Ungratified

            I was very low in energy during song practice on Tuesday morning, perhaps because of caffeine and protein withdrawal or maybe it’s just a cycle. I’ve been pooped before for no particular reason. I got through it this time though and then I worked on translating a Serge Gainsbourg song for three-quarters of an hour. I usually do some writing from 8:45 to 9:30 but I went to bed instead and slept for two hours.

            My wifi got crowded out later that morning when I was just about to post a tweet on Twitter. I guess I could have piggybacked the wifi network from the café across the street but that often involves several minutes of trying to connect, and I didn’t want to be bothered. I can post it later.

            I did the dishes and took out the garbage.

            I had planned on reading a story at the Shab-e She’r poetry reading that night but with two weeks before my essay deadline I decided that I couldn’t afford the time. I had wanted to send Banoo Zan a message to let her know I wouldn’t be coming but the wifi was still off past the time that sending it would have meant anything.

            I still didn’t have the umph to do any writing so I went to bed for an hour, then I heated up some soup for lunch and watched some sketches from the Ernie Kovaks show. They weren’t rip roaringly funny but they were certainly innovative, and influential.

            In the early afternoon I finally had the energy to work on my essay and after a couple of hours I got it into a shape that I can present to the TA and get some advice, if there are any appointments left.

            After that I rewarded myself with a half hour siesta. I woke up to what sounded like a woman screaming as a result of being attacked but it looked like it was just an ungratified child expressing disappointment.

            I made an appointment with my TA for Wednesday. He has a system that involves students accessing a site with which he has an account. The available are already laid out so he doesn’t have to keep returning emails. That’s easier for him I guess but it’s very impersonal. The only day with openings was February 28, so I picked the earliest. That way I’d be able to get home and sleep before class.

            I watched The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. A grouchy millionaire named Howard has a young wife named Eve who has hired her widowed friend Addie to be her personal assistant. But Addie also has a son named Gillie living with her and Howard does not like kids. After Gillie accidentally breaks a priceless clock Howard fires Addie but gives her a few days to move out. Every night Eve brings a glass of warm milk up to Howard before he goes to bed, but that night Addie puts poison in the milk and before morning he dies. Addie had thought the cause of Howard’s death would just be put down to his poor health but it was determined that he’d been poisoned and Eve is charged with murder. During the trial, investigators working for the prosecution uncover that Gillie is actually not Addie’s son at all but Eve’s. This was considered to be damning evidence because the reason she had hired Addie was so she could be near her son and so when Howard fired Addie, which meant Eve would be separated from Gillie. Now the prosecution could claim that Eve had a motive to kill Howard. As it began to look like Eve would be found guilty, Addie wrote a note confessing to the murder and then poisoned herself.