Thursday, September 19, 2002
 

I did make it through class alive, albeit in the predicted stupor. And the professor sat next to me this week (rearranged seats slightly because of a presentation, though I can't seem to shake my sidekick, who's still getting the cold shoulder), brought Starbucks, and slurped it. My issue with the sound effects has already been noted [see previous post], and now he adds to that the torture of making me smell coffee when I'm already clinically dead. This was not appreciated. And for a final peeve: there's this 5th year who's working on her diss auditing this class, and she's apparently nearing completion of aforementioned diss and has a lot of spare time. All we have to read for next week is The Good Solider, which is short. She pipes up and asks if we have any additional critical reading, since the novel is so short. The discontent and hatred were palpable, needless to say, and Emily (who takes comps in four weeks) uttered a threat. I could use the light reading in that class, since it's Absalom, Absalom! for Southern lit (I've read it before, but . . .) and the rest of friggin Middlemarch for Victorian.

Would anyone guess that I actually really do love literature, by the amount I complain? Of course, I complain about everything, so I guess a grain or two of salt is in order.

Also: I've noticed that everyone I know is miserable. The entire graduate program here is a solid mass of griping, whining, vocal misery. I don't get happy, good-news e-mail from anyone. Phone calls mean someone's not having a good day (except for when kind friends call and sing uplifting tunes to raise my sinking spirits-- you know who you are-- THANKS!). The last letter I got started out as a hi-how-are-you and quickly moved into brooding depression. So either everyone I know needs to start lacing their drinking water with Prozac, or the plain fact of it is that human life isn't a happy thing, by and large.

So, too all of my depressed, down-in-the-dumps, miserable, blue, unhappy, desperate, tormented, undecided, unemployed, dismal, pained, sad, moping, misunderstood, discouraged, melancholy, downcast, dejected, grouchy, morose, joyless, disconsolate, inconsolable, woebegone, directionless, displaced, and generally not cheerful friends out there, I give you the gift of song: my theme!

Elvisette philosophized at 4:56 PM