four things meme (why are these things so appealing?)

FOUR JOBS YOU'VE HAD IN YOUR LIFE:
1. Instructor, Freshman Composition (college-level)
2. Assistant to the Director, University of Virginia Art Museum
3. Peer Advisor Student Coordinator (don't ask, I don't even know what I did)
4. Teaching Assistant, Summer Theatre Institute, Live Arts

FOUR MOVIES YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER:
1. When Harry Met Sally
2. Charlie’s Angels
3. X-Men 2 (even though I’ve never read the comics)
4. Aimee and Jaguar (even though it always makes me want to cry)

FOUR CITIES YOU'VE LIVED IN:
1. Charlottesville, VA
2. Phoenix, AZ
3. Durham, NC
4. Rochester, NY

FOUR TV SHOWS YOU LOVE TO WATCH:
1. CSI
2. Medium
3. What Not to Wear
4. Law and Order: SVU (TBJ, too, of course, but I’m going for current shows)

FOUR PLACES YOU'VE BEEN ON VACATION:
1. La Palma, Canary Islands
2. Berlin
3. South Korea
4. Vienna

FOUR WEBSITES YOU VISIT DAILY:
1. www.cnn.com
2. www.yahoomail.com
3. www.google.com
4. www.livejournal.com

FOUR OF YOUR ALL-TIME FAVOURITE RESTAURANTS:
(this one is really, really hard)
1. Maas, Charlottesville, VA
2. Republic, New York, NY
3. Tazaki Sushi, San Francisco, CA
4. Piaci’s, Fort Bragg, CA

FOUR OF YOUR FAVOURITE FOODS:
(I’m fudging on the “four” part of this category a bit)
1. thin-crust, fresh, hot pizza, from Piaci’s or Pomodoro or Venetto’s (latter two in Rochester); or, alternatively, Crozet Pizza in Crozet, VA also has amazing pizza
2. French fries (I’m a French fry connoisseur) and papas arrugadas (totally different, but both potatoes)
3. Barbeque baby back ribs and korean beef (both in the “meat” family)
4. garlic fried tofu with sugar snap peas

FOUR SCHOOLS YOU'VE ATTENDED:
1. University of Rochester
2. University of Virginia
3. Mary Baldwin College
4. New York University (for a summer, but still)

FOUR PLACES I'D RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1. Berlin
2. Mendocino (riding on the beach)
3. Los Angeles (could it be I’m a West Coast girl at heart?)
4. New York City

all better

Just a little life update vis-a-vis my grumbly post from a few weeks ago:

All seems to be well again on the Northern front. Besides the fact that it is bitterly cold--right now it's 25 degrees Fahrenheith, but feels like 12, according to weather.com (and when the radio announcer says "a high of 30 today," I laugh. 30 is not a high. It's a low that just happens to be the warmest it's going to get for the next three months)--I'm feeling much more upbeat. We've started locking the cats downstairs at night, so they still have access to the litterbox, a couch and various other comfy pieces of furniture but can't come scratching at our door at 5am. The dog seems to be much better lately, and the vet told us it was probably something weird he was getting into in the yard that was upsetting his tummy. I feel like I'm getting back on track with my work, not to mention that I told my advisor today (and now she officially my advisor because I finally asked her...yay!) that I would give her a very drafty abstracty/proposal-like thing (for my dissertation) on Friday, which is scary but good because I really need deadlines to get anything done.

Why was this SVU episode called "Alien" anyway?

I almost had a panic attack when I thought, around 10:30pm, that SVU was going link lesbianism and pedophila. I was all ready to post an angry LJ entry, and April was gearing up for a furious email to NBC. But I should have know better. It's SVU. No plot device is ever final at 10:30pm; in fact, you can't usually be sure that a plot is certain until Dick Wolf's name appears and obscures any hope of episodic closure.

That said, I actually liked tonight's episode. Olivia was a goddess, defending lesbianism left and right, and despite a plot that rather resembled a tangled ball of yarn it was so twisty, I found myself very engaged and invested in the show. I cheered when Casey said, triumphantly, "And that's a hate crime." I swore at the television in righteous anger because I knew much earlier than the detectives that the grandmother was trouble ("It's that bitch telling the girl lies. Lies, I tell you."). Although I didn't know it was going to be all the lawyer's idea--a nice touch to avoid turning the grandparents into completely scary monsters. I loved that the moms' lesbianism was defended at every turn (mostly by Olivia), although I had to agree with that judge that it totally wasn't cool for, the second mom, Zoe, to claim that she had no legal standing one moment and then try to claim legal guardianship the next. But I suppose it's a lesson: don't try to use things you don't like about the system to your advantage. It'll bite you in the ass every time.

All things comsidered, this was an episode in which all the characters were complicated (and sometimes uncomfortable) shades of grey (except the sleazy lawyer...no mercy there). I like that. Complexity is good.

And on a completely unrelated note: Jon Stewart is love. :)