2. We need a vacation

Seeing Goblet of Fire for a second time, with my horde o' cousins, my brother Lev, and my cousin Kyla's friend who does American Studies at Brown, made me all the more aware of some of the more glaring sexualized moments which dominate the film's narrative, of which the scene with Myrtle in the bath is only the most glaring and obvious. My favorite du jour is the scene when, having just been rejected by Cho Chang, Harry is lying on his bed clutching/fondling the big golden egg, which here looks like nothing so much as a big shiny phallus. It's awesome.

Thanksgiving was good. I love my horde o' cousins. My 13 year old cousin has apparently hung out with Yo La Tengo. My 17 year old cousin is applying to colleges. My 5 year old cousin has decided that I am crazy and last night she and my three year old cousin (who likes to sing a song about monkeys -- hmmmmm!!!) attempted to "imprison" me beneath a table. My one year old cousin is really enjoying the whole walking thing and makes lots of funny noises. My soon-to-be ten year old cousin has sort of positioned herself as the baby's second mother, which is really cute. Kyla, who's two years older than me, and her sister Jenny, who's Lev's age, are both really cool, and I don't get to see them enough.

Now that family obligations are for the most part over, (i'd like to see Lev again before he flies back to Chicago,) I have all this other shit I want to get done this weekend prior to sunday night phonebanking, but won't. I need to do laundry. That will probaby happen tomorrow morning. I need to start researching some papers. I need to reread chunks of Immigrant Acts. (It's been a while.) I really need to read Eric Zolov's Refried Elvis, which I've decided to present on next week, since I had to choose a book to read and I've been wanting to read it ever since i saw it on K's bookshelf however many years ago. I need to read the Anne Norton book on Straussianism, which I'm told is very odd. And, of course, i also need to figure out how to do this whole organizer thingt again, and how to do it effectively. Maybe i should just kidnap Alek and make him give me some organizing support. Or i guess i could, like, ask Brenda or something. Right, good plan.