Or not.

We were in fine spirits this morning, expecting to be out of the hospital today. However. There is one more procedure that the docs want to do, one that will be instrumental in saving Footslogger's life should he have a second heart attack, so we'll be having that at 10:00 tomorrow.

Then we'll probably be out of the hospital, should all go well, sometime on Friday.

Scary times, folks. Very scary.

...and Moving Out (possibly)

Footslogger is

• down to one liter of oxygen per hour
• walking around the cardiac telemetry floor 3-4 times a day
• talking about rehab and resuming exercise
• texting nonstop with Precious Firstborn
• planning low-fat, low-sodium menus.

I think we're about ready to be released from prison. The cardiac surgeon dropped by today and told us he was thinking of having us out of the hospital tomorrow; the insurance company is starting to also push for us to be released.

All of this makes me very happy. Giddy, even.

Except. That it makes me very afraid. I know that I'm driving him crazy, but I can't stop looking at him and asking things like "Are you feeling dizzy?" "Any chest pain?" "Are you out of breath?" I want him to rest, to recover. He wants to push. That will be the story, I imagine, for the next 6 months. I hope we can meet in the middle somewhere.

And I've found that I have a new sympathy for folks in ambulances. I've been walking about 30 minutes a day in the park across the street from the hospital, and occasionally an ambulance will come by, with or without lights and sirens. When that happens, I shake my head, sigh, and mutter "I'm so sorry" to the folks inside and the ones hurrying to meet them at the hospital. I know it's not my fault -- that's not the issue. It's just that I have a new sympathy for people who are suffering from medical emergencies and for their family members. What a hardship that is. And how lightly I've taken our good health up to now.

Stepping Up

Today the hospital gods smiled on us. Footslogger was moved out of ICU and into a telemetry (sp?) wing. I gather that the main difference has to do with a lower degree of scrutiny, plus instead of being plugged into a monitor that gives constant feedback on heart rate, oxygenation rate, respiratory rate, bank balance, hair loss, armpit odor, etc. (ok, those last three are an exaggeration. But only barely.) he is plugged into a small box that transmits his heart rate to a central monitor on the wing. The nurses come in every couple of hours to check his blood pressure and oxygenation; plus they are carefully monitoring his intake and output, since he is on a drug to help him get rid of excess fluid on his lungs.

But the main part that he likes the best? He can get orange sherbet on request.

My fave? I don't have to vacate the premises between 6 and 8:30, which means that I can sit with him through dinner and leave once he starts to get sleepy. Instead of leaving at 6, coming back at 8:30 and sitting with him until 9:30. That was starting to get extremely wearying.

So tonight I went to Subway and purchased a tuna sandwich (comfort food) and as I was walking out of the store I found myself smiling giddily for the first time in a week. Really, all I want in this world is for him to be healthy. The rest means nothing.

For the first time since his heart attack, I feel certain that we are on our way there.

A Funny Thing Happened on Our Way Home

Friday night, February 29th: We pack up after work and drive down to the home of our hiking buddies, Skidmark and Balloo, for Skidmark's 30th birthday bash. Lots of friends, lots of beer. Our gift to Skidmark was a framed photograph of a group of hikers (her included) in varying stages of undress at Bryant Ridge Shelter in Virginia.

all day Saturday and Sunday morning, March 1st and 2nd: We drive into the mountains for the Rockies Ruck, a gathering of long-distance hikers held annually for the last 4 years and organized by our friend and triple-crowner (ie., has hiked all three big long-distance trails in the US, the AT, the PCT, and the CDT), Mags.

Sunday afternoon, March 2nd: Our world changed forever. We decided to drive the back way to High Plains City, driving through the mountains and small towns. We had just passed through Small Mountain Town (where I had noticed a big blue H for hospital sign, only because it was right next to a sign for a library. I always notice those library signs.) when Footslogger started complaining of pressure in his chest and difficulty breathing, nausea, and dizziness. We turned around and went back to the hospital in Small Mountain Town. They diagnosed him with a heart attack and decided that he needed to head for Big Western City, where hospitals with cardiac cath labs abound.

And the crying began. I mean, my crying, out of fear and shock. How could my husband, a fit, strong, not overweight, healthy-eating guy be having a heart attack? The doctor and nurses at Small Mountain Town talked about getting a helicopter out for him, but the weather was too bad.

Oh, did I mention that all of this was happening in the midst of a huge snowstorm that eventually shut down the interstate?

But back to our story. The ambulance came, with two EMTs, Shannon and Mark. They gave me the option of riding in the ambulance, but I decided to follow the ambulance in my car, thinking that would give me more flexibility in Big Western City.

I spent the next four hours trying to keep up with the ambulance (I eventually got stuck behind a snow plow and lost a good bit of ground there) and crying. I was reminded of the days around my divorce from Bad Andy, when my friends Kyle and Debra said they didn't know that anybody had that many tears in them. I'm not saying this out of pride, believe me. I tried to stop. But I was scared, and fear always brings out tears in me.

I arrived at the hospital around 4:30; the ambulance had arrived about 15 minutes prior. The cardiac surgeon who met us there had already started prepping Footslogger for cardiac catheterization. He stressed to us the need for speed in this, and we agreed, so they pushed him off to the cardiac cath lab very quickly, shunted me off into a waiting room, and we waited. Footslogger's sister and brother-in-law live in Big Western City, so they joined me to wait, we ate a terrible dinner in the hospital cafeteria, and waited some more. They finally brought him in to ICU. One of his arteries (the one often called "the widowmaker" -- I can't tell you how much I hate typing that) was completely clogged, so they performed an angioplasty to clear it and put in two stents to keep it open.

Today is Friday, and we are still in ICU. Every day he makes a bit of progress, but it is slow. He's had some difficulty with breathing, so he is on oxygen, but we expect that to be a temporary problem. Yesterday and the day before he sat up in a chair to eat; today he is going to be walking around the ICU floor for a bit. Slow and steady progress, that's what we're looking for.

I hesitated to post this, but I know you'll be rooting for him, internets. Positive thoughts, prayers, meditation -- whatever you believe in will be greatly appreciated.

Awarded

On Friday, I received a phone call from my dean, asking me if I would be willing to facilitate a small-group discussion during Monday's college faculty meeting. "About what?" I asked. Turns out the college is working on its contributions to a university-wide planning document, so faculty members are beginning the discussion about what our foci and action items should be. (But that's beside the point.) Of course, I agreed, though I was secretly thinking that there were other people (hello! faculty with tenure! or maybe administrators!) who would be more likely to be asked to do this than me. But whatever, I'm in for the good of the order, etc.

So I showed up at the faculty meeting on Monday, a little nervous and really unsure about the process, or even the topic. Turns out I needn't have worried, because here's what really happened.

Two university bigwigs showed up and said that they had an announcement. For Dr. Bad Ass (well, they didn't say that, but they said, you know, my real name). I was shocked and I'm sure turned red. Then the two bigwigs proceeded to read out a letter stating that Dr. Bad Ass had won a highly prestigious (at least at our uni), university-wide teaching award.

Knock me over with a feather. The dean lied to make sure I would be at the meeting.

CCR Misheard Lyrics

Thanks to nephew Rex for this link.

Bad Ass's Mom

Oooh! I will never say another bad thing about the department here that administers our online courses. Cause my mom? She's gonna be in my class! I'm teaching an online course this summer, on a topic that interests mom, and she's going to audit the class. Should be fun! Did I mention that my mom got her bachelor's degree in literature when she was in her 60s? She's the coolest of the cool kids.

Hi Mom!!

My signature

And here's how I did it.

Registration Woes

Now that I've been at home for most of the last week, coughing up a lung or two, I've had some time to devote to my online courses. I'm teaching a graduate course this semester, with a fairly small enrollment. The course was originally designed for a combination of intensive weekends (Friday evenings/Saturday all day) and online discussion, but I switched it to online because of the low enrollment, after which point the enrollment tripled. Interesting dynamic there. I'm having to put it together on the fly, which means I'm just about two weeks ahead of the class.

One of the techniques I'm using for this course is mini-lectures (voice over on powerpoint) that I record using Camtasia. The process of designing those has been interesting. Usually, I choose a topic that is related to the material in the assigned texts, or one that is only given a small amount of play in those chapters, and provide information on those topics. Only about 15-20 minutes per mini-lecture. I create a powerpoint, write notes underneath, and then record the lecture. Easy.

