birthday

I had been "looking forward" to having some pictures taken yesterday at my birthday party. For months I've been putting off looking "good" because I figured "I'll have some decent pics taken on my birthday." Well, hopefully no one will notice that I still don't have any pictures from 2009 posted anywhere because we didn't get many taken yesterday. I (stupidly) forgot my camera at home when we left for the restaurant in the cold, snowy mess that surrounded West Michigan last night. Miserable driving, partly because of conditions and partly because Michigan drivers are morons.

We bought a cake, but it's still sitting the kitchen unopened and uneaten. It was a nice birthday, though. Thanks for those who came out to help celebrate.

Blogs

I wish more people I used to know had a blog. Blogs are am amazing way to feel like one hasn't lost touch with someone even though one may never want to see the other party again. I don't like losing touch with people, although sometimes it's in everyone's best interests or is fairly unavoidable. Blogs are a great link to the past somehow, even though they're generally about the present. I often remember what I liked about the person to begin with. Sometimes, though, I read a post and wonder if we'd get along now--political posts mostly.

Is is stalking to occasionally check someone's blog that one knew years ago? Is it stalking if one used to date that person? I hope not, because I get a kick out of blogs.

Life....

There's just too much to write! Maybe taking 2 1/2 months to update this wasn't a good idea....

First (and at the forefront of my mind right now) is that fact that I'm underemployed next semester. I have my 2 classes at Aquinas and 5 hours in the writing center. I cannnot pay the bills with 2 adjunct classes. Grand Valley didn't warn me when they hired me for the fall that they offered significantly fewer sections of the class I teach in the winter. I lost both sections. I've applied to other colleges, who have thus far either politely or impolitely declined my services. I won't mention names, but I will mention that it makes me feel like crap. I guess I don't interview as well as I thought I did. So, I'm feeling pretty crappy right now and am desperately wondering what I will do next semester (and next summer, but that's a completely different subject that I won't get into right now).

I'm convinced that I'm going to have to get a "real job." Boy, do I not want a "real job." I've never done 9-5 particularly well. Hmm, I guess I've actually never really done 9-5, except for 2 summers working at a bank. I guess I just figure that since I haven't really done 9-5, I won't LIKE 9-5. However, steady income and steady work would be a trade that I'm willing to make at this point. I can't stand this feeling of not pulling my weight in my family.

Teaching 4 classes this semester has been rough at times, but with all the time I spend at home on the couch, it feels much less...stressful than a "real job." It's the students that create the stress. They're so needy and demanding. I do not remember being 1/10 as needy and whiny in my college experience, but that was 10 years ago, and this generation is quite a bit different.
I'm thinking about going to library school, but cost is the biggest problem right now. I'd need some serious scholarships, as I am completely unwilling to take out another dollar in student loans. I will already be paying on my student loans longer than we'll be paying for our house. I like the idea of working with students one-on-one, and working at the library in college was one of my favorite jobs. There's a lot for me to like about the idea.

And now to the embarrassing part of the post: what I've been reading. I needed something to listen to the car a couple of months ago, and my choices were Little Women, Danielle Steel, and Twilight. I cringed and picked up Twilight. The woman who read the novel bugged me at first, but I eventually got used to her. Even listening to it, I could tell that it's not well-written literature, but I stuck with it. I got to the end and was only slightly ashamed. Then a few weeks later, I found that I was interested in what happened next. This is about the time all of the New Moon hubbub was starting. So, I reluctantly went to Barnes and Noble and picked up a copy (and held my head in shame as I went to the check out counter). I read it in 3 days and a week later went to get Eclipse (I bought the new John Mayer cd at the same time and was wondering if I'd fallen into a time warp. I felt like I must be 16.). I read Eclipse in 2.5 days and went to the store immediately to buy Breaking Dawn in hard cover, which I said I wouldn't do. I was finished with Breaking Dawn in less than 48 hours.

It's not very good writing, but it's very compelling. I'm not a book critic, just a lit. major, so I don't know how to critique modern writing. I'm embarrassed by my near obsession (it was temporary, don't worry!), but I still couldn't stop reading. I've been trying to figure out why, and I've come up with a theory. Each of these books is about impossibly beautiful, impossibly rich, impossibly learned and talented immortals. It's an appealing subject matter. I've done plenty of reading about fairly regular people. My interest was piqued by a much more glamorous group of people. I'll admit, I wouldn't mind being beautiful, rich, learned and talented. Heck, I'll take any of the above. I was fun, mindless reading, and I was entertained for days. Reading books for class takes 3 times longer; it was really nice to read for fun, to read so quickly, and to not have to concentrate on any nuances/symbolism/hidden meanings. And the obsession is over now. I will not drag my husband to see New Moon--at least not at the full price theaters!

