2004-11-24 - 8:37 p.m.
Lost my diaryland password for a minute there.
Last weekend I went back to Cambridge for the Harvard-Yale Game, or rather, for the Harvard-Yale Tailgate, since I didn't buy a ticket to watch football. I passed on buying a ticket because I fully expected to focus on getting recklessly drunk, as was once my custom at the Game. Instead, I had a shot of bourbon and a few cups of lightly spiked hot chocolate before deciding that I wasn't in the binge drinking mood. I started in on some Pabst, a beverage I once loved dearly, but I realized that I had lost my taste for cheap beer. Yo...what?
The social aspect of the tailgate was swell, though. I caught up with a lot of old friends. But even that got old pretty quickly, so Dorian and I split. Still, the weekend falls squarely within the "awesome" column.
My week at school was pretty lame, but not worth dwelling on. Fortunately, I am dividing the weekend between the houses of two teachers: my cousin and Dorian's father. So we can talk a little shop.
And now, things for which I am thankful:
1. I am healthy.
2. I make a good living doing something that I usually enjoy.
3. I enjoy a level of freedom that would have been unthinkable to the Schapiras of a few generations back.
4. I have a loving family and a supportive network of friends.
And on a similar note, a couple of things that are awesome:
1. I've been reading some good stuff recently. I started Anna Karenina, but I think I'll pace myself with it. I read Germinal, by Zola. I also barreled through essay collections by Philip Roth, Harold Bloom, Aharon Appelfeld, Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, and Cynthia Ozick (of whom I can never think without remembering MC Paul Barman's line "Cynthia Ozick takes off her clothes quick"). And today I started The Aleph and Other Stories, by Borges. It's my first time reading Borges, and he's off the damn hook.
2. My ten year old sister is starting a rock band. Whenever I call home, she puts me on speakerphone and plays some smoking guitar licks for my enjoyment. Dude, my ten year old sister is a fucking rock star.