So now I've had a bit more time -- because of the coughing -- to work on my summer online course, which is on Literature for Young Adults. I teach this course regularly during the school year; this will be my first time teaching it online and my first time teaching it in the summer. It's a lot of work getting the course online, but I think I'll be getting some extra money for the course development (!).

So my beef is that -- because this course is also offered as a graduate course for teachers in the state who are in our literacy endorsement program -- registration is done through our off-campus enrichment program. That's fine, I have no problem with them doing the registration. But. The course doesn't show up in our registration system until the around-the-state folks (who register as graduate students) can register -- not until the end of next month. This makes sense, I guess, because we don't want the class to fill up with undergraduate students before the graduate students get a chance to register.

But the bottom line is that undergraduates are calling me and emailing me, all panicked because the course doesn't show up! And they can't enroll! Is it full? Would I please let them add the class? Because they are graduating in May and this is their only chance for an upper-division course, and if they can't take it the world will end!

Sheesh.

Sick and Snow

So I haven't been at work for the last two days. Instead, I've been sitting in my easy chair, coughing and feeling sorry for myself. I was hoping I would thus feel better by Friday, when I was supposed to drive 2.5 hours to Very Small Village (VSV) to do some professional development. Thing is, I'm not feeling better; in fact, I'm feeling worse. And the road to VSV currently is listed as "No Uneccesary Travel." I've already called the school (and nobody answered, which makes me worry) and left a message that I would not make it there because of being sick, and because of the roads.

In some ways, I feel guilty about it, mostly because I really like VSV, I enjoyed being there the last time I worked with them, and ... one of my former students is an English teacher there. BUT I'm relieved not to be going, because seriously I feel like I'll be coughing up a lung sometime soon, I have a fever, and I really, really, really don't want to get bronchitis again like I did last spring.

I've canceled everything for tomorrow, canceled everything for today except for my algebra exam (which was dead easy). Footslogger made me a delicious Valentine's Day dinner of chicken soup and grilled cheese sandwiches (white cheddar, which makes it gourmet). I will sleep, mess around online, read, and watch my humidifier do its thing.

Rest=Health

Iraq Withdrawal Date: 12,008

OK, I know I may be late on this, but check these out. First, the fantastic video/music/speech by Barack Obama and "various artists." Then the spoof of it focusing on McCain. I'm coughing up a lung, I laughed so hard.

Ten Years Later...

Last night I got an email from the editorial assistant for a journal I had submitted a manuscript to. It's accepted, with no further revisions. That in itself is great, but I have to share the long story on this one:

Fall, 1998: My first semester in graduate school. I'm assigned as a research assistant for a new assistant professor in my department. We decide on a project together, collect data, and analyze it over the following semester.

Winter, 1999 and Winter, 2000: We do conference presentations on our project, which get lukewarm receptions.

2001: We submit our paper to a top-tier journal, get a revise and resubmit, do revisions and resubmit, then get rejected.

2003: Repeat the process, complete with revising, resubmitting, and getting rejected, only for a different journal.

2005: Repeat the process, complete with revising, resubmitting, and getting rejected, only for a different journal. This time, I'm first author, as the assistant professor has now got tenure, and I'm an assistant professor in need of publications myself.

2007: Thinking we have invested too much time in this project to give up now, we revise it again, and submit it to a different journal. We get mixed reviews, and -- of course -- an option to revise and resubmit. We do that, of course, and then one of our reviewers gets a bit pissy. The editors ask us to respond to the reviews.

2008: We respond to the pissy reviewer, pointing out that we actually did do everything he/she asked us to do, and we wait. Then last night, the email! We're accepted! As is, with just one little correction in the reference page!

I'll tell you, I jumped out of my chair screaming when I got that email, and I haven't stopped grinning about it yet. Is this a cautionary tale? A critique of journal reviewers and/or editors? A story of persistence? Yes, yes, and yes. But damn it feels good to see that thing (which I really have grown to love) head out to print. Yeah, us!

Skiing Hungover . . .

... is not much fun. Especially when the wind is huffing and puffing like a huge gang of birthday girls obsessed with blowing out the candles on a million cakes. Whew. Luckily, with our season passes, we can feel comfortable leaving after only a couple of runs. We've already skied enough times to pay for our season passes, so anything else is a freebie.

Now I'm working on grading and commenting on reading logs from students in my online class. Interesting how there are HUGE differences in students' abilities to write summaries. Some are beautiful works of art; others are more like children's drawings on a refrigerator. I've graded four, will grade four more tonight after dinner, and then the remaining four tomorrow morning. Then I'll start on the next set on Monday.

Still, I'm enjoying the online class breather. I have to check in on the discussion every day, and of course there is grading, and lots of email to answer, but all in all, I kind of like this online business. I wonder, though, how it is for students in my classes when they can't see each other or me? I tend to be a "personality" teacher -- I make lots of headway with students based on relationships built over the course of the semester. I've tried to make my online class more like my on-campus classes by providing minilectures recorded with Camtasia, so they can at least hear me talking. I'm not sure how well that is working; when I listen to the minilectures, I notice that I sound like I have a lisp. So the recording is weird. I really don't have a lisp.

Anyway, enough rambling. Maybe I'll take a nap.

Raspberry Mojitos

After a late night of drinking (in which I discovered raspberry mojitos -- yummy! and I had too many of them!) and eating, we're hanging out this morning on our dual laptops, watching CNN, blogging. I've stopped in on my online course (check); Footslogger is hanging out on either whiteblaze. net or scubaboard. We're mentally and physically preparing ourselves for a lovely day of skiing, and hoping that the wind is not going to be too painful up there on the slopes.

I'm hearing good things about the process of my materials through the tortuous maze that is going to shape the rest of my career. You know what I'm talking about, but I can't really write about it here. Still with fingers crossed, but I'm breathing a bit easier at this point . . .

In the meantime, I think I'll be making raspberry mojitos on my own pretty soon ...

Here's the place to see how to do it.

On another topic, the writing has been coming along this semester, thanks largely to the freedom afforded by teaching online. I sent in revisions to a manuscript -- I'm crossing my fingers for that one, as I'm quite keen on getting it published. A colleague and I responded to an editor's query about another manuscript, based on some really pissy reviews; we have high hopes for that one as well. I've also made some connections for writing with a couple of teachers. One short-term (thanks Dawn!) and one long-term (Carol!). I love writing with teachers, for teachers -- it brings me back to what is really important to me -- impacting classroom practice.

OK, enough -- we have to get ready for skiing...

Grumpy

Everytime I think about something to write about on this blog, I run into obstacles... most of these are related to the fact that there are people who know me who read this. And I really don't want to ruin friendships, lose my job, or make myself look like an idiot.

But some things are going on that are making me crazy (to the point where I have to literally dig my fingernails into my palms to keep from shouting at people in meetings. I'm approaching some kind of menopausal fevered state, too, which helps absolutely none), and they are related to the following:

• Accreditation hell. Hell. Hell. Hell. Every time I turn around there is another email in my mailbox, saying "Oh, Dr. Bad Ass? Could you kindly analyze these data and write a one-page summary? And then could you find loads of paperwork from the last two years that you're not responsible for keeping and put them in a folder so we can have them ready in case someone wants to look at it?" I'm pretty sure this is all going to turn out fine, but hell. I'm in hell.
  
• Online course stupidity (this is totally me, not my students -- they've been great). I realized a couple of days ago that the rubric in the syllabus for online discussion is not the one that I wanted to use. Um, I had already used it to score online discussions for two weeks. So I had to 'fess up to my students that I made a stupid mistake, change all of the grades, and redo the syllabus. Dumb. I hate doing dumb things.
• In my College Algebra class (that I'm taking, certainly not teaching). ... oh, wait. I should explain that the last time I took algebra was 27 years ago? And I got a D? And my favorite part of the class was that I had a tutor with a Harley? (That should explain the D. Not much tutoring, but lots of touring around the countryside. ) And graphing calculators didn't exist? ........ OK, so I think I've established the context sufficiently. So there are these wrestlers who were sitting right behind me, until today, when I moved. See, Big Obnoxious Wrestler (we'll call him B.O.W.) (as in W.O.W.) kept putting his massive foot up on the back of my chair. Right behind my shoulder. Dude. I really don't want what you've been walking on to get all over my beautiful red coat. I contemplated telling him to take his size 14s elsewhere, but then just decided to be peacable and move. So today he comes in smelling awfully like he had washed his hair in Jack Daniels. Interesting. Wonder if the coach knows?

