fuzzy brain

I'm suffering from mid-quarter mental fuzziness, the kind that results when my early optimism and belief that I ought to be able to complete everything assigned to me collide with that panicky feeling that the quarter will be ending soon. I am beginning to get very worried about getting everything done, but haven't yet adopted the due date induced focus that I get at the end of the quarter, where I work on what I have to and just forget about other things out of necessity. Do you know that feeling where you're still half-heartedly keeping to-do lists even though you know there's important stuff you keep forgetting to put on them? Yeah, that's where I am right now.

I need to be reading Clarissa, but I think I'm going to take a few minutes first and just do some little things that have been bugging me, like e-mailing my course director about class observations and trying to get advice about the drama class I'm teaching next quarter. I might even rummage through that scary pile of papers on my desk and try to see if there's anything in there that I should be acting on now. In case they, you know, plan to self-destruct or something.

Encinitas

My weekend so far has revolved around good friends, delicious food, and very little work. Last night, I met some friends in San Diego for milk tea and catching up. I got to see Jackie, whom I hadn't seen in months, as well as a bunch of other local friends. Today we all met again for lunch in Encinitas, where we ate yummy Caribbean/Mediterrean food (a fantastically awesome combination) and then saw Caitlin's new place for the first time. She's staying in a lovely little beach cottage with wood floors and a lawn and high ceilings. I think if I had to draw in my imagination a place for Caitlin to live I would have chosen something very similar; it somehow captures her friendliness and sunny laugh.

I suppose eventually I should try to do some work today, but that will have to wait until after Elaine's birthday party, which starts in about 40 minutes. Right now, I'm just incredibly happy to have the friends I do, and to get to see so many of them in the span of a single day.

Plus we get an extra hour of sleep tonight. Life is good.

some things I like, part 2

wacky song covers

throwing Bush against various surfaces

trying to give Bush a brain

cats in sinks

popularity contest

I just met with a student who says that her favorite writer in the course so far is Nathaniel Hawthorne. This surprises me; I was expecting that students would find his writing stuffy and slow. The House of the Seven Gables certainly isn't a page turner like Oroonoko, or as action-packed as Moll Flanders (I think she marries someone new every 20 pages). The student even preferred it to The Bluest Eye, which is a sad book but, I think, a very poignant and moving one.

Well, I guess it's good that she (and, most likely, some other students as well) like Hawthorne. Maybe this will improve class discussions!

In terms of the overall popularity contest for the quarter, however, Hawthorne shouldn't hold his breath. We're reading Jane Eyre next.

Calvin knows all

on a happier note...

On Friday night, Justin and I found Waldo in Hollywood. No, really. He looked like this, but with less dorky glasses. Also, he had a cane.

In other words, he was totally Waldoier than this.

Oh Samuel Richardson, why didn't you have a hobby?

Duck hunting. Smoking. Ballroom dancing. Richardson surely could have found something to do besides writing Clarissa. And then, perhaps, it wouldn't have been 1499 pages long, with incredibly large pages and teeny tiny font.

I have to admit that on days when I'm just reading page after page of

"I'm a rake!"
"I'm innocent!"
"Look, I'm so, so rakey!"
"No you look, I'm so very innocent!" (paraphrased),

I feel like what I'm doing (i.e., "English grad school") is kind of nonsensical. I know there's more to it than this, and that there's a reason why I got into it, but I forget what exactly that reason is sometimes. Part of it is the teaching, which I do like (minus the grading) and sometimes even find rewarding, but I know if teaching is what I want to do I could teach without reading the slowest, saddest fictional seduction ever recorded.

(Note: I know this is a very important work. But I am cranky.)

Donna Reed

Justin is showering, and then we're going to go to Lucky Strike for a bowling party with his company. I'm about to be the significant other at a company function, which makes me feel like Donna Reed or someone. Although I don't know if she was the bowling type. Not in that dress anyway.

how I really feel about grading

sunny morning procrastination

My brain is resisting starting work today, even though it is a beautiful morning and I had enough sleep last night to make my brain feel surprisingly alert. I just don't want to look at the stack of ungraded papers I have, which are currently cleverly hidden under other papers.

I'm going to try getting out a brand new green pen and putting on a CD in order to convince myself that working is comfortable and fun. Then I will look at these papers.

Anyone have any advice for starting a long day of independent work, or for setting up some sort of work/break schedule that seems to be successful?

Wednesday decadence

Today my friend Terri Ann visited after my morning and afternoon classes, and we went out for yummy tofu together. Later we browsed in stores, trying on clothes and musing over how scarves had been knitted or crocheted (I think Terri Ann should make some clones and sell them for $34, like Urban Outfitters was doing). Terri Ann bought a fabulous green halter top with belly beads. Later, we watched two Gilmore Girls episodes while eating "chocolate enigmas" from Trader Joe's. I haven't laughed that much in a long time (not exactly true: I laughed a lot at the premiere of the Colbert Report on Monday), and it was terrific to see Terri Ann, whom I don't see nearly often enough. Maybe she could knit us a high-speed transporter?

some things I like, part 1

Colin Firth.

frogginess explained

With due respects to my sister Amy, who is the real frog lover in the family, I have decided to create a frog blog primarily because of an Emily Dickinson poem. This is because I am a geek, especially when it comes to literature, and especially then when it comes to women writers (although most of my work is in the 18th century, a bit too early for Dickinson). I think the internet would have amused Dickinson by being a place where "Nobodys" can meet and transform into semi-public somebodies simply by making noise in the bog of the blogosphere. (Say those last five words ten times fast, and you win!)

My only other froggy affiliation that I can think of is that I completely agree that it is not easy being green. Especially when your apartment complex refuses to recycle most recyclable things, and you can't afford a hybrid car on a T.A.'s salary. Still, I prefer being green to being blue, or grey, or violet ("Violet! You're turning violet, Violet!"). Yesirree, it's bad to turn into a blueberry.

Otherwise, this blog should just be a normal, mammalian ("human" even) blog, with all of the attending musings, rants, and non-sequiturs of a graduate student wading through way too many books and unfinished papers and trying desperately to keep in touch with friends and family. I will also, no doubt, use it to collect things that amuse or confuse me on the internet.

So, hello! :)