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Making lists in surprisingly therapeutic. Like making plans. I'm faintly afraid that when I get to January 13th, I'll be turning in plans and lists, rather than an actual coherent dissertation.

(I suppose I could argue post-modernism. "Lists and plans, you see, give an impression of the whole - an idea of meaning that a full essay would not add anything to. If you look at Derrida, I think you'll find I have a point. I'm sure it's somewhere in there.")

Also, the Bean is moving into my house, due to various minor catastrophes. This is rather exciting, and slightly unreal.

Assorted notes:

1. Bean was in Denmark this week! It was very awesome - I got to show off Copenhagen, which is always fun. I kind of love my city a lot, and I kind of love Becca a lot, so it worked out well.

2. I'm Your Man - this vid is simply excellent; music, clips and the overall theme work perfectly and the whole thing just looks seamless. Plus it celebrates crossdressing and awesome women. What more could you want? (Well, the entire series of Star Trek: Voyager, but you can't get everything in this world)

3. Why is it inspiration always strikes repeatedly at the same time? I am in the middle of three writing projects, now is not the time to write RPS or Hot Fuzz fic, seriously brain.

3a. Simon Pegg is, like, ridiculously pretty. Why did no one tell me this? Also, why did no one tell me how awesome Hot Fuzz is? I cannot be expected to find out these things on my own!

4. I have spent way too much time thinking about hips lately. I blame not being near Gemma. And also Bruce Springsteen a little bit.

4a. Also, why am I ridiculously horny when Gemma is nowhere near? FAIL, body. FAIL.

5. I totally went to the beach today. SUMMER!

Because I am a genius person, I almost dragged my bed down into the cellar today. I'd been told that the delivery date for my new bed (OMG YAY, new bed soon!) was tomorrow - however, a quick inspection of my email revealed that, actually, my bed isn't arriving until the 4th of June. Hurrah for double checking! (Albeit after I actually stripped my bed and cleaned my room in preparation for the new bed. So smart.)

Speaking of general genius, today was my first exam. It went as these things tend to - I felt like I could have written a lot more than I did, much more coherently than I did, but I feel like the problem is more the format of the exam, than my own performance. Yes, I suppose I could have done more work, but on the other hand, I knew what I was talking about, and I knew how to get it across. Just not in the time alloted to me. So it goes, and I've resigned myself to the possibility of getting a 2.2 for the course. I'm still hoping for a 2.1, but I can accept a 2.2.

The important thing is that now I can forget all about the Restoration period, and instead turn my mind towards my twin loves of Renaissance history and Sir Thomas More. And possibly also to medieval literature and the madness of Margery Kempe, which is proving rather more entertaining than it probably should be.

As if to reward me for surviving my exams, two rather wonderful pieces of fic appeared today on jpkieron; clearly someone somewhere loves me, because this is a fandom with notoriously bad writing in it. ( Blather about the fandom and glee about the source )

Unrelated to anything: I haven't been able to get We Rule the School out of my head for days now. I'm not sure what it is about it particularly that moves me so much, but I can't stop humming it over and over. In general, I'm obsessing over Belle and Sebastian - have been for the past three months, but it's flared up again quite dramatically during my revision and now the song is stuck in my head.

( Some notes upon the watching of Eurovision )

Life, you guys. Life.

Real Life:
Last night, I sat around with some of the coolest people I know and discussed politics, Disney, the state of the world, the beauty of maths, literature and the importance of stories, childcare, feminism and university lecturers. Then I went dancing and managed to be a complete dork on the dancefloor with my girlfriend and my best friend. All in honour of Gem's birthday.

It was awesome. It made me feel very much the proper student.

Also making me feel like a proper student is the fact that I still haven't written my essay, due in a week, and instead of writing it today, I am going over to Mike's with my housemates to watch Mulan.

I love my life, you guys.

Political Life:

Open Source Boob Project - because having random strangers touch my breasts is an empowering experience. Right.

Everything I want to say has pretty much been said, but just. Ugh.

Fandom Life:

I don't follow the storyline any more, but this kiss?



Ridiculously hot. I mean. *fans self*

I'm back! Though not from outer space. Rather, from Bean's and from Paris. Both of which were amazing. Firstly, Bean's home is in this tiny village in the country - no, really, the country, rolling fields and village greens and everything. It's the type of place where, when you look out of the window, you half expect some lost Romantic poet to be rambling, perhaps stopping every once in a while to harass some part of nature with a poem. Absolutely beautiful, if at times a little scarily sweet. It's pretty much exactly as a non-English person would visualize England (and, for that matter, the English). I even went to church on Sunday, and that was fun and sweet as well. Of course, afterwards we went to have fondue and sit in a hot tub for the day, so it wasn't that weird. And it was awesome to see Becs again, even if she has now again deserted me for the great country of France.

