Merlin

Did anyone else watch Merlin last night? Overall, I liked it, and will continue watching it, but I'm really confused on a lot of stuff. I studied a great deal of Arthurian Legend in my literature classes, so some things about the show make no sense to me.

For starters, isn't Morgana (AKA Morgaine/Morgan la Fay) supposed to be Arthur's sister...or half-sister? In this show, she's Uther Pendragon's ward and supposedly being groomed to be Arthur's wife. Where in the hell is Guinevere? Oh wait...Morgana has a lady-in-waiting named Guinevere. Hmmmm. How odd.

Also, Lancelot appears to be missing. Perhaps he arrives later on in the series.

Merlin and Arthur are the same age. Not that bothersome to me, really. But also not really how it's been depicted before.

Dragons? I suppose there are dragons in the canon somewhere, but not in anything I've read thus far. But the dragon on this show is pretty badass, so I can dig it.

What is going on on this show? I'm doing a bit of reading on it and it's produced by BBC, and according to Wikipedia, deviates quite a bit from traditional renderings of the tale. For starers, Nimue (the Lady of the Lake, sometimes portrayed as Merlin's lady love) is actually going to become Merlin's adversary. That's next week's show, apparently.

Anyway, this could get me off my Tudors fixation for now and put me back on a Camelot fixation, which I had for about half of my grad school years. I actually chose Arthurian Legend as the theme for the Composition & Literature class I taught in spring 2003, and all the literature we read that semester had something to do with King Arthur.

Now I suddenly want to watch The Mists of Avalon.

Another week, more worlds to conquer

Lance's week didn't get off to the greatest start. He left for work, and then had to come back home a short time later. Evidently, he forgot his work badge. He got all the way there and then had to turn around and come back.

I hope the rest of his day gets better.

I have stuff to take care of today. Just put a pork tenderloin in the mini crock to shred up tonight for barbecue pork wraps. We have a ton of flour tortillas to use up.

I need to do some house cleaning.

I have to do a little work on eNotes. This will require a little time, since I will have to leaf through my Jane Austen and Shakespeare anthologies.

Which reminds me...I really should read The Taming of the Shrew again before Lisa and I head out to the Wooden O performance on July 12th. I'm thinking about writing up a review for The Shakespeare Revue, since they published a previous one I wrote from a performance of A Comedy of Errors that I saw in Neuss, Germany.

Anyway...need to start going through eNotes stuff now. I'm finding it hard to stay motivated because I'm getting amped up over our trip to Ohio in 9 days. I really miss my family and I'm so anxious to see everyone.

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Just got home from a walk with Reece. The pulled pork was done when we got home. I had no idea how fast that crockpot would cook, because it has no settings. You just plug it in, and it goes. Evidently, it cooks everything on high. (Up until today, I only used it to cook baked beans, and it only took 2-3 hours or so for the beans to get that great, slow-cooked taste...in the oven, I would have them in for a bit longer.)

So I have that in the fridge. Leftover chicken from last night, and leftover pizza from Saturday. Lance will not lack for dinner choices when he gets home tonight. I like that. I may do things this way from now on, unless it's a special occasion. I only care that we eat together, not that we're eating the same thing.

It's been 4 weeks now since we finished painting the living room, and the paint is finally set. I had to wipe down the wall today because Reece's ear was clearly bloody at some point and she did a nice Jackson Pollock imitation under one of the windows when she shook. I didn't want to wipe it off immediately and risk ruining the paint job. It was actually pretty easy to remove. I just needed to use a wet cloth and a little pressure. I'm glad that wound on her ear is now healed up past the point of bleeding. So I won't have to worry about blood spatters on the wall anymore.

I'm really itching to finish The Devlin Diary this afternoon. It's so very good. And I need to decide what I'm going to take with me to read on the plane, because whatever I bring will likely be left in Ohio and passed around. I want it to be something that holds my attention well enough, but that I'm ok with leaving behind. I already have several books at my parents' house that I need to bring back, and several that my aunt Sue borrowed that I would like to have back.

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Two friends of mine in Germany are leaving within the next 10 days or so.

One is going to Valencia, Spain. The other, to Greece.

It's been days filled with emotional goodbyes and the madness and stress that comes with moving. I remember this well. Communicating with both of them about how they're feeling right now has brought back a flood of emotions regarding my own departure and how difficult and confusing that was. In many ways, I've never gotten over it. Germany was where I finally felt true contentment for the first time in my life. It took awhile to get there, but I got to a point where I could wake up every morning and feel gratitude for the way my life turned out. I haven't felt that way since we left, except for brief moments here and there.

In the middle of the chaos, my Spain-bound friend takes the time to reflect, rather poetically, I think, on the beauty of her everyday life in Germany. What she is going to miss, it's palpable. She and her family have really integrated themselves into village life and the entire NATO community there, much more so than most people do. I have no doubt that she'll do the same in Spain and I am looking forward to reading about her journey there.

My Greece-bound friend, too caught up in moving, has only given me fleeting glimpses of her life as it stands right now. She posted something on her Facebook the other day that struck such a deep chord in me, because I could relate to it so profoundly, that I felt tears stinging my eyes.

Lance and I talk about going back. When our assignment here is over. Maybe. It just won't be the same. After these two leave, I will only have a few friends left there. In a few years, most of them will likely be gone. Going back would truly be starting over, and I don't know if I can do that again. Somewhere else in Europe, maybe. Just not Geilenkirchen.