Last Friday I went to the Fox with dramawench to see the Alvin Ailey dance company.  I saw them almost ten years ago when they came through Athens and I only had to pay $5 as a student (man, why don't they have cool things coming through the university now?).  They happened to be celebrating their 50th anniversary this year and even though they have different choreographers now, they always always perform Alvin Ailey's piece Revelations at the end and it is wonderful.  Modern dance paired with gospel hymns like "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel" and "Fix Me Jesus."  I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't believe in God but some of the most beautiful things in this world are dedicated to him. 

I had to cut my fun short and go back to Athens to work on my paper, but I did get to see dramawench 's super cute house that's near the FOX and then I told her my idea about being the guy who buys tickets for people so that they can side-step all those ticketmaster fees.  You could make a fortune!  

Third roommate moved out, and we have scheduled a thorough cleaning of the house this weekend to exorcise the demons.  But the economy has left my other roommate anxious to find a new roommate.  Mostly so it won't cut into his drinking budget.  I said it. 

Otherwise, the semester keeps trotting along.  And I might have a thesis topic, but let's not jinx it.

So last night I kind of had it out with the third roommate.  I wasn't even itching for a fight.  I've asked her to do her dishes, turn on the fan after she showers.  Those kinds of things, but there are millions of things I don't tell her because she's kind of sensitive.  And the last time I was going to bring something up she talked to me about what a tough time she's having with reverse culture shock and starting school again in a new town.  So I tried not to push it.  Cord and I are pulling our hair out, but it's really just little annoyances.  So last night I came home and all the lights were left on and her electric heater and she wasn't there.  When she came in I asked her not to do that, and she flipped out.  She feels that she's living with the police, and she's not perfect, and she's even done my dishes (no she hasn't), and the things she does aren't appreciated. 

And as I literally vibrated with rage I realized how long it's been since I've had an out and out fight where people scream.  I'm having much more practice with the subtle fighting in public through guarded snarky statements.  But not even much of that. 

She said "You know what, I'll just move out and then this won't be a problem any more."  I didn't say anything.  But she took my silence for what it was, acquiescence.  And when Cord got home last night she said she wanted to move out because this wasn't working.  I see this as a win, in spite of my rent going up because of it.  But Cord kept looking at me like "what did you do???" 

UUURGGGGHHH.  This morning she and I did not speak, but I've done the ignoring game before.  Hopefully I won't have to play it for long.

Because Obama is now in office i'm going to try to be more positive this semester.  Watch out for exclamation points and sunny phrases like "yippee" and "you betcha." 

Classes have started and while two of them are awesome, the third is going to chafe (sp? yippee!) for the next 14 weeks.  The man rambles; he spoils the endings of books; he brags about his career; and when he says he wants our class to be a conversation he talks for the whole three hours and doesn't seem to expand or even listen to anything we say.  Why am I still in this class?  Because I can't justify getting rid of a class that will be easy and fulfill a requirement.  Sure, I could go somewhere else and be challenged.  But with this class I don't have any web posts or secondary articles or anything.  Just a final paper, and I've read all but two of the books assigned.  I kind of think I already have a paper topic.  And because this class runs late on tuesday my awesome roommate will be picking me up after dropping by Papa John's for our tuesday special pizza!

To make up for the easy load in that class I'm having to learn everything there is to know about both the English Reformation and crackpot theories about Shakespeare being a closet Catholic.  The teacher pronounces certain words like Jamie Bragg and is dry and funny and wants us to call her by her first name.  My professors were so friggin' intimidating last semester; why didn't I have Jamie2 last semester when I needed her?  And the third class is looking at productions and interpretations of Shakespeare in the 19th century.  I know I'll be Shakespeared out by the end of it, but for now I'm enjoying everything but my schedule.

I pushed all my classes into two days so I could have some days free for a job.  This mythical job that should just fall into my hands.  Until said job appears I'm at home three days out of the week reading everything there is about the reformation and trying to resist the urge to make more brownies.  Are my Christmas flannel jammies coming in handy?  You betcha!