I'm presenting at a conference this weekend. It's called Shakespeare Connects, and it will be at Grand Valley's downtown campus. I'm pretty excited for my first real academic presentation. I presented a couple of years ago at a writing center conference in Traverse City (with my boss), but this one feels different. This one is solo, and I'm adapting a chapter from my book for it. I think I'm about finished with most of the prep work: the cutting and altering of the text and the (probably too lame) PowerPoint. I just need to practice, practice, practice. I'm using a couple of speeches from Richard III, so I really have to make sure I brush up on my acting, otherwise it could be painful.

The same day we're going with Ted and Tara to a Tiger's game--nearly the last one of the regular season. Yea! It's my reward for presenting at the conference, or at least that's what I'm telling myself. It's also our anniversary weekend. Our anniversary is this Thursday, but where will I be Thursday night? Not celebrating with my wonderful husband of 4 years. No, I'll be teaching at Grand Valley. At least it's a good class.

I finally finished Neal Stephenson's Crytonomicon. Tedious! It took me months to work through it (I read several other things in the meantime!). Right now, after being done with it for 12 hours, I have to say the payoff wasn't worth the time--1100+ pages and my satisfaction lies solely in the fact that I'm finally done with it. It wasn't terrible and it wasn't poorly written (it was actually really well written), it was just really, really long, and I expect considerable payoff when I've invested that much time and energy.

the garden

We've had several meals with green beans, but most of the garden hadn't been doing much of anything except get more greenery--not anything to eat. The tomatoes are 4-5 feet tall and, until a couple of days ago, didn't have any tomatoes! But I now have 3 green balls that I can only hope will turn into tomatoes. I also have picked 4 cucumbers in the last 3 days, and there are 3 more that will be ready in the next few days. They are taking over the garden, wrapping little tendrils around everything near them. They're actually creeping up the back fence. If the deer don't eat what's creeping, they might take over the world. I have 6-8 pepper plants, and they have nothing even resembling peppers on them. The corn, a big surprise, is already 6 feet tall and is showing about 4 ears. I have no idea how to tell when they're ready, but I suppose someone in my family of farmers can help me out. The broccoli that I had completely given up on now has decided to get little green...broccoli on it.
Ah, my boring life of watching the garden grow.

Snake Season

I can't believe it's already snake season. Actually, I think I expected to see them earlier, and when I didn't see any, I hoped that last year was a fluke. Or maybe I already got them all. But, alas, I didn't. I killed two when we got home from breakfast this morning. It took forever--they're fast and wily, it turns out. I'm quite sure there's one more in those hedges, but it hasn't turned up again (and I've been frequently checking). Last year I used my "snake killing shovel," which I had by my side, but today I found Jon's golf clubs more useful. I don't think he'll ever use his driver again, which, if he were a sportsman, might mean something.

I want to take a nap, but all I see when I close my eyes is slithering. (Or Slytherin, but I'll review the Harry Potter series later. We're finally done with it.)

We embark on our cruise next Monday at about noon. We'll go to Key West for a day and then we'll go to Nassau for a day. We booked passage for a cruise to Cozumel, but as you can see, Cozumel is no longer on the itinerary. Thank you World Health Organization.

I'm delighted the semester is finally over, that papers and presentations are graded, and I don't have to deal with that group of students again. There were, of course, some diamonds in the rough, but I had an all around bad vibe from this group for 16 weeks. And having to fail 5 didn't help matters. This wasn't 5 out of 50 students, or 5 out of 30 students. I failed 5 out of 18. Now that I think about it, it's really unfair to say I had to fail them. They failed themselves.

swimsuits

Why are bikinis such a huge trend? I wouldn't wear a bikini when I was 16, and I certainly won't wear one at 31. We're going on a cruise in 13 days, and every one-piece swimsuit I've seen is in a plus-size.

Oh, yeah...we're going on a cruise!!!

more kitties!

Here are some pictures of my kitties, who are basically my kids--be patient with me, this is as exciting as my life gets!

Here's Bailey at Jon's old place. "May I help you? What, haven't you ever seen a cat just sitting patiently in a cupboard under a sink before?"

