Rough drafts for both papers due next Wednesday (and they are very rough) are done. I will revise this weekend around the Parents’ Weekend events, go to Rhinebeck on Sunday, and hopefully have both final drafts knocked out by Monday so that I can pack for SAFF. I am super proud of myself that both rough drafts are longer than they need to be, which bodes well for what will remain after cuts and revisions.
And now, I’m going to try to get to bed before 2 AM for the first time in a week.
I try not to take more than one day a week off of the blogging these days. Because if you take two off, soon enough it leads to three, and we have seen what happens then, it’s a slippery slope and six months later everyone is all “Didn’t she used to have a blog?”
But tonight, in between rounds of Plants vs. Zombies (you’re going to hate me for that if you click it), I am trying to knock out the rough draft of my historiographical lit review for the Vietnam colloquium, wherein I discuss why some people are hating on the idea of M*A*S*H as being about Vietnam. I have discussed two sources now, and it’s 11 PM, so I don’t foresee it getting done tonight like I had planned, but hey, I’m on page two of a 5-7 page paper. It ain’t all bad. I am skimping on the class reading this week though, and I feel a little guilty about that, particularly since I will be missing class entirely next week to be among my knitterly tribe in Asheville.
But I couldn’t disappoint my four readers (that counts you, Andrew). See how much I love you guys?
I shouldn’t be as proud of this as I am, but according to the calendar in the sidebar, I have officially been back to blogging for a month now. And according to the dropdown archives thing in the sidebar, this is the most I have blogged in a month since early 2008.
This concludes the self-congratulatory part of this post.
As the two of you reading this (damn, the number of people reading blogs has really taken a hit, hasn’t it?) can tell, I’m also trying out new themes for the blog. I wasn’t happy with what I had before because there were too many options I had no idea how to use, and I’m not quite happy with this one either, because there are too few. Theoretically, I could go back to the old one and actually learn how to use it, but that does not fit into the five minute plan, because I would then spend all day doing that instead of working on papers. And since I have not worked on said papers at all today, I should just give up for the day and do that. So I will.
This concludes the Julie’s personal musings about the nature of this blog part of the post. It also concludes the post.
After the rain passed on Friday, Mother Nature decided to fuck with us some more and suddenly it’s fall! It’s so cold that I had the windows closed all weekend, and I wore socks, long jimjams, and a hoodie at all times in the house. Then today, I wake up to find it raining again and the predictions are that it will last until Wednesday (do not tell me meteorology is scientific, not a prediction–otherwise they wouldn’t get the forecast wrong so much). After a summer of extreme heat, I have come to two conclusions: either Al Gore is right and climate change is here and will be here for the rest of our lives, or Mother Nature is just a cruel bitch. Those are the only two options, people. And I’m not really liking what either of them portends for this winter.
Amelia came home from college this weekend, and while she didn’t plan on any of us being around (she and her boyfriend had tickets to an Eels concert), it turned out to be an awesome time with Rick, Sage, Amelia, Sam (her boyfriend), and I all hanging out. This is the first time she’s been home since she went to college in August, so we could really appreciate hanging out–at least Rick and I did, and I’m pretty sure the other three had a good time, too.
Other things making the kickoff of my birthday week awesome: a winning Steelers game, a haircut, a spa pedicure, and a small yarn expedition. My life is good. Now I just need to catch up on the homework – I’ve got a 600 page book due on Thursday (halfway through right now), 100 pages for Wednesday, and a bunch of articles to read for my first paper in the Vietnam class.
Despite Grace’s magnificent explanation of how the solar year (and thus time) progresses this morning via email, I would still like to know how my oldest child turned 18 today, thus making her a legal adult. I have made peace with her going to college, I am thrilled that she can now vote, but her Facebook status message this morning, “i’m an adult,” (her capitalization, of course) threw me. I mean, yes, in my head somewhere I realized that 18 equals legal adult in the United States, but still, it doesn’t seem possible that so much time has passed since I met her.
In the absence of a better explanation, I am totally going with “time warp.”
The wind here is fierce today. I live across from an expressway, which means no houses across the street to block the wind. I’ve gotten used to the windows rattling in storms over the years, but today the whole house is shaking, and I’m not exaggerating. I just looked over at the baskets where I keep my yarn, and they’re shaking because the house is shaking.
I wonder if “My house blew away” would be a good enough excuse for not getting my papers written?
The above is a picture of my newest work-in-progress, and a way of knitting I learned just tonight: toe-up on two circs. If you don’t knit, this is all Greek to you, but if you do knit, this is so cool! I feel really smart for learning it. I came home and showed it to Rick, full of enthusiasm. “Look! I made a toe! It’s a toe! A toe that I made!”
He examined it and pronounced “You could make nut sacks like this.”
I looked at him for a beat before replying “You realize that’s going on the blog.”
Rick: “Hey, did you see that commercial? The one where you can put any picture on a stamp? Probably they don’t mean any photo, probably they wouldn’t let you use a picture of an erect penis, but still, you could have a stamp with your kitties on it or something.”
Julie: “How much have you had to drink?”
I have one thing that I need to buy in Park Slope tomorrow, and then I am officially done with the Christmas shopping. For some reason, an inner voice has been pushing me to get the shopping done early this year, and so I did. I would’ve liked for that inner voice to direct me to some cash so I didn’t have to use my credit card, but I will take what I can get. The shopping, it is (pretty damned close to) done. Now I just need to wrap everything.
And finish the Christmas knitting. Gah.
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