Have you seen this cat?

On Monday -- the same day and same place I saw the Emily Dickinson poem on the sidewalk --- I saw little black kitten. It was near the bushes at the end of the bridge that leads to Wells. It had big yellow eyes and a white patch at its throat and on its belly. It was so very very cute.

I didn't know what to do because I think it was a stray. It didn't have a collar. A couple of girls who saw it at the same time I did tried to catch it and take it to the Humane Society, but it kept running away from us. I hope it's okay but it's getting cold outside. So if you see the kitty, be nice to it. And take it to the Human Society if you can. Thanks.


Take with my cellphone

Of course it's a coincidence that that particular poem was chalked on the sidewalk, but I couldn't help to think about what Emily Dickinson wrote about helping one fainting robin unto his nest again. I will try to not live in vain.

I don't want to be the crazy cat lady, but I really want a cat, especially after what happened on Monday. But not right now because I can't take care of one. Maybe in a few years when I have some money for food, toys, and vet visits. I think when I finish med school and have a job I'll get one.

Sidewalk poetry

I was walking from Williams Hall to the International Center this morning just before 8am. It was still gray outside and chilly. Crossing the end of the bridge onto the Wells Hall area, I saw two poems chalked on the sidewalk. They were:

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

- Emily Dickinson

and

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

- William Carlos Williams

This made my day. Thank you, whoever wrote it on the sidewalk.

Facts about my childhood

Little known fact about me (now more widely known):
I am a fan of The X-Files.


I had an X-Files calendar of stills from Season Seven. I believe there is one person out there who can name my favorite episodes. You know who you are and I love you. I dressed up Agent Scully for Halloween once in high school.


I was very happy to see that this cultural relic of the 1990s resurfaced. I guess there are still some X-Philes (X-File fans) out there:



But I have to add that there was an episode where it was implied that Scully and Mulder spent the night together. They have also kissed, I believe, once. And another time but Scully was playing a different character. Yeah, it's complicated.

I think I want to be a foodie. Or not.

I want to be a foodie because I love food.

I had goat meat today. It was from Sindhu, which I fully recognize is probably a bastardized Indian-food-for-gringos restaurant. If Chinese restaurants in Michigan are any indication of the authenticity of foreign foods in this region, it's nothing like real Indian food for Indians. Okay, done with the disclaimer. Never the less, it was goat. It tasted kind of like lamb, with that ... lamby taste, which I had been craving for a long time. I mean, I haven't had lamb in at least a year.

According to Monika, it's the fastest growing meat for eating. Meaning more and more people are eating it, not that goat grows up quickly for slaughtering, but that's initially a bit confusing. Goat is a staple meat for a lot of people in the world because goats are easy to raise.

A few weeks ago I had uni nigri sushi for the first time and I loved it. I've had ample opportunities to order it in other Japanese restaurants, but I did it this time. Uni is sea urchin roe. It's soft and yellowy-orange. It tasted like very concentrated seafood, like the juice of a head of a head-on shrimp or crab tomalley. Not to be confused with tamale. It's the greenish yellow "crap" inside crabs. Asians LOVE tomalley. LOVE. (Apparently there's some health warning about toxins in it but I don't eat it often and or pregnant for it to be a concern.)

But there are two main reasons for my hesitation about this aspiration. First and foremost, I think foodies fetishize food. This is feeling is captured well by David Rakoff's book Don't Get Too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, the Torments of Low Thread Count, the Never-ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems. Particularly the part "The Never-Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil". I don't want to be like Zingerman's, which definitely fetishizes artisanal olive oil and a lot of other "artisanal" foods. Stuff White People Like should add "foodie" to its list.

I think foodies get to a point where you are judged by the food you make and eat. Like I should be embarrassed because I don't make everything from scratch and eat questionably fresh tuna rolls. Oh, and not everything I eat has fewer than four ingredients or whatever Michael Pollan's rules are. You know the way people try to out "indie" each other by naming indie bands they know and asking "Have you heard of (insert combination of random words that is apparently a band name". I think foodies can do that too. Like, have you tried ___? It's divine. See David Rakoff's essay on fetishizing sea salt.

