Everybody's workin' for the weekend

Ahhh, glorious weekend. My mood is considerably lifted since my last post, namely because it's been sunny for a few days in a row now and I'm leaving for my Mexican vacation in less than 7 days. Fortunately, my two exams this coming week are Wednesday and Friday so I didn't have to spend every minute of the weekend studying for a Monday morning test. Following is an assortment of musings regarding the past few days:

1.) I'm currently in the middle of a Jane Austen infatuation. I watched Emma this weekend starring Gwyneth Paltrow (courtesy of Netflix!) and adored Pride & Prejudice when I saw it in the theatres a few weeks back. In terms of Austen, I've only ever read (and loved) Pride and Prejudice (I know! I'm a literati poseur!) but I can't get enough lately. I'm thinking about dropping by the Ann Arbor Public Library and picking up Sense and Sensibility to take on my trip. Any other Austen favorites?

2.) Have I mentioned that my trip is actually yet another cruise? I'm excited beyond belief to go but neither Josh nor myself were planning on taking another cruise anytime soon. It just so happens that this trip was a killer deal and 30 of my classmates are going too. I'm not one to turn down a vacay in the sun so even though my last cruise turned out to be a drama on the high seas, I'll take it! It should be a blast :)

3.) Last night the Discovery Channel showed an encore presentation of The Grizzly Man, the recent documentary about one Timothy Treadwell who spent 13 summers living in the Alaskan wilderness with grizzly bears but was ultimately killed in a brutal attack by one of them. He filmed hours and hours of his time with the bears and other wildlife in Alaska and the documentary was chock-full of beautiful imagery.

I was, however, irritated by the movie because Treadwell struck me not as a trained conservationist or ecologist but rather a very troubled man seeking solace with the animals. On more than one occasion he physically changed or manipulated the bears' environment to achieve the behavioral response he wanted from them and didn't seem particularly knowledgeable or well-trained about the animals or their needs. Treadwell seemed to me someone battling his own demons who loved animals but didn't quite understand the fine line between admiring and respecting them. My fear is that Grizzly Man might encourage the notion that animals are simply primitive, food-driven beasts incapable of emotion or the development of relationships if they could kill Timothy Treadwell so viciously after living seemingly harmoniously with him for so long. It seems that Treadwell did a lot of work advocating the protection and awareness of the Alaskan grizzlies but that he also--maybe without realizing it--intruded on the self-sustainable and awesome power of nature. I'm not trying to wax philosophical, I just can't stop thinking about the film and just hope that viewers take away more from it than the idea that bears are simply wild beasts.

4.) I finally filed my taxes for 2005 (and by "I" of course I mean "Josh") and couldn't be more thrilled. Thanks to my buddy Rick's suggestion, I received a pretty hefty "life-long learning" tax credit for working and then going back to graduate school and I'll be getting three times as big a return as I was expecting! I plan on saving some of it and using the rest to pay some bills but...mama needs a new pair of shoes! ;)

I thought I had more to say but that's probably because I really don't want to start studying for Prosthodontics, a subject I find fascinating but a class that has to be one of our most boring. Have a lovely day :)

xoxox