Doing things I want to do

I did not realize until fairly recently that my last real day off was in September when I went to New York. Sure, there have been days where I have done no work, but I usually spent a good part of that day lying in bed and feeling guilty about not doing anything. After all, part of being a med student is having constant, crushing guilt and self-doubt. Hell, even while I was in New York I had work I should have been doing. However, our administration found some last, tiny ounce of kindness in their hearts to give us Thanksgiving weekend off. Although I had to stay in the hell-hole that is Chicago (why pretend I'll find something I like here anymore?), I did manage to enjoy myself.

I went to Blockbuster on Wednesday afternoon to rent some movies for the weekend. This was pretty tragic because I ended up getting four movies, and as I went to pay for them, I saw two other obviously single women at the register with 4-5 movies each. They might as well have just given me a few cats and made my initiation into spinsterhood official. Anyway, I did not notice until later that I pretty much picked out the cream of the crop of teen angst movies. I got Thirteen, Speak, Rebel Without a Cause and Monty Python and the Holy Grail; and that last one was the only one saving me from slitting my wrists by the end of the weekend. I also downloaded Into the Wild and Trainspotting. It was a happy weekend.

I did like almost all of the movies, though. I thought Thirteen was great. I still cannot pinpoint exactly why it resonated with me, since my teen years were way less rebellious and much more awkward and embarrassing. I liked that there were no pretenses, and it did not feel like they put crazy things into the movie just for shock value or to sell me something. It felt genuine. Rebel Without a Cause was not at all what I expected. It took me at least a quarter of the movie to realize that James Dean was playing a sixteen-year old, and the whole thing was a little over the top. I do, however, see what all the fuss over James Dean is about. He was just captivating, and the camera clearly loved him. It's really too bad he made so few movies.

I went blues dancing on Friday night, which was great. I went a lot with Dina before moving out to Chicago, and I guess I got a little homesick so it was nice doing something familiar. There was a decent group of people there ranging from my age to much older dancers. Everyone was really nice, and surprisingly there were not any creepy people. I also remembered much more than I thought I would after two years of not dancing. I did not trip up any of my partners or just suck, which was nice. Maybe all the yoga helps with movement, because I cannot think of any other reason I would know how to blues dance after so long. I have also been trying to download as much blues music as possible (I just realized how bad that sounds...but I am poor and technologically savvy, so it's ok, right?), although I have no idea what I am doing. I did happen upon John Lee Hooker, who is awesome. He did "Boom Boom Boom Boom," which you might recognize...Also, Ella Fitzgerald is amazing. Her voice is possibly the most beautiful thing I have heard in a long time.

To round out my movies, music and reading weekend, I finished reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It was epic. It was also strange because I got the distinct feeling that Gaiman, who is British, knew more about America and loved American culture more than most Americans. The book was a little slow starting out, but it was just so ambitious and carefully crafted that I really did not mind the lingering pace. I could go into it more, but you all would probably be just as well off by reading the reviews on Amazon or by actual critics. Needless to say, I thought it was great.

That's all for now. I'll keep my complaints about the weather and school for another post. And that is probably the worst teaser for an upcoming post, ever.