On Glee

I have a confession to make. I love Glee. I watched most of the first series, then kind of lost it and have only just got back into it with the current series. It's happy, has good music and singing and is great to watch when I'm knitting something that's going to take several months to complete. They've also recently acquired a very attractive young man with dreadlocks, which has just made my viewing experience that much more enjoyable. Unfortunately, I found myself less than thrilled with the ending of the final episode of season 3. For those who aren't familiar, the show takes place in an American high school and half of the cast have just graduated. The final, oh, maybe 8 minutes of the episode show Finn and Rachel, 2 main characters who have been planning on getting married after graduation, driving to what is supposed to be their wedding. Finn surprises Rachel by driving her to the train station, giving what is supposed to be a moving speech about setting her free to she can follow her dreams to Broadway and basically forcing her onto the train. I don't paint a very flattering picture here I know and it's supposed to be about him refusing to hold back the girl he loves from her dreams and being all noble and such. I'm sure the writers intended it to be romantic, some kind of ultimate 'I love you' gesture.

For me...this just did NOT work. Yes, I (like many others) have reservations about people - children - getting married right out of high school. Yes, I was concerned for Rachel when, earlier in the episode, she says she will defer her entrance to acting school to help Finn and Kurt (her best friend, his gay step-brother) reapply to their respective New York schools which they were rejected for. But SERIOUSLY?! 'I love you so I'm going to let you go' is one of the oldest, most tired cliches that exist in the romantic genre. I GET that Finn's heart is, technically, in the right place. I understand that he doesn't want to hold Rachel back. You know how sensible people deal with these issues? They talk about them. They don't surprise their love by breaking up with them the day of their wedding, at a train station. If, after a discussion about the situation, Rachel was still adamant that she wanted to defer then it's her choice to make, whether or not it's the right one. She effectively had her choice made for her by her terribly romantic fiance. Yes, she could have refused to get on the train. By did I mention that Finn had also enlisted without talking to her about it? The main reason he gives her being so she couldn't follow him. A truly wonderful reason for joining the army. So the poor girl is blindsided on what is supposed to be her wedding day, by the boy she has spent most of the season declaring undying love for. Did I also mention that all of her friends are at the station? Oh and her 2 gay dads are going to meet her in NYC. So, to recap. Her entire friendship group and her parents knew about this, and said nothing? It didn't occur to any of them that she might be capable of making her own decisions, and doesn't need her fiance to make them for her? She IS 18. Not totally an adult I grant you, but it's old enough to have a baby, vote, and drive a car. Surely old enough to make her own choices and mistakes?

GAH. This made me very frustrated. Can you tell? It just feels like such a shock coming from a show which has 2 gay and 2 lesbian characters and has featured teen pregnancy and trans-sexuality. Why oh why the need to fall back on a man taking away a woman's autonomy, however romantic the reasons?

Glee, I am not happy with you.

Catching Up

It's been a busy few weeks here in DC :)

I got all of my thesis corrections done in much less time than I anticipated...mainly because my supervisor told me that most of the more substantial editing suggestions were actually advice for whatever I write next, rather than corrections that had to be made so I could pass. Even better was the fact that they were written directly onto a physical copy of the thesis, so the internal examiner who re-marks the work has no record of what corrections I have/haven't done. I made sure I did all the corrections that were documented with the university though! One of the biggest things was that I didn't write chapter conclusions. I cannot for the life of me work out why! I don't especially enjoy writing them I know, but I usually make sure I at least make a token effort. Very strange. So, that has been sent of too be printed and submitted, and hopefully I'll hear back from them soon!

We also found another house :D and have had an offer accepted! We're currently waiting to hear about whether the owner will make the repairs we've requested, some of which are pretty substantial. It's a little nerve-wracking because a couple of them are deal-breakers, in that if he says 'no' then we're going to walk away and keep looking. And none of us want to do that. It's a good house! It's blue, with an awesome porch, on a quiet street. Oh, and wood floors, nearly finished basement, large deck and a good sized garden :D I want to start growing vegetables already! There have been gardening things coming up on the local freecycle and I really want to get them, but there's no-where for me to keep them currently and it's too early...but I want!

The weekend was wonderful. After a stressful week (mainly because Hermit and I had a 2-day argument over something) we went to Maryland to stay in Minx' parent's retirement/holiday home for the weekend. It's on the Chesapeake Bay and is beeeautiful and quiet and lovely. We had a great time cooking lovely food (quiche and potato salad and 2 kinds of pies, oh my!) and spending time with lovely people, as Minx' bestest friend and her family (husband, two kids) came on Saturday afternoon and stayed the night. The child had a great time with the other two and the adults had a great time cooking, drinking and playing drunken Pictionary. For once, I was able to play an American board game and NOT have my lack of cultural knowledge hinder me too much! I only had to ask one question for clarification purposes. Hurrah! Then on Sunday, Hermit and I went to a Quaker meeting which was lovely. Though they had very uncomfortable benches, and I fell asleep briefly and apparently woke myself up in a noisy enough fashion that everyone stared at me. Guess which meeting I won't be going back to...

Too Much Stuff

Dear Reader,

This is official notice that my posts will be even fewer and further between for a couple of weeks :( Remember the awesome house? The one I got so excited about...well, we put in an offer on the same day that someone else did. The seller's accepted the other offer. So, it's back to the drawing board for us and we're seeing more houses on Saturday. On the happy side, I told the child and she was pleased :D Not very surprised (I think she'd already guessed), but definitely pleased. On top of house-hunting, again, I also have some pretty substantial revisions to make to my MPhil thesis before I'm awarded the degree. As I need the degree to start my PhD, and can't stay in the US if I'm not PhDing, it's kind of crucial that I make all the changes, get my Mum to print, bind and submit it, all before the end of the month.
Awesome.
So I'm going to be a little busy, and will have less time than usual to update this blog. In the meantime, I have an article up on Polytical.

Best wishes,
Isobel.