I found a note that I'd written myself on my bookmark for Gravity's Rainbow. It says, "Fetishization of technology, particularly vis à vis technology as the instrument of death."

I have mixed feelings about this note. Because one one hand it's just so nerdy and academic, and yes, maybe even a little bit pretentious, that it makes me a little ashamed. But then the other part of my brain is like, "But dude! That's so cool! Because it's not only fetishization of technology in the abstract, but it's also sex with technology and becoming one with technology as it kills you! Death by technology is the ultimate orgasm! That's awesome! You could write a dissertation about this!" And then the other half of my brain is so ashamed that it has to shrivel up a little more and let me descend further into nerd-dom.

But to return to Meg on my couch. She woke up a little before I did, and had apparently been contemplating how to play the fact that she, the director of my program, was waking up on my couch. Because my host parents were definitely up and about, and it was maybe a potentially awkward situation. But it turned out okay. They were a little surprised, but pulled out an extra plate and dished out some kasha and made some coffee. Then Meg split for home, and I headed out with her to the internet café for blog updating, emailing, and grad school research. I did a little blog stuff and wrote a long-ish email to my mom, and then that was about it. It takes a really long time to post everything and make it look nice with the pictures and stuff. Even though I write all of this stuff ahead of time and it's mostly just cut and paste...

When I finally made it back from the internet café, I saw some small boots in the hall. The granddaughter had come to visit and was taking a nap. So it was quiet time for about an hour; long enough for me to eat and get comfortable with my book. Ksusha is two, very cute, and almost incomprehensible. Kids are really hard to understand in general, and she's just learning how to talk. Although she knows more animal words than I do. I need to get on that. Also with the food and general household items. I'm really really bad at that stuff. Anyway, she called me tyotya (aunt), but it took me about half and hour to figure out that when she said that, she was referring to me. We had fun. I chased her around with her toy snake, and then she showed me how she could count five balloons: "four, five, six, seven, eight, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fifteen, sixteen..." She's pretty awesome. She also invited me to come have tea with them sometime. Yeah.

Then I did the usual homework thing for class and went to bed.