My brain platzt gleich

So I'm taking a break from reading and reading and reading to tell you about my life. As you may have gathered from my silence, I have been very busy this fine October. I suppose I haven't updated you since Fall Break began? Well, that was a restful weekend, in which I travelled to the land of Longyidow to meet many of Katie's family and friends, Longyidow being only three-quarters of an hour's drive from here. Classes resumed that Wednesday, and Jack returned in the evening to find that Katie and I had covered his room in pennies, which deeply aggravated his OCD and gave Katie and myself a hearty laugh. By this time, Katie and I had determined that we should be celebrating GLBT history month by dressing up, after a coincidence in which we each dressed as San Francisco politicos on Harvey Milk day. Lupe Valdez day brought Texas sheriff's badges, David Griffen day saw me as David and Katie as secret lover Keanu Reeves, Barney Frank day saw more political outfits and ushered in Family and Friends Weekend, in which parents descend upon our humble campus in droves and do such things as sit in on classroom discussions and create excuses for Ralph to host meals in RCC. Saturday (Barbara Gittings day) included a panic on our part when SAGA closed early and we could find no food, but then we found a great Ralph-lunch in the gym and we had mediocre but free sammiches and did not die. That night, Katie's parents came up for dinner with Ken Burns, but a famous Negro Leagues baseball player whose name I have forgotten died that week and Ken was called away to deliver his eulogy and thus sent his ex-wife in his stead. We still had a most delicious dinner and screened a portion of Ken's upcoming documentary The War (about world war ii), and I promise that it will be so incredibly powerful and when it finally premieres Katie and I will camp out in front of PBS for the entire 7-night, 14-hour series. Sunday was Phill Wilson officially but inofficially Goetz Otto, aka German Man from German movie der Untergang, which we watched Friday night. Yes, every man in der Untergang was German, but none was quite so Germanic as German Man, and we fell almost as in love with him as with Bald Man (Bald Men, of course, possessing incredible charisma and causing all who encounter them to fall madly in love. Whenever we see a Bald Man, Katie and Jack and I become incredibly excited). In honor of German Man, I did not go to German Breakfast, mostly because I was sleepy (I have found out since that Family and Friends Weekend events caused German Breakfast to be cancelled for the week, so I feel better). Monday was The Birthday Of Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, for which we all dressed up and went to Northhampton, where large crowds followed us and sang our praises. We went to Webs America's Yarn Store, which is the best store ever, and I bought yarn to knit Jack a scarf so he does not freeze. We bought other various things of varying degrees of importance, and returned to campus just in time for me to go to Spanish (for the first time in 2 and a half weeks) where I determined that my Spanish class does very little when I skip it. We spent the evening making an Oscar Wilde Birthday Day mix, which is a beautiful collection of Jack and Katie and I's favorite gay songs. Tuesday was Tim Gill Day, aka Kari does her Yiddish project day, aka Worst Day of Jack's Life. I got up early and got some books from the Hampshire library for my project (on Queer Yiddishkeit), grabbed some lunch with Katie and Jack, and grabbed a bus to Mt Holyoke with Jack (who has Spanish there) to get some more books. It began to rain as we arrived, and continued to rain as I left 45 minutes later. Once home, I began reading and Jack called me in his break between class and TA session, and Katie got out of class, and I kept reading. We waited for Jack, who called us to let us know he had missed 2 buses due to getting the schedule mixed up and that he had already eaten. I read him the schedule and Katie and I went to dinner, during which Jack missed another bus by watching it pull up, not realizing it was his bus while it sat in front of him for 5 minutes, then realizing as it pulled away. Deeply upset at his own stupidity, Jack proceeded to wait in the rain for the next bus that never came. Taking immense pity on him, Katie and I convinced the ever-saintly Madelaine to use her powers of Automobile to drive us to Mt Holyoke to pick poor drenched cold Jack up since buses obviously hate him. All other plans for the evening thus ruined, Katie and I determined that we should do laundry, which we did while reading for WWII class. After an exciting laundry session, the three of us had the best idea ever and decided to create Sims of ourselves and our respective significant others, all of whom turned out to be eerily accurate. Highlights: Jack Sim got food poisoning almost immediately (I have never ever had a Sim with food poisoning before), Katie Sim has the worst insomnia ever (and, ironically, loves to play chess), Kari Sim, when very tired, chooses to nap in Jack's bed rather than her own. We've begun populating the neighborhood with all our favorite people- Oscar and Bosie are already working on love affairs with Jack and Frank, the cast of Velvet Goldmine has moved in across the street, and Ralph and Manfred are planning their first garden party. We have plans for an Artists House featuring Andy Warhol and Friends, and Walt Whitman will certainly show up, and maybe even Bernard Shaw (we have been discovering that my beloved Bernard was totally friends with every single famous person in England ever). Of course, we have real lives too, and had to do things like go to class on Wednesday (which is pretty much all I do all day long Wednesdays) and then Project Runway had its finale (which was overly dramatic and the wrong person won and we are sad) and there was a fire alarm (after a fire drill on Monday morning, by the way) but we perservered. Thursday brought Bayard Rustin Day, aka Communist Day, in which Katie and Jack and I became card-carrying members of the communist party. It was also Heather's birthday and I had to give my Yiddish presentation (it went well) and we had to go to the Smith library to do research for WWWII (Smith has a pretty great library and I have a pile of books, in German, that I have to read and write an essay about by Wednesday). Of course we did nothing productive on Thursday night, because we had Sims to play, after having a giant phone party in which we had very long phoen conversations with someone. I talked to Mary in both German and English and I love that girl so much more than you. Friday brought Jim Kolbe day, aka Log Cabin Republican Day, aka Kari Wears a Top Hat Because People Respect a Top Hat day. We had class and we had lunch with Will and I had more class and Jack left to go have dinner with some lesbians and sleep at their house so Katie and I bought chips and watched The Laramie Project and made our Lord Alfred Bosie Douglas Birthday mix (mainly because we realized that Oscar's mix had too many glaring omissions such as ABBA and David Bowie). And we stayed up forever doing nothing of great import. Today has been quiet- it is Adrienne Rich Day, so we slept in and ate and we have spent our afternoon reading for WWWII because Jack is not home but we have his keys so we can't leave him or he won't get into his room. I think I will call him now and see if he's still alive, and then I suppose it is back to homework. Tomorrow is Ian McKellan Day, aka Lord Alfred Bosie Douglas's Birthday Day, aka a certain duck's birthday. It shall certainly be festive.