Margaret Takes On...

reflecting back and looking forward

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:45:58 GMT

Five things I did for the first time
1. went to Memphis (and Graceland and the National Civil Rights Museum)
2. got an article accepted for publication in JHE
3. took my dad to a 49ers football game
4. saw a Shepard Fairey art exhibit in Boston
5. took Spanish online

Five things I did that I never want to do again
1. got three parking tickets in the span of 42 hours for being within 15 feet of a fire hydrant (thanks New York!)
2. acquired three lawnmowers (lawnmower 1=old hippie mower that is not powerful; lawnmower 2 blew itself up thanks to some wiring issues with my house)
3. discovered that my basement was flooded while hosting my students at my house (now a proud owner of a new sump pump)
4. discovered, halfway through staining my deck, that you're supposed to shake the cans of stain BEFORE use.
5. had a costly doggie disaster.

Four things I didn't do that I wanted to do
1. go overseas
2. rent a house in california for a month over the summer
3. fly to the west coast to see jenn for her baby shower
4. stand up for myself more

Five things I acquired
1. tankless hot water heater (looooooove it)
2. a smart phone-my touch 3G (also love it)
3. three lawnmowers
4. some furniture for my guest room, thanks to moving friends
5. the patience to deal with my house

Five TV shows I discovered in 2009
1. Burn Notice (looove him)
2. White Collar (USA theme going on here)
3. Modern Family
4. The Good Wife
5. Househunters International

From my list of Five things I wanted to do in 2009:
1. Get a working (tankless) hot water heater
---DONE. And life changing.
2. Continue to incorporate eco-friendly practices into every day life.
---DONE. Backyard composting is going well. Have brought a total of four plastic bags home from stores in the past year. Using an electric lawnmower. Still saving up for the Prius.
3. Explore the South more
---DONE. Spent time in Memphis, Asheville, and Atlanta. Would really like to visit Miami (perhaps from my weird Burn Notice infatuation) and Chattanooga--which is a lot easier to get to.
4. Get a bunch of manuscripts out
---DONE. Now if I could get a bunch published that would be even better.
5. Still see the family (and nephews) as much as possible
---DONE-ish. Despite my distance, saw the family three times this year-- Once for a brief visit at Easter, once for a week in the summer, and for a week at Christmas. Wish I didn't live so far away and that flights weren't so flipping expensive.

Five things I want to do in 2010:
1. Continue to attend to my house's needs. What I'd really like to do is put in cork floor in the kitchen, but first I think I need to attend to possible structural issues.
2. Write a successful grant as my start up funds run out this year. (This necessitates coming up with a fund-able idea.)
3. Recommit to strength training at the gym.
4. Do a better job at practicing what I preach-- in this case, work/life balance. Try to take at least one weekend off a month.
5. Travel somewhere that I've never been before.
6. And bonus point 6, since it worked so well for me last year: get a bunch of manuscripts out (and published)

an unintended absence from the blogosphere

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:03:20 GMT

i've been to CA and i am now home. for some reason, i did not blog at all while i was gone. here are some highlights from the last ten days:

