A Conversation with Elizabeth
1998
Grit

From:          Elizabeth
To:            Larry Mixson
Date:          3/9/98 12:41pm
Subject:       Grit

Perhaps you will get this before you leave for home. I'm sorry you don't feel well. Being sick makes me irritable. Interestingly I woke up with something like a sore throat Sat. but it was more pharyngeal, not a true sore throat. I don't have it now, but it concerns me because I get it every few weeks or so, but it's not a cold.   I was tired all weekend.

Today I am in a major irritable mood. Because of construction in the library, I decided to use the morning to go register for law school, summer. I got there to find only 3rd year students could register. Three secretaries were sitting there doing nothing, not a single student was in line, but they would not let be register. One snip said to me "its a third year privilege." I started to say "its an obfuscation." I then tried to redeem the special trip I made by at least buying my textbooks. They were not out yet. On top of this it was bitterly, and I mean bitterly cold, with sleet like rain. I came to the hospital, where I could not find a parking spot, because I usually don't come in at 10:30. The lot was full and I parked in an end zone. I thought I would go to another office and work, but no one was working in mine, however the place is a major disaster. There is grit everywhere. My irritability with the registering let me know I could not stand ever being back in school other than the way I am doing it now. Even this way sometimes gets to be an annoyance, not the learning, but the bureaucracy. I just can't tolerate all the lines and obfuscations, and wasted time involved. That realization though is one reason I didn't trek off to F.S.U., a very wise decision.

I'm enjoying Snow Crash. You didn't mention the "librarian" component. That is rather interesting. I don't enjoy all the Mafia stuff, but the information retrieval is fascinating. Actually it is a fairly recent book. I also enjoy the subtle and not so subtle jokes and puns. For example, the female courier is wearing a "dentata." There is a theory in Freudian psychology called "vagina dentate." It's a fear that some men have about intercourse, in that they think the female vagina will "bite off" their penis. She wears the "dentata" to protect herself against unwanted sex.

I finished River of Dreams by Connie May Fowler. I think basically it was a book about return to the self. The main female character sought to uncover the history of her family which was a composite of Native American and mulatto background. Apparently in St. Augustine Florida many Indians were imprisoned in the fort there. I also found it interesting that the author mentioned one of her Indian relatives growing a St. John's plant in her garden in Florida, as an herbal remedy. St. John's wort is all the rage now for depression.[1] I don't know though if that is factual information that Indians in Florida did use it or cultivate it. The main character and a male companion took their boat up the Intracoastal waterway all the way from Miami to St. Augustine. That was rather interesting.

I was very wiped out all weekend and without energy. Also, it rained fiercely on and off all day and night, with strong gusty winds, which made for a housebound state. I did buy some shrimp, but the place I bought them from didn't have a steamer, so I cooked them myself. Actually after buying them, on the way home, I decided I was too tired to cook right away, so I bought something else to eat quickly. That was a smart decision. I think I went to sleep at 9:30 on Friday and cooked my shrimp the next day.
I don't know what I will do when X-files finishes. I have heard that next year is the last. I think it will create a gap in my life, as I really look forward to watching it and have done so for the past several years. I rarely really get hooked on a show.
 
I hope you feel better. I need to work on feeling less irritable, as it is certainly the case.

[1] Julie had been taking St. John’s wort for some time at this point.

True Grit