the usual whinging

My sworn determination not to let anything from the local pizza joint pass my lips for a month lasted a whole ten days. The worst of it is, it wasn't a failure of will, it was a failure of emptyheadedness--I completely forgot we would be ordering from there while watching "V: The Final Battle"[1] Friday night. Lame!

I did pretty well the rest of this weekend, especially considering how much physical effort I expended yesterday, the only real failure being a cheese-filled hot dog. (Only one, at least.) Forgot to bring decent breakfast along this morning, so had a bagel. It is of such small chinks that our armor is breached.

I really ought to go to class today--I'm sore, but not as sore as to forbid it--but my mind's stated excuse is that my mangled toe is really abraded and hurts like crazy when touched, however lightly. Even with a plaster Band-Aid on it. And we do a lot of things in aikido where one has that bit of the foot against the mat. But is this just me being a whiner, or what? I wish I knew.

[1] Boy howdy was that ever a steaming pile of crap. Especially considering how good the original miniseries was.

Networking is...

not men in business suits talking over two-martini lunches, but women sitting outside on a ledge, eating udon and SmartFood[tm] and talking about Stargate fanfic.

I was full of the meh and phoned Beth to ask if she wanted to do lunch. She said that she had plans to meet her friend Lori (Laurie? Spelling unknown to me), whose thesis is on 14th century English sumptuary laws, and that therefore I should definitely come too. I'd more been looking for an opportunity to unload the wahmbulance, but in the spirit of feeding my creative head, I said "um okay sure".

And a joyous time was had by all. I got some pointers on where to look up details about 14th c. fashion above and beyond the standard run of data. We had a lot of good chat about Paris, sci-fi, alternative lifestyles, and writing. And I got extra vim from hearing the two of them talk about an ongoing project they're on, which is a joint program between CUNY and FIT on fashion studies. I believe there's an aspect which is hoped to grow into a degree program, but primarily at the moment it's about holding sessions & seminars in areas which are not granted attention by mainstream academia. Even though it's probably going to be above my head and won't affect my life other than very incidentally, it was--yes, I'll say it was inspirational, to listen to them talk about it, who they should invite, whether they might get this or that scholar to speak, and who knows whom that can persuade the other to lend weight to the undertaking.