Ultra Classy

Gooooooooood evening Blogosphere!

You are cordially invited to take a personal tour around my hotel room, which is, well, ultra classy.

This is close to the top of the list of classy hotel rooms I've stayed in. I am staying at the Swissotel in Chicago, and there are many things I like about this place already.

Getting up to my hotel room was an experience, though. Because... notice what is missing?

Look closely... Or not very closely.

Buttons! 

The buttons are outside the elevator. You press buttons and then it tells you which of the six elevators will be your elevator! (Which really takes all of the fun out of the "guess which elevator" game.)

The I touch the key to the keypad to get into my room... 

And voila! Inside, we find the bed, which is a king size, and which I plan to starfish all over while I sleep. Mom tells me the pillows are very nice.

You can see I have already mussed it up nicely.

There is a nice, big TV that I am watching the new episode of Psych on right now.

And while I don't have a view of the water, I DO have a view of the city. Which I think is just as good, really, for a first time stay in Chicago.

They have very nicely offered to let me borrow an umbrella.

As long as I give it back, of course.

There is a shoehorn in the bathroom. And in that bag? That's where they hide the hairdryer.

Can I use a shoehorn for my ballet flats?

And instead of your standard (terrible) coffeemaker, there is an ultra fancy Keurig.

I'll just keep this, shall I? 

There is a bathrobe that leaves something to be desired in the "soft and fluffy" category, but is good for warmth and drying ability. 

But really all I want is to wander around the hotel in the robe using the umbrella like a cane. What is classier than a robe and a big black umbrella? 

"Ignore the crazy lady in the corridor."

There you have it! A brief tour around my hotel room. Now, I'm off to bed... because I have a very big day ahead of me tomorrow! 

The Letter C

This blog is brought to you by the letter C.

Casualties

The mojo in my apartment is seriously out of whack this week. Bright and early, both my roommate and I have managed to break things the last two days. When Leslie broke a plate this morning at 5am, it woke me up, but I was sleeping so poorly that it didn't quite register. Yuck.

"Well, we have too many mugs anyway," Leslie offered helpfully yesterday morning, when I broke three (count 'em: three) mugs in one go.

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Classes 


An update on my last semester of college: (Doesn't it feel like just yesterday that I started college? Cause it sure feels that way to me.)

I got my first ever 100% on a major test (I get A's, but I never know if an A is 100%) in my theatre class two weeks ago! I feel particularly accomplished because I ran out of time (due to the mountain of reading I have in my other classes) and didn't read one of the plays for the exam. Intelligent guesswork and careful notetaking in class can't make up for materials I haven't read, but they sure do help!

In my Victorian Literature class, I've managed to read half of Adam Bede and Story of an African Farm. I wish I could finish them, but I just don't have time. It's hard to spend time reading a 300 page book that I know I won't be directly tested over and we won't be discussing for more than a week. Not going to lie, the dreaded Senioritis is hitting pretty hard. I may be infected for the rest of the semester. Or the rest of forever.

I found this image when I was a senior in high school... Yeah, it still applies.

9 1/2 weeks until the end of the semester... but who's counting? 

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Chitown 

It's hard to focus on school when I have bigger things looming, as well. Things like careers. I've been really quiet about this on le blog, not for any particular reason, not because I haven't wanted to talk about it, because I talk about it all the time. 

Guess who's got two thumbs and an internship? THIS GIRL.

For the past month, I've been interning for a publishing company! It's a little, locally owned company, and I've been doing really exciting things like updating spreadsheets. I do it all from home and meet with my boss once every week or two. She says she may have me do some actual editing in the future, though... Eep! 

My boss invited me to go with them to a writers' conference, where I'll help run our company table. So, tomorrow afternoon... I am off to Chicago! I have all of my classy clothes, business cards, and resumes all ready to do some serious networking when I'm not working the booth. It's not that I expect to come out of it with a job, or anything, but it sure would be nice to get some contacts in the publishing field or some advice. I'm even meeting one of my writers (what I call the people whose fanfiction I edit) while I'm there! 

I've got my game face on. Let's do it!

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Cafes

One of my favorite cafes in Austin (Caffe Medici) has this little gem.

HELLO, MR SUGAR!

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Cute Puppies! 

I was housesitting last week, and got to hang out with the cutest puppy! Her name is Gracie. CUE THE PHOTOS.

Puppy on the couch!

Puppy on the floor!

Puppy in Ally's vest!

Puppy trying to get out of the vest!

Puppy in the sun!

PUPPIES!! 

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Charles Dickens

We had to go on a little library research scavenger hunt in my Victorian Lit class, and one of the things we had to find was a biography of one of the authors we have read thus far in class. Our only guidance was that the older the biography, the better. I found a really good one!

My Father as I Recall Him, by Mamie Dickens Pub. 1897.

That's right: Charles Dickens' daughter wrote this one. Hell yeah! And after class, my professor told me I did a "good job". (Proud as a peacock over here.)

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Phew. That's a lot of things that start with C, am I right?

