ramble through the bronx

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

I've spent the day learning about the Lovsan virus and getting it out of my system, which is also essentially a way of distracting myself from doing anything actually resembling work. Work, at this point, involves sitting down and finally hammering out the necessary changes to a couple of papers that I want to submit for publication, finishing a database I'm preparing for a professor on scholars working in the field of Neoplatonism, and preparing a lesson for my next meeting with a friend whom I'm teaching French. I think most of my trivial knowledge comes from procrastination -- so, if I actually got my work done as soon as it came up, I wouldn't be so good at Trivial Pursuit. Possible theorem? No real way of testing -- I don't know if I can avoid procrastinatory Internet poking-around for long enough.

So this is what my life has come to, over a year, I suppose. I had forgotten about this particular blog -- or, if not quite forgotten about it, not thought about updating it. Maybe there's some sort of yearly impulse to disclose my thoughts to the world -- or at least, that particular section of the world that reads blogs. I hadn't realized that the whole blog thing wasn't the blindingly obvious part of the Internet and modern communication that I thought it was, until I was at a local bar (Howl at the Moon, in the Bronx, just off Arthur Avenue), and mentioned having read something in a blog. I believe it was something about Pirates of the Caribbean being entirely enjoyable (which it was). None of the other five people at my table had ever read a blog, and only one of them had even heard of them. These are PhD students! I was quite surprised. Anyway...

I'm still living in the Bronx, near Fordham University. Here's a link to my department, by the way, from which you can get a to a list of faculty members, information about the FPS (Fordham Philosophical Society), and other things that sort of come up in my life.

Random post-breakup nonsense with Dan, of course, lasted throughout the year (the details of which I'll spare you). In the meantime, I dated a lovely fellow student named Sterling, but it didn't work out and we're back to being friends now. He, and others in my department, are all writing comprehensive exams in a couple of weeks. I have to write them next year.

The Bronx... well, what can I say about it? I sometimes feel at home, I sometimes feel entirely alienated (though it could be a result of living in the United States right now); I sometimes feel thrilled and excited that I'm in New York City, and sometimes I feel bored yet don't want to face the long subway ride downtown in order to do something other than the usual run to the Jolly Tinker (a bar on the other side of campus).

My roommate Meredith is sick and tired of her lengthy commute to & from Manhattan/Queens/Brooklyn (i.e., where most of her life is spent) and is looking to move out with some other friends of hers into an apartment in Chinatown. Thus I'll shortly be on the horrible roommate hunt. That's how it goes, I guess. We still love each other, but I understand her need to NOT commute an hour to an hour and a half both ways every day.

What am I doing right now? Loving the view out my window, of the George Washington Bridge at night. Listening to WFUV, Fordham's radio station (check it out if you like folk or americana). Listening to traffic and the odd sounds of car alarms or breaking glass. Feeling the breeze blow in, aided by my fan.

Now I will head over to Cafe Maggiolino, to meet up with my overworked friend Rachel, with whom I went on a two week road trip across America. Whew! That was craziness. I'll write it up and post it here when I get the chance, now that it looks like my heart wants to keep up with regular blog posting. We'll see if that worked out better than last year...

jane 9:29 PM [+]