Washington Irving Week

"However wide awake they may have been before they entered that sleepy region, they are sure, in a little time, to imbibe the witching influence of the air, and begin to grow imaginative-to dream dreams, and see apparitions."

That's from Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It's Washington Irving week in old American Literature, and the weather seems to be cooperating; it's cool and windy outside, with just enough sunshine to flit against the leaves and make them explode into yellow and orange.

No students lie out on the mall and read anymore.
Instead, they sit on benches in sweaters
and look out over the browning grass
with inexplicable wistfulness.
The air doesn't hang suspended as it did in the summer.
Now it rushes around lamp posts,
tugs at hair
and scarves,
whips five page essays across the sidewalks and into
the dusty road where cars slow but don't pause.
A feeling of frenzied excitement has settled on campus,
and we all dress for a homecoming game that we won't win,
continuing to grin at those we dimly recognize from a long-ago meeting.
We read Washington Irving,
wishing all the time that we could somehow have
the lazy knoll of Rip Van Winkle back,
while still clinging to the blowing trees
as the Headless Horseman gallops by
on the dusky road.

La Vie En Rose

It means "looking at the world through rose-colored glasses," or literally "life in pink." Isn't that a lovely concept? I'd like to live in a world like that, or at least walk through from time to time. Pink is not my favorite color, but I don't think I could ever be sad or mad or stressed in a rose-colored world.

The song 'La Vie En Rose' is originally French, however, I have an English translated version on my ipod; Louis Armstrong sings it well. I think the French version is much prettier, though. Somehow the English words are a let-down after the title.

I suppose I don't have anything to write about except this marvelous song...

I got an A in my College Writing class, which I'm quite ecstatic about. As for the rest of my grades, I don't know yet. I have a feeling I could have worked harder in a few of my classes; I think the fun and wonder of college got to me a bit. Next semester I'm going to work on getting my studying done earlier rather than procrastinating. I don't even think it's worth it anymore to have fun and then have to stay up until four a.m. to finish a paper.

The funny thing is that the fun I have is not partying or drinking; it's just talking and hanging out with my friends. Walking to the wind turbine, playing Apples to Apples, watching movies, having snowball fights, playing sardines in the Humanities Fine Arts Building. Innocent stuff, really, but distracting.

Alright well I think I'll go to bed and read. I'm working on getting through Gone With the Wind for the fourth time. It's always a bit of a struggle, just because it's such a dense book, but I get something different out of it every time I read it. We'll see what it is this time.

I'll just put my rose-colored glasses back on now. Goodnight dear bloggers.