That's all for now! Stay tuned for what I hope will be an exciting trip to Chicago! 

Book Review Friday: Sons and Lovers

As fair warning: this is probably going to get awkward. Freudian discussions ahead!

I read DH Lawrence's Sons and Lovers for my British Novel in the 20th Century class. I had heard of Lawrence before, mostly discussed in conversations regarding banned books (and Lady Chatterley's Lover), but I had not read any of his books. A brief and extremely incomplete summary of the book could be boiled down to this: Overbearing mother rejects all potential partners for her sons and attempts to smother them with all the love she no longer has for her husband.

Of course there is much more to the novel, but that just about sums it up nicely. Class discussions mentioned Freud many a time, and the various romantic triangles that ensue. Mind you, these are romantic triangles according to English Majors and Freud alike, and these triangles positively abound: Gertrude (mother), Paul (son), Walter (father). Gertrude, Paul, William (other son). Gertrude, Paul, Clara/Mariam (Paul's lovers). There was a very intense relationship between Paul and his mother throughout the novel, and it frustrated me to see him constantly abandoning these nice girls to run home to his mother, well into adulthood. He never moves out of the house, for as long as his mother lives. And the fact that there is such sexual tension between Paul and Miriam, in particular before anything actually comes to fruition was enough to make me scream at the novel. (I didn't scream, but I did complain loudly to my friends a lot!) The whole will-they-won't-they was dragged on for absolutely forever, and I suppose that was a story well written by Lawrence, because it helped invest me in the novel and in the characters.

Freudian conversations always fascinate me, because although I don't necessarily believe in his theories (I will specifically speak about the Oedipus Complex here) I do see some merit in them when they are not applied explicitly. The Oedipus Complex theory, to my understanding, is that the son feels threatened by and jealous of his father because the son wants to sleep with his mother (and the same, vice versa for daughters, fathers, and mothers). My less crazy and interpretation of the application of this theory is that the son will likely find and marry a nice girl who reminds him of his mother, who has similar values or something. (I think I can hear  psychologists cringing from the other side of the internet...)

The merit I see here is this: While there is absolutely no way that I want to ever marry or sleep with my father, I recognize that there are many qualities that my father has that I find attractive in other men. He raised me in such a way to value things that he sees value in, such as intelligence, passion, and dedication. Of course I want to share those values with a potential partner. It is in that respect that I see merit in the Oedipus Complex, not in the whole awkward "I want to have sex with my parent" thing, but in the lessons and values that I have been taught, I seek in a potential partner.

Applying this to the novel, the Gertrude instills her values on her sons who subsequently go and see out potential marriageable women in the world. Unfortunately for them, anyone they bring home will not be their mother, and so will never be good enough, either for their OR for their mother's approval. Even the one woman who the mother most approves of, Clara, is still not good enough. Gertrude only likes Clara because Clara is not a threat to the mother's relationship with her son in the way that the other love interest, Miriam, is. Miriam actually can take Paul away (in marriage) whereas Clara is already married to another man and wouldn't be able to.

All said and done, I really enjoyed the ride that this book took me on. I look forward to rereading it someday!

Book Review Friday: Great Expectations

Great Expectations.

A much beloved book by everyone... except anyone I have spoken to. My first foray into Dickens was for my Victorian Literature class, and was our first book of the semester (additionally, I think it is the longest book, but our next novel may beat it). It did not surprise me that every time I mentioned to any of my friends or peers that I was reading Great Expectations, they would cringe. "I hate that book, I had to read it in high school," was their common chorus. Now, this did not leave me with particularly high hopes for the book.

Or, rather, it did not leave me with great expectations for it. (Hah! See what I did there?)

I, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed the book, which I finally finished earlier today. I loved Dickens' language, the overall arc of the story, and I appreciated the humor of the time. I did not find the language particularly difficult to understand (compared to, say, Jane Austen. This is to be expected, however - Dickens is 150 or so years later than Austen, and so his language would be more contemporary,) instead, I found it very densely packed. No words were wasted, nothing was unimportant.

No doubt, I did struggle with it at times, but only because I could not spend the time I wanted to with the book. I wanted to soak in the beautiful language of the mid-19th century, not skim quickly through so I could get to my next massive reading assignment for my other classes. Unfortunately, I had to do just that, and so at the end I feel like I got a sense of the story, but at the cost of enjoying the novel as a whole.

That said, I look forward to someday rereading it, and giving it the treatment it deserves. Perhaps when I get a chance, I will try my hand at reading more Dickens. I'd like to see what else I've been missing out on!

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For anyone who has to read the book for a class, I have provided a helpful summary, breadbox style, just for you:

Pip: Man, I wish I were a gentleman!
Mr Jaggers: What a coincidence! You have great expectations!
Pip: Wow! That's the title of the novel!
Estella: I will haunt your dreams...

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I'll be uploading book reviews on Fridays, I think. As I have so many books to read, it'll be nice to unload my thoughts and opinions about them on the blog!