There's more, but I can't really talk about it . . . .

All will be well. All manner of things will be well.

It's All About the Pancakes, Baby

I saw this at Belle's and had to imitate...

Pink (while watching the debate)

I have recently developed a serious fascination with nail polish, for the following reasons:
1. It's pretty. And colorful. And did I mention pretty?
2. Keeping my nails polished goes a long way toward stopping me from indulging in my bad habit, namely picking at my cuticles.
3. I can color-coordinate to match my outfit. And it's pretty.

So here is how I occupied my hands while I was watching the California Democratic Debate:

Overheard ...

... while walking to a meeting:

"I hope the Weather Channel was wrong, and it doesn't snow; or else I hope it snows really hard and my history professor gets instantly snowed in somewhere."

Alright, Dammit!

My Band



Make Your Own Album Cover
1. Click on this link. The title of the page is the name of your band.
2. Click on this link. The last four words of the final quotation on the page are the title of your album.
3. Click on this link. The third picture is your album cover.
4. Add your band name and title to the picture.

Typing Story

Well, Belle got a bit freaked about the typing test meme going around, and I don't blame her. I, too, remember hearing that about all I could be expected to do was to type, nurse, or teach. If it weren't for my mom and her constant "You can do anything you decide you want to do," I might have believed that crap, too. But I don't.

However, Belle's post made me remember how I learned to type, so I thought I would post that story here. And then I'm going to go retake that typing test, BECAUSE I KNOW I CAN TYPE FASTER THAN THAT, DAMMIT.

I was married to my first (and very bad) husband -- it just occurs to me that he might be reading this, and that actually makes me smile! -- and was working as a department secretary in a graduate school in southern California. No I won't tell you which one, but it was in a religious phase of my ex-spouse's and also of my life. If that helps.

Anyhoo, there I was working as a secretary, and every faculty member in my department did his or her own work on his or her own computer. I had a computer, too -- in fact, it was this computer:

So there I was, working all day long, with very little to do except answering the telephone, and this computer to keep me company. So I decided to learn to type. I got a textbook, and did some practice exercises out of it, just to get the hang of where my fingers should go on the keys, etc. Once I had that down, and it was mostly about speed, I got my hands on an interesting book that I wanted to read and copied it. The whole thing. I still wasn't very fast, but I wasn't bored any more and I got to read a good book.

When I found another position in this school that I wanted to apply for, and I tried to use my department office manager as a reference, she told my prospective new hirer that I was "not a self-starter." Ha. Shows what she knew.

Anyway, I was only there for a year, and then I went and got myself a teaching job and never looked back.

Which brings us full circle back to those voices, you know, the ones that said I could type, teach, or be a nurse? Yes, I became a teacher. But I was a damn good one, people. And now I'm a professor (almost with tenure). So HA to those voices.

And I got a little faster:

81 words

free Touch typing

I thought I was faster than this . . .

67 words

Touch Typing

Best Day of Skiing Ever!

We took our weekly ski trip today, driving the 40 minutes to our local ski area. Light snow was falling in the mountains, the wind was down, and there was fantastic powder EVERYWHERE. What a blast! We even skied a black slope, because the powder made it doable. Footslogger was a maniac -- hurling himself down the slope, hooting and hollering like a teenager. Loads of fun, but now we're home and watching the second half of the Giants/Packers game. I don't really care about it, but Slogger seems to have developed a liking for Green Bay. It looks seriously cold there; but then it's supposed to get down to -7 (F) here tonight.

I'm promising myself not to go into the office tomorrow, as it is an official holiday. Since I have tons of writing to do, I'm pretty sure I can keep myself busy at home.

I've been asked to write a chapter on using a particular classic piece of young adult literature in an English methods class; this means that I'm spending a bit of time in the next couple of days re-reading said classic young adult literature novel, which I haven't read since junior high! Should be easy -- I have an outline written in my head, and the chapter is supposed to be short.

Now I must re-paint my fingernails. I find that if I keep my fingernails painted, it helps keep my bad habit of picking at my cuticles at bay. So now I'm all the girly girl, with pink fingernail polish. Whatever. I do kind of like it.

Risk Management and Global Climate Change

I found this video on Practical Theory . The geology course I took last semester was an earth-systems course, with an eye-opening look at data related to climate change and potential disasters. This science teacher's video is an interesting take on the "debate."

Week from Hell and Why I Have Trouble With the Election

Oh.My.Lord. What an insane week. Meetings and more meetings. Exponential increase in my list of things to do. And this is why I apparently can't find anyone I would like to vote for . . .

96% Mike Gravel
96% Dennis Kucinich
84% Chris Dodd
84% Barack Obama
83% John Edwards
81% Joe Biden
80% Hillary Clinton
74% Bill Richardson
35% Rudy Giuliani
27% Ron Paul
21% John McCain
15% Mike Huckabee
14% Mitt Romney
14% Tom Tancredo
6% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Skiing Today

So we're finally both feeling better, over our colds, and we're off for an afternoon of skiing. One of the best things about having a season pass is that we don't feel that we're wasting money when we go skiing for just the afternoon. It'll take us just a few minutes to pack up our skis, then we'll ski a few runs, drink some hot chocolate, and head for home. Good exercise, relaxation, and not thinking about work for a bit.

Really?

I spent a huge chunk of the day trying to figure out how to take a video I made for my online course (I made it using Windows Movie Maker, and saved it as a .wmv file) and save it as a Flash file. I tried a converter website; no luck! Apparently -- even though I have installed it -- Flash is not installed on my computer. I uninstalled, reinstalled; no good. It gave me a right good headache. And then I got my student evaluations from last semester, which were really good. Except for one seriously ugly comment.

Another Cool Thing I Discovered Over Break

Here's the other thing I was trying to think of last night but couldn't -- mostly cause I was watching LSU whoop up on OSU. Go SEC!!!

Freecycle. High Plains City has quite the active Freecycle group -- I've already gotten the FULL SET of Hardy Boys Mysteries. They're in the trunk of my car. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with them, but . . . I still have them.

Some Cool Things I Discovered Over the Break

1. Mozilla Firefox. I know. I should have discovered this a long time ago, but I didn't. I like it better than IE, though it doesn't work well for my E-Companion course author page.

2. IPod and Itunes. Footslogger bought me a Nano for Chrismas, and I luuurrrvve it. With a sloppy kind of love that makes me salivate over choosing new music and games, etc.

3. Watching tv online. I've already posted about that one, but let me repeat how cool it is to be able to watch tv shows online with a minimum of commercials.

4. Sleeping late. I can't stop doing it.

5. Starting my car remotely. Footslogger also bought me one of these for Christmas, and it's heavenly. I just point my little keychain remote toward my car, parked in the icy driveway or in the icy parking lot (wherever it is parked, there is PLENTY of ice these days). The car starts, warms up, and runs for 12 minutes. It's locked, so when I go out, I just unlock it, turn my key to On, hit the brake, and I'm good to go. Perfect.

5. Paperback swap. I post books I want to get rid of (paperbacks, of course). If someone chooses my book and I mail it to them, I get a point that I can use to choose someone else's book, which they will mail to me. This has ramped up my huge pile of To-Be-Read books exponentially.

6. Clipmarks. Makes it easy to blog about stuff I find online.

I'm sure there are more, but I just can't remember anything right now. I obviously spent too much time online during the break, and it's showing in terms of my lack of readiness for classes this semester.

I Heart Taylor Mali

Oh. My. God. Now I want to post every Taylor Mali video from Youtube.

clipped from www.youtube.com

Today

Footslogger is feeling a bit under the weather. We still ventured out for our walk to the coffee shop and our toasted bagels, but now we're kicking back and resting. Well, he's resting. I'm blogging and reading a book for this spring's class, and thinking about making split pea soup for dinner (with the ham bone from the Christmas ham!). "What a happy pig he must have been."

Never Mind

Well, the weather did not cooperate. It started to rain (yes, you heard me, rain! In High Plains City! The weather was above freezing! In January!) and shortly turned to snow, then the cold set in, turning everything to an icy mess.

We went shopping instead. We're looking for a nice printer stand for our new wireless printer, which I'm showing here using Clipmarks.



This printer is the coolest, because I can sit in my easy chair and print. I used to have to email something to myself, go into the office, and print it there. Now my printing is super easy, and I feel spoiled.
The possibility for skiing still exists for Sunday . . .