-i broke down and got a new phone. i now have a mytouch 3G. and i LOVE IT. i am less excited about the extra monthly data fees, but it's come in quite handy already. more on that later.
-flew into sfo on sunday 12/20. my mom and her friend and friend's daughter picked me up and we had a gals' day in the city. we went out to high tea (always a fan of gorging myself) and went to a concert at grace cathedral. the only rough part of the day was waking up at 430 to catch my 620 flight out. ugh.
-had LOTS of fun times with the nephews. i think george (the 15 month old) is no longer scared of me. yay. adam and henry were super psyched to see me, too. i was going on a walk around the block with them and kristie and the two older boys kept running ahead, which of course was not good. so, i said "who wants to hold my hand?" and they both yell "Me!" which just made my heart melt a little bit. So I walked the rest of the way with one in each hand. River, too, continues to be a joy. He played me "O Holy Night" on his guitar. How sweet is that? He is also in a fireman phase (and has been for many months). He tried to get me and Claire to be his helpers outside. It was too cold and my imagination does not work in the cold.
-saw lots of people-- coffees and lunches and dinners. Of course there are always people I don't get to see, but I managed to cram in a lot of fun.
-Saw Up in the Air (starring my hubby, George Clooney) with my parents. I don't think I need to say anymore.
-Took my dad to a 49ers game as a combination Christmas/bday gift. We sat on the 49 yard line (though at the bottom of the upper section)-- The view was amazing and it was really special to share the game with him. We, unfortunately, both wore blue (I own no red)-- which were the Lions' colors. Ah well. I think we proved our loyalty by cheering loudly. After the game, I discovered that my phone has a GPS feature and we used it to navigate us to a dessert place I had found. The dessert place is called Tartine-- Located at 18th and Guerrero-- Seriously some of the best desserts I've ever had. My dad has a brioche bread pudding; I had a lemon almond cherry cake. Both were amazing. It was a really special day. Oh, and I named my GPS woman Lydia.

So that, ladies and germs, was my visit in a nutshell. I'm back home now and sick again-- Not really a surprise after being with lots of little people. I wish that my immune system didn't suck as much as it does. But at least I can laze about guilt free for a couple more days. I'm definitely feeling recharged, which is fantastic. No plans for the evening, but I am okay with that too. I have the Sadiest here with me, so it will be a good night.

going (going) back (back) to cali (cali)

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 14:00:36 GMT

i leave in less than 24 hours (for those of you keeping track at home, i have a 620 am flight-- god help me- it's only because i really love my mother. we're having a christmas day in san francisco tomorrow, so i needed to leave that early to make it to SFO in time for our 1230 pm high tea. yep. but i digress
so i leave in less than 24 hours. as always happens, my list of things to do is quite lengthy. plus, everything in the house seems to be breaking. night before last, i took my cell phone out of my purse to discover that one of the hinges had broken. really? what the...? and right around christmas, too. thanks! don't get me wrong-- i'm still rocking the razr phone, so perhaps it's time for an upgrade. but really? right before christmas? thanks universe!

and let's not forget the leaking roof-- thankfully, it is now been fixed, for far more money than i make in an hour (let alone a day). but, worth it not to have water raining down on me. it really is AMAZING how little care people put into this house before. i just keep telling myself that whoever gets it next will have an immensely improved property.

so anyway, less than 24 hours to get everything done-- errands run, house cleaned, packed, etc. but, it will all get done. or at least the most important bits. and then, i will be truly vacationing. no work for a week. how delightful!

putting your money where your mouth is (not)

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:37:38 GMT

oh, that subject is so delightful as i'm sure it conjures up all sorts of thoughts. in any case, sorry to disappoint, but i've been thinking a lot about where i spend my money. i try to make a concerted effort to spend my money at stores whose business practices and political practices i support. for example, i simply do not shop at wal-mart. when possible, i buy groceries at my local food co-op. i also try to spend money at local stores, but of course, then you run into the issue that not all local storeowners share similar values. take, for exmaple, a nice little restaurant on market square downtown, cafe 4. after doing some internet research, i discovered that it's run by a christian organization that also runs a cult (or so it appears to me)-- it's a 10 month "christian leadership" program for students fresh out of college. i don't feel really great spending my money at this restaurant when i know it's going to support prosletyzing, etc etc.

but, this cafe has been part of the renaissance of the downtown. so, do i support them for helping to transform a once dead area into a thriving business district? or do i shun them because i'm not interested in supporting a religious order? what i can say for certain is that things aren't as black as white as i used to think they were.

