June 11, 2008
small fleeting paralysis
So.
I'm moving in three weeks.
I've never, really ever, lived in one place as long as I've been here in CNY. Growing up, we moved just about every year, sometimes staying two years, and ironically, staying three once J, my stepdad, began working for the Department of Defense.
I am a moving-kinda gal, in the sense that picking up from one house and moving to another, wrenching myself from one neighborhood and one school to work my way into another, became very normal for me. In fact, I remember being in 8th grade (Thomas Jefferson in Waukegan, IL, if you care to know), and because I'd been there for 7th grade as well, I felt like things were a little off for me. People knew me too well.
But soon after that strange feeling of "too familiar" crept up on me, we moved to Kenosha, WI, where I finished the last 8 weeks of junior high. My teachers were appalled, mostly, that my parents couldn't wait for the school year to finish, but I was happy. All was right with the world; we were moving again.
As an adult, I have moved pretty regularly as well, mostly trading small town houses for single-families as my own family grew, but also in service of my own figuring out what to do "when I grew up."
I have really really loved living here. I don't much care for the extreme weather, but when it comes down to it, anywhere I go there will be *something* I can complain about. Which also reminds me that where ever I go, I can be equally happy, as long as I'm looking in the right places.
Still, though, I'm feeling a bit of paralysis now, sitting in my dining room, surrounded by packages from Amazon of books I need to read (or, look at for an hour or so) for making diss revisions. The windows are open, the sun is patterning itself on the floor, and I'm thinking about packing and U-hauls and the sun hitting a new floor in a different pattern. I'm thinking about finding friends. What used to be easy for me to do as a child ("Hi, I'm new. Can I jump rope, too?") seems untenable in adulthood ("Hi, I'm new. Can my kids play with your kids, and will your husband talk about hockey with my husband, and will you go running with me??").
*sigh*
Don't get me wrong. I'm thrilled to be moving. This (paralysis, anxiety), too, shall pass. But the prospect of, the getting ready for, the doing of, etc, has me mildly wanting to lay on the couch with my eyes shut.
Posted by mryonker at 02:54 PM | Comments (3)
June 03, 2008
yet another reason...
...to rejoice that this administration is on its way out.
Posted by mryonker at 04:44 PM | Comments (1)
May 19, 2008
the run-down
If you read me through an aggregator, you might not have noticed: I'm doing a lot of my updates through twitter now. I know I have quite a few readers who actually come (go?) to the academom site itself and read that way, so those visitors will already know that the current action is in the sidebar, not in the content box.
That doesn't mean I'll stop posting here (although the thought has occurred to me that it very well might be time to close up shop--more on that in a later post). It does mean that many of my updates are not getting through to all readers.
So, my life in some tweet-sized bites, for those who have missed the twitter side:
I finally feel like is OK to make an official announcement: I did go on the market this past year, and I did indeed get a job. I'll be at York College of Pennsylvania in the fall. I'm thrilled--so much so that I still have to pinch myself to make sure it's real.
I don't have a nightmarish job-market narrative. There were some funny (both ha-ha and strange) parts, but nothing was particularly dramatic or hellish.
B and I spent the last two months getting our house ready to sell. I think if I have to look at another paint brush anytime soon, I'll throw myself into the bushes. But the house looks really really great (thanks in large part to B's parents, who traveled up several times to help, and my parents, who took my kids over spring break so we could refinish the floors).
We got an acceptable offer on our house just 12 days after it went on the market.
The key to keeping the house "ready to show" when there are three children in said house: put all of their toys and half their clothes in storage.
Date we'll officially become Yorkers: last weekend of July.
On tap for this summer: Frankstock 2008 in June (family reunion) and my mom's 60th birthday blow-out bash in August; two events which require me to get my guitar-playing chops back.
I am suffering with chronic fatigue. I've not been diagnosed, but the past couple weeks have been hard. By about 11 am I'm sleepy and coffee is pretty much ineffectual. I picked up some vitamins and I'm going to try to cut back on the junk to see if that will pep me up a bit.
This week is the "get ready for Buffalo" week. As in years past, I've spent the week before the Buffalo marathon intent on sleeping at least 8 hours a night, (good) carb loading, and drinking tons of water. This year, while I'll only be running the half, will be no different.
Posted by mryonker at 03:49 PM | Comments (4)
May 06, 2008
#500
Hi everyone!!!
This is post #500 on ye olde blog academom.
I have written 500 times here.
Hole. Eee. Sheet.
And since you're here, I'm sending you away. Please consider buying my house. It's beautiful and perfect and I don't want to leave it, but I think moving the house to York, PA would be cost-prohibitive.
