A Girl With a Sword

only skin

I fell off my bike yesterday morning. That was basically what happened, I just fell. I must have been adjusting my backpack or clothes or something, but when I hit the speed bump outside my building I just came off and the bike kind of launched me down the slope of asphalt. I skinned my hands and fell on my chin. I sat up and felt my chin to check the damage and that was when I started dripping. I got blood all over the ground, the bike, my clothes, my keys. I made it back to my apartment and, after some first aid, headed over to the health center. They patched up my hands and I ended up getting seven stitches in my chin.

Here's a nice picture:

scrape your knee; it is only skin
makes the sound of violins
-joanna newsom "only skin"
(the song I am, ironically, obsessed with this week)
(I scraped my knee too)

some pictures

So I still haven't taken any pictures of Rosewood Market, but here's a picture of my dinner tonight, most of which came from Rosewood Market.

I had swiss cheese on chiabatta bread, made today, with fresh tomato and carmelized onions. and tea, of course.

And while I'm uploading pictures, here's some pictures of my door after the firemen busted in about a month ago now:

There was this weird smell in the building that day. It smelled kind of like burning milk or burning trash, it was really bad. Anyway, apparently it was strongest outside my door. So when the firefighters came to investigate, and I was in class, they had no choice but to break the door open. My house didn't smell, though, so it was all for nothing. Thankfully, the door has been repaired now and the smell is gone. They never did figure out what it was.

the market

So I started a new job about three weeks ago now and I've been waiting to blog about it because I wanted to put up a picture, but I've decided that will just have to come later. I am no good at remembering my camera when I go anywhere.

I'm working at an independent grocery store near my house called Rosewood Market. I was trying to get a job there last summer, when I had lots of time, but they didn't have any part time positions that would work with my school schedule. About a month ago I got a call from the owner saying he had something for me and I decided to just take it, even though twenty hours on top of TAing and writing my thesis seemed a little much. Well I haven't made much progress on the thesis, but I'm really liking the job. The work environment is really communal. I'm just a cashier, but I'm getting to know all the other people who work there little by little and everyone seems so friendly and cool. The cashiers and some of the other people from deli and produce and stuff all go out for pizza on Thursday nights, and there's a little time to chat with people during work, too.

It's also nice to work at a place that has so many regular customers. It's not like a normal grocery store where you go through the checkout without really meeting the cashier's eyes, most of the customers are friendly and like to chat a little about what they're getting, the mushrooms or textured soy protein "chicken" salad or nutritional yeast (still trying to figure out what that is. the other day the deli was serving bulger loaf with nutritional yeast gravy! what the heck?!). People always ask me about stuff like I've eaten everything in the store, "Is this any good?" they say. Um . . . you'll have to tell me about that. The whole atmosphere reminds me a little of working at the library, but more sunny and clean and organic. It's really nice to have a job outside of school. At least I have twenty hours a week when what I'm supposed to be doing is right there in front of me, easy to do, and doesn't involve schoolwork. I really need a break from academia. I still like the idea of studying and being a scholar, but I'm having such a hard time actually doing things. It's insane! It shouldn't be this hard to write a paper.

TAing, though, is going well. I love my class! I have so much fun, and the kids seem to be learning. We're studying Foucault right now and their little freshman writings about Foucault are so damn cute! I just want to put them up on my refrigerator door! I don't think they'd heard of him before they started reading him and there so uncorrupted by the awe that is associated with Foucault in higher education. It's beautiful. And they're all fresh from highschool and they think I'm just so cool because I'm close to their age and watch the same movies and read the same books they do. (It's totally helping my cred that I read the Twilight books this summer, although my freshman class is the only place it's helping my cred. We also agreed as a class that the Kiera Knightly version is the best Pride and Predjudice.)