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Found an old mustard seed hiding in a corner

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Hey, I'm back. It's been.... over a decade?!?? I would say I don't know what's crazier, the fact it's been 10 years or the fact I write you from the middle of a pandemic and social uprising, except I totally know what's crazier, or actually maybe I don't, I'm not sure. Uncertainty is the name of the game these days -- what a far cry from young college Melissa, sooooo sure about things, and so vocal about it, yikes. Also, the interface is different on blogger now, which cracks me up, thinking about all the changes and phases the Internet has been through since I last opened up this thing, mega lol. Honestly surprised Blogspot, er Blogger now I guess, is still going! I have a tiny little corner of a tiny little San Francisco rent-controlled apartment that I'll be plugged into for the foreseeable future, plus or minus dog walks. I have had a weird thing happening lately where I don't feel a lot of emotions, which for someone who's usually crying...
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Leaving

I've moved - to Wordpress. Mustard Seed is now at: http://mmgutz.wordpress.com/ FYI! If you want to see how the Winter Challenge ends, you should subscribe to the new blog. adios!
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Winter challenge day something update

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Wuthering Heights: check. A Tale of Two Cities: check. The Brothers Karamazov : check. Spain: check.
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winter challenge day 16 update

i'm still on Wuthering Heights , not entirely sure what page because i haven't picked it up at all except to move it out of the way of all my stuff. we had an incident in the family and i have been reminded of the insignificance of my nerdy (and selfish) agendas, and my cocky book-nerd attitude. forgive me. for the record, i care about a lot of things beside books. and, for the record, a book is only worth caring about insofar as it helps you to care about a lot of things.
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WINTER CHALLENGE: DAY 9 UPDATE

i'm on page 310 of Anna Karenina . joke ! (i just wanted to freak out the competition. maybe cause some ventricular tachycardia, a little visit to the doctor, distraction from reading. dirty competition, i know). i'm on page 310 of Jane Eyre . this means i have 211 pages left. i know i have been slacking but forgive me because Christmas demands cookie-eating and relative-mingling (not to mention Jesus-celebrating), and thus leaves little time for page-turning. i intend to have the book finished before i go to bed tonight. usually i fall asleep with the light on and my face on the book... three pages after i start reading. so we shall see. i wanted to take a moment to clamor a bit about academic literature. my copy of Jane Eyre is a Penguin Classics edition, and so it contains not only the original text of the novel but also a bunch of nice little mini-thesis introductions, appendices, and footnotes. i can't ignore these, as an academic reader, because they contain all the ...
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WINTER CHALLENGE: DAY 5 UPDATE

8:00a.m. i have begun Jane Eyre . i am on page twenty-one (21). this means i have five hundred pages to go. i am keeping a copy of War and Peace on my bedside table to remind me that things could be a lot worse.
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WINTER CHALLENGE: DAY 4 UPDATE

9:43 a.m.: i just put down Pride and Prejudice . i would have finished it last night but i watched Sense and Sensibility with my parents instead. i consider this not procrastination but research as it is an in-depth media exploration of another one of Jane Austen's works. book in brief : turning the pages of P&P pumped more estrogen through my little body than any other feminine activity (i.e. eating Sees chocolates, shopping, getting pedicures, gossiping, flirting, buying Midol, etc etc etc) has ever unleashed in me before. forget Team Jacob ; i'm Team Darcy.
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