Posted by mryonker at 08:34 PM | Comments (5)
April 30, 2008
public service announcement
Apparently, god does love me. While the snow flies in Syr proper (and apparently in good ol' Earlville), as is being reported currently by various bloggers and twitterers in my sphere, it is BLUE SKIES and GENTLE BREEZES and a WARM PATCH OF SUN for this Parish-ite.
Ha! For once, I'm getting the good weather instead of the crap. For once.
Posted by mryonker at 03:33 PM | Comments (2)
April 25, 2008
easing back into the blog
I've avoided blogging for a few weeks, simply because all I was thinking about was being miserable and stressed out. No one wants to hear any of that.
However, when your mom tags you, you oblige. So I'm back on the blogging horse, for now.
Five things in each of the following categories:
10 years ago, I was:
1. 22
2. A junior at Norfolk State majoring in English.
3. Mother to a toddler.
4. Living in Virginia Beach.
5. Writing a lot of poetry.
Today’s to do list:
1. Mop kitchen floor.
2. Try not to eat all day.
3. Do tons of laundry.
4. Try not to eat all day.
5. Write 500 words on the diss.
Snacks I enjoy:
1. Corn chips with cream cheese mixed with salsa.
2. Corn chips with avocado.
3. Granola.
4. Doritos.
5. Trail mix.
If I was a billionaire, I would:
1. Pay off my student loan, and all my friends' student loans.
2. Put enough aside so I could write full time.
3. Give the rest away.
4. Give the rest away.
5. Give the rest away.
My bad habits:
1. I judge myself and others much too harshly.
2. I yell at my kids.
3. I don't always "clean as I go," which makes it hard to teach my children to do so (hence, much yelling about "Pick up after yourself!!")
4. I squirrel time away reading crap on the internet.
5. I sometimes drink coffee too soon before bed, and then suffer with insomnia.
Pet peeves:
1. Tailgaters.
2. People who drive too slow in the fast lane.
3. Know-it-alls.
4. Ignorance.
5. Hypocrites.
Places I’ve lived:
1. Lincoln, NE.
2. Waukegan, IL.
3. Ceiba, PR.
4. Chesapeake, VA.
5. Colorado Springs, CO.
Jobs I’ve had:
1. Lifeguard.
2. Volleyball Ref.
3. Writing tutor.
4. Writing teacher.
5. Writer.
Posted by mryonker at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2008
in favor of cloning
I need a clone. That way, I could have one of me to finish getting the house ready to go on the market, and one of me to teach and write. Because I don't have enough time in the day to do both.
Posted by mryonker at 09:27 AM | Comments (1)
March 26, 2008
small but significant epiphany
This morning I got the old mat and bolsters out to do the "home practice" sequence out of this month's issue of Yoga Journal. The 9 asanas are meant to help relieve sinus pressure, which I am experiencing.
The first, child's pose, is an easy favorite. I shut my ears to Thomas the Tank Engine blaring in the background, ignored the cat nudging and purring into my neck, forgot--briefly--the toys and crumbs that surrounded me on the living room floor. I felt a smile grow inside me. "I really really should do this more often," I thought to myself.
The second is an old standby: down dog. I moved into it slowly, and found that I could neither straighten my legs NOR could I get my heels to the floor, as I am normally able. I sighed into the mat, tried my best to keep my arms extending and my back flat, and let go after MAYBE 30 seconds. (It was probably more like 10.)
And as I worked my way through the sequence, the rest of the poses eluded me; I worked into a decent shoulderstand, but several seconds into my headstand, the crown of my pointy head began to scream. My hamstrings cried out as I attempted to lower my legs into plow. My knees wouldn't abide reclining hero, which I normally can easily drop into.
Etc. Ad finitum.
I sat back on my mat and tried to remember the last time I practiced. I couldn't, save for the semester-long class I took a YEAR ago.
What was shocking to me, in the main, was that I've left and returned to yoga pretty regularly since I began practicing as an undergraduate. I've gone for months without getting on the floor, but have, as a rule, never had to re-train myself back into the flexibility and strength that (it seems like) I've always had. Down dog? No problem. Plow? Throw those legs back there!
And today it was like I was working with an alien body, not mine. It was telling me things I've never heard: "Nope, not enough room here to do that," and "Wow, this is really sending some DISCOMFORT to the ____ (insert random body part)."
As I sat on the mat, I wondered: has my body emerged officially out of youth and into something less-youthful? Granted, my body exhibits the marks of the less-youthful: stretch marks from child-bearing, varicose veins, arthritic toes, facial wrinkles, gray hair, and "old-people" bumps on my legs; however, I chalk much of those effects up to hard living: the veins and toe problems are from running, I'm certain. Many of the effects are hereditary: early gray runs in my family, as do the small "leg bumps" (which in all honesty are "moles gone wild").
And many of you might be chuckling, wondering: "She's THIRTY-TWO. She has THREE kids. And she's just now thinking that she may be done with being youthful?"
