Reading About Persian Literature

That's what I'm doing tonight, the Saturday before Halloween. Yes, that blows. I've been feeling more and more negative lately about grad school, Tucson, my department, my classes, and I'm missing my friends & life in DC. Sure, it wasn't all roses in DC, but Tucson is kind of a gross city --- dry, brown, flat, dusty, weird mix of people, and thousands of strip malls only accessible by automobile. Yuck. I don't like this city. I've tried to give it a chance, but it's just not growing on me. The only thing enjoyable is the weather, and I am trying to take advantage of that every day with my swimming. It definitely beats cold Seattle rain! (although I had so much fun there with my girlfriends that I could overlook it to a point...) Anyway, my classes are pretty good overall, but I'm just getting a bit burnt out, especially with two intense Arabic classes. I really like two of my other three classes, but the third one is not so good --- it's a mandatory requirement for Near Eastern master's students, and it's a collaboration of all the professors in the department that give us an overview of the type of topics covered in our field. In theory, this is good, but some of the reading we've had to do is utterly painful (ie: Israeli women's issues). And then we have to write five-page response papers on these readings. I'm getting totally freaked out about having to write THREE final papers that all need to be finished in rough draft form by the end of November, and I haven't even started on any of them. But I'm so caught up in these little weekly assignments that I don't know how I'll find time to get it all done. Yes, I'm starting to panic a bit. That is why I'm home on Saturday night instead of enjoying myself at a Halloween party or relaxing in a jacuzzi or something.

I did have fun last night hanging out with a girl who my friend Mack used to babysit. This "girl" is 23 now and works as an on-site teacher for the traveling national Broadway production of "Annie," which is in Tucson right now. The highlight of my evening was meeting the cast, which included 80s druggie deadbeat sitcom star, Mackenzie Phillips (think "One Day at a Time" with Schneider and Valerie Bertenelli), who plays Rooster's girlfriend in the ongoing "Annie" production. My young friends here at school (Shauna & Lindsey) had never heard of her! I guess "One Day at a Time" didn't make an impact on Generation Y. Anyway, I have photos to post (tomorrow), but Mackenzie Phillips looks pretty haggard with bad skin and a deep smoker's voice (not to mention the fact that I think she's OD'ed a few times in her past). What an interesting evening it was.

More later... I know I've been negligent writing in this, but I'm just a bit overwhelmed with my life at the moment. Oh, by the way, last weekend I rented "Me and You and Everyone We Know," which I'd been dying to see, and they finally had it at the video store. If you're not into indie films or electronic music, you'll surely hate it (mom), but if you're interested in a really creative film project that looks at loneliness and isolation in modern day society and daily life, you should definitely rent it. I watched it twice I liked it so much. The characters are really interesting. I found a link for the streaming soundtrack that you can listen to... it's right here: http://www.elginpark.com/meandyousite1.html. Shauna just came over and said it sounded like a video game so it's really not for everyone, but it's a must for electronica advocates!

OK --- my study break is over... back to Persian literature.
Kit