the art of doing

Once again, my procrastination has gotten the best of me and, at 2am, I just took a loaf of bread out the oven, finished a chapter of Plato's Gorgias and laid out my outfit for an interview tomorrow. I hope the outfit is okay--I almost went with a kind of frumpy fuchsia (sounds like an oxymoron but it's not) sleeveless dress, that looks kind of old on me. I decided on a simple black A-line dress (which my former boss once referred to as "short" but is the same length as the fuchsia dress that she loved, so I feel like it's okay?) and a green cardigan with low black heels. It's an outfit I feel comfortable and myself in.

Aside--I looked up fuchsia on wikipedia to see if there was another color on the color scale that better fit the description and I came across Antique Fuchsia, which needs to make an immediate comeback, so I can wear it constantly.

Tomorrow, I need to get up early, remove my leftover nailpolish, possibly paint my nails a more neutral color (currently, they are half-coated with my current favorite OPI Dark Room), remember to remove my nose ring, shave legs, style hair into some semblance of decency (my hair is badly in need of an unaffordable trim) and get directions to the interview. I'm not so worried about getting there as I am about traffic and parking, so I want to leave an hour early, to give myself plenty of time.

Then I come back home, whip up a quick paper on the first chapter of Gorgias and get to class. Which I could have done already, but...you know. Why do things before the VERYLASTMINUTE?

Depending on how well this interview goes, there's a small chance I'll drive to Austin on Thursday, since my literary criticism class was cancelled. But Ravi has a test next Monday, so he'll probably be busy studying. I'm still ambivalent about visiting, but I'd like to see him. We'll see. It's more likely that I'll be here, working on schoolwork and writing a presentation about Marxism in Wuthering Heights...which isn't such a bad way to spend the weekend either :)

On a last note, let me mention the bread. Lately, I've been baking this oatmeal sandwich bread from Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain (a book I desperately want, as I've loved pretty much every recipe from it that I've found on other websites and have loved most). I have really enjoyed this bread--it's a hearty, sturdy kind of bread, a bread that you don't feel (as) bad about eating, almost earnest with its oats and molasses. I've had it for breakfast many mornings. The thing is...I haven't much cared for it as a sandwich bread. The crust tends to be quite crunchy and thick and the bread doesn't yield in quite the way I look for in a sandwich bread. So, a few days ago, I decided to give Smitten Kitchen's wheat sandwich bread a try, because Deb has rarely let me down (anyone close to me knows that a large amount of what comes out of my kitchen is SK-inspired.) I put off making this because I didn't have powered milk. Today, I drove to Rouses' to get some only to find that the only powdered milk they had came in a $15 box that held more powdered milk than I will ever need. Not having time to go elsewhere before class, I gave up and decided to just sub while milk. It worked wonderfully. The bread came out quite well (a little on the small size, slice-wise, but that's my own fault for using a longer-than-average sized loaf pan), sliced perfectly, even with my cheapo serrated knife, and tastes amazing. It has a little more white flour than I really wanted, but it has that tender elasticity that equals perfect sandwich bread for me. Tomorrow's lunch might be a roasted eggplant and tahini sandwich. Hopefully a lunch that celebrates a new job! Cross those fingers.