personal update of the better variety

Updates, we have updates.

I am better! I feel like myself again. Myself before I fell off the cliff last week - the almost-50, fibromyalgia version of myself. My brain functioning has returned to its usual suboptimal level, and my energy is back. Whew. Huge whew.

The pain and tenderness level, on the other hand, is monstrous. My nerve endings must be going berserk. So that sucks, but it's much easier to live with pain than with pain plus fatigue and brain fog.

Remember when I identified the single greatest challenge of my grad school experience?

Well, yesterday I emailed redsock from class to announce an unexpectedly kick-ass grade. His reply: FRY TRUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had forgotten all about the A+ rule! I owe myself some fries!

This week I was alerted that some anti-choicers would be demonstrating outside Robarts, the main library at the University of Toronto. As it happened, I had a class right next door the same day. I drove in early and joined the counter-demo for a couple of hours.

The pro-choicers were a mix of my activist friends and some university women who I didn't know. It was a brilliantly sunny, brisk day, and we handed out pamphlets and buttons, and (at least while I was there) outnumbered the fetus lovers three-to-one.

I felt so strongly in my element. I'm appalled to see this fight in Canada, but if I have to, I will throw my whole body and soul into the battle. I don't believe that will be necessary, but this minority has hijacked the majority on so many issues. It could happen.

Movie Season update! I liked both Crazy Heart and It's Complicated very much. I had some issues with the last parts of both those movies, but in general they were both quite good. I loved Broken Embraces, and highly recommend Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

But the show-stopper so far - as many of you predicted - is Slings & Arrows. It is great. It many ways it reminds me of my favourite series ever, The Larry Sanders Show, which seems destined to never come out on DVD. (I only saw a few seasons, and I would love to own the whole series.) Slings & Arrows and Larry Sanders are both "behind the scenes" shows, with a similar mix of comedy and pathos, and some common themes: the tensions between art and commerce, the constant craving for approval, the complexities of human motivation - all while somehow never lecturing you. Slings & Arrows has Shakespeare going for it, but Larry Sanders had Rip Torn. We've finished S&A Season One and are waiting for the second season to arrive.

We also watched Season Two of Flight of the Conchords. Predictably, it was nowhere near the quality of the first season - how could it be? - and the last few episodes sucked. I'm relieved they had the good sense to pull the plug. Death Comes To Town is a sleeping pill.

We've seen some others, but those are the highlights.

Still no resolution of the $500 water bill. It's a standoff: Peel says we owe it, we say we don't. I paid an amount that would represent normal usage, wrote a letter, and am waiting for Peel's next volley. Our landlord is also mystified.

We are getting ready for our annual US Thanksgiving road trip. This will mark one year since our first trouble at the border. I must admit I am dreading the delay this time. It's one thing if we're driving to Buffalo, but on a 10-hour drive, after working all weekend, a 90-minute or two-hour delay is such a drag.

After our last detention, Allan submitted a form requesting more information on an "adverse border crossing experience". When he checked for updates, he was told it had not been received - more than a month later. He then filled out the same form online. We figure the response will be amusing, if nothing else. I just wonder how long this will go on. Forever?

I am already counting weeks and days until my winter break. Last year I had a full four weeks off, but this year only three. No fair! On the other hand, Christmas and Boxing Day fall on a weekend, so Allan and I have a whole weekend off with pay, plus the following Saturday - beyond rare. Can't wait.