Feared of all pious men: I am the Flying Dutchman

So, I recommend reading Nietzsche's discussion of Wagner but I would say don't try and read it right before bed.  Frightening dreams.

My roomie came back last night!  She's been off on a road trip with her mediocre boyfriend for the last two weeks.  Its been nice to have the whole apartment to myself but I do miss her when she's gone.  I guess I'll have to stop pooping in her bathroom now.  Oooh!  I wonder if she brought me a present.  She always brings me something back from her trips which is awesome.  My Dad stopped doing the same for me when I was five and I think I loved him a little less after that.  Ting knows the way to my heart is through trinkets.  Last time she brought me alpaca yarn and a miniature alpaca.  He's all fuzzy and has a big goofy grin embroidered on his face.  I call him Ned.  And sometimes I set him on my keyboard before I go to bed so that I'll have something to laugh at when I get up in the morning.

Today begins with a grad student lunch with our colloquium speaker.  I'm always torn about attending such gatherings because, while, as a grad student, I shamelessly seek out as much free food as possible (I once survived for two days entirely on those mini muffins they set out at conferences), I also don't want to risk embarrassing myself in front of one of the mandarins of our discipline.  I don't have much in terms of intelligent things to say about this person's work (oooh, mental note to self to be sure to not talk with my mouth full).  In some ways grad school is just like those reality game shows where they see how much pain and humiliation you'll endure for large sums of money in the end.  Except without the large sums of money in the end.

The other main project for today is to sort out this condom dispenser in YRL women's bathroom thing.  I made an interesting discovery in the bathroom the other day (you know this has to be a good story).  What for years I have just assumed was a tampon dispenser on the wall of the first floor bathroom of YRL, because if anything is going to be attached to the wall in a women's bathroom, it would be a tampon dispenser.  Or a paper towel dispenser too I suppose.  Anyway, after using this bathroom for years I just last week noticed that it is in fact a condom dispenser.  Now, according to some knowledgeable males I have asked, there aren't any condom dispensers in any of the men's bathroom.  So this is very curious.  Dave, my friend Tony's roommate, said that when he used to give tours for UCLA, that the tour guides were instructed to say that Powell had back in the 70s been listed as one of the top ten places to have sex in public.  Now that's Powell and I'm not so surprised.  Its really pretty and seems to genuinely be a gathering place for undergrads.  But YRL?  It has about as much charm as linoleum.  Its just full of angsty academics in training.  You can feel the desperation dripping down the walls.  Terrible energy.  One time I was up in the Q section (of course) and upon not finding my book on the shelf, started to cry.  Granted, I was fragile at the time for a variety of reasons, I'm just trying to say that the stacks at the research library seem like just about the last place a random hookup would occur.  And why the women's bathroom and not the men's? Weird and sexist!  Anyway, I'm going to figure all this out.  I think the first step is to get a condom from the dispenser and check the expiration date.  I'm a proper gumshoe!

And with that, I think I need to go take a shower and get started on my day.  Bah its going to be hot.  And smoky.  The wall of flame racing down the mountain towards Pasadena is not helping my cold.

Have wonderful mondays.