A Crushing Defeat

I'm kind of sick of the baseball challenge, which is good because I'm pretty sure the season's started. Guess what? I was almost crushed today! Crushed like my 2001 pet mouse Nicki between two closed pages of The Beatles Anthology! #Karma. #Accidents.

Well. Most of the people who read my blog have already heard this story, and the rest are probably mad at me for dropping out of the baseball challenge. #Inevitables. #ThatBeingSaid, The Berkeley library has shelves on runners that you have to move back and forth by turning a big crank on the side. That way they can be stacked up next to each other, enabling the storage of more books. We aren't the only library to have this system, but we are the only library employing me, which is why I'm explaining this.

The nice thing about our library is that every shelf is clearly marked with the instructions: "Move only one shelf at a time. Always check for patrons between shelves." Now those are #Words2LiveBy! I would know! Today I was at work paging a book in the JQ700s when the two shelves around me began to close in! I yelled like this: "Stop. Stop! Stop!! STOP!!!" which felt transgressive because I take a lot of pride in the overall silence of our library. But folks, I was really getting crushed in there. And to make matters worse, the guy crushing me was not even apologetic about the fact that he

1) Almost Killed Me, and
2) Made me scream in a library! In fact, when I finally escaped and gave him my #IncredulousFace, he responded by vaguely gesticulating what could only be interpreted as "Good, so, you're finished now?" and then proceeded to browse the shelves! #WhatAJerk. #MalePrivilege. #Crushing.

P.S. Links correspond to individuals upon whom I have a crush.

Oakland Athletics

...Well, I was supposed to use this 90 minutes between work and my night class to edit an essay, but I guess I can use it to blog twice in a row instead.

I squandered most of my time already because when I got home I had an email saying that it's almost time for TELEBEARS!

Telebears is the best thing ever. Well, no. Actually, it's just the online program that Berkeley students use to sign up for classes. But it has the best name ever. In my head, I think about telebears as being the Giant Ass Gummy Bears in Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Next semester I have to write a thesis, so I'm thinking of padding my schedule with some Physical Education classes. The problem is, unlike Jason Giambi of Oakland Athletic fame, I am not too good at sports. I've blogged about it in the past, but the point is, exercise usually makes me literally throw up.

I'm therefor limiting my choices to the courses labeled "Elementary". It looks like my options include Swimming, Basketball, 3 different kinds of Dance, 2 different kinds of Yoga, Aerobic Conditioning and Resistance.

Hmm. I was going to end this post with a request for recommendations. But Resistance seems pretty darn apropos, given my prior position on all things sporty. What is it? Can anybody tell me what it is?

Texas Rangers

I feel like the dynamic I've established on this blog is that I stop writing/reading other people's blogs when I get stressed out about school and then those people, whose lives are generally more complicated and stressful than mine (as evidenced by offspring, full-time careers, and other adulthood features represented on their blogs) have to say nice things to me.

I am pretty jealous that my little bro got to go to Texas!

Philadelphia Philles

Ya'll we just went on a crazy hike! I wish I were a horse, even one spelled incorrectly! Then I wouldn't be so tired, I think. Well, I hope the Hoosiers pull this game off!

Milwaukee Brewers

The Brewers have a name that represents a product you could buy in a grocery store. Anyway:

For Feminist Theory, we're reading Lauren Berlant's Cruel Optimism. Berlant doesn't like the way the America's problem with weight gain has been framed as an "obesity epidemic". One problem with "obesity epidemic" is that it frames obese people as infected individuals who made bad choices and have a personal responsibility to fix themselves. And posits that they can all do it, if they really try!

Berlant also says something about eating that I think is cool. She talks about the way that in our weird Neoliberal America, we're always involved in projects of self-improvement. Projects like "do well in school" or "improve my conversation skills" or "figure out how to have longer, better orgasms". She says that the act of eating something delicious- tasting, swallowing, ingesting- is a little break from these projects. This doesn't mean that when I eat Doritos in spite of my fear of being judged by the Bay Area Buddies I'm practicing some awesome form of resistance. It just means I'm taking a little rest from thinking about making myself better to eat chips. Maybe in Milwaukee.

San Francisco Giants

Yesterday I went to SF to eat lunch and see "The Lorax" with my friends in the city. Lucky for me, Janet, Paul and Alice invited me to stay for girl scout cookies, which turned into dinner, Clue, an episode of "Glee" and a sleepover. Did we see a Giant's game? No. It's just not time for that yet, folks.

Los Angeles Angels

If I'm being honest, I'm probably not going to watch "The Bachelor: The Womyn Tell All". I mean, maybe. But it doesn't seem like it's going to make my weekend too much better. Excited for the finale though- I've seen spoilers talking up both Lindzi and Courtney, so I might be the only person in America who still really doesn't know! So lucky.