It might be that I spent so much of my real youth acting like a grown-up. I look at my students today and think: holy crap. When I was HER age I was married. When I was HER age I had 1 (or 2) kids already. I didn't have a moment in my life where I looked around me and thought, "Hm. Yes? Yes. This is it. I am an adult now. I am GROWN UP. I am leaving my youth behind." Even as I left hospitals with babies, even as I earned graduated degrees. Even as I celebrated a first, then fifth, then tenth, then twelfth wedding anniversary. Even as I went to a large conference this past winter, wearing a jacket and sensible shoes, to interview for the most grown-up jobs I could ever want. Even as I then visited campuses. Even as I negotiated and accepted a job offer. Even as my own daughter, who is now ELEVEN, confronts the edge of pubescence herself. I still, still, did not feel "grown up."
Until this morning, when I couldn't get my legs behind my head anymore. Well. I suppose everyone gets a wake-up call.
Posted by mryonker at 11:56 AM | Comments (5)
March 24, 2008
beat down
Either I am catching what B stayed home sick today with (mild fever, headache, general malaise), or I am withdrawing hard from this being the first day (in many many) that I've denied myself coffee.
I drank a Pepsi in late afternoon, hoping to fend off an impending caffeine headache, and it seems to have worked.
However, my shoulders and neck ache, my throat holds a persistent yawn, and I'm chilly.
Blecgh.
Posted by mryonker at 07:40 PM | Comments (2)
March 14, 2008
it's the little things
My favorite quick morning distraction: comparing the 10-day forecast of where I am now to the 10-day forecast of where I will be.
Posted by mryonker at 08:04 AM | Comments (0)
February 20, 2008
quick inventory
First, you must must must go check out the shawl that my mom made. It is magnificent. She is an amazing artist.
Second, after only a few months of having connected it, we have canceled cable TV. I couldn't believe how much of our lives it was sucking away, and I am still especially disgusted by the Disney programming (which, ironically, Disney was one of the reasons we decided to get cable in the first place). I have to admit I'll miss LA Ink--but don't tell anyone. So, we're back to PBS and a handful of local channels, some of which don't come in unless we make the kids hold the rabbit ears.
Third, I give you my current food obsession: the green chile omelet.
2 eggs
1 heaping Tbsp of cottage cheese
little bit (4 or 5 swipes on the box grater) of grated cheese (I'm using Colby/Jack)
2 Tbsp of diced green chiles
Measurements are all approximate. You must love the flavor of green chiles to love this omelet. And if you put too much cottage cheese, it will not stick together like an omelet should; you'll just end up with scrambled cheese-chile eggs. Which are just as good, just less pretty.
Fourth: I'm back to running in the morning. The icy roads and freezing wind are rotten, but my days are far more productive. I definitely feel the difference after only a week of being back to training seriously.
Fifth: The face that Little J makes while he concentrates on buttoning his pajama shirt is priceless. His lips stiffen, his nostrils flare, and his eyebrows float up into his forehead.
Posted by mryonker at 08:51 AM | Comments (1)
February 11, 2008
today's weather
Nicole Lee, who provided me with visual inspiration for an entire chapter of my diss, offers this doodle today:
Doodle by Lee. The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.
On today, in the pit of February, I suffer through yet. another. snowday.
Yet. Another.
Posted by mryonker at 08:40 AM | Comments (3)
February 05, 2008
this angers me
I live in NY, and because I'm a registered voter but not registered with either party, I cannot vote in the primaries.
I suppose this is a problem I could have remedied before today, so that I could have voted; however. However I didn't. Mostly because I find it incredibly irresponsible that NY still has such an antiquated system. Mostly because I don't WANT to be registered as a party member. But mostly because, as has been my refrain for the last few days, sometimes having to choose is incredibly hard, and it's easier when other people make decisions for me.
Don't flame me; I know the danger in such ambivalent attitudes.
Anyway, because I couldn't vote I don't have a voting narrative. However, I read this post over at elevene today with increasing anger. Not only (or necessarily) because there was a mistake made at a poling station, and not only because it resulted in someone leaving the poll without having been able to cast his vote, but because the jerk at the booth kept blaming some other lady for what was probably his mistake.
Nothing peeves me more than people blaming other people to save their own ass.
Posted by mryonker at 08:58 PM | Comments (3)
February 04, 2008
hotel-staying and traveling miscellany
Room service food is nearly always cold by the time it gets to me. Unless I happen to have a room with a microwave. Then the food will be plenty hot. In my experience, anyway. It's a variation of Murphy's.
Traveling and eating out make for great soup-trying. I've eaten soup at least once on every trip I've taken in the last month. The best? Squash Bisque and Crab Asparagus. Both soups from the same town, incidentally.
