I had a restful, TV-filled weekend. How 'bout you?

Ordinarily, I watch a lot of TV. This weekend, I watched all that and then some. Reason No. 1: The Amazing Race offered the unexpected pleasure of a two-hour episode this week, and who am I to refuse? Plus I got to see Itchy and Scratchy get booted from the race in the middle of the Outback after that. Reason No. 2: T was away on a mini-roadtrip with our friend X, so I got watch all my chick flicks that I rented last Sunday but didn't watch yet. (My attempt at watching them last Sunday were derailed when T and a friend ditched an event they were supposed to be at and got home several hours earlier than expected; I only managed to watch Serendipity then.) So this weekend, in addition to the usual ER on Saturday nights, I also crammed in Save the Last Dance, Hamlet (with Ethan Hawke and Julia Stiles) and four episodes of the first season of The West Wing ("He Shall From Time To Time ... " until "Celestial Navigation", the latter being the very first episode of TWW I saw on TV and thus holding a special place in my heart, plus it has Edward James Olmos in it).

I think my friends who came over last night were somewhat appalled at me. For one thing, I had declined to join them at Charlie's (this place at the eastern end of Singapore where we eat sometimes) because I'd been in the middle of laundry --- a very serious undertaking in our household, since we've discovered through experience that if we don't promptly shift the clothes from the washer into the dryer within an hour after they're washed, they start to stink, and then we have to wash them all over again --- and Save the Last Dance. When they got to our place, due to Charlie's being closed, they discovered me in the middle of The West Wing. And then I said we could watch anything else until 10 pm when ER was on. I think I totally sounded like a laundry-TV junkie. I think I am a laundry-TV junkie.

For those of you keeping track, I regret to inform you that my ex-student who was awarded (yes, awarded, not just shortlisted for!) the Angiers B. Duke Memorial Scholarship has chosen to take a scholarship from the Singapore government instead to study at Cambridge University. I spent several hours talking to her over it and attempting to subliminally influence her --- to do so liminally would have contradicted my attempt to nurture her free and independent will --- but she nevertheless took the safer option. I don't know whether to laugh or to cry.

Here's some better news: I actually got home from work before T on Friday night. How did I manage that feat? I just learned, four and a half months into the office job, then when we are scheduled to work on Saturday morning, we are permitted to leave work at five pm the day before, instead of having to wait till five-thirty. I feel sorely cheated of my time, even though mostly I don't think my work is finished by five pm on Friday. It wasn't, this past Friday, but I ditched anyway. Getting home to take a two-and-a-half hour nap was more important.

On Saturday, I had lunch with Miffy. She is an old and dear friend whom I don't see often enough, but since the reason for that happens to be a nice young man she's hooked up with, I don't belabor the point. We had noodles for lunch, then had yucky ice lemon teas that cost more than our noodles. Note to all readers who are likely to want an ice lemon tea or cafe-type beverage while in Singapore: Although The Book Cafe displays an admirably vivid devotion to Nabokov in its tasteful decor, its ice lemon teas suck. And it's really hard to ruin an ice lemon tea.

Since this journal entry is rapidly turning into a reluctant ode to popular entertainment, I might as well tell you that I've asked my brother to arrange for Episode II tickets on May 16. I hope my parents aren't too jetlagged to enjoy it. Call me slow, but I didn't realize until a friend brought it up last week that I would be in the US for the film's opening while T would be here. Then again, I've been too blah to even download the Episode II trailers lately. Watching them on TV suffices for now.

Oh, the other girlie thing I did this weekend was to trim and paint my nails.

T will be home from his 4WD adventures shortly. I'll post this first.