Cross-Country!

Maybe the three gin and tonics I drank last night were some kind of weird medicine, because I'm suddenly feeling so much better that I am totally up for a work-out. So we're going cross-country skiing. Well, I'll be doing nordic (cause I'm kind of a classical girl, myself), but Footslogger will be trying out skate-skiing. He was a speed skater in high school, and is not really happy with the straight-forward motion of cross country.

Two years ago, I bought Footslogger a gift certificate for a skate-ski rental, which he never used. (No comment on my serious gift-giving disability.) Anyway, we're going to stop by the local ski shop and see if they will honor that gift certificate, even though it has been expired for over a year. If not, I'll go ahead and pay for his rental. If he enjoys it, he'll probably buy himself a set.

In the meantime, we're hanging out, having nice pancake breakfast, and sitting in our matching recliners playing around the internet on our laptops. Maybe I'll take a picture and post it this afternoon.

Office Changes, T&P, and etc.

In spite of the sniffles and headache and general exhaustion that's been hovering around me like a storm cloud for the past week (a week! I can't believe it's been a week. I was really planning to cross-country ski every day this week. And all I've done is sit my butt in this chair. And my butt just keeps getting bigger, people!), I went to the office today to finish up my packet for T&P.

The good news is, I finished it. I'm still waiting on a letter about my teaching from Esteemed Colleague, but that should be in my box on Monday. I went ahead and dropped off all three notebooks this afternoon before I left. Fingers crossed, everyone.

The bad news? My office building is a MESS. Everyone and their dog is moving, which apparently requires walls to be knocked down, floor tiles to be replaced, and general havoc and smelliness to take over the place. A friend told me that the office smelled; I can't breathe through my nose at present, so I didn't smell a thing.

Oh, and this is kind of funny. There are lots of office spaces opening up, as the faculty from three different departments have moved to a different building. So the administration put together a list of faculty (in order of seniority, no less) and has been calling them up one by one, saying "Do you want to move?" I got my call just before the break, and recently confirmed with the administrator in question, that hell no, I don't want to move, have you seen all of the books in my office? So I'll be getting seven new hallmates this semester -- two of whom are the LOUDEST INDIVIDUALS ON THE PLANET. I guess I'll be closing my door a lot.

Seriously, keep your fingers crossed.

Completely Up to Date on Heroes

As you may be able to guess from the widget related to NaBloPoMo on the left side of this blog, I'm a fan of the NBC television show Heroes. I got started watching it on the Netflix site -- did you know that you can watch lots of movies and television shows on Netflix, if you have an account? -- and then I found www.hulu.com.

It took a couple of days for me to get registered and to receive my invitation to login, but now that I have become a member, I have found the site to be almost flawless. They have the entire second season of Heroes, so I was able to watch the whole thing, with almost no commercials. I say "almost" because each episode has a 15-30 second commercial -- always from the same company -- where the normal commercial interruptions would be. The commercials were only minimally annoying --- except for the Verizon commercial for their phone "Juke," the jingle to which was extremely repetitive by itself, and then once I saw the same commercial 6 times or so I was ready to yank out those dancers' hair. Strand. By. Strand.

So what do I like about Heroes? I'm always driven by characters, and these characters have interesting abilities. The foundation for the series is that certain people -- apparently at random, but perhaps this is genetic? -- have developed interesting and supernatural abilities, such as the ability to walk through walls, move through time and space at will, fly, move objects, find people, and to heal from any injury. Perhaps I have ability envy? Because I would love to have what one of the new characters from Season 2 has: anything she sees someone do (on television, thus far), she can do herself. The scientists call this "muscle memory." So far, this character has mastered making roses out of tomatoes, all kinds of kung fu types of moves, and some Jackie Chan tricks.

I think one of the cool things about hulu is that when I stop a video, even if I log out of the site, the video starts at the same place when I come back. So nice and easy.

In-Person to On-Line

So my spring course (I only teach one, because I spend OODLES of time supervising student teachers) looked like it wasn't going to make, with only 7 students enrolled. I queried options for teaching the course, because I knew that most of the students who had registered desperately needed to take it to complete an endorsement. I discovered that I could still teach the course online with a small number of students.

So I've been spending some time over the break translating my in-person class into an on-line class. It's actually kind of fun, since I've taught the class before, figuring out ways to take my discussion-heavy style of teaching into an online setting.

I really like routines in my classes. When I teach undergraduates, I always start class with a poem that we spend a few minutes talking about (not analyzing, just responding and talking). I begin and end class in predictable ways; I find that this helps me and helps my students know what to expect. SO now that I'm trying to recreate this in an online venue, I've developed a few things that will be taking place in each week of the semester.

I'm definitely going to be making a "welcome" video of myself and uploading it for students to watch prior to the beginning of the course. I'll be using Camtasia to record mini-lectures for them to watch before the threaded discussions. Each student from the class will take responsibility for moderating one week of discussion.

Anyway, I think it should be fun!

GO DAWGS!

So, I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted. Chalking it up to being sick, NaBloPoMo (which totally fried me for blogging), spending fantastic time with Footslogger and Precious First Born, skiing lots, cooking, and generally super-enjoying the holiday.

Anyway,

Back to the Go Dawgs thing! We're watching the Sugar Bowl, after a fantastic steak, fried potatoes and onions, and several glasses of wine. I'm counting on you, Georgia!

Though I have to say that I love the Hawaii team too. They seem to have this inclusive community and supportive team culture.

Bullets and a Question

Well, yesterday didn't quite work out as a blog posting day, because of my schedule. OK, that's just a sad excuse. The reality is that I am feeling such freedom from having turned in my grades, that I can't focus on any one thing for any length of time.

Some interesting tidbits from yesterday:

• I walked on the treadmill for an hour (largely because my jeans are feeling a bit tight around the middle and I know I need to be getting more exercise to loosen them up).
• Wrapped presents, cleaned the kitchen floor, and did sundry stuff to get ready for Christmas visit from City Girl.
• Red and I went to a coffee shop for lunch, so that she could get some grading done and I could work on my t&p packet, online course, and whatever else. I spilled my coffee, which came close to drowning her computer (but didn't! hallelujah!) and did drown her cute little backpack, and then I apologized heartily and profusely, over and over again, ad nauseum. We ended up talking so much -- mostly about my online course setup -- that she graded NO papers. But I did get a lot done on my online course. Red also gave me a great idea for the introduction to my t&p narrative. And she bought lunch! So it was an all-about-me type of afternoon...
• We got back to campus just in time to attend a surprise birthday party for our dean, which was nice. Strawberry lemonade and some really dense chocolate cake.
• Got home in time to actually cook dinner. One of my favorite casseroles, involving ground turkey and eggplant. Yummy. And it was an opportunity to cook dinner for my favorite person, Footslogger, which is always a treat.
• Spent the evening at Rowdy Friend's house with friends that I don't get to see often, drinking wine and eating cheese. Which reminds me, this recipe for Walnut-Glazed Brie was a huge hit. Easy and delicious. One party-goer said that it was "elegant." Since I'm almost never elegant, I was quite excited about this.

On the whole, a busy day, so I hope you'll forgive me for not blogging about whatever crap I said I was going to blog about the day before.

Oh, one question. It's the norm here to write a narrative to go in the reappointment/tenure packet every year. It's a tricky business, because one doesn't want to just restate what's already on one's vita. Usually I adopt some kind of theme for the year. Now this is my tenure year, so I'm trying to do a nice job of it, rather than throwing it together at the last minute, as I usually do. I am using my completion of the AT last summer, after many years of plugging away at it, as a metaphor for my tenure trudge in the introductory section. I would like to include a summit shot with that, although my dean frowns on this type of fru-fru in t&p packets.

I'm leaning toward taking it out, because of the whole dean frowning thing. But another part of me says Go Ahead and Take the Risk. It's a Small One After All.

What say you, internets?

Tune in Tomorrow

Before I head for bed and a few chapters, I thought I would check in and say -- I'll be writing more tomorrow.

I'm going to try to come up with something more interesting than that I've finished my grading. Something about happiness? the academy? academic happiness?

Back, After a Long Absence

OK, so I may have been overreacting a bit to the end of NaBloPoMo.

I haven't posted in weeks, largely because I didn't have anything worthwhile to say AND I was tired of daily posting AND I've been snowed under with grading AND I had to study for my final exam in FOG (finished, thank God, and I think I got an A). In fact, I'm still not finished with grading, though I expect to finish up on Monday and turn in my grades at the end of the day.

