numbered list

1. the department is funding my summer research. this means that i don't have to get a Real Job (tm) and i can just sit around and work on Hupa all the time. is there anything better than getting paid to do what you want to be doing anyway?

2. i got the classes i want for the institute.

3. i am spearheading my department's protest against...well, let's just say it's a school thing. it sounds too trivial when i tell people outside of my little school microcosm about it. but i'm glad we're fighting it.

4. i helped run a conference this weekend and it was a success. and i got a free book out of it, one i've been coveting for weeks actually.

5. i submitted my first real conference abstract. i don't expect them to accept my paper, but i should know within two weeks.

6. six more days of classes!

life is pretty exciting these days.

flying blind

oh dear, the activist in me has been awakened.
and people seem ready to rally. "what shall we do?" they ask me.

taking a stand is second nature to me. they must sense this.
but am i ready to go there, again?

last time, it broke my spirit.
the time before, it broke my heart.

and why should it be me, with leaden limbs and no time to spare?

snippy cooks

whatever energy is leftover after classes homework and writing i am using to search for money for the summer. i won a small fellowship to attend an institute at stanford in july, but i have to figure out how i'm going to pay my rent. registering for next year's classes. thinking about teaching (what?! i have nothing to offer anyone but my own confusion...). trying to stay in the now and focus on all the projects i have going even though it's totally overwhelming and exhausting and scary and i don't know if i'll do a good enough job on any of it 'cause there's just not enough time. i just want to space out and dream of the next thing.

***

funniest thing i've seen in a few days.
reviews for a fruit salad recipe on epicurious.

A Cook from London writes:
This was just awful, the mango blueberry combo is good but the ginger ruined it. I'll use a good slug of dark rum next time with the lime juice and brown sugar.

A Cook from Lyon, France writes:
It is considered by many that ginger complements fruits well. I suppose, London, that one would have to care for the flavour of ginger to enjoy this recipe. Perhaps that is why you thought it "ruined" the dish. However, since I lived (and ate) in London for 2 years, I feel qualified to posit that many Britons' comments regarding their sense of taste are perhaps to be taken with a grain of salt. Cheers.

steep

i'm alive, i swear!

i think it's so funny how people will email you and say "Hi, this is Bob Smith." Well, okay, bob smith didn't really email me, but someone else did and that is how he opened, with his name. which also appeared in his signature at the bottom of the email text, and in the "from" field of the message itself. i am often tempted to do that the first time i email someone who doesn't know me, i suppose we are well conditioned by phone etiquette? i always resist the urge, because it seems so redundant.

oh, oh oh oh. what to tell you today. in the last few weeks some switch in me has been thrown fully to the ON position and i'm having all these ideas about things i want to work on. more than i can possibly keep up with, i can't start anything new, not for the next six weeks anyway. everyone says "write them down" and yes, i am writing them down. i will probably look back on them in two months and snicker, like i do with most of what i'm thinking about these days. the learning curve is steep indeed.

spring break is done, i did my fieldwork. it was...well, a revelation, really. i will write about it soon, when i can do it more justice than i will be able to right now. but now i've hit that point in the semester where it gets hard and the pressure is on and i've got to produce. a lot. more than last time. and soon.

i guess the difference is that this time i know i can handle it.