Oh, news.  Meg is moving to Athens after  acquiring a shnazy job with Trumps Catering and Pam Johnson, my friend that I went to kindergarten with is getting married.  Her boyfriend proposed to her at Jekyll Island on her 30th birthday.  So the way I see it, I've got six months. 

Yippee!

Okay, this isn't how I planned to spend my Monday but it seems our new roommate stole my keys this morning and that means I can't really leave the house until she gets back.  So what better reason to finally update my livejournal?  And man do I need to catch up.  In our last installment I was faking a discussion question on my blog for the upcoming conference presentation on blogging in the classroom.  I got to hang out with Columbus peeps over the weekend; Scout cuddled with me on the hide-a-bed.  And then that Monday I rocked my presentation on blogging.  Small group but they had lots of questions and from a salesmen point of view I think I convinced them that blogging is a useful new approach.  


I was Maleficient for Halloween and Meg came to visit and put together an awesome Swedish chef outfit last minute.  Kind of annoying what a good response she got when I worked for weeks on mine and she put hers together in one visit to Michael's.  But she was throwing Swedish fish at people, and folks love the Swedish fish.  My friends Tony and Molly stayed with us and were sickeningly cute dressed as a bee and a flower.  Tony also gets mad props for having the most comfortable and weather appropriate outfit.  I want all my costumes to incorporate a fuzzy jacket in some way.  Oh, and mad props to the roommate.  Never sewed before but with some help from athenienne he put together a little prince coat.  Of course he was still putting it together that night while i was putting on blue face paint and trick or treaters kept coming to the door.  How do we always manage to make our fun stressful?

I won't go into too much detail, but finals was amazingly stressful.  I was really proud of my paper on gothic literature, and because of all the research I've been able to have some really interesting conversations about Twilight.  And people say there's no practical application for this stuff--pshaw!  Then I went a little crazy talking about the nature of time in my Victorian lit paper as time slowly clicked toward the due date.  And then I nearly killed a teammate I was working with on my final project for humanities computing.  Come to find out I don't work well with others.  But more props for Cord, because my computer was too slow and sulky to do the work for the project he drove me to and from the english computer lab so I wouldn't have to walk to my car in the dark at midnight. 

Now, if you'd like to continue into the holidays, ( here ).  I'll spare the rest of you. 

New Year's resolution:  do better at updating my livejournal!

We've looked at a lot of the possibilities surrounding blog writing, but what do you think?  Does this really help conversation or help people avoid learning to communicate in person and to respectfully work through confrontation when differences of opinion arise? 

  I just rocked at teaching 1101 this morning and I wanted everyone to know.  They had questions; we talked.  They didn't completely follow me when I talked about physical space in Golden Compass, but whatever.  I can't expect people to understand me ALL the time.  I think I'm so happy because after weeks of feeling out of place and unsure I finally had a chance to do something I'm really good at.  At which I'm really good?  Oh, screw the dangling preposition. 

The pressure is on right now to know what I'll be writing my papers on in December, but of much greater importance is finishing my costume in time for the English department halloween party!

Also saw Wall-E at the dollar theater last night, and it was lovely. 

I realize i haven't posted in some time.  When juggling this many eggs, you're bound to drop one of them.  Luckily, i"m now recycling my broken eggs into the compost heap I started in the corner of the backyard. 

I hit a wall, reached new levels of self-pity and doubt, and then got over it.  Yeah, it's the strangest thing, but being moody like I am means that if all the world is falling apart in the morning, by nightfall I'll be singing songs from Robin Hood in the shower.  And not the sad one with the Will Rogers rooster, although I do love that one.  

What's wonderful about grad school is that my worries are new and varied every week.  This week I have to prepare for teaching, when in a way feels familiar enough for me to just wing it, or at least wait until monday to finish putting together my lesson plans.  If I can't blather on for an hour in front of an audience, then I really have to re-assess my identity.  Oh, and then there's the fact that just when I feel like I can handle the work load of reading incessantly and writing a paper a week, we have to be considering what our final papers will be about.  I'm lucky in that I only will have two final papers and then a final project in my computing class.  