8 mile

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:16:22 GMT

i went on an 8 mile hike today. this is notable for several reasons. first, i have not been on a hike that long in awhile. second, it's december. third, it was 23 degrees when i woke up this morning and it is 35 degrees this evening. to stay warm, i wore two pairs of gloves and even then, my poor little fingies were still cold (thanks for the bad circulation, mom!) it was a really nice hike, though. it was right by the river, which was gorgeous and also accounted for some of the cold. lots of waterfalls, too, which thanks to the weather, meant lots of icicles. very cool.

i am, of course, exhausted and sore but incredibly pleased i went. am just trying to motivate to go to target as i need a bunch of things (including food). the thought of leaving my (comparably) warm house, though, makes me want to cry just a tad.

blogging

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:10:44 GMT

i've noticed that i blog less than i used to. so do many of my friends. i blame facebook and twitter and the rise of microblogging. but you know, sometimes nothing replaces an entry that exceeds 140 words.

it's freezing outside. literally. according to weatherbug, it's 18 degrees (13 with windchill). given that my house was not built to withstand such things, i generally spend these days panicked about my pipes bursting. oh, sure, i run the faucets all night, but i'm not convinced that that will solve the problem (particularly in the laundry room, which is uninsulated and where the pipes burst last year). so, it makes for a wee bit of stress. on top of that, the roofer still hasn't come out to repair the roof. it's been ten days. i told the contractor that if the roofer couldn't be here today, i would line someone else up. very irritating.

i've finished all of my grading and submitted grades-- well, for all but one student who is now ten days late with his final paper. i have a policy on my syllabus that i take off 10% for each day a paper is late. so technically he should be getting a 0. clearly i need to reevaluate this policy as it didn't seem to work as a stick and carrot (or really just a stick) situation.

have many things on the agenda to accomplish before i fly west. most involve work; some involve fun. if it's warm(er) tomorrow, i'm going on an 8 mile hike. i'm a little skeptical of this winter hiking business, though. work-wise, i have some writing to do and a lot of stuff to prep for next semester. so, luckily, i shall not be bored.

holiday cheer

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:40:48 GMT

the walk through the snow yesterday was great. and, as anticipated, the snow had completely melted by mid-afternoon. so i'm glad i went out and played in it (or at least walked around in it).

though i spent most of the day grading yesterday, i still managed to have some fun. in addition to the snow walk, i took a break and went downtown to the holiday market in market square. bought some christmas gifts. i'd like to just pause and report that it was 33 outside. for next week's holiday market, they anticipate it being in the 50s. yeah, i picked the wrong week to go (though i actually think i'll be going back.) i'm doing my best in trying to buy from local folks for the holidays, so these markets are a great opportunity to do so.

after i reached my grading goal (8 papers-- which believe it or not, is a huge accomplishment), i decorated my tree! i. love. christmas. i had a great time. unfortunately, since my tree is so freaking gargantuan (8 feet-- oops), i ran out of lights at the bottom. oh well. i will say it could be a hazard for sadie. :) had a great time, though, putting up ornaments, thinking about where they came from, and rocking out to my BNL Christmas CD.

today, i have equally exciting plans-- more grading, then a holiday party, and then the final candidate for the assistant professor position is in town, so, since i'm on the search committee, i have to go to dinner.

other random things:
-last night, i thought (oddly) that the candidate for the search was staying at my house and in my room (please note: i've never met this person.) apparently, the university is really short on money if they can't put the candidate up in a hotel. anyway, in the middle of the night, i got out of bed and moved to the sofa to sleep "so that i wouldn't disturb the guest' yeah, except i really did move, shutting the door behind me. i was awakened 20 minutes later by sadie scratching on the bedroom door, wondering where the hell i was. it took me a good few minutes to logically deduce that i did not have anyone else in my room.

