November 28, 2005

It looks like my job will be in the adult literacy program.  Katherine says it's in the bag, but I'll believe it when I see it.  The interview won't be till next week. (Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.)

We finally did the October accounts for our used book business.  A profit of over $250, mostly due to my Ebay sales.

Sold some more Ebay packages:  Steve Canyon, Our Boarding House, Captain Kate, Little Iodine.  A German paid over $20 for the Prince Valiant package.  Only Dick Tracy didn't sell, and I reposted it for another week, since that strip usually sells.

The mild weather came back.  I took a big pile of leaves from the front yard, put them in a big bag and moved them close to the compost box so we can mix the two together.

Dinner was roast chicken.

At choir practed we did the rest of "O Wake and Hear the Voices." (Giuseppe cut one short section, which was just "Hallelujah!" in difficult trills.) Catherine feels frustrated about her medical treatment.

November 27, 2005

"Of course she likes you--she's your mother!"

"Then why does she keep introducing me as her attorney?"

--Green Acres

"I'm sick of the unhappiness.  I want some new unhappiness"--Six Feet Under

Dreamed of being at a high-rise hotel in Washington, D.C. with my family; the building collapsing while I was out; none of us being hurt but my diary being lost; singing the soul song "Hard to Handle."

I was going to see another Naruse silent at the Cinematheque, but I completely forgot about it until it was too late to make it.

John and Kathrine came over and brought vegan burritos for dinner. (Afterward I sneaked out to McDonald's again.)

On Six Feet Under Claire got an abortion; they handled the funeral for an executed serial killer.

Read an article in The Guardian online where Roy Hattersley of Britain's Labour Party pointed out that improved regulation of privatized utilities hadn't worked but carefully added that "nobody in their[sic] right mind" believes that renationalization is still possible. [Speak for yourself, coward!] I wrote them an email saying "Be crazy and ask for the 'impossible.' That's the realistic way to change the world."

November 26, 2005

Dreamed of my parents and I visiting my hometown of Sackville, N.B., again; being angry because they'd left me at the motel with nothing to do; trying to play a piano piece that didn't make any musical sense.

Saw Ingmar Bergman's movie of the Mozart opera The Magic Flute (for the third time) at the Cinematheque.  One of the best opera movies ever!

Finished reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Preachy twaddle, with a very strange ending. (The children have spent many years in Narnia, growing to adulthood, then they go back through the wardrobe to their former world and become kids again.  What the...!) [And the part with kids fighting a "holy war" was tasteless.]

Dinner was takeout Chinese food.

November 25, 2005

"Mom, did you just break up with my boyfriend?"--Freaks and Geeks

Dreamed of James Bond; being about to spend the night with a family in an igloo, and shovelling some more snow on it to make sure the walls would be thick enough (I was shovelling our walk just the evening before).

Katherine phoned from the Hawkins Institute.  It looks like I'm on the verge of getting a position!  I'll have an interview next week.

It's so cold that I stayed indoors all day.

Dinner was McDonald's.

Sold an Ebay package of The Katzenjammer Kids strips to a guy in Brazil.  And someone from Denmark snapped up Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Uncle Remus less than an hour after I'd posted them. (I'd been afraid they wouldn't sell at all!)

November 24, 2005

"Diplomats have to go where they're posted." "So do Labradors"--The Constant Gardener

"You don't have to keep your promises.  You're a woman!"--Green Acres

Dreamed of visiting my old high school in Sackville, N.B.; being afraid of meeting someone I knew; wondering whether I was wrong to quit in the last year (when awake I have no regrets!); riding in a London taxi and seeing a jet plane go down in an explosive crash.

Wore my winter coat for the first time since last winter. (It's our first really cold weather.)

Baked rye bread.

I've already sold and mailed an Ebay package of Out Our Way comics.

Dinner was shepherd's pie.

Saw Fernando Meirelles' movie of John Le Carre's The Constant Gardener at the Bloor.  It's a masterful political thriller and ultimately a great love story.  Ralph Fiennes is one of our finest actors.

November 23, 2005

Father: "We're going to spend some quality time together, and we're going to enjoy it, dammit!"--Freaks and Geeks

Dreamed of going to see Fellini's first movie Variety Lights; realizing I'd seen it before, but being reluctant to leave because Moira was with me; speculating that in the scene where the ingenue's skirt got torn off onstage, she'd found a way to do it deliberately; a Sesame Street song in the form of blues, involving a young girl obsessed with her weight.

Saw a DVD of Sister Wendy commenting on the stained glass windows of the King's College chapel in Cambridge. (They never did say when the windows were made!)

Dinner was salmon.

At the taijiquan class we were introduced to the final moves in the cycle.

Saw the DVD of the first episode of the 1960s sitcom Green Acres, which I used to watch at the time.  It's a classic!

November 22, 2005

Dreamed of sneaking into a department store after it was closed; many others sneaking in and looting starting; fighting and gunplay breaking out among looters; starting to go home but being unsure how safe the streets were; being a Canadian prisoner of the Germans in a village near the Italian front in World War II; seeing the Germans remove the loot they'd taken from other looters to finance their war machine; sneaking past the other prisoners who were being removed by train; carring two carrots and putting one into the train to confuse the Germans while eating the other; walking with Giuseppe my choir director, then going my own way, planning to sneak across the front to the Canadian zone.

Went shopping.

Dinner was fettucine pesto (which I cooked).

Forgot to bring my score to the opera chorus.  Fortunately, I have just about all of the music memorized by now.  I brought the rest of my cookies saved from the fundraiser and the others finished them off (and ate some of the cheese too).