silence.

Silence is often misinterpreted but never misquoted.
unknown

this blog is about daniela

daniela is at home today...and not with the happy little grade 4s because daniela has had a crappy week of assignments and other random responsiblities that has stolen her enthusiasm for being with "report card" time grade 4s
daniela has a dung load of assignments to do which she keeps pushing off because she is in a permanent state of "tired"
daniela is only not tired when it comes to socializing...which she performs with extraordinary flair even when she is tired
daniela has more references than she needs for grad school because God is smilling down on her even though she is lacking
daniela has started drinking coffee again after a long hiatus....this has caused a great deal of digestive and nocturnal problems
daniela read the paper from cover to cover last night and was so glad she wasn't reading something on evaluative analysis in language or jane austen
daniela thinks jane austen is taking over her brain as she sometimes talks to her own sister in long, unpunctuated sentences with overly eloquent words.
daniela thought her wisdom teeth were coming out yesterday and so she is going to the dreaded dentist today but the pain is gone so she is really mad now.
daniela was a little bit excited about getting her wisdom teeth out becuase she is a little sick...in the head.
daniela hates the dentist with a fiery passion.
daniela still hasn't scrapbooked or organized her things from europe.
daniela must make a trek to oise next week to drop off an application at the last possible minute.
daniela wants to go to new york for new years and wishes she had a boyfriend for complicated plans like this.
daniela emphasizes the above part about "only for complicated plans like this" !!
daniela has been enjoying the brisk cold and thinks it might be appropriate to go skating when she has made progress on the dung hill of work she has is.
daniela's arm and back are killing her because she carried 3 pizza boxes and 12 cans of soda from atkinson to ross.
daniela needs another pair of boots.
daniela lost some weight in the fall but now it seems to have found her again so she looks like her fatty self.
and in case you haven't noticed daniela loves to waste time on the net instead of doing her work.
finally,
daniela loves you all!

CONSOLIDATE

i have been on a mad search for this word for like a month....ask jenn
and i finally found it.
ahhhh sweet lexical success!

deja boo-hoo...

do you ever find yourself in a place you've been a thousand times before but suddenly you realize you are there under very different circumstances? all of a sudden you remember and you just sigh a little bit.
it happened to me today...in a public washroom in front of the mirror.
don't ask.

too much Austen.

You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

Take the Quiz here!

don't wanna grow up song.

No, I'm not colorblind
I know the world is black and white
Try to keep an open mind
just can't sleep on this tonight

Stop this train
I wanna get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's movin' in
I know I can't
But honestly
won't someone stop this train

Don't know how else to say it
don't wanna see my parents go
One generation's led the way
for findin' life out on my own

Stop this train
I wanna get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's movin' in
I know I can't
But honestly
won't someone stop this train

So scared of gettin' older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game
to find a way to say that
life has just begun

Had a talk with my old man
said help me understand
He said turn 68
you renegotiate
Don't stop this train
Don't for a minute change the place you're in
Don't think I couldn't ever understand
I tried my hand
John , honestly
we'll never stop this train

Once in awhile when it's good
it'll feel like it should
And they're all still around
and you're still safe and sound
And you don't miss a thing
till you cry when you're driving
away in the dark
just singing

Stop this train
I wanna get off and go home again
I can't take the speed
it's movin' in
I know I can't
'cuz now I see
I'll never stop this train

November came too soon this year.
d

optimism

"I'm an optimist, but an optimist who carries a raincoat."
Harold Wilson
(1916-1995)
English Politician

men of sense and silly wives.

i had the most interesting discussion in my 19th century British Female tradition class yesterday. This doesn't happen often. Everyone had something to say and I'm still thinking about it...and inspired to write a blog. (instead of doing my work because thats the way things go around here and the library is a good place to blog as any). So, blogging world lend me your ears.(SVP)

We were discussing Emma by Jane Austen. Austen in general looks at the courtship and marriage practices in her society and subverts what was accepted in her time. She does this through her langauge and the characters she creates for heroines. In Emma one of the issues that is raised about marriage is the question of what are men looking for-really?
Isn't this the questions every girl- who- wants -to -marry -someday -in -the -distant- future asks herself (not me of course)?
In Austen's day and even today, it was though that men wanted to marry women who really didn't put up a fight who were just passive potraits of beauty without much sense and a pleasant disposition. In today's terms perhaps a trophy wife? In a conversation with Mr. Knightley, one of the male characters in the book, she accuses the whole male sex of this as she speaks of her friend

“[Harriet] is not a clever girl, but she has better sense than you are aware of, and does not deserve to have her understanding spoken of so slightingly. Waiving that point, however, and supposing her to be, as you describe her, only pretty and good-natured, let me tell you, that in the degree she possesses them, they are not trivial recommendations to the world in general, for she is, in fact, a beautiful girl, and must be thought so by ninety-nine people out of an hundred; and till it appears that men are much more philosophic on the subject of beauty than they are generally supposed; till they do fall in love with well-informed minds instead of handsome faces, a girl, with such loveliness as Harriet, has a certainty of being admired and sought after, of having the power of chusing from among many, consequently a claim to be nice. Her good-nature, too, is not so very slight a claim, comprehending, as it does, real, thorough sweetness of temper and manner, a very humble opinion of herself, and a great readiness to be pleased with other people. I am very much mistaken if your sex in general would not think such beauty, and such temper, the highest claims a woman could possess."
“I know _that_ is the feeling of you all. I know that such a girl as Harriet is exactly what every man delights in--what at once bewitches his senses and satisfies his judgment.

If you didn't read those really long sentences; the gist of it is that men only care about beauty and not so much sense because they aim to be superior in knowledge than their female counterparts. Emma at this point in the story is not fully developed as the heroine so her assumptions are a little erred. Mr. Knightly does his ROCK thing and puts her in her place,

“Men of sense, whatever you may chuse to say, do not want silly wives.”

Isn't that brilliant! I thought it was brilliant. It is only men of sense who will choose women of sense.
This is not the most interesting part.
We started discussing this and the reverse of it. (What women want) Especially in today's society where women are so accomplished, as much as any man within spitting distance, its hard to say if women still want a man who is just that little bit more ambitious, more intelligent, more driven, more successful, just more than them. Its difficult to say as well if men still want a woman who still has something to learn, to whom they can impart some bit of wisdom, knowledge, advice, about their field, about general bodies of knowledge,about life.
The marriage and courtship practices were complicated in Austen's times...they remain so today.
Interesting how literature still informs life; the power of the written word in the hands of a brilliant mind.

I should write papers and not blog. I still don't like my English degree.

I invite your thoughts on this very interesting (and perhaps for some of you: pertinent) topic.

love the skin ur in or get out,

daniela