Second, is it possible to be a foodie and not be a cook? Because I'm not sure I like cooking that much, still. But today I bought rapini (aka broccoli raab) at Meijer and I think I will sautee it in some garlic and oil. I like it because it's a leafy green with a slightly bitter taste. Boiling pasta and sauteeing vegetables in oil is about all the cooking I do. Well no, I can also make miso soup and scrambled egg. Now those are all the things I can make.

Life is expensive

How much is an appropriate amount to spend on groceries each week? I thought about this as I pushed my mini shopping cart out of Meijer. I spent $61.41 today.

I was shocked at first because my whole family would spend this much at Meijer on a shopping trip. But I'm just one person so I can't possibly eat as much. I already spent too much on groceries last week and I rationalized it as getting set up for the year. This week I don't have a good excuse.

But then I thought about it some more, and maybe, just maybe this isn't ridiculous because I don't eat out anymore. In fact, I've only eaten out once since I've been here, not including meetings where I got food for free. (And also not including coffee, bubble tea, and Dairy Store ice cream but none of that is a meal in itself.) I've eaten every other meal from food I bought at the grocery store. Since eating at even the cheapest fast food joint on campus costs about $5, I reckon I've saved a lot, I've really saved compared to eating at the cafeteria.

It's also the non-food items that drives up the grocery bill. The food I bought was actually all quite cheap. The most expensive food item was a $4.99 bag of frozen shrimp. But I got some face wash, tampons, medicine, and shoe insoles that were all pretty expensive put together. The problem is that I also really needed all those things too so somehow I should spent less on them. Hm. Saving money is hard.

I need to read more books.

I have never had so few books for my classes! It's insane that I only have two required books for all my classes this semester. Printed course packs of essentially powerpoint slides or lab instructions don't count as real books. The only two (TWO! TWO!) books I bought were an immunology textbook and a genetics textbooks.

In previous semesters, I've always had one or two James Madison classes. We read probably at least 6 books in each class. I loved how I'd buy all the books and line them up on a bookshelf or crate so I could visualize the whole semester.

But now, I only have two textbooks and a few flimsy notebooks in my stackable crate. This is sad. This is probably why I have been thinking so much about reading for pleasure lately.

Things I've been thinking about:

I heard about this satirical novel called How I Became a Famous Novelist. The author, Steve Hely, was interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air today. Basically the novel is about a guy who wants to write a best-selling novel just for the money, so he gathers up all the tropes of best-selling novels into one novel and writes details that will appeal to the most demographics. Examples: natural disaster, secret love affair, clubs, a scene of driving on a highway to make driving poetic and magical for audiobook buyers, a folk singer for music merchandise tie-ins. I would add that he should add some pseudo-historical conspiracy a la Dan Brown.

I heard that the Madison freshman summer reading book was Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss. I want to read it!

Should I read Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake before I read After the Flood? They're set in the same universe, I think, but this new book is not necessarily a sequel to Oryx and Crake.

Has anyone bought a non-Harry Potter, non-Dan Brown book the day it was released? I'm counting down the days until September 22 because I really really really really want to buy After the Flood and Nocturnes the day it's released.

Case Hall

I didn't realize that Case Hall was such a familiar place to me until I no longer had class there or lived there. For the past two years I lived in Case Hall. For the past three years, I had two classes each semester in Case Hall. But this year, I am not taking any James Madison College classes this year and I have moved to Williams Hall.

A couple days ago I stepped inside Case for the first time this school year and I was surprised how many people I knew in the building. I went to a professor's office hours and in the process saw two professors who I have had for multiple classes and they are probably my two favorite professors. I also saw several Madison students I knew.

A part of me is a little nostalgic for Case Hall but I'm also adapting very well to being a Human Bio major this semester since I'm taking all science classes. But I realize that many of the people I know in Madison don't know any of the people I have met through the sciences. It's two different circles of friends, people with different interests. I mean, they're not so different that they won't get along with each other, but just that there aren't many situations where they will be together. That's why I find it fascinating to find someone else who shares a background in the sciences and in public policy and social studies.