Here's Remy, also at Jon's old place. She thinks she fits here; we beg to differ. She could not care less.

Ginny: "Wait, you can see me?"

Remy again. "Yes. I was taking a nap in the pantry. (And yes, I understand I'm not supposed to be here.) Just close the door and walk away before I kill you with my death stare."

Ginny and Bailey. Biggest two-headed cat EVER.

Ben Folds in Ann Arbor

Out of the 20 pictures that I snagged the night of the concert (February 18), I wound up with 2 that were any good.

The concert was GREAT! He played a lot of his newer stuff (a bunch from Way to Normal and from supersunnyspeedgraphic), but, of course, he tossed in some old favorites, like "Army." I really wish I'd written down the set list, because, typically, I can only remember a handful of songs he played.

My two critiques would be that 1) there were just too many people on stage playing too many instruments (FIVE!) which made the music sound almost cacophonous at times. The other two times we've been to his concerts it was just Ben, bass, and drums, but I would love to see just Ben sometime. 2) Also too many songs were too slow. I felt like many of the newer songs, especially, dragged; I kept waiting for them to pick up the pace.

Overall, the show was really good. Our seats were in the front row of the balcony and proved to be some of the best seats I've ever had for a concert--unimpeded view of everything. Despite my two minor complaints, I wouldn't hesitate to buy tickets for another show.

I missed the entire opening band while I waited in line for a t-shirt. There was one person working the booth, and she seemed rather...unmotivated. I got back into the theater and waited and waited, and finally the lights went down. Unfortunately, it was not Ben Folds who came out, but the University of Michigan glee club. What?! I waited, rather impatiently, for them to finish, and then had to keep waiting for Ben Folds. When he finally came out, he gave us a really good show, though.

I will soon write about the great Ben Folds concert that we attended last week, but I need to upload the pictures first--what's the point of writing a concert review these days without pictures?! So, since I haven't bashed/reviewed a book in a while, I'll get caught up.

After my Last Templar experience I moved on to a book entitled Katherine, by Anya Seton. As I've mentioned, I'm a fan of historical fiction, especially English history. It was on sale, so I ordered it. It's about Katherine Swynford, lover and eventual wife of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster. It was a bit slow going at times, but I honestly attribute that to its copyright date, 1954. The more recently published and written historical fiction is geared toward the reader who is easily bored and needs constant plot advancement (or, in lieu of plot advancement, sex). But Seton's 500+ pages are well written with elegant descriptions (even of unpleasant situations) and well researched details. Overall, pretty good. I enjoyed it.

Next was Marley and Me, which my mom lent me. I haven't watched the movie yet, so don't tell me how it ends. :) John Grogan is hilarious, and I laughed out loud throughout the book. His descriptions are vivid and clever, showing off his wonderful style and obvious intelligence. I literally cried through the last 20 pages, but the book is completely worth reading despite this inevitability--I know that some potential readers will be turned off to the book because of its sadness at the end just like they are turned off to movies with sad endings. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but just skip the last 20 pages if you don't like to cry. It's really a good read.

Then I read Susan Cooper's Over Sea, Under Stone. It's young adult sci-fi, so it was a pretty quick read. Unfortunately, it was formulaic and therefore really, really predictable. Just call the children Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. It's very Lewisian in formula but lacks the joy and wonder of Lewis' fiction. This is probably because the book takes place in Cornwall rather than Narnia, but my judgment against it stands. Puzzlingly, I will probably eventually read the other books in the series, and I think this is because of the mysterious Great-Uncle Merry, the Drew children's (whose names are actually Simon, Jane and Barney) secretive, not-really-an-uncle uncle. I think that the second book in the series, The Dark is Rising, is being made into a movie--eek! I generally hate it when they do that, but in this case, there isn't that much to ruin by making a crappy, expensive movie of it.

I've moved on to Firstborn, the last installment of the Time Odyssey series that Steven Baxter co-wrote with Arthur C. Clarke (one of my favorite authors). I doubt the late Clarke had much to do with this novel, however. So far, 80+ pages in, it's quite dull, but I'm attempting to reserve judgment.

"Global Warming"

I still firmly believe what Mr. Gribas taught me in 9th grade Earth Science: human-caused Global Warming is a bunch of hogwash. I believe that the Earth's climate naturally changes throughout an age (geologically speaking), which is how we get ice ages, for example. I also believe that climatology is a bunch of crap. How can we actually make predictions of any kind regarding the climate of a future age when modern climatologists have only been collecting data for 40 years?

