Tom & Alissa

We showed Chop Shop to a small crowd on Friday night at work, and it was just as good the second time around as the first. It didn’t hurt that there was lots of yummy popcorn going around, too.

But by the time I got home I realized I was getting sick, and I woke up Saturday with a raspy throat, plugged ears, and a stack of homework to do. Tom headed out to help Ken & Sarah (and Dahlia) move, and I spent the next eight hours writing essays, plowing through esoteric scholarly articles on art and anthropology and such, and trying to unearth myself a bit. It was successful, but a little exhausting!

When Tom got home we started watching The Wire, finally. We’d previously watched the second season, because Tom had seen the first, but as it turns out, this is emphatically not a show where you can actually do that. So we’re starting from the beginning again. I wouldn’t say I’m sucked in, but I know I’ll eventually be really into it and I immensely appreciate the skill in the storytelling.

I did manage to get to church on Sunday. Lots of new faces, and a few new names on our small group sign-up list. Afterwards Tom and I went to Moustache for middle eastern-style pitzas (and the discovery that it’s a Slow Food establishment), then came home and watched Caramel, a sweet Lebanese movie we missed when it was in theaters. We ate a quinoa-chicken-vegetable concoction I cooked up that was rather good and very healthy, to boot.

So here I am, at NYU since 8am this morning, with a giant water bottle on one side and a giant cup of hot tea on the other, which keeps me from coughing. I passed a somewhat sleepless night since I have trouble breathing without coughing, but I feel rather cheerful and am diving headfirst into the work I’ve got this week. This is Tom’s last free week before he starts a job next week, too.

We also have three excellent screenings this week: Wendy and Lucy tonight (directed by Kelly Reichardt, who also made Old Joy), a Variety screening of Blindness tomorrow (directed by Fernando Meirelles of City of God and The Constant Gardener), and Ballast (which finally has a screening I can attend since I started getting invitations in the spring). We also are seeing Marilynne Robinson read with John Crowley at the 92nd Street Y on Thursday night.

And next week, while Tom’s working, I’m supposed to be in meetings in NYC, DC, and Boston, all between Tuesday and Friday. I haven’t been on a business trip since I left BofA in 2007. I’m pulling out the teeny-tiny travel bottles once again . . .

But let me just say that today is a lovely first official day of autumn, and I am happy to be alive!