Infinite Jest

Today I finished the longest book I've ever read: Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace.

I felt like I should write at least something about it in a blog post, considering that I spent about two-and-a-half months reading it exclusively, which, now that I think about it, is really not that long in the grand scheme of things. But book worked itself into both my conscious and subconscious thoughts in that period of time, and it's hard to let go of the story, especially considering how frustratingly and abruptly the story ends. Ari read the book before me, and really loved it, which I think was part of my motivation for picking it up in the first place. However, he also prepared me for the disappointment of getting through all 1,000+ pages and feeling like there could have been at least another 1,000 or so more. (Not that I WANT to read anymore! I'm perfectly happy to be done with it!)

I've now spent the last two hours researching different analyses and interpretations of the story, and it's just making me even more frustrated. I'm glad I was able to get insight into the strange, amazing, and extremely twisted mind of a writer like David Foster Wallace. However, now that I have finished his "masterwork", I think I can safely say that I don't need to read any more of his fiction.

And that concludes my rather incoherent rambling on this topic.

Oh look, another blog post!

And so soon after the last one! I'm sure you're all thrilled.

Well, I just had a couple more pictures from the past couple days that I couldn't wait to show you.

First of all, this is how I spent Halloween night:

I wore my Sriracha costume to Michelle's apartment (who lives where Ari used to live, just 2 blocks away), and we watched bad TV (well, a bad movie: The Campaign) and drank wine and ate cupcakes and candy. It was quite pleasant.

Then on Friday night we had Michelle and my old friend Kaylan and her husband Jerrod over for dinner. Our first event at our new apartment! Ari cooked dinner, we played Cranium (boys against girls, and girls WON!) and I think everyone had a good time. 

On Saturday I went jogging in the park and couldn't resist taking a few more fall photos, because the sun was finally out, and there are still some beautiful colors to be seen:

I saw ponies too! 

Today (Sunday), Ari and I had some time to spare, so we walked to the Prospect Park Zoo, which is just about 15 minutes' walk from our apartment, and only costs $8. It was a bit chilly outside (55 degrees or so), but we had a really nice time. The highlights were the red pandas (ring-tailed pandas? lesser pandas?) and the sea lions. I've been on a photography roll since Halloween, so I took a couple pictures. 

The red pandas were SO CUTE. Two of them were babies, so they were really struggling to climb around on the branches. Ari and I could have watched them for hours, but it was just a little too cold. So we stuck around to watch sea lion feeding and training (which was also pretty fun) and then headed home.