Perhaps there is a warming trend. I certainly believe that is possible, but I do not believe that humans have had a noticeable impact or have caused a climate shift. However, this does NOT mean that I don't believe in conservation. I do. I think that we can and should treat the planet better.

My particular rant here is inspired by dislike for anti-Global Warming groups requesting donations. No, no, no. I will not donate. I will not support these scare groups. Facebook's (Lil) Green Patch actually pisses me off. And it's not that I'm opposed to saving the Rainforest; I'm all for saving acres upon acres upon acres of Rainforest. But it's marketed as a Stop Global Warming application. Getting all 70 of my friends to accept and send back digital plants is not going to change the climate. One million Facebook users accepting and sending digital plants is not going to change the climate. Will we have a nicer place to live? Sure, I'd like to believe that, and I will support reforestation projects. I'll go down and plant trees myself if I'm given the opportunity. But I will not do it in order to stop global warming. We (as human beings) are not capable of doing this. If the planet is indeed warming up, we can't stop it.

End of rant.

Ben Folds!

Thank you Live Nation email! I opened up the email this morning at about 9:15 am telling me that Ben Folds pre-sale tickets would be going on sale at 10:00 am TODAY. I've been checking Ticketmaster at least once a week to see if he's scheduled any dates in MI, yet I didn't know about this. (I'm really not terribly obsessed with Ben Folds. We've been to a couple of concerts, and he's a great entertainer who's been putting out some great albums. My current favorites are Way to Normal and Whatever and Ever Amen. Plus, we danced to a Ben Folds song at our wedding.) So, I logged on at 10 and got tickets! Yea! Not thrilled about it being on a Wednesday night (a school night!!!), but since I'm not yet a member of the AARP, I figure I'm allowed to go to a concert on a week night once every 5 years. (After AARP membership, I think that right is revoked.)

disappoint...ing

To complete my review of The Last Templar (see below), I will begin with, "Boo. Hiss." I hope this book isn't considered a thriller, though I fear it is. There was little that was thrilling; hell, there was little that was even surprising. The last page or so was not terribly expected, but it was also not terribly well written. Actually, it was quite poorly written, as well as poorly reasoned. I feel cheated of the time I spent reading it. I like fiction. I like fiction that uses history as a base. I even like fiction that jumps around in time. However, when the historical base is inaccurate, incomplete, or incompetently portrayed, my respect for the text is lost. Perhaps I'm too much of a purist, but to me, claiming "it's fiction!" does not give a writer permission to alter history or even misrepresent historical fact. At the very least, Khoury inaccurately presents Biblical textual history, and as an area in which many people do not even have a good working knowledge, much less expertise, I frown on this use of creative license. As often as people are told, "You can't believe everything you read," we often still do.

We made the mistake of renting Journey to the Center of the Earth (in 3D!). A bottle of wine did not fool us into believing this was a decent film. Oh, was it bad! Particularly painful was the scene of the thirteen-year-old receiving a call from his mom while battling an ocean squall--in the center of the earth. Man-eating plants, a T-Rex, characters falling hundreds of miles and landing without bruises, and characters being ejected from the center of the earth via a volcanic tube gushing magma and water without receiving burns or bruises are just a few of the treats awaiting viewers of this soon-to-be-classic movie.

I have had two weeks of pleasant surprises on the nighttime reading front, however. Jon reads to me most nights before we go to sleep; we started the tradition in Korea when he thought it might help me sleep and we went through The Iliad and The Odyssey. Since then we've read things like the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Chronicles of Narnia series, and the Bible. On Christmas we started... Harry Potter. I have been firm in my resolve to NOT read any of the Harry Potter books for the last 5 1/2 years. I have been stubbornly resolved to stay off that particular bandwagon. The whole phenomenon just felt too cultish. It was talked about everywhere; people lined up to buy each new book at midnight on the release date. Creepy. Plus, I'm certain there was at least a hint of literary snobbishness in there somewhere (my M.A. thesis was on Shakespeare after all. Where in the world does pop children's sci-fi fit in my life?). However, we finished book one in a week, I'm almost embarrassed to say. I'm thoroughly enjoying Mr. Potter's adventures and find Rowling's narratives to be quite amusing. I frequently catch myself laughing out loud. I'm probably the one person on the planet to be this far behind the times, so surely no one needs my opinion or critique of this particular series, I'm just admitting I was ... wrong about it.