will the manic mouse never learn?

The day following a manic day is always a sluggish day.

That's just how it is.

Yesterday I was a veritable whirlwind of activity. I cleaned up my closet, picked up the whole house, filed and shredded all the detritus sitting on my empty bookshelves that I need to sell before Michael moves into this shoebox in February (yay!) and otherwise tidied. I also did a fair amount of work: I reduced 7 pages to 4 for the mla talk and planned the second half. Then Friday, I stared at the page for a good long while, a last minute--and I mean last minute, it was due that day--application for a summer institute fell on my head and I wrote that up, and then we trekked up and down sunset running errands and to watch the Golden Compass. I'm sad that it bombed so badly, I would have liked to see the sequels. And I loved the daemons, although unlike faux ice bear king Ragnar who wants a daemon, I actually want to be an adorable daemon with cute paws and a keen sense of self-preservation. Anyway.

But today, today has been quite a wash. I have now read through 5 sets of blogged archives of academic blogs. I don't know why I am so obsessed with reading academic blogs in lieu of doing my own work. Maybe I'm lamenting that I will never be one of them because I will never get a job that will allow me to exercise my researching and teaching skills? Or maybe it just elaborate procrastinatory mechanism. On of my mentors writes "ya gotta keep going." Another told me that the market "es una puta" (I think he might have been tipsy). Everyone has been gentle and realistic, simultaneously, which is difficult to do. But I just want to fastforward to a time when my efforts won't be in vain, whether at this or anything else.

Ugh. Where did my amnesia go? If it doesn't come back, this blog is going to turn into a constant sobfest.

Restau
Mistral
We were taken out to dinner by older friends of Michael's to dinner here. They come here often and so we were often interrupted by waitstaff and managers who came by to chat to the other couple. I'm really not a fan, not because I'm snobby but because I never have the slightest notion of how to respond. Michael and I split a roasted beet salad, which was good but since when are beets not good, come on! and I had the lamb shank which was fine, but very very rich with nothing on the plate to offset it. I had to pack half of it home and had the rest for lunch/dinner today when it was all the gamier. However, the chocolate soufflé was fantastic. I could not get enough of the heavy coldness of the cream with the light almost scalding heat of the chocolate. Yum.