woolen mittens.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 5:02 AM | shower me with attention

Thursday, December 04, 2003

Mein papa took me to breakfast at the diner downstairs, where we had an actual conversation. So it is possible to get him to listen and not lecture. I just happen to be especially good at it.

I can't seem to make myself do any work. Every time I think about getting back to the ethnography I need to have finished by this weekend or the last article I have to review for my anthro class, I end up either online staring at The Dark Tower Puzzle, or reading my illegally-downloaded Wolves of the Calla. Fucking hell, all those weeks spent not interested in reading; why does Stephen King have to come out with the next Dark Tower book the very second I need to be reading for school?

Furthermore, I'm in class until almost 9 tonight and I got the usual 3 hours sleep.

Poop.

And I still have to do that pointillist painting. Time to fire up Sunday in the Park with George for inspiration.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 12:57 PM | shower me with attention

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

I'm a bitchin' good worker-lady. Can I take a break yet? I did the entire translation, and it wasn't that damn hard. And furthermore, and FURTHERMORE, beforehand, I found the whole fucking thing translated online and I didn't cheat once. Okay, I double-checked at the end, but I was mostly right so it's not cheating. My medal, please?

My head hurts. Can I watch tv now?

Who am I asking? Nescio.

By the way, it's weird being up during the day. Now I know I have some bad insomnia. I haven't seen this much daylight since the Swedish white nights of 2002.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 12:56 PM | shower me with attention

My cursed memory for the bad dates, bah, bah. I need to remember the good anniversaries.

I miss you every day, my little flower. My sweet little girl, beloved waif, big-eyed wee beastie. I love you still.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 11:04 AM | shower me with attention

I would still kill to get a sound file of Stephen Merrit's "Have You Seen It in the Snow?" as performed by Kiki & Herb, and still it does not exist.

Sigh.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 8:47 AM | shower me with attention

Call me Cratchit.

It is fucking freezing in this apartment. Winter is here. My fingers are numb. I think I need a nosewarmer. But my fingers are too cold to knit one.

Seriously, isn't there supposed to be some sort of mechanism that shuts out the cold from air conditioner vents? I think the outside air is just streaming in.

I did three anthro responses, one to go. Then I can focus on the ethnographies.

Now to start on the Latin.

I wish it was time to think about Christmas. What a sucky Christmas this is going to be. I can't afford to buy anyone presents, or even send out cards. I can't remember the last time I didn't send out cards. I always have so much fun with it. And with all this schoolwork there's no time to even knit little things for gifties. I got only a few done. Dammit. This is going to suck.

No to Christmas; yes to Latin. I have to translate this massive thing that I am in no way equipped to translate, and it's due Thursday.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 4:53 AM | shower me with attention

So the new thing is: sleep for three hours, usually from 11 p.m. or midnight 'til 2 or 3 a.m. Wake up with heart racing. I think the palpitations actually wake me up. Then that's it. Up for the day.

It's not caffeine, I've only been having one or two cups a day. Could it be caffeine withdrawal? I've been having the headaches of coffee deprivation.

This racing-heart thing is bugging the crap out of me though.

I guess it's good. No time to sleep. I have a lot to get done. And none of it involves blogging.

But, anyway, if anyone has any ideas about the 3 hours sleep/wake like clockwork/heart palpitations, I'd love to hear.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 1:46 AM | shower me with attention

Monday, December 01, 2003

This won't mean anything to anyone who hasn't read Stephen King's Dark Tower series, but... this website is very interesting indeed. Sombracorp, located "in the heart of Midtown Manhattan" (46th and 2nd, perchance?) "Associated partners" brings up a search for "Lamerk Industries". Richard Fowler is the new CEO, formerly head of "Holdman and Breakers Ltd" as well as "LM Industries" (LaMerk, anyone?)

The Wastelands, Page 121: MILLS CONSTRUCTION AND SOMBRA REAL ESTATE ASSOCIATES ARE CONTINUING TO REMAKE THE FACE OF MANHATTAN!

Best yet, a DNS search reveals the administrative/technical contact to be one Flannigan, Robert.

R.F.

Brrrr, I gots me the chills!

Why are you in Tavie's head? 9:03 PM | shower me with attention

YEAH! The Psychology of Cyberspace! How awesome is that? How awesome is that?

::crickets::

Why are you in Tavie's head? 5:17 PM | shower me with attention

Crunch time. It's crunch time. And not the crunching of candy canes, although ready for Christmas I may be. (See faerie.) No, it's schoolwork-related crunch time. Some personal inventory. I need to:

Read and summarize three more anthro articles.

Type up seven more pages of class notes.

Compile everything into a submittable journal format.

Finish reading first ethnography; read second ethnography; write 7-10 page paper comparing the two.

Catch up on Latin; study, study, study.

Write one more observation paper for art.

Do that stupid pointillism painting.

And a bunch of other things I'm leaving out, I'm sure.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 5:01 PM | shower me with attention

Sunday, November 30, 2003

I have this bullshit art homework assignment overdue from last week. We're supposed to make four abstract compositions, using at least four colours each, to illustrate the following words: bliss, tranquility, melancholy and fecundity. (The last one is all about menstruation, for me.)

I fucking hate painting. I hate it I hate it I hate it.

Now, there's this one girl who always does her compositions on her computer, prints them out and brings them in. It's sort of cheating but he never seems to mind. I'm thinking I might try doing that. Of course with my luck we'll be out of ink, or printing paper, or something. But I don't give a shit because I'm at that point in the semester where everything is pissing me off.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 11:05 PM | shower me with attention

This is my current sleeping schedule:

Two to three days of sleeping for less than three hours at a time, or not at all; any tiny bit of sleep is interrupted by nightmares and/or the need to pee, sweats and racing heart.

One solid day of sleeping, 16-20 hours.

Repeat.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 8:22 PM | shower me with attention

I heard a sick rumour today. Erin told me that Jennifer Tilly was on The Wayne Brady Show talking about her role in The Haunted Mansion movie, and mentioned all the jobs she got connected to the movie doing voice over work as Madame Leota. She mentioned doing the voice for the toy, the McDonald's commercial... and the ride. Apparently, Disney wants to "update" the original Madame Leota from the ride because she's so "outdated"... something about the bouffant hairdo.

There are so many things wrong with this idea, I don't know where to begin. The original Madame Leota is the head of an old Imagineer, Leota Toombs, who did the face for the hologram; the voice is Eleanor Audley, the voice of Maleficent and Cinderella's Stepmother. She is part of Disney history. The idea that Jennifer Tilly could permanently replace her in the ride is appalling beyond measure... I mean, it's Save Toad-appalling. And I hope that, should this rumour prove to be true, that an appropriate Save Toad-calibre campaign is launched.

Jennifer Tilly's interview with TV Guide confirms this rumour.

This is sick.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 5:13 PM | shower me with attention

It's that time of year again...

Why are you in Tavie's head? 4:59 PM | shower me with attention