So in the meantime, Belle tagged me for a Book Meme. And since I'm a sucker for Belle (hey, what can I say? She leaves comments!) and a reading freak, I thought I would give in to the posting temptation.

Here's how the meme works. (Just on a side note, it's only been a short time that I've known what a meme is. Isn't that odd?)

The rules: List five books that you have read in 2007 that you love. These do not have to be books that came out in 2007, but books that you (re)discovered/(re)read in 2007 that have become or are important to you. Link back to the person who tagged you. Tag five others.

I have this funny habit of re-reading books that I love. So although some of these books are old standbys, I re-read them this year. Others were new to me.

Pride and Prejudice. During the summer, I read this book about 5 times. I don't know why I was so enchanted with it, but ... I guess there's a reason it's a classic.

Friday Night Lights. A friend loaned me this one, and I put it in my reading stack but never read it. Then when we were getting ready to leave for our backpacking trip in Maine, I was looking for a small book with small print. I must always have a book on a backpacking trip, and if I can get one that won't weigh much but will last me a week or so, that's good. This one was fantastic, as it brought back so much of my experience as a high-school student and a high-school teacher in Texas, dealing with football players and football coaches and football fans.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I re-read this one, too, several times. Characters make any book for me, and I loved getting closure on these kids.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. OK, this brings my fantasy freak out of the closet. Kudos to my neices (also fantasy freaks! hi girls!) for directing me to a brand new series! That is long! And has bunches more books for me to read! With dragons!

Which brings me to my final book, Eldest. This is the second in a young adult lit series -- and I both love to and have to read YA lit, because I teach courses in it -- that satisfies my hankering for dragons, heroes, and engaging sets of characters.

This year I also discovered Library Thing (which I'll be using in relation to classes I teach in future) -- you can see most of my library here.

Hmm. Who to tag?

Dr. Brazen Hussy, Eddie, Female Science Professor, Jen, and RV.

Saffron!

Your Score: Saffron

You scored 75% intoxication, 50% hotness, 75% complexity, and 0% craziness!

You are Saffron! Those other spices have nothing on you! You're warm, smart, and you make people feel really good (and with no side-effects!). You can be difficult to get to know and require a lot of those who try, but you're so totally worth it. *Sigh*

Link: The Which Spice Are You Test written by jodiesattva on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

The End of NaBloPoMo

December 1st! I made it! Now the questions arise:

• Will I continue to feel compelled to post every day?
• Will I actually have something worthwhile to post?
• Will my students actually take responsibility for their work? [oh, sorry, that's not about my blog, but I'm still annoyed!]

Whew. Very proud. Thank you all for reading and sometimes commenting.

Meangrump Jerkypants

That's right. That's me. Or at least, that's my Grinch Name.

And oh how I am feeling like Meangrump Jerkypants Bitchswamp Alligatorgirl.

Seriously. I am a bit hungover from drinking margaritas last night (only 3! so how can I feel so crappy? except that it WAS tequila, and lord knows tequila doesn't like me very much), so perhaps that has something to do with it.

But also I'm raging over some of my students not following directions on their assignments.

Read the syllabus, darlings. Really. When I say that you should turn in a draft, all previous notes and drafts, and a LETTER OF REFLECTION ABOUT YOUR PROCESS, I seriously mean it. I do want you to write a letter of reflection. And I want you to print it out. And I want you to turn it in. Really.

Today

Finally home, after . . .

• teaching two classes today (with a couple of seriously annoying students who apparently didn't want to take advantage of the time I gave them in class to work on HUGE projects)
• several phone and in-person meetings
• grading like a demon to get ahead for next week, when I'll be looking at an immense stack of unit designs to grade
• meeting a friend (and then several other friends) for margaritas and Mexican food
• watching our womens' basketball team win over a team that beat us twice last season

I realized at the game that I hadn't posted, and since I'm so close to being finished with NaBloPoMo, I couldn't let that happen.

More Math Issues

OK, so the homework problem for the last couple of weeks in my geology class (that's a sophomore-level course I'm taking FOR THE FUN OF IT!) has involved calculating the diameter of the asteroid that probably hit the earth at the boundary of the Cretaceous/Tertiary periods (called the K-T boundary) based on the amount of iridium in the K-T boundary layer, the density of the iridium, etc. Lots of dimensional analysis, really. I've been fretting over it, but finally sat down today with a "more knowledgeable other" who helped me figure out how to get there from here.

It is a lovely feeling to be learning something new.

I Heart Methods

As the fall semester is winding to a close now, I've been giving some thought to how I will teach my classes differently next fall. The bulk of my teaching occurs in the fall, when I teach my two methods courses; I do teach at least one course in the spring as well, and I supervise student teachers, but my two methods courses are the centers of my heart, so to speak.

To imitate my students, "I heart methods."

One of the teaching techniques that has been working well for me the last two years has been in my junior-level methods class, which focuses on teaching writing. This class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays, we do the normal college class thing -- read chapters and articles, discuss them, do assignments, etc. On Thursdays, however, we workshop. Students are assigned to write three pieces through the course of the semester: a book review, a memoir, and a set of three poems. We spend Thursdays writing, peer and teacher conferencing, reading our works aloud, and doing mini-lessons. I've been quite happy with the way this has worked, so -- except for a little tweaking -- I'll be leaving that one alone.

My senior level class, however, is a different story. This class focuses on teaching literature, and I have yet to find a textbook that I like for the course. I've been fairly unsatisfied with this semester's textbook, as have my students, and so I've decided to imitate my success with the junior class and to create a literature workshop that will be engaging and will provide a model of the kind of teaching they could put into practice.

I haven't thought it through carefully, yet, but here are some initial thoughts about how the workshop might look for that senior class:

• I will choose a type of literature and focus on that during the semester. I've been thinking about environmental literature or perhaps magical realism.
• We'll read at least one novel and supplement that with other texts, such as young adult literature, poetry, art, etc.
• We'll use some online functionality, though I'm not sure yet exactly what. It will probably involve our course wiki, at the least. Perhaps a webquest? I'm not sure.

And that's all I've got! One thing is certain, and that is that providing structure and a format for some kind of reflection piece on how this might translate into teaching junior high or high school English will be important. I've learned that from my experience with the junior class.

If any of the internets have suggestions for literature/approaches/assignments that would fit into these quite broad genres, I would be happy to hear them!

Whirlwind and Thankfulness

Today was a bit of a whirlwind. First day back to work after a long Thanksgiving that involved lots of driving, a prospectus defense that was a bit shaky, my last geology lab of the semester, and ... that's it.

But since the Thanksgiving season has come and gone, I thought this might be a good time to make a list of what I'm thankful for (some serious, some not so).

* The way my fabulous partner in life, Footslogger, seems to know when I'm not up to planning and cooking. He takes over and I love it! Tonight he texted me this message: "Thinking tomato soup and crackers for dinner. That ok?" Are ya kidding? Anything I don't have to mess with after a day like today is PERFECT!

* The soothing effect of repetition. As in movies, books, music, etc. -- I love the way I can forget all of my troubles by reading/watching something over and over again.

* Television shows that are entertaining and teach me something (or at least that's the way I frame it!). My examples: Project Runway, Top Chef.

* My cat Loner's habits: jumping up on my chair when it gets close to dinnertime, sneaking on my bed AFTER I'm asleep,

* My department and our ability to work together. It's cool to not have to vote anyone off the island!

* That all of my outside reviewer letters have come in in a timely fashion.

There's more, but I must save something for tomorrow's post, ala NaBloPoMo.

Random Thoughts

Footslogger went to bed early. We're both exhausted from our driving, but I wanted to stay up for a while and finish re-reading Harry Potter #7. I've recently discovered paperbackswap.com, and I've requested a copy of Harry Potter #3, which should be here soon. I don't know why I'm compelled to re-read those books, but I seem to be.

There is some possibility that my spring course won't make, which would be a blessing, really. I suppose I would have to do an independent study or something with the few students who are signed up for it, though I don't really want to.

I'm definitely planning on teaching an online version of the young adult lit course next summer, which is going to involve a good bit of work to get it ready.

My two cats suddenly decided -- at the same time -- that it was bath time.

And I'm ready for bed myself.

On the Road Again

Another day of driving, followed by a fantastic steak dinner and two beautiful Hefeweizens. We'll be back in High Plains City tomorrow, in time to do laundry and get ready for work on Monday.

