1/7 Oof. Last night I went to my parents' house for dinner. My Grandmother is visiting from texas, and she wanted to make her special meal that she's always made when she visitsor when we visit her--Salmon Croquettes, mashed potatoes, and black-eyed peas. I became vegetarian ten years ago, but I still ate fish. More recently I stopped eating fish (except for breakdowns for sushi once or twice a year). But Grandma would be hurt if I didn't eat it.. so I did. It was pretty tasty, but I felt kinda weird afterwards. Still feel a little odd. Not sick, but protein-blasted or something. I gotta whip my digestion back into shape. I've started eating more processed food (lazy lazy me). Quite a comedown after living in a whole foods co-op for two years, after which time I could have digested a bicycle.

In the car, I talked some with my mom about her research that she began is Sweden. She started out as a historian, now she does many things, but especially intellectual history related to economic thought. Now she's exploring issues of property rights. Isn't it interesting that many studies on private property and the development of property rights is done in Geography departments, and not in economics? One would think that economists would be interested in, for example, whether privately owned land was more productive than land owned in common, or in precisely how land was owned and utilized. But, according to my mother, it doesn't seem to come up in the literature all that often. It's an important question, considering how often folks assume that private ownership is 'naturally' better, more productive, etc.

1/6 Putting together some kind of timetable for visiting graduate schools. London and Edinburgh are my two destinations. I'm getting a touch of stage fright, not that anyone at either school will be paying much attention to me. But what will I say? And I wonder what I'll wear? And I'll hopefully be coordinating my time so that I can also go to "Girls Need Modems", a beat music/electronic art event partly sponsored by Raya a kool-sounding art collective that reminds me of toneburst only it's based in London.

1/5drivel

1/4 Noo Year. the sun just came out. Yesterday I wore my hair completely down all day,with no elastics or anything for the first time in over a year. It's long! I got *monogrammed* hankerchiefs from my kool-ass roomate who heard me complain repeatedly that I had nothing to clean my glasses with. I kept meaning to get some but didn't know where to go. I saw "Little Voice" which I liked a great deal. (I got weepy.) I started reading Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima. really good book. Got Lauryn Hill's album. (the voice! the voice!) and a *really good* 12-inch re-release from Suburban Bass records of some old jungle tracks. I'm inching towards some kind of a set. which I may even possibly record on a mixtape. maybe. maybe. (I got stage fright just thinking that. I better get a cuppa coffee.)