-friday night, i went to a holiday party hosted by the master's students. we played a white elephant gift exchange and i decided to participate (bringing an oh so awesome dog collar with attached usb drive to contain contact information for the dog-- of course, a dog hater got it. perfect!). but in any case, what do i open? A DRINKING GAME. HILARIOUS! thankfully, a student stole it from me and i ended up with some nice bath and body stuff-- rare to come out of a white elephant party with a good gift.

okay, time to start reading more papers. good luck to me.

snow falling on lawn

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:33:11 GMT

IT'S SNOWING! i'm pretty excited and will need to shift the order of my day so that i can get outside and enjoy the snow before it all disappears. (we're only supposed to get a few inches and some say it will be gone by this afternoon.) will be fun to go out and crunch around with the pup, and then come back here and shower.

have been sick for about a week now and just yesterday, i started to feel like myself again. i still have some crazy congestion and occasionally, the world sounds like it's underwater, but other than that, i'm good. may even foray to the gym tomorrow. (am hesitant to leave the house today...poop.)

this is also the time of final paper grading. i have finished grading my ph.d. students' papers and am about to start the master's students' papers. my dream is to have all of them done by the end of the weekend as that would then open up the next two weeks for me to work on other projects. here's hoping.

still trying to piece together sadiecare for while i'm gone over the holidays. this is definitely the hardest time of year to find people. i currently have six of my ten days completely covered, but the middle period with only spotty coverage. so, need to resolve that soon.

in any case, it's snowing. i'm excited. yay for novelty!

a blue suede thanksgiving

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:34:10 GMT

i just returned from a very quick trip to memphis where i celebrated thanksgiving with some friends from davis. (and i do mean quick-- i drove there on thursday and back saturday, thus putting me in the city for less than 48 hours.) it was really nice to spend some time with the friends as i hadn't really spent any significant time with most of them in years (and, in some cases, decades.)

on friday, i was able to play tourist and went to BOTH the national civil rights museum and to graceland. when i go back to memphis, i would happily return to the civil rights museum, but have had my fill of graceland. the museum was AMAZING-- a super powerful multi-media exhibit. for those who don't know, it's located at the lorraine motel, where MLK was assassinated. so that in and of itself was powerful. there was a great 30 minute documentary (now available through netflix) called 'witness,' about his life and assassination, and i learned a lot. (for example, he was in memphis to help with a sanitation workers' strike. never knew!). the rest of the museum was dedicated to the civil rights struggle, particularly for african americans over the last hundred years. they had film playing of the unrest in birmingham--it's pretty powerful to see people being attacked with fire hoses. as you can tell, i was really moved by the museum and would highly recommend a visit to the museum.

graceland was a great spectacle. some thoughts: 1) the mansion itself was quite modest in size, by today's standards. it was probably only 5000 square feet or so. 2) a little disappointing that elvis appeared to have redecorated in the 60s and 70s-- there was A LOT of shag carpet (including on the walls of the staircase!). 3) had no idea he was buried there. this is what a bad elvis fan i am. 4) i do not exaggerate when i say there were at least 10 gift shops on site. 5) got to see his cars (nifty!) and his private plane--and not just like a vomit comet, but a HUGE plane. that was fun.

but going to the two museums on the same day was an interesting juxtaposition. all i could keep thinking was that elvis appropriated black music to make a profit. (no need to come back with the fact that he exposed the world to black music, thereby paving the way for black musicians. i've already heard that.) but in any case, glad i went to both.

the weekend was a nice little getaway. am now back and gearing up for the craziness of the end of the term with more candidate visits, many final papers to read, and god willing, doing a little writing of my own!

i fear i am getting old

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:48:40 GMT

i am very disheartened to hear about the 32% fee increase at the university of california. (to be honest, i'm pretty sickened about most things that are happening in ca.) over the past two decades, a UC education has gone from a very affordable, high quality education to a not-so-affordable education. don't get me wrong, 10K a year is still a lot cheaper than private tuition, but it's nothing like the 3300 a year I paid (or, more precisely, my parents paid) in the mid-1990s for me (and they paid considerably less than that for my sisters).