More later!

Turkey Day (The Day After)

We're in Really Cold Northern City for Thanksgiving, visiting family members that we don't usually get to see. So that's cool. But damn is it cold. CCCccccCCCCCcccccold.

Driving up here was actually kind of fun -- lots of beautiful landscapes. We actually saw 4 bald eagles. You heard me: Four. Bald. Eagles.

And also, several elk, lots of deer and antelope, and a wolf.

All of that, from the interstate. Not bad, I'd say.

Tomorrow morning we head back home again. We're hoping to make the trip in one day, but we're prepared in case we need to spend a night in some ice-bound town along the way.

Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. Ours was quite fabulous, with this really yummy rice stuffing, the recipe for which I will be begging soon.

That last sentence didn't quite make sense, but anyway.

We also had an enjoyable game of Scrabble. Which we lost.

Tagged

I was wondering if I would EVER get tagged by this 7 things meme that's going around (sounds like a disease, doesn't it?). Maybaby tagged me for it, leaving me with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Or maybe that's just the cat snuggled against my ankles? Anyhoo . . .

Here's how it goes. I link back to her site (check) and then explain the rules and then follow them. (check, check). [By the way, on those "checks" think Sandra Bullock in Hope Floats.]

Rules: List seven weird or random things about yourself, then tag 7 random people from NaBloPoMo.

Seven Weird/Random Things About Dr. Bad Ass:

[Note: I've decided to go thematic on this one, and make them all about my obsession, namely, reading. ]
* As a teenager, I worked in the library for one class period in my junior high school (that right there shows you that I have never, ever been cool). My friend Suzie (no, not the one I went hiking with a few summers ago) and I decided to have a competition to see who could read all of the fiction in the library first. You heard me, all of it. I started at the A's; she started at the Z's. I got about to the N's by the end of the school year.
* Whenever I get depressed, I read Watership Down by Richard Adams. Something about those bunnies just soothes me.
* I taught myself how to read from a phonics book for teachers. That must have been some kind of indicator of my future path (not).
* My mom knew, when I was in junior high and high school, that if she couldn't find the salt shaker, she could find it in my bedroom. Why? Because every time I sat down to read (which was OFTEN) I wanted to have half a lemon and some salt to eat.
* Last summer I read Pride and Prejudice about 10 times.
* I get stuck in bookstores and libraries because I'm afraid to give new authors (i.e., authors I haven't read yet) a chance. I can only take on a new author when I have NO CHOICE. Like last year when I was on a dive cruise, and I had read all of the books I had with me. The good news is that I discovered a couple of authors that I adore on that trip -- particularly Charles Todd.
* I have books started in every room of the house, including the bathroom.

OK, I tag the following:
Motherwise Cracks, Megan, My Chihuahua Bites, HR Wench, Affectioknit, Outposts in My Head, and Jess.

Changes, ChChChChChanges

As I was running around this morning, doing pre-Thanksgiving errands, I realized that part of my malaise (see yesterday's post) could be due to changes taking place in my office hallway. My office is on the south side of an east-west hallway in a fairly small building. All of my colleagues on the north side of the hallway (members of two different departments) have been moved over to another building, where the top floor has been renovated for them. I'm happy for them that they've got snazzy new office spaces. Really! I like my office and I certainly don't want to have to box up all of my mountains of books and move again. Even with the shabby orange carpet, it's a great office.

Change is not hard for me to accept, when I make the choice to change. But not having all of my buds on my floor was definiitely not my choice. And now it looks like some other folks will be moving in. They're nice and all, I like those people even, but I want my old world back.

OK, enough whining. I know that everything will be fine, eventually. I'll just have to deal.

Cranky Girl

I've been struggling all day with an odd malaise. Not just today, really, but the last couple of days. Sadness, crankiness, anxiety. Stemming perhaps from the t&p process? exhaustion from the conference? End-of-semester grading woes? I'm not sure. But it is definitely making me not so much fun to be with.

So what to do with myself? Tomorrow should help, as I don't need to go to the office, I can get in a good workout, and I'll have time to do all of the chores I need to finish before heading out for our Thanksgiving trip (weather permitting).

So here's to a couple of glasses of wine tonight, a good night's sleep, and a better day tomorrow.

Exam III

So today I took exam #3 in Fundamentals of Geology (affectionately known as FOG). I studied a bit on the plane yesterday, but when I got home I was too wrung out to study. I was actually too tired to sleep, if that makes any sense. So I went to bed fairly early, lay there for a while and finally fell asleep. This morning I got to work early and sat in the Union to study (along with a toasted sesame bagel-- yum!) for a couple of hours. Then an hour of class, and then the exam. It was actually easier than I had anticipated, except for one problem. I didn't understand the problem really, so I did about half of it and left the other half blank.

Tonight we're having some leftover barbequed chicken in chicken tacos, which will also be yummy and go a long way toward making up for the meeting and class and exam packed day. Perhaps by tomorrow I will have caught up on my sleep and be ready for our Thanksgiving trip.

Big City Conference

In order to share cab expense, and because I’m really ready to head for home, I got up early and rode to the airport with Lovely Marathoner. I had no idea that there was an earlier flight to Large Western City, but there was and I’m waitlisted on it. The guy at the ticket desk seemed quite confident that I would be on that flight. If he’s right, it will be one of the few bits of good news from the travel fairies on this trip.

I didn’t do all of the cool things that I should have done on my trip to The Big City, but I did eat in some lovely restaurants (and once for free at a seriously 4-star place, on a publisher’s tab). I did a bit of walking around downtown, which was entertaining, but also quite chilly.

All in all, I understand more deeply now that I am well and truly spoiled by High Plains City. I am not made for The Big City, though it has been entertaining to visit. I’m amazed that anyone could afford to live here, but maybe for those who love it, the expense is worth it.

I’ve about decided that I won’t be attending this conference next year, and will be instead attending a different conference during the same season that is attended by most of my friends from graduate school. My thinking on which conference is somewhat related to my desire to be reconnected with my grad school buds, but also because of my frustration with a sub-group of this organization and its cliquish, closed-off nature. I have tried to get involved in this sub-group for the last 5 years, all to no avail. It seems like some kind of high school group (the prom queens, maybe? the field hockey team?). Outsiders of any stripe need not apply. Is this a purposeful exclusion? Possibly, says my cynical side. The popular kids recognize each other and keep out the riff-raff. On the other hand, maybe the popular kids just don’t see that there is an inside and an outside.

I did submit a bid for nomination for myself for office in this organization. IF I get nominated and IF I get elected to office, I plan to try to do something about it. If not, forget it. I’ll just move in rather than continue to try and bash my head against this brick wall.

Update: I'm at home now, for which I say "Hallelujah!" I was able to stand by on both flights, and even my luggage came with me.

Saturday in The Big City

Our presentation this morning went extremely well, with a fairly large group in attendance and some thoughtful discussion afterward. I hope they all went and bought a copy of the book!

Earlier this morning, I met with an acquisitions editor for a fairly large press and got pressured (very soft pressure, it was, though) to submit a book proposal for a series of books aimed at practitioners. I have a great idea of what I might do, so I think I just might write up a proposal when I get home. It would actually be great preparation for my sabbatical, which I hope to take within the next few years (assuming all goes well with the T&P gods).

Now I'm off with my grad school colleague -- whom I'll call Lovely Marathoner -- to an Italian restaurant for a dinner on a publisher's dime.

And tomorrow I'll be heading home!

Conference Day One

Meals eaten in lovely restaurants: 0
Meals eaten in diners: 2

Good, thoughtful sessions I've attended: 1
Good, thoughtful sessions I've presented in: 0

Miles I've walked in The Big City: about 10
Numbers of times I've ridden on the ferry: 4

Average temperature: 28 degrees F
Amount of shampoo used due to extremely hard water: three times normal amount
(I would have written shampoo cubed, but I don't know how to type a superscript. And yes, I do know that three times something is not the same as three cubed. Still, that's a lot of shampoo.)

Norwegian sparkling water drank: 1 cup
Beers drank: 3

Mini-bars in my conference hotel room: 0

Hours until the next presentation: 11

Minutes until my head hits the pillow: 5

Free dinner (tomorrow night) at Italian restaurant with an open bar: Priceless.

