It's finally cold!

I don't know if you've noticed, but winter seems to have set in. Finally. That, and every now and then, snow comes up from the ground. I like to feel like i earn the warm weather somehow, and i am finally feeling like we are going to experience four seasons this year rather than two or three.

I am thinking about writing to Al Gore to get his advice on where daN and i should retire if we want to continue to get four seasons.

Life has been so full! Last weekend, Abbi Chapman was here for about 18 hours (sleeping included) because she had an audition at the Boston Conservatory. Short though the visit was, it was so lovely to see her! Sunday, daN and i "took off" and did a lot of strolling and relaxing. Much needed. This week was an utter whirlwind, too. I taught yoga on Monday, and on Tuesday, i think i might have done some cooking. Wednesday, i took yoga, and then Patty (my college roommate and one of my very best friends) came to stay with me because she had a series of appointments and interviews at the Master's program at Simmons College. YAY! It was so great to see her, too! She left on Friday morning, and though i did still have to work in between, we still got in a lot of good catching up.

Yesterday, daN and i drove up to Portland so he could celebrate his birthday (that happened about two weeks ago) with his family. Or so that they could celebrate with him, which i think was the operative part. He's not one of those people who loves celebrating his birthday, but it was a lot of fun to see his family.

We had dinner at Margarita's in Portland -- fantastic place, though i have to say, Border Cafe in Harvard Square does give them a run for their money in the vegetarian enchilada options.

In other news, i am finally feeling like doing a research project again... perhaps writing a book. I am curious about clowns, their place in American culture, and why people have such differently strong reactions to them. Clowns seem to exist in this liminal space between reality and imagination, but they annouce it with loud make-up and pronouncedly bizarre clothing. Calling attention to that liminal space tends to make people uncomfortable since on a subconscious level, the masses seem to like black and white better than grey. Drag queens, and perhaps, to a certain extend, transgendered individuals, live in a similar grey area and pronounce it differently, and a lot of people are uncomfortable with things other than the binary. On some level, i think that it announces a "things are not always what they seem" paradigm. Well, anyway, it's just in its initial stages, but i am interested in looking at this from the standpoint of gender studies, looking at the burlesque and the roll that that had in French culture during the revolution, and the place that clowns have in American society now, and why it's so ripe to think about how clowns have become something that is SCAREY for most people.

So.... anyway, sorry about geeking out on you there. The point is that while i was in school, i definitely had interests in studying things... and now i am becoming project oriented again. For a while, the project was applying to grad school, and now i'm thinking more about an independent study. Maybe that's what Hampshire prepared me for anyway.