I've been reading about all of the student protests on campuses-- UCLA, Cal, and UCD among others. And how the students are angry with UC. It seems to me that their anger is misdirected. Shouldn't they really be pissed at the state--and by extension all of the idiot voters who have passed dumb laws over the past 30+ years that has led to the underfunding of UC? It's because the universities are so underfunded that they have to pass these increases. So it seems to me that the university is stuck between a rock and a hard place. They've already made pretty dramatic cuts (10% faculty pay cut for a year-- which is sucky as faculty don't make a whole lot--in the grand scheme of things--as it is; they also just decided to close the UC Sacramento Center, which provided internships and class experience in Sacramento--thankfully, the UC Washington Center, is still open). And these are just a few examples. I know there are more.

In essence, what is happening is that the University of California system (and the CSU system, too) has gone from being a public institution, providing benefit to the entire state--both by being affordable for students who attend and producing graduates who will work to improve the state--to being almost a private institution. Education is not an individual benefit, but a public good. It seems that the taxpayers in the state of CA have forgotten this.

a (nearly) free weekend

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:27:09 GMT

well this is exciting and rare. i've got nothing going on this weekend (almost). was supposed to go on a hike this morning, but the organizer's son got sick in the middle of the night. since i was still in bed when she called to tell me this (might have overslept just a tad), obviously i am not heartbroken. i can use the day to go to the gym, anyway, and not have to battle with the thousands of students for parking. (or dozens anyway).

will also finish lesson planning for my last two substantive classes of the semester-- we talk about readings next week and then the week after thanksgiving is final presentations where the students do all the work. so, that's fun. i'm also feeling like i'm getting life back under control. i'm not going to lie, either, i'm looking forwrd to my final download, in which i only teach one class next semester. YAY! must. pump. out. a lot. of. research.

one month til i head to CA. excited about that, too. but, of course, much to accomplish before any of that happens.

coming up for air

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:37:47 GMT

i have had a rare few hours to work on non-teaching related things today. how delightful! i managed to submit a manuscript to a journal (one that i had presented at my conference two weeks ago) and i also waded through a whole bunch of e-mail. will soon turn to something else-- not sure what, though. i made the conscious decision to leave my teaching stuff at the office today, so that i would only focus on other things. good decision i say.

i do feel like i've been in a constant panic for the last few weeks. been running from conference to conference, which has been great, but it also has meant that i haven't had time to spend on work-- which means that i end up spending the little time that i do have on teaching prep because that's the immediate and necessary thing to get done. of course, teaching doesn't get me tenure.

on the fun side, doug from ohio state drove down yesterday to speak to my intro to student affairs class last night and do a presentation on semester at sea today. it was super great to get to hang with him and show him (briefly) around ktown.

i have a feeling that the next few weeks are going to be crazy. more candidates arrive the week after thanksgiving for the assistant professor position-- and since i'm on that search committee, that means i'm booked with 'em. but oddly, i don't have much (minus course prep) to do between now and next week. hooray for that. might i actually get some research done? that would be a miracle.

omg he looked at me!

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:07:47 GMT

i'm in atlanta for the NWSA Conference (National Women's Studies Association). Decided to come check it out to see if this is a community that I want to participate in in the future. It's a decidedly different crowd than the higher ed crowd. I find it interesting to be in a space where I am middle of the road (compared to higher ed conferences where I am pretty liberal). It also is a space where a lot of different types of scholarship are accepted-- For example, I went to a couple of sessions on blogging-- one of which was run by the editors of feministing.com, a blog I read on a near-daily basis. It helped me rethink about the role and accessibility of feminism. In addition, this has been fantastic because I got to hear a lot of really notable feminists speak (Angela Davis, Chandra Mohanty and Jacqui Alexander, Kimberle Crenshaw and Bonnie Thornton Dill)-- The last four women engaged in conversations with each other-- it was very cool. And it was also really awesome because it was a nice reminder how much positionality matters-- That knowledge is not generated in a vacuum, but is so dependent on who we are and our social location. A nice regrounding in my feminist principles.

