Clarkus Cat: Hearts All Around & HIMYM

I’ve posted a February-inspired project on clarkuscat today. Head over there to check it out!

Also, I’ve just discovered How I Met Your Mother. Ok, ok… so I knew it existed before, but I’d only ever seen the occasional episode here and there and never really paid attention to it otherwise. Well, thanks to Netflix and the suggestions of many friends, I’ve learned that it’s actually a pretty entertaining show. I’m suuuuuuper late to this ballgame, I know, and I’m not sure HIMYM is going to make into my list of favorite television shows… but it’s provided an excellent background for an afternoon of washing dishes, lesson planning, blogging, and general laziness. That means it’s good enough for me. I have a lot of seasons to catch up on!

Any other tv suggestions floating around out there? I’m determined to

Again and again.

Once again, I’ve let my bog lapse off into nothingness for almost a whole month. Summer is just crazy for me; I don’t know how to handle having nothing to do. Rather than making me more productive, it just puts me in a rut where I don’t want to do anything. I need structure and schedule in my life. I spent the last four years of my undergrad completing what should take a person about 8 to 10 years. I lived for structure, pressure, deadlines. Now, I just sit around. I read a little here and there and get myself addicted to a new TV show every week.

It sounds blissful, but really, it sucks.

So, today, I decided to break out of that rut. I revised and submitted a paper for publication. Wooohooo. Only 3 more to go. I also made plans to begin a weekly study session with a friend of mine in order to prepare for the GRE subject exam in the Fall. Sounds exciting, right? Well, it is to me.

PhD applications, here I come!

The Wonder Years

I’ve had a lot of thoughts running through my head the last few days, but I still don’t have much to say.

I just have this, which is perfect, and somehow manages to say everything that is in my head right now.

Growing up is never easy. You hold on to things that were. You wonder what’s to come. But that night, I think we knew it was time to let go of what had been, and look ahead to what would be. Other days. New days. Days to come. The thing is, we didn’t have to hate each other for getting older. We just had to forgive ourselves… for growing up.

–The Wonder Years

I think forgiving ourselves and those around for growing up is one of the hardest things. It might be impossible, but I’m going to try.

What have I done?

Well, I know what I’ve done… sort of. I somehow got myself addicted to Grey’s Anatomy in the middle of finals week. This is dumb, very dumb. I didn’t even mean for this to happen. I just wanted something to watch while letting my brain rest over lunch a few days ago. I’d heard good things about the show, so I watched the pilot episode while enjoying my sandwich.

Now, I. Can’t. Stop. Watching.

Literally, if I’m not watching, I want to be. When I am watching, I’m anticipating all the plot developments that are to come in the next 6 seasons. I should be studying. I should be writing papers. I should be narrowing down my list of PhD application schools. Instead, I am steadily devouring episode after episode.

What have I done??? I’ve killed my academic motivation! I need it back!

Code Blue!

One reason I think I so easily became addicted to this show is the absolutely compelling writing. I find myself pulling out my phone all the time to record many of Meredith‘s inner musings. They speak to a lot of the issues I’ve been dealing with in my own life. They make me feel a little more normal, I suppose. Really, they make me want to be a surgical intern at Seattle Grace Hospital – minus all the blood and guts.

Maybe in the long run, it will be good that I watched this show. Maybe I’ll be able to figure some things for myself once and for all. Maybe by hearing Meredith struggle, I’ll be able to make more sense of my own struggles. Hopefully, I will get some insight, some perspective, some advice.

Or, maybe, I’ll just move to Seattle and fall in love with Dr. George O’Malley. Yeah, I like that last option. I’ll go with that one.

Too much TV?

I realized the other night, while watching Harry Potter with my friend, that I watch an awful lot of TV nowadays. I used to never watch TV. I mean never. I had no idea which channel was which, what shows were on when, who the characters were. Now, I have a steady following of shows I watch almost every night of the week. I’ve got this little system: get home from class, make dinner, watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune while eating dinner, then watch whatever happens to be that night’s primetime option. To make matters worse, it’s not even major network shows I’m watching. You know, adult shows. Nope, I’ve become addicted to ABC Family and the CW teen dramas.

I have no idea why. Maybe because those kids have lives infinitely more exciting than mine. I mean, long-lost twins, secret murder plots, witches, magic. It’s very exciting, but I’m starting to feel a little disturbed by my dedication to tuning in every week. It’s not that I don’t get my work done or anything, just that I never used to rely on TV for entertainment. I thought about canceling my cable service just to break the habit. I can’t have what isn’t there, but I never did. And, I’m not sure I really want to. I like having the option of cable television for some background noise during the day.

I guess I just need to decide how much TV is too much TV.

City Mouse vs Country Mouse

I apologize for the long absence from posting. Graduate school and all….

Anyway, I’ve realized something about myself: I am totally a small-town America kind of girl. Perhaps it took living 20 minutes from New York City for me to realize this or perhaps it has something to do with the television I’ve been watching lately – aka, Gilmore Girls and October Road. Enter: Stars Hollow, CT and Knights Ridge, MA. Two of the most idyllic small towns I could possibly ever imagine. I want to live somewhere like that one day. I want to raise kids there. I want it to be a place where everyone knows everyone, where kids can play outside on their own without a danger of being kidnapped or run over by speeding cars, where people can walk home alone at night without fear of being mugged, where life is simple.

Knights Ridge, MA via October Road

It could be that these tv shows are putting false ideas in my head, but I believe towns like Stars Hollow and Knights Ridge exist. They have to. I just need to find one (preferably within 30 miles of a quaint little university in need of a medievalist).

Guess I’ll start my search here.