Speaking of France - Paris! The trip was amazing, absolutely amazing; the only real problem was it was too short, so we didn't get to visit Pere Lechaise, for example, or the Bastille and the Opera. But Paris is such a gorgeous city, and being there with Gemma was just - it's what Paris is supposed to be, you know? Wandering through small streets and ducking into the small parks scattered throughout Paris, walking arm-in-arm by the Seine, sitting in the sun in the park at Notre Dame kissing and eating meringue. It was lovely, and I think we had quite a well-rounded trip, hitting all the big landmarks, but also managing to go down the small streets, eat in some "local" restaurants and visit some local coffee shops and bars (one in particular was awesome - it was underground! The drinks came with marshmallows! I was pleased.), and, of course, visiting Shakespeare and Company which was as beautiful and glorious and just lovely as you'd expect. ( It was an experience. )

The only thing that really kind of bugged me was Notre Dame - it's such a stunning building, but it loses a lot by having "walk-in" confessionals, a gift shop, neon lighting and hundreds of tourists snapping pictures. Den of thieves, anyone? Also, there was a concert Tuesday night, which we didn't realize until Wednesday, which was annoying.

But it was so good. It really was. And I'm so glad I went.

(speaking of Gemma, she is currently asleep in my bed behind me - she's home ill with a stomach bug and feeling guilty for not being at work. I know it's bad, but I'm kind of glad; it's so nice having her here, and I'm enjoying taking care of her (she is ridiculously undemanding and makes a big deal out of everything I do, which is very rewarding. Shallow, me?). And it's quite homey having her here. Even though it's also making me feel guilty for being on LJ rather than doing work.)

***

I feel like I'm waiting for something. Maybe because Paris has been the big thing I've been waiting for since January and now it's gone; maybe because I've an urge to write, but no discipline to do so; maybe because essays and exams are due in soon and need studying for and yet I'm not doing that; maybe because, I keep looking for books and trying to find the perfect one - you know that feeling, where you know it's there somewhere, but because you don't know exactly what you're looking for, you just know you'll know when you see it, it's oddly...not frustrating, but expectant? I feel like that, like something is about to happen or I'm about to do something, but I don't know what.

Either that, or the combination of Perks of Being a Wallflower and Belle and Sebastian is messing with my mind.

1. Morte D'Arthur would be infinitely more amusing to read if I were allowed to edit it as I read. There would be a lot of comments along the lines of: "Too much tell, too little show", "irrelevant to the plot", "repeating how much Gawain likes fruit eight times is just annoying" and "character development - look it up".

It is entirely possible that I am a terrible English student.

2. My dad and I have watched four hours of How I Met Your Mother today. We watched two hours yesterday. We are maybe a little bit hooked. (Also, my dad keeps going "The women! They have *hips*! When did they start allowing women with hips to be on TV?" which is very amusing. And, indeed, the women on HIMYM are really, really gorgeous. Mmmmmhmm.)

Also, the show is just awesome. And mostly angst-free! ♥

3. I've been having a huge craving for more Being Human the last couple of days. Why isn't there more? *dispairs*

4. I've managed to double book just about every day this holiday and so haven't managed to do a lot of things I should have done. Like book a time for my hair. This is becoming a bit of a crisis.

5. 10 days to Paris! 10 days until I get three completely work-free days! This should be de-stressing, except right now I'm kind of worried it won't be as awesome as I want it to be, or Gemma won't like it as much as I hope, and just, flail! And then I realize that it's three days with *Gemma*. How can it be anything but awesome?

5a. Well, it won't be awesome if I don't exchange my money. Like, before I leave Denmark, where I can do it without have to pay an exchange fee.

5b. PARIS OMG YOU GUYS I LOVE PARIS! ♥

6. Also, am going down to Becca's in eight days. It's kind of weird - being at uni, I very rarely actually see people's, you know, former homes and meet their families and all that. I'm oddly excited about that. Also, going to church!

7. Critical theory has just become awesome again. Seriously, Freud's essay 'The Uncanny' is possibly the best thing I've read in CT this year outside of gender and queer theory (and more interesting than certain aspects of those theories, as well). I am now in the novel position of actually wanting to write my essay.

It's quite a strange feeling.