And then there's the ever-present fear of poverty coupled with a loss of trust in the foundations of our economy (and so the rain barrel and compost heap don't seem so crazy right now, maybe we should get a few chickens just in case).  I keep having these unforeseen expenses.  Things like new tires for when I had a blowout on I-85 Northbound.  Or when I almost had my phone cutoff because they never changed addresses even though I told them to change addresses.  Or the very necessary expense of materials for my Halloween costume, which will be awesome.  For those out-of-towners I'm going to be Maleficient from Sleeping Beauty.  I haven't tackled the headress problem yet, but I managed to pilfer a rod of bamboo from my neighbors curb and spray paint it gold so that I have an awesome sorcerer's staff.  Stuffed raven?  not sure I can pull that one off.  Anyway, I'm stressed and before the hoopla that will surround homecoming on campus gets under way I am going to the gym to relieve some tension.  

Take that, rainy day Friday!

Belated though it is, this is how I successfully avoided labor for three days, as is mandated by the U.S. government. 

I stayed with David on friday night in Atlanta except I didn't have the right key.  And of course Friday is David and MIchael's date night so instead of calling them to let me into the house, I set up shop on the front stoop with my book and some potato chips (moral: always carry snacks).  I did have to drop trow in the bushes of his backyard, but let's just not tell him about that part.

Next day I joined some hot ladies for the DragonCon parade.  We saw a true Gene Wilder lookalike in Willie Wonka garb (I want a purple velvet coat!), a Chewbacca made completely out of cardboard boxes, the cutest little Kaylee ever, and a PotterPals version of Snape.  Cord and I people watched in the hotel, drinking over-priced beer.  And true to form we ran into random people that we didn't even know were going to be there.  Folks finished their sessions and were ready to hang out with us, but I had to head out to David's wedding shower.  It was a little socially awkward because I'm the out-of-town friend and the token straight friend (so this is what it feels like to be a minority) but their friends are starting to look more familiar to me, which makes me feel better about being part of a wedding where I only know the couple.  We played silly games, and David and Michael did a great job at seeming surprised and excited at getting presents they themselves picked out (I never got that).

Next day David made breakfast before running off to his study group.  He and I are buddies in grad school hysteria right now.  And I ran to Columbus for mango salsa, Buford's chicken salad, and a lot of faces that I've missed this past month.  There were some other out-of-town friends at the pool party that Cristy and Brian hosted so it made for a good mix of new people and old friends.  Kinsley and I played mermaid hair salon for a while after drawing with chalk.  And at one point we started singing disney songs, but I don't remember why.  We also sampled iced tea flavored vodka that's made in Charleston.  And my god, it tastes like iced tea. . .with a little kick. 

I stayed the night and then had brunch with everyone courtesy of Suzy.  The breakfast souffle made us all sleepy and happy, but then we went to our separate cars and drove away.  Not my favorite part.  But I'll be back in november. 

I don't know how I managed school and an entire weekend of fun.  Since then I've read and written for two weekends non-stop.  This one shall, no doubt, be similar.  But I think I made a new school friend to go to lunch with.  And the tuesday special at Papa John's means that tuesday is now officially roommate night.  I shall survive, if only because of the pepperoni that keeps me going.  

I fully intend to take time to post about how awesome Labor Day weekend was.  I even wrote it all out during the class I'm apprenticing for (i.e. observing so that next year I can teach the class); I don't think I'm a very good apprentice.  However, this past weekend was not one of action but reaction.  As in how I reacted to when the fireants were on my feet, or how I reacted when I accidentally cut open my finger while washing the serrated knife (it's such a simple machine, she doesn't have to use force), or how I reacted when I woke up to find random people sleeping in my house, or how i reacted when I again found mouse droppings in the drawer with the silverware.  Such revelations were really the only thing worthy of note; otherwise, I read all weekend, as I suspect I shall every weekend.  Forever. 

In an hour I have to prove that I understand Spanish well enough to cover my language requirement.  E no bueno. 