"Controlling the Drama"

Today, dear friends, was about not letting transportation get the best of me. I got to the airport on time (natch) and my tiny flight from High Plains Town to Large Western City went without a hitch. I even got to sit in the back row of the 21-seater (my fave) and talk about Africa with a man and his son(?) from the Sudan by way of Chicago, who might have been checking out universities.

The need to "control the drama" began on arrival in Big Western City. I bypassed the lovely coffee shop, because I knew I needed to get a boarding pass. Hiked down to the gate and got said boarding pass, only to be told that because of back-ups in The Big City, our flight would be delayed about an hour. No problem. Traveling Colleague and I hiked back down to the coffee shop, where grabbed a non-fat latte and an extremely fatty croissant, hiked back to the gate. And waited. And waited. Eventually a voice came over the loudspeaker (picture Charlie Brown's teacher here, ok?). This is what we heard:

"wonh wonh wonh wonh eleven o'clock wonh wonh gate B-26 wonh wonh wonh."

When we inquired, we were told that we would probably loud up at 10, but would be sitting in the plane on the tarmac for an hour and a half, because another plane needed our slot. That's right, you heard me. Sitting in the plane for an hour and a half.

It was actually more like 2 hours, but who's counting.

We were supposed to arrive in The Big City at 2:30; we finally got off our flight at 4:45. And went to the luggage carousel to claim our luggage (I had bought a spanking new red suitcase specially for this trip, cousins!). You know what happened next -- our luggage didn't arrive. When we inquired, we were told that it was loaded on the NEXT flight from Large Western City to The Big City, which was due to arrive in 20 minutes. About 45 minutes later, lo and behold, our luggage arrived.

Then we took a taxi to Traveling Colleague's hotel, had a nice dinner at a little Italian place (Cha-ching, $60), went back to the hotel to get my luggage, and I hailed a taxi out to my hotel. (Cha-ching, $60)

And now I am here. Exhausted, well fed, and ready to snooze. But because I care so much about you, cousins, I had to tell you my day's sad tale. I have high hopes that tomorrow will include rides across a river on a ferry, a good bit of city walking, a couple of presentations, and a nice lunch and dinner.

Oh and spending a hell of a lot more cha-ching. But I'm controlling the drama!

Holy Crap!

Leaving tomorrow at oh-dark-thirty for my interminably long day of traveling to get The Big City. Conference going, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways or something like that.

Still to do:

* Pack
* Get cash
* Finish one paper
* Plan a five-minute introduction thingy
* Study for geology exam

Oh, did I mention that while I'm in The Big City, I'll be missing the third exam in my geology class? Which means I'll be taking a make-up exam the day after I return, which means I'll be taking my books with me to the conference, not cracking them open, and doing some seriously panicked studying on Monday morning.

So that should be fun.

But seriously I do love this conference, and I'm looking forward to it. It's just the getting there that is hard, from this out-of-the-way, almost-end-of-the-world spot.

And the irony of this is ...

Today in one of my courses we were talking about the wonders of using technology to teach English. One of the questions asked was "What happens when the technology doesn't work?"

And then the laptops that I had checked out for my students to use to do research on webquests wouldn't allow them to log in.

Erg.

One Beautiful Bad Ass, Coming Up

I can't remember where I first saw this, but when I saw Belle's this morning, my resolve not to do it crumbled. And look at the result of my falling into temptation's slimy grip:

She's beautiful and therefore to be wooed;
She is a Bad Ass, therefore to be won.

Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?

Get your own quotes:

That is just fucking perfect.

On another note, my outside review letters are due in this week. THAT makes me nervous.

Why?

I feel a load of whininess getting ready to burst out of every pore. So here it comes:

Why is getting ready to leave for a conference so hard?

Why do advisees always wait until the day of their registration to contact me for advising? When advising week was two weeks ago?

Why do all of the people on the other side of my hall have to move to another building?

Why won't anyone tell me who is moving in to those offices?

Why does it take so much energy for me to get anything written?

Why do I have to attend so many meetings?

Why did I commit to post in my blog every day this month?

Why do I like to gossip so much?

Why is it so damn hot in my office?

Why can't I ever type those word verification letters correctly the first time around?

OK. That is all. Tomorrow I hope all will be restored to my normal positive, if somewhat snarky, self.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is Footslogger's mom's 91st birthday. She was born on Veteran's Day, which makes it easy to remember her birthday and easy to remember to think about veterans, all on the same day. 91 years old! and still living on her own. She is a fiercely independent, widowed person, who stands all of 4 feet 11 inches. She weighs maybe 95 pounds and is almost completely blind as a result of macular degeneration.

I think if you asked her, she would say that the best thing in her life now is her seeing-eye dog, Marilyn. Marilyn is a standard poodle, white, who was trained by the Pilot Dog program in Columbus, Ohio. When Marilyn doesn't have her harness on, she's a regular dog, bouncy and rambunctious. But once she gets buckled into that harness, she is all business.

When mom goes to church or to the grocery store or to the mall, she takes Marilyn. Marilyn is -- of course -- a superior attention grabber. We've been with mom when stranger after stranger has approached her, exclaiming over how beautiful and well behaved Marilyn is, and mom loves it! What a great experience for her, to be the focus of so much positive attention at the age of 91.

We call mom every Sunday (Footslogger is talking with her on the speakerphone as I write this) and of course, this morning we sang her happy birthday as soon as she answered the phone. This morning, after mass, her buddies gave her a donut with a candle in it to blow out and wished her a happy birthday. We sent her a novel on CD to listen to, and of course she opened it this morning while we were on the phone. She's planning to start listening to it tonight.

So happy birthday, mom! We wish you good health, lots of family around you, and all of the love and attention you can get today.

Plan for Today

When Footslogger and I were first together, I would wake up on Saturday mornings and Sunday mornings, turn to him and say "OK, what's the plan for today?" It got to the point where he would purposefully refuse to develop any kind of schedule because I apparently needed one so badly.

Well, here's my plan for today:

Take it as it comes.
Read/respond to my students' poems.
Watch the football game (unless that becomes too painful).
Read for fun.
Go to another basketball game tonight.

Oh, Lordy.

Well, today has been a mixed bag. First, it is almost 4:30 and i'm still at work. Not getting anything done, but I'm here nonetheless.

I did make huge progress on a conference presentation I will be making next week in New York. (Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!). This meaning that I finished the paper and created most of the powerpoint. I also ordered a new external hard drive and this cool device for automatically forwarding my presentation. It also has a built-in timer! And it's wireless!

The coolest. What with my shiny new printer and this gadget, I should win some kind of technology award. Or at least be given tenure.

This evening it's a women's basketball game. Tomorrow, tons of reading students' poetry and responding. I have to say that I find responding to students' poems much harder than responding to their academic papers or even to their memoirs. Is it because I don't have much experience with responding to students' poems? Or because their poems are so much more personal than their academic papers? Or because I don't want to intrude with my poetic voice into theirs?

Anyway, that's what I'll be working on this weekend. That and trying to get ready to head out of town.

Sleek, Shiny Newness

A couple of weeks ago my office printer stopped printing multi-page documents. Actually, it still printed them, but it printed all of the pages on one page. This led to an agonizing week or so of being forced to print out one page at a time, or of sending documents to our long-suffering department secretary for her to print, while I waited for a new printer to get ordered and shipped. Last Friday my new printer arrived and I spent a good two hours OF MY RESEARCH DAY getting it unpacked and set up.



Here it is in all of its shininess:



Isn't this the most freaking awesome thing you've ever seen? I mean, for a woman who has been printing in black and white, with cheap bubble-jet printers. This one not only prints in color, it also COPIES. AND SCANS.

I feel like doing the happy dance around my office every time I use it.

So I know it's a bit of a tank -- it's huge and it takes up tons of space on my already cluttered desk. And I am a bit worried about the amount of dust I found underneath my old printer when I moved it. Will that much dust pile up again on my new printer? And if so, will it ruin my new shiny printer? Perhaps I should purchase a dust cover for it? Or maybe a little umbrella thingy?

If only I had Dobby. Where are the house elves when you need them?

Fred Smith

Didn't get an opportunity to schmooze last night at the basketball game, after all. The game was good, but apparently the Prez was out of town. So much for that.

On another note, however, a phenomenon occurred at the game last night that kept me giggling for hours. I woke up this morning still laughing about it.

Every time one of our players whose name is all one-syllable words (I'll call him Fred Smith) would line up to shoot a free throw, the folks a few rows behind me would mutter or shriek or yell his name, very quickly, just before his shot. I think this was some kind of ritualistic attempt to make sure that the ball went successfully through the hoop, but it was hilarious.

