despite being a woman who has paid rent and can't buy food, i went out and bought a torchiere lamp and a table lamp and a flower vase to replace the one i had broken last week. the rest of the morning was spent assembling lamps, moving furniture about and doing no work. i do not feel like a woman with a presentation to make tomorrow on the subject of elegiac elements in old english riddles. and obviously i don't feel like the woman who has paid rent. ah, denial, she says, going back to the furniture.