À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

Eating: Stress is making me not hungry. Oh I’m still eating. But it just makes my tummy feel worse than it already does. Wouldn’t it be nice if this led to some unexpected droppage of excess poundage? (It won’t.)

Making: I did finish a bunch o’ matching nickname hats over the weekend. But I haven’t done much lately. Sure, crafting should be a stress reliever. But it is also an energy user and I don’t have much of that right now.

Reading: At home, as I mentioned already, I’m reading “City of Refuge” by Tom Piazza, which is mostly really good but also too sad to read on the El (I hate crying on the El!). Therefore in transit, I am reading “The Forest of Hands and Teeth” by Carrie Ryan that I picked up after reading this review and it is soooo good. (And actually it’s sad also. What was I thinking? Beautiful. But Sad.) But I’ve probably only got one more train ride left with it so I’ll have to pick out something else shortly.

Watching: BStarG. BStarG. BStarG. I think I will be crying Friday night. And by *think*, I mean there’s a 99.9% likelihood of that happening.

Listening to: Every single thing I bought in 2008. Shuffled. Working on my “favorites of the year” list because I think that’s really useful to have in, you know, MARCH or even APRIL. 😉 Hahaha.

Failing at: Managing. Things. such as 1) eating; 2) spending; 3) (which are both due to) stress. (Thanks to MissStephanie for my new category)

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

Eating: All things yummy and bad. If it has nine lbs of sugar in it and/or 9000 calories, then I’m eatin it. You know you’re in trouble when even your underwear is too tight. But does that stop me? Nooooooo.
Making: Working on one of those top-secret “could change life as we know it” things again this week. Hopefully the crafty spirit will return over the weekend. HOPEFULLY. Also working on year-end lists (as you may have seen). Just music to go but of course that’s the hard one.
Reading: Man I have been WHIZZING through books over the past week or so, I finished three books over the weekend! WOOT! Plus Dad and I picked a super shortie for this month’s challenge book so I’m already done with that and feelin all free and easy in my readin’. Today I am partway through a grody forensic mystery “Flesh and Bone” by Jefferson Bass. It’s got some Bones-type action and you know how I feel about Bones. It’s v. entertaining.
Watching: The end of BStarG. The end of FNL. The end of (this season of) Burn Notice. What will most likely be the end of Dollhouse which continues to get slammed by critics and mostly deservedly so (honestly, there is only one person doing a great job on this show and I SWEAR I’m not blinded by… well, you know…).
Listening to: Mick Flannery “White Lies” (Dublin purchase). Joshua Radin “Simple Times”. Things I was listening to last month like MGMT and Why and Bon Iver.

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

Eating: Toaster Strudel. It’s my go-to breakfast when I have to leave the house before 5 a.m. Like I have to every day now.

Making: Supposedly working on two baby boy quilts. Supposedly.

Reading: Our challenge book for February, “The Broom of the System” by David Foster Wallace, which I am loving. I call it “Vonnegut if he wrote female narrators.”

Watching: BStarG season 4.5 and Holy Frak the last two episodes have been NUTS. Remember all those interviews Tahmoh was giving where they asked him about the last 10/11 and he said “Everybody dies!” Yeah, I’m wondering if that might not be the truth! Also loving Bones (hockey dream sequence!!!) and the past few episodes of The Office have been really side-splittingly funny. I have a bunch of random other series on DVD saved up but I just can’t get around to watchin’ ’em.

Listening to: “Alopecia” Why (like a lot); “Oracular Spectacular” MGMT (Love! and hello where have I been?); Bon Iver “Blood Bank” (love) and a few singles from LadyGaGa (sounds like a combination of Pink + Gwen Stefani? no?) and just bought the latest singles from Kelly Clarkson (only the second song of hers I own! but it’s fun!) and Eminem!

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

Eating: Food I cooked myself, can you believe it? It’s been many, many months since I last spent time in the kitchen. In other fun news, my carbon monoxide alarm now goes off every time I use the oven.
Making: Haven’t made a stitch of progress in anything. But I am going to KIP tonight so that should be good for a couple rounds on a sock.
Reading: Our November challenge book, “The Oxford Book of Short Stories” edited by V.S. Pritchett. I am only a few stories in so still in the “way back” part of the collection. I’ve read it (somewhere?) before and I really, really hate Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark.” HATE. But the other stories have been good.
Watching: Old, but from this season, episodes of House on Hulu and remembering exactly why I’m not watching this show at home either in real time or on TIVO anymore. It’s WAY beyond time for a new formula.
Listening to: Everlast. Joseph Arthur. Ray LaMontagne. The Avett Brothers. The Billionaires. The Wave Pictures. Mumford and Sons. Sam Phillips. Just kinda wandering around my iPod.

