You can't feed a child sheet music

I'm re-watching Garden State as I finish up the conclusion to my paper. I'm starting to get nervous about the actual presentation aspect of it, and even just the idea of going to a conference by myself. I can't even remember the last time I had an adventure on my own.

I've talked a little bit about body image issues before, though not in the kind of depth that I'd like to devote to them. One of the offshoots of my particular body image issues is that I have had a very difficult time finding a bathing suit that fits me in a way that makes me comfortable. (This is compounded by all the years spent working at The Historic Site Which Shall Not Be Named; I spent the better part of seven summers dressed from head to toe in wool, so my body feels very strange when it's warm out and my skin is exposed.) One piece suits tend to make me look heavier than I actually am because I have to buy them to fit my hips and bust rather than my waist; two piece bathing suits show off my waist better but seldom have bottoms that are big enough. I am pleased to report, though, that I have finally found a bathing suit that takes care of all of this: the Marilyn suit from PinUp Girl Clothing. It covers everything but manages to be completely flattering at the same time. It's nothing short of brilliant, and I got it in time to bring it with me to the conference this weekend.

Several of the old HSWSNBN alumni and I are gearing up for another round of everyone's favourite historical strategic board game, Diplomacy. We'll be playing by email, which I actually prefer. The face to face games tend to have an immediacy that I find counterproductive; I much prefer to draw things out, which allows for more of an actual role playing aspect to it. We've yet to draw countries, but one of my opponents has already researched propaganda that he can use in the campaign. As a group, we've all known each other for 5-9 years now, so the personalities within the group are fairly distinctive; it could be very easy to fall into certain assumptions about how the game play will unfold...and it will definitely be interesting.