It's been a hectic week, rife with plenty of family DRAMA. I'm kind of exhausted, to be honest, which is why I haven't been able to post about it until now. As background info, I should mention that there are two great crises in our lives at the moment, both concerning old ladies: one is the declining health and mental faculties of my paternal grandmother, the other is the issue of moving my maternal grandmother out of her house and into a nursing home.

( Probably not interesting to anyone but me... )

Monday was Memorial Day, and for my family Memorial Day = awkward cook out. I frickin' love cook outs. I love the drama of choosing between a hamburger and a hot dog. I love planning which salads (out of the 20 billion varieties that abound in the Midwest) are going to be made. I love that there is a very big chance that flavored lemonade is available. So, yeah, I'm a cook out fiend. I really want to learn how to grill this summer so when the time comes for me to host my own cook out, I will be so ready. Since I can't grill yet, I couldn't contribute any meat, so I decided to do dessert. Because this was actually a holiday, I decided to aim big, and so I spent most of the day making Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes.

( CUPCAKES! )

I've had an action packed day today: got a rare manicure-pedicure, took a shitty swatch of my new polish, read news and was horrified by PCP guy (srsly, WTF?), went to the grocery store to get ingredients for tomorrow's dinner, and made vanilla pudding. (Which was not from a box, thank you very much. I did the egg and cornstarch thing. Pics forecoming.) Now I'm going to chill and read more of Doctor Faustus.

I've been keeping up with my goal of reading a shit ton this summer. I finished Manhunt by James L. Swanson a couple days ago, which I thought was generally entertaining if somwhat judgy. I don't like it when my history books preach at me, as when they do it makes me feel like I'm being forced to agree with the author(s) and that usually makes me angy. Manhunt presented a disturbingly romanticized picture of Booth and the people who helped him, which felt really icky to me. Others might feel differently.

After Manhunt I began Doctor Faustus, one of those monumental books which people feel like they should read but usualy don't want to read. Well, I held my breath, dove in, and was surprised by how much it engaged me from the first page. I'm still at the begining, but already I'm getting that tingly feeling that tells me a piece of literature is gonna rock my socks. In particular, I really liked the following passage, which talks about a certain mood present in Kaisersaschern in the early 20th century: 

"But there hung in the air something of the state of the human heart during the last decades of the fifteenth century, a hysteria out of the dying Middle Ages, something of a latent psychological epidemic -- a strange thing to say about a sensibly practical, modern town. But it was not modern, it was old, and age is the past as the present, a past only veneered with the present; and this may sound bold, but one could imagine a Children's Crusade suddenly errupting there -- a Saint Vitus' dance, some utopian communistic lunatic preaching a bonfire of vanities, miracles, and visions of the Cross, and roving masses of mystic enthusiasts. That did not occur, of course -- how could it have?...Our own times are secretly inclined -- or, rather, anything but secretly, very purposefully in fact, with a particularly smug sense of purpose that leaves one doubting life's genuineness and simplicity and produces perhaps a very ill-fated historicity -- our times are inclined, I say, to return to such epochs and enthusiastically repeat symbolic actions that have something sinister about them, that strike in the face of modern understanding..." 

Yes, yes, I know, TL;DR. But what's frightening about this is that he's talking about Nazi Germany and yet there is something very much like this "smug sense of purpose" present in American right now. Anti-intellectualism, anti-thought, anti-anything that makes people question themselves and their beliefs. It all makes me sick. Thanks, Doctor Faustus, for articulating why.

Tonight was my first night to cook, and I think everything turned out really well. There were no disasters in the kitchen, the food turned out as described and tasted good, and I gained some cooking confidence that will serve me well. I documented everything, so you can see what I was up to.

( Very image intensive! )

My mother is a huge Star Trek fan, and since she has put up with all the geeky movies I've dragged her to over the years, I thought it was only fair to accompany her to the Star Trek movie on Mother's Day. I was pretty worried going into it, since I'm not a big sci-fi person (my tastes definitely lean more towards fantasy) and the only things I know about Star Trek come from the fragmented info I have gleamed about it from Futurama. But you know what? I actually the movie was pretty cool, in the same slick, popcorn movie type way Ironman charmed a lot of people last year. I was able to follow along fairly well, despite the fact that time travel always makes my head hurt. I could also tell that the actors were doing a great job fitting into their iconic roles, while still being fresh and entertaining. And, to sound really lame, I thought the score was fabulous. It's pretty rare for a movie nowadays to have a big, resounding brass score, and this one fit the "looking back to the past but geared towards the present" vibe this movie had going for it perfectly.

Today I'm doing lots of little things. I'm starting to work on a TBA creative project that is probably going to make me tear my hair out in about two weeks, but I'm feeling a creative drive that I haven't felt in a long time, so right now I'm in writer heaven. I'm also preparing the menu I'm going to attempt on Wednesday. Since I'm such a shitty cook, I'm going to do an "easy Italian" meal with lasagna, salad with homemade garlic dressing, and brownie sundaes. Yum!

It's only 1:30 and I'm already tired out, so I think a nap might be necessary soon. I haven't had a lot of downtime since being home, so I'm glad to have today to re-charge my batteries. For the next few days, things are going to be mighty busy.

I was browsing The Onion's A.V. Club website, hunting for something to read, and came across an interview with the hysterical Maria Bamford, in which she discusses dealing with OCD. I was recently diagnosed with OCD, and have had a mixed experience dealing with the implications of it. On the one hand, I'm glad to have something to point to which explains why my mind is so fuckin' weird. On the other, like a lot of mental illnessess, I don't think OCD is really understood by a lot of people. It is so much more than germophobia, which is what I thought until I was diagnosed. Not to mention, it was kind of hard to acknowledge that something was wrong with the way my brain works.

Anyway, if you haven't experienced how awesome her comedy is, check these little numbers out: 

"I would never hurt her. I would got to end of the earth for her. But because I feel so strongly about opposed to this bill, blame it on my upbringing or the good book. … I can't change how I feel … But because of who I am and where I am and as a member of this legislative body, ethically it is my duty and responsibility to publicly say to my daughter that I do not support [gay marriage]." --- Rep. Sheryl Briggs of Maine

Found via ontd_political, here.

How can this woman sleep at night? 

After waking up at 6 this morning to finish preparing for my 8:30 Imperial China final, then writing for two hours, then heading down to the computer lab and writing a book review for Latin for two hours, let me say this: Zzzzzzzzz. I am so exhausted, but in that happy way you feel when something that's been hanging over your head is finished. Now I jut have to start packing and prepare for my American Gothic final on Thursday. Since I have two and a half days to blow, I think I'm going to celebrate the end of the semester early and have funtimes today.

Right now, I'm planning on changing out of my gross "I put these on after getting 4 hours of sleep clothes" and donning something cute, then going outside to frolic and take some pictures of my campus while it's pretty out, then getting a late lunch / early dinner at the coffee house, then coming back and doing some swatches for my nail blog. I think it's a good plan. :D

It's probably not the best idea to set up a new journal right before finals, is it? Oh, well.