When I was looking into coming to NWSA, I was psyched to find out that Joshua Radin, perhaps one of my favorite artists ever, was playing at the Center Stage (a small and great venue) in town while I was here. So, my lovely friend Adam was nice enough to go with me. And the concert was fantastic. Joshua bills his work as "whisper rock"-- He's like a lighter version of Jason Mraz-- For the uninformed, his music gets used a lot on Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy. (I first discovered him when I saw Danny perform to one of his songs on Season 4 of SYTYCD.) In any case, his show was as fantastic as I had hoped. In a particularly delightful moment, I am 99% convinced that my boy looked and nodded at me during one of his songs. I LOVE YOU! (This from a gal who is decidedly unswoony.) Lowlights: the incredibly trashed woman behind us who sang a lot, off key, to his songs. Please note that I am pretty convinced she was the only person in the hall singing along.

In any case, I feel re-energized on multiple levels-- By hanging out with Adam and going to the concert (I am taking real time off!), but also by connecting with an academic community with (some of the) same values I have. And, the fun will continue-- Tomorrow I get to see my friend Lauren for some eating and shopping-- Awesome!

time zone hopping

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:38:26 GMT

well i'm back in knoxville. and i'm tired. which is hardly surprising since i was A) on conference time and B) almost adjusted to the West coast time. swell! happy to be home, though have realized just how much i actually have to do. and, of course, i leave thursday morning for my next conference. thankfully this one is drivable, so much less panic there.

the exterminator came today. he laid bait underneath the house. imagine my delight when i heard a rat eating some of it like half an hour ago. (or what i can only assume is a rat). i hope the little bastard leaves the crawl space and dies somewhere outside, so i don't have to deal with hir corpse. peace out buddy.

so tired. currently pounding coffee as i finish course prep for this evening. cutting it a little closer than i would normally like-- but i didn't have much of a choice.

highs and lows

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:51:42 GMT

i leave tomorrow to fly home from my conference. it's been a good, though quick, trip. it was incredibly rejuvenating to be able to see folks again and i have some possible research collaborations to pursue. so that's exciting. met with the ex-advisor for a little while who basically put the fear of god into me (the low to which the title refers). later in the day, i ran into some grad students from another school and one said "you're margaret s., aren't you?" someone knows who i am?? wow. that was kind of cool.

being an early career faculty member (the new synonym for junior faculty or assistant professor) is a weird limbo state. you do not have the protections of tenure nor have really established a name for yourself in the field. but at the same time, you are starting to do work that some people follow. it's an interesting in between.

am off to bed, i hope. need to rest up for my hours of sitting on a plane tomorrow.

starving

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:59:01 GMT

i'm in vancouver. so far, so good, though admittedly, i've been here less than 24 hours. i am also starving as it's 10 am in knoxville and i have yet to eat breakfast. meeting a friend in an hour. just broke down and hate half a breakfast bar. hopefully that will tide me over.

am doing the usual conference schmoozing. i always love seeing folks from across the country at these things. it's also a good head check because even as hard as i work, there are A LOT of people who are doing way more interesting (and fabulous) things than me. very humbling.

going to try to get a little presentation preparation in before i get to head off to breakfast. (yay!)

