Proposal, etc.

Well, I did it. I turned in the fellowship proposal today. If I don't get it, I want to be able to say that I didn't really spend any time on it. That I just threw it together. But I'd be lying. Because I spent A LOT of time on it. I think I wrote thirteen drafts of the proposal. I had seven different readers, three of whom read multiple drafts. I also had readers for my c.v. and my statement of significance. I really tried hard on this one. I want that fellowship.

But it's out of my hands now. And I don't think I find out until April or so. That's a long time to wait and while I'm a patient person, I want to know, well, now.

But that's impossible, and I don't imagine reading about me turning in a proposal makes for good reading. So, I thought I'd throw a few reviews your way.

Unfortunately, pursuing a doctorate doesn't leave a lot of time for leisure reading. That's true and it's not, actually. I have some leisure time, but I read constantly for my dissertation. It's hard, I have to say, to talk myself into reading for fun. Not that the two are necessarily mutually exclusive -- there are some dissertation-related books that I'm really excited about -- but I think you understand what I mean.

All of this is to say that I didn't read a whole lot for pleasure this year. Here's what I did read: The Lovely Bones, The Kite Runner, Skinny Legs and All, and the first in the Series of Unfortunate Events. I think I just inadvertantly listed them in order from best to last. I don't want to say "worst," because the Series of Unfortunate Events book was fun, but it's no Harry Potter. Oh, I may have also read Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I can't remember if that was this past year or last. I liked that one just fine, but preferred Wicked. I thought Wicked was a blast.

Anyway, I thought The Lovely Bones was, in fact, lovely. It's really difficult to read at first -- gruesome and sad, but I thought the writing was engaging and beautiful, and I loved the vision of an afterlife that that book offered.

Skinny Legs and All wears a bit thin, but it is eerily relevant to the current war in Iraq, and therefore worth a read. I like Tom Robbins, but if I'm not completely in the mood for him, he can get a bit tiresome. I prefered Still Life with Woodpecker.

So if I'm not reading in my spare time, what am I doing? I think you know. I'm watching t.v. As I've said, I cut way back on the tv watching last semester, but have gotten a bit re-addicted this semester. TiVo helps, though. I don't watch just whatever is on, and i don't have to stop what I'm doing to watch something I'm really interested in. So that's nice. I often get tv shows from Netflix too. I wish I were more into movies, but I don't seem to have the patience lately. Or maybe I don't seem to have the time to sit down for an hour and a half to two hours at a stretch to watch something. There might be too much guilt associated with it.

Best new show? I have to say Heroes. I'm absolutely in love with it. I watched all but three episodes over the last few days (those three episodes didn't get taped, so unless I download them from iTunes or something, I'll have to wait until it comes out on dvd). A friend of mine told me that it started out strong and then got, well, less good. But she and I don't always agree. She loves 24. I loved the first season, but then sort of lost interest. And I love Heroes. All of it (except those three episodes that I haven't seen). It's out there, of course, but in a Buffy sort of way. The out-thereness is completely buyable and contributes to character development and interaction. It's not based in special effects, it's based in emotion. It's just my favorite thing to watch right now. That and Top Chef. If you've got time, check them both out. Heroes comes back on January 22nd.