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

Eating: Pumpkin scones from SBUX. They are sooooo good. They are also 500 calories, which lands on the not so good side. So as long as you just don’t eat anything else…
Making: Vaguely knitting socks for Dad and socks for me. Vaguely. [All the same quilts in all the same stages they’ve been in.]
Reading: Same as last week…since I spent a gazillion hours at the Chicago Film Festival I’ve barely done any reading at all: At home I’m reading the Ford-edited short stories from our July / October challenge. On the train I’m reading “The Conversations at Curlow Creek” by David Malouf which is very slow and measured but weighty in its own way.
Watching: The Offce, Pushing Daisies and Sons of Anarchy. Those three are definitely my favorite shows right now so I generally watch each episode a few times. You know, once the night it’s on, once the next night while I’m falling asleep, once over the weekend when I don’t feel like doing anything on my to-do list… [As well as random online video interviews of my future husband. They do keep popping up!]
Listening to: Last few days I’ve been listening to everything I bought in August, September and so far in October in one big shuffled pack. I am particularly loving Mumford & Sons White Blank Pages, First Aid Kit’s cover of “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” (Fleet Foxes), Carla Bruni “Tu es ma came”, The New Frontiers “Mirrors”, Jump Little Children “Cathedrals” (old and kinda cheesy but damn I can’t stop listening to it), Ryan Auffenberg “Pictures (of Someone Else), but that’s just a samplin’.

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

Eating: Way too much. Every day. I can’t be stopped. I WILL be the fattest girl in the universe, just give me a couple more days.
Making: Started a pair of dad socks. That’ll only take me 10,000 years. Have one quilt basted and another just about to be but won’t be have time to work on either of them for a week or so at least.
Reading: At home I’m reading the Ford-edited short stories from our July / October challenge. On the train I’m reading “The Conversations at Curlow Creek” by David Malouf which is very slow and measured but weighty in its own way.
Watching: A crapload of movies at the Chicago International Film Festival. You can follow the updates on the 2008 movie page. Or you can wait for me to post about them here.
Listening to: Not a damn thing. Dad was here for a few days so all the times I’d normally be listening, I was busy talking to him. And just a few hours after he left, the Film Festival started and now all the times I’d normally be listening, I’m in a dark movie theater mostly watching totally intense, brutal movies where people’s hopes and dreams are crushed to pieces and/or ripped to shreds, which may sound like the same thing but isn’t necessarily so.

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

Eating: The occasional square broken off a chocolate bar from a Claudia Care Package. But mostly just drinking beer.
Making: The second sock to go with the first sock that I mostly knit at Dragon*Con. I am sooooo close to being done with #2.
Gearing Up For: The Chicago Film Festival! Yay! I bought tickets to 11 films. Woooooooot. Although it’s highly possible I may not wind up seeing all of those.
Reading: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson. So far that girl hasn’t been much involved. But I like the other characters as well.
Watching: One of my favorite shows from last year’s shortened season, LIFE, which has had three episodes in a week’s time and another on Friday. Last Monday’s? Pretty good! Glad it’s back. Friday’s? Sucked soooooo bad. May have been the worst episode of any TV show EVER. This Monday’s? Awesome. Mostly. I had a few reservations. What will Friday bring? Who can say.
Listening to: My Morning Jacket, who I’m going to see tomorrow nightoh. 🙁 Also Joseph Arthur, Nana Grizol, Carla Bruni and some songs from this post and this post .

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

Eating: Inconsistently. One day, super. One day, super bad. Two days…

Making: Trouble.

Reading: Same as last week: Volume 1 of “The Man Without Qualities” by Robert Musil.

Watching: La L’Olympics, baby. As should you be.

Listening to: The latest albums from My Morning Jacket and Carla Bruni (swoon). Back to back. And all the stuff I bought in June that you might hear about tomorrow, if you’re lucky.