#1 fanilow

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:30:14 GMT

i went to a halloween party for the first time in many years. i went as a fanilow (for those of you not in the know, that would be a barry manilow fan.) i had an awesome barry shirt that joanna bought me at my 30th birthday bash (it had his face in gold on it). i almost made a button that said "i <3 barry". the rest of the costume wasn't so much a costume as what i had around the house. i must say, it was fun to dress up.

i also hung around the house for a couple of hours to hand out candy. i LOVE being a homeowner (or at least having a place where people come trick or treating-- no one ever braved the hill in LA). i had two urkels come to my door, which just seemed to defy the odds. my other favorite costume was this teen (tween?) who was a bag of jelly beans-- he was wearing a garbage bag that was filled with half filled balloons. LOVED IT.

am having my students over tonight. so this means lots of cooking and cleaning for the day. i think this is my last entertaining of the year, which is nice as i can then let my house revert to its natural state of chaos. :)

happy my 1/6 birthday!

i hate you, rat

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:23:30 GMT

well, my supersonic pest repellant devices appear not to be effective. either that, or i unknowingly ate a package of instant noodles (dry) in my sleep. and so, i admit defeat and will now call the exterminator. so horrified. stupid pest.

it's raining outside. i hope it clears up before tonight as i bought like 3 lbs of candy and i really don't need to eat it all myself (note: v. glad that i, on a whim, decided to store the candy in a cupboard and not on the counter. how mad would i have been?) am also going to a party tonight, but will stick around for a little while to give out candy-- mostly so i can see my 3 year old neighbor.

anyway, work as usual, so that i can party (relatively) guilt-free.

fox news and msnbc

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:54:16 GMT

i'm not sure how i feel about the white house going after fox "news", but i agree with them that they are not a news organization. the fact that they pretty much sponsored the tea parties in the spring is proof of that. i'm not completely sold on msnbc, either. it seems like they do just what fox news does-- just, as jon stewart remarked last night, not as well.

i think both networks are a sign of just how much society has changed in the past ten years. as one of my friends commented, it's like the country is permanently in a state of running for election. there does not seem to be any real bipartisanship and it's always about "getting" the other guy (or girl). i wish that editorializing did not get equated with the news.

it's friday. i am pleased. it's been a hell of a week.

well, that wasn't a bad day

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:32:50 GMT

yesterday was not a bad day. i got a manuscript accepted to the journal of higher education, which is a pretty nifty journal in our field. i literally jumped up and down and screamed when i got the e-mail. i scared the crap out of the dog.

it was a long process, too. submitted the manuscript in january. in late april, i got a 'revise and resubmit' with five pages of single spaced feedback from three reviewers. (there are basically four things you can get from a journal: accept, accept with revisions, revise and resubmit, and reject). so, i took a month and attended to the comments and sent it back in. three months later, i got ANOTHER revise and resubmit. this time, one of the reviewers loved everything i did, a second gave me a few suggestions for changes, and a third reviewer was not so wild about it. so, really, the name of the game was just to get that first reviewer on my side. and it looks like i did. because i got notice of acceptance yesterday. i am pretty damn excited.

also in other good news, this supersonic pest repellent thingy seems to be working. have not caught sight or heard a peep from the rat. farewell buddy. glad i've scared you out of the kitchen. may plug one of these bad boys into the basement, too. if i could drive ze out of the house for good, that would be AWESOME.

today, i'm taking part of the day off-- it was already planned pre-acceptance, but i shall call it a celebration. i'm getting frozen yogurt and going shopping. i am very excited.

so, not a bad day yesterday and i'm hoping for a similarly good day today.

dear weekend, please come sooner

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:52:37 GMT

i need a day off. am hoping to take one this weekend. am pondering going somewhere and driving around and looking at the fall colors. i fear this signals another way in which i am becoming more like my mother.

got my conference paper in last night at 11 pm. go me. (it was due by the end of the day.) you'd think there'd be a sense of accomplishment, but now i'm faced with course prep, other papers, other research, reading students' papers, comp exams, etc etc. you get the idea. you can also see why i need a day off.

in completely unrelated news, i think AAA is the neatest organization ever. in addition to being handy for a tow (v. helpful when you're driving a 13 year old car that does not like the cold), they do all sorts of other things. for example, i went in yesterday to order canadian dollars for my trip to vancouver next month. and it was free (well the money wasn't free, but no charge!). the exchange rate is CRAP (it's basically 1 to 1. yuck!), but to be able to go and get money so i'll have cash on my arrival is insanely convenient.

that is all. off to toil through a bunch of other work. oh, and rat is still alive. exterminators don't seem like a good option (laying glue traps and charging me $75 and not coming back to get the stuck to the glue trap rats doesn't really seem like a good deal--for me or the rats.)