Fred Smith.

Fred Smith.

Fred Smith.

Fred Smith.

All of this "Fred Smith" done at different tones, volumes, speeds. Hilarious!

And then when you add in the fellow behind and a bit to the left (whom we affectionately call "Whoosh" for reasons you'll see in a moment), it sounded like this:

Fred Smith.

Fred Smith.

Fred Smith.

Fred Smith.

WHOOSH!

This morning, Footslogger and I woke up, yelled at the cat, and muttered to each other . .

Fred Smith.

Score!

I have six minutes before I have to head downstairs (damn this building that is not ADA compliant!) to meet with a prospective student who can't navigate stairs. So I thought I'd post, just to make sure I get one in for the day. I know, it's not a quality post, but what the hell. I'm driven by my commitment to NaBloPoMo to post about any old crap.

OK, the good news for today? I scored two free basketball tickets to our men's exhibition game tonight. Footslogger and I will be seated with the UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT. Hmm. Opportunity to schmooze? I'll take it!

Oh, and that reminds me of a funny story involving said president, a colleague and me, and the line at a sandwich shop. I'll tell it if I get a chance later today.

Central City Day

Today my department head and I took the university plane (it's a 6-seater!) up to Central City for the mentor teacher/student teacher workshop. All of our student teachers, from all content areas, who are placed for spring student teaching in Central City were there (except for one of mine, who apparently has the stomach flu -- ook), along with their respective mentor teachers. It was a fun time, with relatively little B.S. (which is AMAZING, as these workshops can turn into massive overdoses of administrivia) and a great opportunity to meet some folks I've never met before.

Some things that happened today:

• I found out that one of this year's mentor teachers (we'll call this teacher X) was the mentor of one of last year's mentor teachers (Y). I know a bit about X, but only from Y's perspective, and it's all negative. I'll give X a chance to prove Y wrong . . . but I'm definitely keeping an eye on that situation.
• One of the pilots called me "Hollywood." This nickname could only have been given to him by ONE PERSON, and you know who you are.
• We had lunch at a fantabulous Mexican cafe. Yummy. And reimburseable!
• There was a bit of sheer wind on our landing. Luckily, my back was to the pilots, cause I hate seeing the plane slew all over the place when we're coming in to the runway. I trust the pilots, but I really don't need to see that at all.
• I got to use one of those cool FM receiver microphones that you drape around your neck.
• My students are going to do really well. I know this because they are all marvelous, smart, industrious, and open-minded.

So that's it for today. So far, I'm keeping up with NaBloPoMo. Yeah, me!

Avoiding Grading, Redux

I've not got a full-fledged headache from grading. So I'm going to drink some water, take some Advil, and go outside to play!

It's too beautiful a day to stay indoors. I'll post some pix later.

Mid-Term Evaluations

One of the tools that I use in my courses to help me get a better handle on how things are going (before students fire off a massive cannon salvo in the end-of-term course evaluations) is a loose mid-term evaluation. This year, I asked three questions in my mid-term evals:
1. What's working for you in this class?
2. What's not working for you, and how would you tweak it to make it work?
3. If you had "SuperEducator" powers, what one thing would you change?

Now, those sound all cool and stuff, but really, I had a more staid version ready to go -- only I forgot to bring the forms to class.

So this morning I sat down to read those evaluations and type up summaries for my students (I like to do this, so that they get a sense of the contradictions and why I can't change everything to work for them).

The good news:

• The workshop format, which I instituted last fall for one day a week of my class on how to teach writing, is quite popular.
• Most students think the atmosphere/community of the class is positive and helpful.
• Most students think that they are learning teaching methods that will be applicable during their student teaching and beyond.

The bad news:

• There are a lot of haters for the text in my senior-level class.
• Even though I provide models for most of my assignments, have a calendar of assignment due dates in the syllabus, do regular reminders of due dates in class, and provide rubrics for most assignments, there are several who are still unclear as to what is wanted on assignments, when they are due.

The mixed news:

• Powerpoints -- love 'em and hate 'em.
• Reading response sheets -- love 'em and hate 'em.
• Use of a wiki for feedback -- love it and hate it.

So what's a professor to do?

Avoiding Grading

Today's Method:

• Wake up early and head to the post office, then breakfast at a cafe.
• Read blogs for an hour and a half.
• Start the laundry, then head to campus for the women's volleyball game.
• After the volleyball game, don't go home; instead, use your free tickets to the men's basketball game.
• Contemplate leaving the game at half-time; instead, stay till the very end.
• After that game, head to the grocery store for supplies.
• Bring your groceries home and make a salad.
• Eat your salad just as the football game starts.
• Watch the football game while drinking enough beer to make sure you're too tipsy to grade papers.

Sigh. I'm really good at this.

Marty's Tail

At the risk of being lumped into some stereotypical category (i.e., professors who write about their cats), I thought I'd take the opportunity to tell the tale of my female scaredy-cat Marty.

When I was teaching high school English in East Texas, I came out of the building at the end of a long day one spring to find a tiny kitten -- really, too small to be weaned -- in the front seat of my car. She was obviously sick, and her face had been damaged. One side of her face looked like it had been smashed in -- I thought that maybe someone had kicked her, or perhaps run over her with a bicycle. I stopped by a gas station on the way home, and put some water in a cup for her. She drank a bit and then just lay still, mewing quietly.

When I got her home, I put her in the middle of the bed. She didn't move. I remember that she seemed so tiny, swamped by the ocean of the huge white bedspread all around her. I really didn't think that she would live through the night, but I promised myself -- and her -- that if she did, I would take her to the vet the next day.

We named her Marty, because her eye was swollen out, reminding us of Marty Feldman.



Ten years later, she's my chubby, shy girl. It's my guess that Marty was born a barn cat, because she's deathly afraid of people, even me sometimes. She hides in the basement whenever people are over; she is not a lap cat; she prefers to be left alone most of the time. But as soon as we turn out the lights, she makes a beeline for the easy chair. Every once in a while, she works up the nerve to brush up next to my leg. But she soon thinks better of it and hides -- under the dining room table, mostly.

I found out later that one of my high school students (you know who you are, Frank!) found her in the parking lot, and thought "Hmm. Ms. Bad Ass likes animals. I think I'll just put this kitten in her car."

Well, thanks Frank. She's been a good cat for us.

I'm Staying Because ...

There has been a good bit of kerfuffle on some of the blogs I read, around junior and senior faculty perceptions of each other, particularly focused on junior faculty who leave one position for another. My initial take on that is to say -- well, duh! Of course any faculty member is going to be hunting for the best possible position for themselves. That "best" may mean best pay, best geography, best colleagues, best job fit, best housing market, best two-body position, best whatever. When I took my position, Footslogger and I agreed that we would give it two years, and if we were not satisfied, we would go elsewhere. Five and a half years later, we're still here.

However, it's not my intention to add any fuel to that fire; flames enough are blazing away! I want, instead, to give a description of one of the reasons I'm still here: my department research group.

My department members are in the interesting position of hailing from different disciplines, all related by a common thread. Thus, although we have some things in common, we have very different ways of looking at life, work, the world, education, etc. We do all get along, though we don't always agree.

For the last year and a half, we have made it our goal to improve the research productivity of all members of the department (we have all have a similar teaching/research/service and advising load: 65/25/10. Here's what we do:

• Friday is research day (we all teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays). That means we don't schedule meetings on Fridays.
• We meet every Friday at 8:30 AM for coffee and breakfast downstairs in the student union, where we keep track of both short-term and long-term research goals to help keep each other accountable for meeting them.
• Every semester we go off for a research/writing retreat. We book rooms at a cheap but classy hotel, we write all afternoon on a Thursday and most of the day Friday, emerging occasionally to report on our progress, get help with roadblocks, and eat meals (so far, we've been able to do this on the department's dime).
• We celebrate our publications and give credit to the "Department Research Group."
  
  

All in all, though I think that I would have been almost as productive without it, the research group provides the kind of support and accountability that many of us need to get work done.

Having these goals, meeting in these ways, helps us to be collegial, to feel that we are not along, and is part of why I decided to stay here. I know that not everyone enjoys the kind of collegiality we have (and we haven't always had it!). But to those senior faculty who have been griping about junior faculty leaving them in the lurch, I say, maybe it's because your environment is not conducive to collaboration and collegiality.