what happened to the weekend? suddenly it’s monday night and i could have sworn i wrote here during the weekend…
here’s another photo from last year’s fair. there are a few good photos of chickens, and this is the first. “chicken photo #1,” let’s call it.
so, the fair this year…whew. after working so long on friday, i wasn’t eager to go back for more on saturday. late friday, a huge storm knocked out power at the whole fair, so it didn’t open till noon on saturday. i wonder if that’s unprecedented? i got to the IL bldg. at noon, and it was hot inside. uh oh.
people kept saying that the air conditioning was kicking on, but it wasn’t. not until three o’clock, by which time i was rather surly. only internally, of course, i didn’t snap at anybody or doing anything untoward. i was mighty glad to finally feel the air conditioning, though.
sunday morning was abe’s amble, the 10k run that started at the grandstand and headed over to lincoln park and then into the cemetery. i’ve been hemming and hawing about whether to do this race for a while now, knowing i’d probably be tired from massaging. i didn’t sleep well on saturday night, woke up at four and was lying there feeling more and more annoyed, and finally decided i might as well get up. still very crabby, i drove to the fairgrounds and found a huge traffic jam trying to get inside. a record number of people ran the race for some reason; there were over a thousand people there.
B. (Blandings) ran the race with me, and after we started, i started to get a little less crabby. it was pretty humid, but didn’t feel so bad. last year, it seemed much worse. i remember that i slowed down quite a bit, and walked a few times, but i didn’t walk at all this time. amazing, how some consistent training makes you get better. if i was ever going to do a triathlon again (and i won’t say NEVER, but i’ll say PROBABLY NO WAY IN HELL), i bet that lots of swimming in preparation would make me less slow.
the final hill of abe’s amble was the long climb up the hill on the backside of lincoln park. last year it was utter torture, as runner after runner passed me by, including an old guy wearing a brace. this year, nobody passed me. weird. in a good way.
i mean, i’m not fast at all, i’m a slowpoke slow turtle slow moving vehicle compared to the speedy roadrunners out there. but i’m not as slow as before, and better yet, i don’t feel sore the next day.
today, as a matter of fact, no soreness. i got up and ran for an hour, except i noticed it took me longer to run farther.
i started my day with running and ended with my FIRST DAY OF GRADUATE CLASS.
whew, again.
when i was a freshman in college, i dropped all of my classes the first day. i had intended to be a theater major, but during the summer before i started school, i decided that trying to be an actress was an irresponsible and stupid thing to do. so i became an english major, except on that first day of class, i had no classes. i remember sitting under a tree, crying, because i felt so lost.
fast forward to tonight…crying again before class. i mean, what’s wrong with me? i was a little late for class because i was outside crying. i was panicking, worrying that i wasn’t going to like classes, that it wouldn’t go well, that i wasn’t going to be able to get a master’s degree and actually get a real teaching job with benefits and retirement and all of the stuff that most adult human beings have.
at least this time i had a cell phone, so i talked to my sister and to B., who both assured me that i’m doing the right thing, and everything was going to be fine, and all that stuff i needed to get me actually into the classroom.
when i finally got there, they were all waiting for me. there were only eight of us, and four of the people were just auditing the class. my friend erica is in it with me, which was really nice, and she said some people just like to take this fellow’s classes over and over. does this sound a little odd to you? why would a person want to take the same thing over and over? perhaps i’ll ask them.
i think i’m going to like the class a lot. it’s all about classic comedy, starting with aristophanes, who wrote about 40 plays but there are only 11 of them still existing. i learned all kinds of stuff tonight, and perhaps i’ll share some of my new knowledge with you, and it can be like you’re taking an online class, only with no homework, reading, or papers.
how about this – in the old greek comedies, there were different sections, instead of acts or scenes, and one of the sections was called the “agon,” whereby two main characters would debate a topic. and one was the PROtagonist and one the ANTagonist! how about that? don’t you feel smarter already? those greeks, they began a whole lot of civilization.
also i like the class because the central thesis seems to be that comedy is basically about the celebration of life, and therefore comedy is only trivial if you think life is trivial.
i wanted to yell RIGHT ON! when the professor said that, but felt that since it was my very first night of my very first class, it would be imprudent, perhaps. maybe next time.
he talked quite a bit about the differences between comedy and tragedy, and how if you have a tragic view of life, you take you and your life way too seriously, and you think you’re a tragic hero, with unrealistic ideals and so of course things are going to end badly because your ideals are unattainable. he said that society now has a tragic, dramatic view of life and i wanted to say I KNOW JUST WHAT YOU MEAN, but once again, i kept that to myself.
even though it was an intense three and a half hours, it was also inspiring, because here was a DOCTOR who has not one but TWO doctorates (he also does ASTROMONY in addition to english!!! i took an astronomy class in college and it was the only C grade i got.), espousing many of the very things that i believe in. i’m going to learn a lot, and it’s going to be interesting.
and of course it’s silly that i was sobbing before class, but i think that in order to have this part of my personality that views life as a rich comedy, i have to start with the weeping and/or feeling depressed about things, in order to then realize the absurdity of all of that. because if i was simply happy and carefree, i’d have no reason to try to cheer myself up.
life is interesting, and the professor also doesn’t like sitcoms. i agree with him there, too, except i wanted to point out that i do love “friends” even though it’s pretty silly.
that is all for now.
more tomorrow (more class, anyway, and maybe i’ll have some free time for other things, including writing here and showing you more fair photos).