45 is unacceptable

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:43:28 GMT

it's 45 degrees outside. it's october 16th. this does not please me. i slept with three blankets on my bed last night-- definitely means it's time to put on the winter comforter.

had a lovely (though brief) visit with the davis friends. they arrived around 7-- i showed them around the house and then we went out to dinner downtown to a great restaurant on market square called la costa. they seemed to really like their food-- i loved mine: a black bean and wild mushroom quesadilla with goat cheese. amazing.

this morning, they had a quick breakfast and they are off to continue their journey west. was very nice to see some folks from davis. doesn't make me feel as far away.

of course, now i am left with writing the rest of (more of?) my conference paper-- i wrote 7 pages yesterday, which is awesome. i'd really like to be able to bust out the rest of it today. i have A LOT of other work waiting for me. would also potentially like to go to farmer's market, if i can endure the cold.

good times!

unexpected (human) houseguests

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:33:03 GMT

the rat still lives. wouldn't go into its trap of death last night-- and yet ate another one of sadie's toys. i hate you rat and yet bow down to your tenacity. enjoy your last few days, buddy, because next week, we swing into high gear.

got a call out of the blue yesterday from some friends of the family who are in dc and passing through knoxville today. (dick and carol, for those of you keeping track at home). in any case, they will be staying with me, which is fantastic. also fantastic is the fact that i have kept my house mostly clean since having my students over a couple of weeks ago, so it is not the mad dash to clean. this is also good in that it puts some time pressures on me to get my paper done.

and so that, dear reader(s), is how i will be spending the day-- cleaning and writing. woot woot.

an evolved species of rat

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:30:58 GMT

the rat continues to elude capture. either ze is not smart enough to find ze way into the electrocuting trap of death, or ze is too smart. i'm giving it through the weekend and then after that, i think i need to pony up and get an exterminator. swell. no idea how much that costs or what it entails (is it like termite fumigation when they put the tent on the house? no idea.). perhaps i'll find out.

have a paper to write this weekend. and 16 papers to grade-- well 15 since one of my students still hasn't turned in his, though i expect that he will. not sure when i'm going to get everything done. thankfully it's "fall break" which basically means nothing except that i feel less guilty about not going into campus. last fall break, i flew to CA to meet george and see the rest of the fam. am a little sad not to be there now. i wish i lived closer.

okay, to work.

prioritizing and making decisions

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:26:18 GMT

so i've decided not to apply for the fellowship. after consulting with the advisor, it seems like my ideas, while good, are not fundable. (i.e. they aren't 'sexy' enough for funding agencies.) and rather than run around like a chicken with its head cut off (even more) and perhaps put together a proposal that might be fundable, i've decided to put it off for a year.

part of me feels like i've failed because i don't like to not do things. but part of me feels greatly relieved. another part of me is v. worried about what the advisor will think of me for this decision. it's funny that even a year out, i'm still wrapped up in what he thinks. i'm sure two-years-ago-me would laugh at this, but sometimes i wish i were back in grad school. yes, it was hard as hell, but at least then you only had to answer to one master. (the advisor). now, there are so many people you have to worry about. i very much preferred the one master game.

the rat still lives on. going to buy its death trap today. also discovered that my fridge was leaking (or more precisely there was an eensy leak in the water pipe going to the fridge for the ice maker. with a friend's help, i have now turned the water to that pipe off and leak solved. voila.

in addition to buying the rat trap today, i intend to spend some time working on a paper. should be good times-- at least i am no longer as panicked as i was. this too shall pass, i'm sure.