Tis the season

to be totally, totally insane. I finally finished my Pound paper at 5:30 am last night. Now I have to teach my GRE class in a couple of minutes (statistics, probability, quantitative comparisons) and then grade all 22 of my student portfolios by tomorrow morning at 10. After that, Christmas shopping!

Practice lattes

I'm a lucky girl.

Hilariously

Today was my day off from writing. Therefore, I wrote three essays about Proust in the morning, and six essays about my teaching in the afternoon and evening. Probably about a 3000 word day. And not totally mindless writing, either--but easier than the crazy cobwebby labyrinth that is my Pound paper. To which I return tomorrow. And then final grading. And then . . . done!!! But there will be some fun in there too. I hope.

I admit this is cheating, but

I really wanted to get my Pound paper to 10 pages tonight, so I just pressed the return key a whole bunch of times. It worked! Unfortunately, most of those pages cover about six different possible introductions. My hope is to repurpose most of it somehow. I finally got going when I realized why I like the section I'm writing about so much: animals! (I am officially "the girl who sees the animal in everything.") The few pages I'm writing about contain: feathers, paws, dolphins, stags, sheep, an ancient Buddhist monk famous for animal paintings, horses, birds, lions, spiders, scorpions, an owl, wagtail, firefox, more horses, dogs, goats, cats, lizards, more dolphins, squirrels, bluejays, serpents, worms, snakes, another serpent, eels, rams, birds, a black cat, a water-bug, still more birds, and finally “two mice and a moth my guides." What's not to love? (Kitcat loves it so much he chewed the page.)

Today I was on campus 8:30 am-11 pm. 8 hours in the same windowless building reading student papers. But I got a special visit!

GAArrragghh

As I remarked to my class the other day, reading this book in public is like wearing a button that says "Ask Me About Fascism."

Observed while running

The newish ipod shuffle, when pinned to a black shirt, looks exactly like a clerical collar.



Discuss.

A good week!

Classes are over and finished well. Office holiday party was a delight: a cube of wine, beers in our minifridge, deviled eggs, my four batches of hastily made brownies, two mint and two regular, plus I got to share my beloved theory about "Winter Wonderland"'s subversive gender politics. A very sick cat (not mine) miraculously recovered. And more!

Chair

What does it mean? It means I now have a chair for my PhD exam committee. Acquiring one is basically like asking a professor to the prom, and I was really nervous about it, but I did it today and he said yes and was very nice. Huge weight off my mind!

Coming Soon . . .

Democracy! Watch this space! Vote for your favorite cat name!! (A list of choices will appear with the official poll, but if you have any suggestions about what should be on the list, please let me and little nameless know.)

Tomorrow for the last time I head into my crazy midweek dash. This week will be especially bad . . . I'm even double-booked several times. Here's my schedule: Teach, Proust-Meeting with Adviser-Seattle Review Meeting, Pedagogy, Run Home to Feed the Cat, Tutor Till Midnight, Run Home to Sleep, Ezra Pound, Office Hours, Run Home to Feed the Cat, Tutor Till Midnight, Run Home to Sleep, Teach, Proust-Reindeer Sweater Office Party-Pedagogy, Grad Pub! We crossed the international date line a few times in there, so that brings us to Thursday night. It actually doesn't sound so bad. This makes me feel a little better. Now to make a peer review handout.

What is it, Kitcat?

What is it, boy? I think he wants us to follow him!!

The snow has turned to torrential rain, and this morning the cat woke me up at 5 to tell me that the floor is leaking. Huge puddles everywhere. Then we went to the vet. It's been a weekend of cat medicine and floor issues. Weird convergences. A good weekend, too.

Kitcat's first blizzard