I have many pictures from yesterday's lab trip to Sterling Forest. At the moment, however, the only thing I can focus on (or have been able to focus on since I woke up this morning) is being naked on my bed, eating oranges, listening to dubstep, and wishing it were nighttime already.

Massive Attack's video for Paradise Circus is one of my very favorite things. I sent it to you way back in the spring- do you remember? Well, my fondness of it runs deeeep, so imagine my delight when I stumbled upon this:

Camille says hi back!

And can I just say that I am so, so happy to be doing the thesis work that I am doing? Stacks and stacks of papers to read, presentations to make up and deliver, research plans to be confirmed ten times over, grants to apply for, travel to arrange, and drafts and drafts and drafts to write and edit to no end... but I am still happy. I love my topic and find it endlessly fascinating. When I take breaks from reading, they're not because my brain has turned into a rotting, soupy blob, but instead because I need to just pause and try to mentally organize and compartmentalize all of the cool shit I just encountered.

I love these mushrooms, I love their hosts, and I love that the problem I am studying seems to be of concern in the areas of the world I've always most longed to visit. I don't know how I will feel a few months from now, but at the moment it feels like the absolute most perfect fit for me.

Amanita muscaria

EDIT: Also, please check out this guy's illustrations.

-Camille

Hello from Turnip and Karen!

Hello again :)

Is this not one of the loveliest things you've ever seen? Simple and surprising, like how 'cellar door' is thought to be one of the most beautiful phrases in the English language. And oh yeah, winter. I woke up to my windows being pelted with what I thought was heavy rain, only to go outside to a mostly dry pavement, and cold, sharp hail deftly pelting me on the head. When I was growing up in China, there was no snow. When I came here, snow meant overly anxious parents making me wear long johns and endless homemade, well-meaning but largely embarrassing knitwear. I like the idea of snow. I like to look at it, to watch it fall. I like it in Christmas movies with Diane Keaton, and I love the idea of being snuggled up in a cozy cabin while the snow falls unbridled outside. But I do not like to spend time in snow, make snow angels, or see the brown slush that immediately ruins the snow, which then lingers around too long like the horrendous eyesore that it is.

-Karen

I got to work on time this morning (rarely ever happens), had a blast, went to job #2 , had a more subdued blast, got home, cooked cabbage and a sweet potato and some chickpeas, had a heart to heart, and then looked outside at 5:30.
What the hell is this?
Oh yeah. Winter.

Happy unofficial winter, Kare Bare!!!



-Camille

Yesterday afternoon I met my friend Bob for lunch and a show.

Walking to the restaurant, I had to get off the train at Times Square and walking through the throngs of people I was getting SO ANGRY. I have never had such a bad "angry New Yorker" frustrated stride and it was getting me scared just how agitated I was getting by the neverending sea of slow-moving, slow-reacting people. I always feel quite unsafe there, too. It boggles my mind how parents who have never been to NYC think it is a good idea to take their children there. Not only are the chances of your kid getting trampled/kidnapped/LOST uncomfortably high, but it is also NOT FUN and I just feel like you're guaranteed to get something stolen off you. If you want to see fun lights and listen to loud honking and shouting... I would listen to Fun House and look through a kaleidoscope or turn on a disco ball. That actually sounds fun.

I used to listen to Fun House regularly and religiously, and LOUDLY. I am getting old. The idea of doing that alone, without any social lubricants or partners in crime seems sort of painful now...

I got to the restaurant (our usual place- I am so tickled that I have a "usual" spot with a friend where we have our monthly/bi-monthly lunch dates) and all my frustration dissipated with the help of a DELICIOUS lunch and beautiful company.
Then we went to see the Language Archive at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre and I really, really enjoyed it.
I usually hate theater, but I liked this. And that's not me being a tough critic, or me giving this shit high praise. It was good, and very good considering that the idea of going to a play usually makes me want to die. In fact, until I sat down in the theater and saw the amazing set (which was inspiring in itself), part of me was already preparing to die.
But it was romantic and troubling and many times throughout the performance I found myself teary, just thinking of my own past love troubles, and I had to scream to myself "Camille, you think about yourself 24/7. How often are you given a chance to easily and freely explore the beauty and pain in others' lives (even if pretended, even if for just a short time)?"
So I shut my mind off and let go and really appreciated what was going on. And it was good.

Then we went out for tea and it was freezing and the 123 line is undergoing "major construction" and I experienced "severe delays" in getting back uptown.
But the afternoon was wonderful, I am loved, I love in return, and humanity is beautiful.
And I went back to my friend Nina's brownstone, we made salad and stir-fry, and had a good quiet evening.

So, overall, good weekend.

-Camille

Watch this



Sometimes I like people.
-Karen