a strangely quiet night

Well, tomorrow I drive the thesis down to Oakland, get the final signature and deliver it off to its destiny --which is of course involves nothing more than its being bound into two copies. One copy will go into the school library's permanent archive and the other becomes part of the circulating collection. I'm sure it'll be a hot borrow once it's there.

Cough.

Anyway.

I imagine December's going to be a bit of a blur--in my head it is already half-over although, technically by my watch anyway, there is still an hour-and-a-half to go of November. You know, all the usual holiday rush of shopping, baking, get-togethers, parties, etc...no complaining on my part though. I love December, even the stress that comes with it. I love the icy weather, I love the festivities, I love the frenetic rush of cheer, I love the very December-ness of it all....

But I am looking forward to January already...because January is my second-favorite month for the exact opposite reason that December is my favorite...I love January's calmness and all the time that just seems to stretch out and linger.

I'm already thinking of things to do once 2005 comes around and mostly these things just involve reading. I'm really hungry to read books the books that have been piling up around here. Which of course isn't stopping me from wanting to get new books. (I may even finish those books listed in the right-hand column over there).

I'd like to check out Martha Witt's Broken as Things Are --her style's been called a "cross between Harper Lee and Flannery O'Connor."

And, of course, I have to read the new Marilynne Robinson new, second novel Gilead--her first book, Housekeeping (published 23 years ago) is one of my favorites and this new one is getting pretty favorable reviews...

Of course, I'll probably just spend a lot of time sitting around watching the first season of The O.C. on DVD...but honestly, I think I've earned the right to slack off for a month or two.

Hopefully there will also be some films on the horizon as well. Last week we had the chance to see Sideways and really, really liked it....I had medium hopes for the film considering that I found Alexander Payne's "Election" to be so-so (I know, everyone else loves that movie -I thought it was a good concept with great actors and just middling execution). I also hated "About Schmidt." Sideways is a much better film than both of these previous efforts. It's sophisticated but not stuffy, warm but not sappy...and Paul Giamatti (of the amazing American Spendor) was absolutely perfect and he better get an Oscar nomination or else something's seriously wrong.

Anyway--if anyone has any good film recommendations, leave me a comment....OK, now there's only an hour left to go of November...I better go enjoy it.