Second week and I'm feeling a little more at ease.  I finally got hold of the book I was supposed to write a paper on.  I found a cushy chair in the student learning center and a "secret lab" so I can print out articles while I get past my current computer troubles.  The English department had a potluck to greet the new kids and one of the 2nd year MA's told me that in about a month I'll panic and want to quit but then I"ll live through it.  So there's that to look forward to.

There's a doctoral student who's going to stay with us two days a week in the spare bedroom, and this shall help fund my groceries/booze bill.  I'm also scalping my footbal tickets--we'll see what comes of that.  My hope for a library job kind of fizzled; the whole campus is in a budget crunch right now so student jobs are scarce.  For now I"ll just appreciate the study time unemployment affords me. 

OH, and we have ants in the kitchen.  Yeah, I think that's it. 

hello, all.  It took a little while to find my wireless card and get the password, but I'm back online.  That's right, the move has gone through!  I am in the Athens.  Mom came in to help along with Christy and Brian and then Molly and Tony helped me with the unload.  Everyone remained amazingly good-natured and the next day the pants I had worn had salt all over the back from where I sweat so much.  I took Molly and Tony out to eat and then we hit Batman as a reward for all our efforts.  So in a strange way it was a really fun productive day. 

All my crap strewn over the floor and the superman symbol Cord pasted on my door makes this feel a little like a teenager's room.  I'll get it squared away.  But there are bills to pay, and people to see, and books to buy!  And as promised, my roommate rocks.  We've already had a grammar discussion.  

So not much story just yet.  But as everyone else I know is finishing up their grad programs or else working 'cause they already finished grad school years ago, I figured it was about damn time.  Wish me luck!  I'm going to the campus after I finish my coffee.  

Oh, and two friends have already ROCKED THE STATIONERY.  Are you going to let them show you up?  Hmm?

This is kind of unsettling.  I met some of my neighbors last night.   The husband knocked on my door at dusk while I was watching Scrubs.   you know, like you do.  And he tells me, "sorry, but did you know your bushes are on fire."  I, in fact, was unaware.  He and his wife were walking the dog and thought I was grilling when they realized that the open flame was actually the shrub near my house.  Just a small fire, and he stamped it out before I got to it.  But then they told me how they had seen some little boys, 8 or 9 yrs old, gathering pine straw and bringing it to that spot at the beginning of their walk.    I called the cops.  Like you do.  And worried if I would roast in my bed that night.

So tonight I was watching Scrubs, but it was a little windy so the smoke really puffed up.  I took my watering can out there and doused the flames and went back inside.  And called the cops again.  Not ten minutes later.  Two of the little boys came back to look at the fire.  I lost it.  I work with kids,and I spend all year trying to hold back my full volume yell when those little punks get out of line and need a whooping.  I stamped onto my porch screamed for them to get away and watched their heads snap up.  The one left immediately; the other kid began the "I didn't do it" bit and even said "ma'am."  I'll give him points for that one.  Except arsonists aren't on a point system!  Both times I left messages with the police so we'll see if they come by.  Or if the kids do.  While in a teaching environment it would be so important not to traumatize the kids while making a point.  In my fucking yard environment, I jolly well hope I traumatized them.  Into never doing this again.  

I have 4 more days before I leave this house, and I just hope I don't die in flames before then. 

After lounging and eating at the Kozinsky spa and resort for a few days, my father and I went on an adventure into northern georgia.  I had boxes to drop off in Athens, so that gave us a chance to eat a late lunch at the Grit, and Dad very bravely ordered the vegetarian "sausage" gravy with his biscuits and liked it.  Still one of my favorites but a close second to the yeast gravy.  Okay, I just like gravy.  Sue me!  

Dad saw the house and said disparaging things about its size, which only strengthens my resolve to make my Normaltown home the most rockin' yet.  



