While I should be studying...

Alas, dear readers, you're going to have to put up with lame-bloggerness until at least the beginning of May. The deal is this: I'm writing my first comprehensive exam. What does this mean, you ask? I'm sure I've explained this before, but a recap is always good. It means that I need to read and remember a list of 100-odd texts (poems, novels, essays, plays, books of theory and criticism), and then spend three days regurgitating what I've read in creative and insightful ways. It is, in a word, rough. And it is, in a word, soon. May 5-6 and the week following, to be exact, but when I'm also teaching, editing a book, applying for funding to edit a digital archive, attempting to start an academic journal, moving (more on that in a moment) and attempting to have a life, time is tight. Hence, blog suckage. So, instead of real posts, you will get lists, videos, songs, maybe recipes, and then some seriously kick-ass, thoughtful-as-hell posting come the end of May. 'Cause oh, I forgot to mention, I'm spending two week at Trent after my exam doing editing classes. Sigh. I'm bloody well nuts.

• My friend Nav on new ways mobile technology lets us engage with where we live. Could also be titled "Why Melissa wishes she had a smartphone, although she can't afford one."
• An exciting addition to my repertoire of cookery websites: the French version of AllRecipes, Marmiton.org. Duck confit shepherd's pie, anyone?
• My crazy-cool new apartment building, circa 1965. Did I mention that I'm moving back to Toronto? Like, tomorrow? I'm maybe a bit too excited, but I really do miss the city to bits, and living in the 'burbs is silly when I spend six out of seven days downtown anyway.I'm now walking distance to the library I spend most of my time at, as well as both my salsa and yoga classes. And how fun is it that I can see Casa Loma from my shower?
• Go see An Education. Even though I'm not British, an ingenue, or dating a 35-year-old man (wait, scratch that. I am, but I'm not 17), it really felt like it was about parts of my life, especially the age-old question all academics face: What's more important? More school education, or more life education?
• I spend inordinate amounts of time at the John W. Graham library. Where else can you spend ten hours a day curled up in an armchair in front of a fireplace, and not feel like an "I'm still at home in my jammies at 2 pm" slacker?
• AG, otherwise known as my boyfriend (Yes, dear readers, I have invited a male of the species back into my life. Wish me luck.), is a big tea drinker, and he's introduced me to a new favourite which goes by the wonderfully loopy name of Beautiful Foolishness. Coconut, berries, white tea and citrus, made by Tea in the Sahara, a local company. Oh so good. AG picked it up somewhere in Roncesvalles, but I'm hoping to find a new stash closer to home.
• You will wear these shoes and refer to yourself as Mary. Just watch this.
• I bought real dishes yesterday. Honest-to-goodness china department at The Bay dishes. They're Sophie Conran (daughter of Sir Terence) for Portmerioion, and they're gorgeous. Dear, but gorgeous. I got the white, because you can't convince me that anything other than white is good for everyday (it's all about how the food looks on the plate), but I think I might have to get a few random pieces of the blue-green for fun. It is my favourite colour, after all.
• Salsa class is a hoot. Maybe it's because most of the class is made up of women and gay men (it's an LGBTQ class run out of the local university), I don't feel like an idiot looking like an idiot, or having sweaty hands, or stepping on people's toes, and so it's just fun. And I'm actually starting to get the hang of it, which is a big deal for klutzy old me.