Sigh...

Doesn't this just sound heavenly?

Getting a Fix

One afternoon a few weekends ago, I went a little nuts and purchased three sets of Plácido Domingo CDs. Don’t ask me why; maybe I was so disappointed that his concert at Ravinia sold out before I could get a ticket that my mind compensated in the only way it knew how. At any rate, I am now the proud owner of some slightly used albums - Verdi’s Otello, Puccini’s La Bohème, and Bizet’s Carmen – all featuring my favorite tenor.

So I will be riding on a Domingo-induced high for the next little while. If you call me on the phone and I sound a bit languorous, it’s probably because I’m draped over my futon, soaking in the tremolos and sighing.

Ancora Imparo

Several weeks ago, Travis and I went to see the latest Pirates of the Caribbean installment. Overblown, overwritten, overacted, and overrated as it was, one interesting moment stuck out to me: the green flash signaling that a soul had returned to the world of the living. The inclusion of this unusual occurrence seemed so out of sync with the other creative licenses the writers took that I began to wonder if this phenomenon was part of some nautical legend.

It turns out that the green flash is a natural phenomenon! Check out the pictures provided with the link. It's an amazing sight.

I may have mentioned this during an earlier online rant, but Wuthering Heights’ Heathcliff gives me the willies like no other fictional character. (Well, except maybe for Valmont in Laclos’ Les Liasons Dangereuses, but he creeps me out for an entirely different reason.) Even more disturbing to me is the fact that many people consider this character a romantic hero. Ick! I watched a movie version of the novel last night (starring the gorgeous Ralph Fiennes), and was yet again reminded how much I hate Heathcliff.

To those of you who swoon over this character, I can only repeat what I have pointed out many times in both college and grad school discussions of the novel… *ahem* What’s wrong with you people?! You’re getting hot over a man who strangles puppies, seduces innocent women, and kidnaps and manipulates children! If that turns you on, you’ve got issues beyond the help I can give you! Come on, people, snap out of it! Please! Okay, I’m done now. My rant is over. Although I must say that casting Fiennes as Heathcliff did help to redeem the character ever so slightly in my eyes.

This morning, still ruffled by the heavy dose of tormented love I got last night, I didn’t pay much attention to what clothes I selected, and foolishly put on a sleeveless blouse. While my decision may seem wise considering that we are supposed to have 90° F weather today, it was, in fact, very foolish. At good old NNU, I must have skipped Vertebrate Anatomy class the day that they discussed the phenomenon of the engineer, and its ability to produce twice as much body heat as the standard human. As a direct result of this, our thermostat is permanently set at 64° F; not cold enough to prompt hypothermia, but darn close. So here I sit, every hair of my body on end and my fingers so numb that my typing accuracy has dramatically decreased. I’ll have to go lie on the hood of my car during my lunch break just to bring by core temperature back to normal.