Tuesday, February 27, 2007

off, off forth on swing

To AWP:
Can I just quote Hopkinis' Windhover during my panel?
I already use the superbowl as a reference so how much weirder would that be?
I'm SO excited to see High Touch & Dr. Write & Strange Polks and meet Terrible Mother. A convergence of friends. I suppose there ARE other reasons to convene but this is the best one.
I give my panel presentation with Margot Singer and Nick Flynn and David Shields on Saturday. I wish it was on Wednesday so then the rest of the conference would just be relaxing but it's probably for the best I stay somewhat on task.
The best bit is that after this, it's Spring Break at Grand U so I can relax afterwards. What a semester! What a winter!
It's going to be 60 degrees. I'm bringing skirts and a swimmin' suit.
If I can report from there I will.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Itemized

1. They (Blogger) made me move to the new blogger. Urg. I hate to be forced to make changes.
2. Erik has a new Mac! I hate new computers but this screen is sweet (I'm typing on it right now). He needed two gigs of RAM to run Final Cut. Two gigs of RAM! I remember when 16 megabytes were great. I mean, I remember when 256 K was normal, but that was never great.
3. Blog world is freaking me out. Bitch PhD wrote some smart and salient post and people went CRAZY on her. She's a brave and well-armored woman. One day, I'll have some chutzpah.
4. Getting excited about AWP
5. Hoping Zoe stays healthy.
6. Erik and I each bought 2 lbs of Tillamook Cheddar at Costco. We already had some cheese. I'm pretty sure there's about 5 lbs of medium cheddar in our house. At least Zoe and her sitters won't starve while we're basking in the rays of Atlanta, GA.
7. I've taken to deleting huge portions of my manuscripts.
8. Started NEA project poems.
9. I'm writing serious comments on my students' workshop poems. I wonder if any prof I had wrote comments at all. I know Eleanor and Melanie did. And Robin wrote a brief paragraph. But others? Not so much.
10. No president's day for us at the Grand U tomorrow. They've rigged the schedule so we can get out by April 19th! The summer cometh.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Sick!

Me! Sick! I'm never sick. I've been sick since I posted last. A sinus infection. In my nose! Rude. I finally went to the doctor yesterday where I let him prescribe the dreaded anti-biotics. I hate to use antibiotics. Resistant bacteria. Ack!
I do feel a little better as you can tell by my wanton use of exclamation points. But I hate the doctor's office. My blood pressure spikes, I get all pissed about the state of Health care in this country AND I have PTSD from all the times Zoe has been sent to the ER immediately.
But! I did manage to teach my classes and grade and comment and the like so I haven't been completely incapacitated.
Perhaps March will be the month to be productive??? After I finish off these bowling-ball sized pills. 6 a day. For ten days. Die little bacteria. And don't come back with that amoxilcillin can't kill me any more business.
I blame the cold.
And the snow.
And the doctors.
And the bacteria.
I'm off to eat some yogurt where some tiny acidophilus creatures I love can re-line my bacteria-free stomach.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

February

I can barely see the road, the snow is falling so hard. But here, the intrepid midwesterner drags out her intrepid sled, slides down the sidewalk (because they're covered in ice, then snow, then ice, then more snow) and whose parents even slip on the cross-country skis to slide on over to the park that has the one small hill in the area. The hill slopes for only about ten feet but stays slippery all winter because it never thaws). Until last week, temps here were Salt Lake-ish. It felt a bit colder because of the humidity, but 25-30 degrees wasn't too bad. Now though, it's 10 degrees outside with a -14 windchill. Sweet. They say it hasn't been this cold or snowy here for 7-8 years. Another sweet. But except for the shoveling and the hard-to-run on ice bit, the snow it isn't so bad. At least not on a Saturday when we don't have to go anywhere (except Egg who took the dog for a walk in the blizzard). So. February in Michigan. I'll let you know how much snow finally accumulates.