Productivity

Today at work, I learned that there's a private school in California called "Lick-Wilmerding." Is it just me, or does that seem like 1. a very bad idea, and 2. a strange sort of request? I mean, kids who go to that school are just asking to get beat up on their way home. At least my independent college preparatory school's nomiker was rather innocuous: Cape Henry Collegiate isn't exactly suggestive of anything...at least not that I know of.

I also had my Spanish tutorial read poetry out in the sun on Founders' Green this afternoon, as the atmosphere on campus today was highly conducive to Neruda's musical syllables. To complete the perfect image, of course, it was recited by a cute little circle of liberal arts students bent intently over their photocopies, gazing respectfully but lovingly at me, their cool, hip, yet intellectual TA. I expected a tour to walk by any second, or someone with a camera to snap the "look-at-the-brochure-worthy-students" photo, but alas, our small display of the quintessence of the small East Coast school went undocumented. And perhaps it didn't look *quite* as picturesque as I imagined it.

Finally there is some semblance of order in my academic life, and I'm greatly looking forward to the next 3 relatively free days to get caught up on all the shit that I didn't do this week, while simultaneously doing what I need to get done for next week, and sqeezing in something fun as well. Yeah, like that's all going to work. Shit, and I have my last summer photos waiting for me at Ritz; need to get on that.

It's also 9-11 today, and I didn't really clue into the fact that the date might mean something until after lunch; felt a little (very little) pang of guilt that I hadn't realized it, but then soothed my guilty conscience by listening to All Things Considered this afternoon. I don't mean to be coarse, but I'm just so damn sick of how every single faction in this country manipulates that specific event, along with many others, for stupid political goals. It gives Dubb-ya an excuse to preach about military might, justification for maintaining the completely futile and ignorant US presence in Iraq, and our asinine Secretary of Defense has leave to bolster support for the "Homeland Security Act." What doesn't make it any better is parading weepy-eyed children around ground zero in an attempt to make the memorial all that much more dramatic. I understand the significance of reading victims' names, taking time out of the day to remember what happened and mourn for those lost, but I honestly feel as though it's gratuitous (not to mention heavy-handed) to have all children doing the reading. Please, get me a large doe-eyed blonde six year old to whimper over something, therefore giving it national importance. 4 times on the news cycle they mentioned this, immediately followed by the fact that 'significantly' less people showed up in NYC for the 2 year anniversary. And really, shouldn't everything be about or 'for the children?'

Oh, American populace, how quickly you forget anything that isn't immediately relevant to your own well-being. [myself included, most of the time, she adds sheepishly]