It was a success in all ways, not the least of which was me not killing my father who at times did deserve it.  I am however sobered to the idea of walking the Camino.  Dad and I only did about 8miles of hiking the one day, and I'm so tired. 

man, we had fun.  Though there were still the boring moments in which my sisters lay in the sun and wondered why i wasn't having a great time sitting with them.  But we also managed to be relatively active.  We played badminton and golf and raced the dogs up and down the hallway.  I made everyone play Taboo which only gets better when you drink.  We went to Pineland bakery and bought lots of cheese danish (the local mennonite bakery, it rocks) and then we looked up the word mennonite in our set of world book encyclopedias.  'cause that's how we roll; no googling for my parents.    we tried to watch the local fireworks show (a long time ago our father lied to us and told us that the fireworks were there for our birthday) but got rained out.  We took a tour of how much dad has done on the wood shop he's building.  Oh, and my sister's boyfriend challenged all the Kozinskys to a game of trivial pursuit but i don't have to tell you how that turned out.  

birthday presents were of the practical sort.  storage boxes for when i move and my U-haul (thanks mom and dad) but I also got a new map of the Camino de Santiago, sheet music by Ludovico Einaudi, and a new watch with little tiki monsters on the band.  

the food was good.  the drinks started off planned and quickly became whatever we felt like mixing together.  and to top it all off I have successfully lived to be 29! 

I'm 45 out of a 100, not so bad.  Feel free to ignore this, but I was trapped in my bedroom and had great fun filling this one out.


The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated.
5) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them.


1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen --
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte it’s definitely in my top five of all time.
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman – loved it.
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy I keep meaning to give Hardy another chance, but my high school hatred runs deep.
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare... I don’t remember how many I have left.
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger   it's such a boy book
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown  Take that Dan Brown!
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez   too long, but amazing passages
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood Amazing. Creepy. Movie didn’t do it justice.
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding I lost track of how many times I’ve read it and every time I’m diving through the pages at the end hoping that Ralph will make it.
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel Another one of those few living authors that I love. The book isn’t even really about what you think it’s about at the end.
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon Such an amazing way to tell a very simple, solid story.
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker I’ve been meaning to go back now that I’ll get the geography and the mentions of the local people.
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson Sometimes Bill is very funny, and sometimes you think, God, Bill stop going on about your friggin’ cup of tea!
75. Ulysses - James Joyce I will someday, I really will.
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens Does it count having the entire thing read to you at the Shakespeare Tavern? They do an amazing job of it.
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker Read it, seen the movie a million times and it’s still a blur of characters for me, but excellent while you’re in it.
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad we might be related to him, how could I have missed this one?
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams   Watch the cartoon, it RoCks!
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo – I have a feeling if I go back it won’t be as good as I remember it being 

Since big vacation plans will not be included in this summer of sandwich, I took a holiday with my sister in her chateau in Chattanooga (notice the importance of vocabulary, children, sounds delightful doesn't it?)After teasing me with the promise of banana bread again, Meg made me coffee instead and a piece of a bagel. She wisely gave me a time limit in my favorite used bookstore of all time--McKay's. Jon Stewart has a collection of essays from 2000 or 2001. Have people read this? Well, for $1.50 I think I will, Jon! I got out of there without breaking the bank but decidely struck out during shoe shopping. My search for the perfect black canvas flat continues.

We ate brunch with some of her friends, we ate fried squash blossoms and scallops at the restaurant where she works, drank lots of Prosecco, and heard all sorts of charming stories from the bartender about Kenny-no-pants-crazy-neighbor. It's an alias.

And then just because we could we went sporty. Meg took me to the Blue Holes, a spot with nature trails along the river with some deeper "swimming holes." We took Weezie, who proved agile like a scarey mountain goat on jumping from rock to rock across the river. Take that hawk! And yes, innocently wading through the river with my pants hiked up resulted in my butt getting wet, but it was worth it.

totally worth it.

Copycat that I am I thought I'd give some pictures of what my day looks like, but not an ordinary day. This was a day while housesitting for my friend.



This is the view from my bedroom while staying at the house. Hmm, a little swim before work? Maybe, but first have to see to the animals.




Careful, Pedro bites. And the roaches need bread.




Oh, and the turtles need a swim.




Time for work and now I have to remember how to turn on the alarm.




And then it's on to selling sandwiches and listening to NPR.




Done. Maybe life will get exciting soon and I'll do another day of pics. Like bookwench I make my own rules.