At one point, I returned to my room after a full day of walking and meeting people. I decided I would go ahead and drive home rather than stay an extra night out of town, so I began packing up. And I couldn't find my car keys. I frantically dumped stuff out of suitcases and briefcases and laptop cases, searching madly, feeling foolish. And then felt doubly--nay, triply--foolish when I found the ticket for the valet parking where I'd left the car.
Most ironic moment: me laying in a hotel bed, eating free-from-the-lobby chocolate chip cookies, watching George Stella's _Low Carb and Lovin' It_.
Posted by mryonker at 02:49 PM | Comments (0)
January 30, 2008
the day after
Here is how well my friends around here know me: for my birthday yesterday, I received home made chocolate chip cookies, some unknown but delicious cream cheese-y lemon bars, a pudding cake, a loaf of cranberry-nut cheddar bread, and some spicy apple-cranberry sauce.
And B made me his scrumptious boiled dinner, which I ate with an entire stick of melted butter. Just kidding. No, seriously.
Today, the kids are having a snow day (well, it's probably more aptly called a "high winds and ice" day). Big J is bouncing a ball against the door to the upstairs; H is tap dancing; Little J is running his Tonka dump truck through the house repeatedly.
Me? I'm eating nachos, grading papers, and listening to Jimmy Buffet. I need something tropical. 10:30 in the morning is probably too early for a Bahama Mama, huh.
I'd settle for a patch of sunlight on the rug in the living room. That I'd get a Bahama Mama is more realistic, though.
Posted by mryonker at 08:19 AM | Comments (6)
January 14, 2008
virtuous by comparison
Emerging from my silence to triumphantly announce: Even with the beginning of the semester upon me, even with the dissertation, even with 3-hockey-game weekends, and even with the inordinate amount of traveling I am doing this month...even with all of this,
I still do not have mushrooms growing in my bathroom.
I must be doing something right.
Posted by mryonker at 06:28 PM | Comments (1)
January 07, 2008
dry spell
Blogging here will be light-to-nonexistent for the next month or so. :)
Posted by mryonker at 03:07 PM | Comments (1)
December 17, 2007
happy merry
Here's this the photo that's going into the mail this year to family and far away friends.
Getting a decent pic of the 5 of us is quite an ordeal. While H is always pristinely groomed, the boys are not. I had to send Big J upstairs three times to change his clothes, and when he finally came down with shorts on I gave up. Little J was not in the mood to be asked to oblige anyone anything today. One thing that sometimes does cheer him up is his Power Ranger costume, so I told him that he could leave it on (he's worn it all day--my attempt to cheer him) if he would sit still on my lap for a moment. Apparently, it half-worked (he sat on my lap, but not still--see the blur of his hands?).
Also what you don't see in the pic: the box of baby wipes I used to clean dinner off the boys' faces; the hairbrush at my feet that I touched only briefly to each child's head (but somehow missed my own); and the 4+ feet of snow in the yard that I, for some reason, despise more this year than any year we've been here thus far. It might have to do with the small detail that we are not in possession of a working snowblower right now. Not that I mind the shoveling too terribly; in fact, I welcome the workout now that I've been truant from running for so long. I simply dread the day when the precip count is too much for my small scoop and that trying to shovel the drive would be like digging a garden with a teaspoon.
So, my plate for the next several days is full full full: an invited talk at a local retirement community, H's production of the Nutcracker tomorrow night, finishing and turning in grades, last minute shopping, finishing chapter 3, and leaving for Virginia. Blogging here will be, needless to say, light until the end of the year.
So happy merry everyone!
Posted by mryonker at 10:52 PM | Comments (4)
December 12, 2007
help! I'm drowning in kids!
Other things I'm drowning in:
Student projects and papers.
Dance rehearsals and recitals.
Hockey practices and games.
Dunkin Donuts coffee.
Books about narrative theory.
Laundry.
Bad hair days.
Holiday mint hershey kisses (and their byproducts: red and green little foil balls).
Posted by mryonker at 01:49 PM | Comments (2)
December 11, 2007
my eldest
I posted about "my middle," Big J, a few days back. Today, a couple words about my eldest, H.
This child is somehow JUST. LIKE. ME. Most people, when they see us side-by-side, remark how much we look alike. I am fortunate in that H still takes this as complimentary. (Although, people still think my mom and I look alike, and I still take it as a compliment.)
But similarities between H and me run far more deeply than the shape of our eyebrows (poor child). She has, at eleven, already developed a penchant for over-extending herself. As a (quite talented, IMO) dancer, she has managed to audition and place herself in two major holiday productions: her studio show, called the _Magic Toy Shop_, and as a party guest in the Moscow Ballet's _The Nutcracker_. You can imagine what my weekends have looked like since October rehearsals have started. She lucked out in that the rehearsal and performance dates for those shows did not overlap. Then, her elementary school music teacher encouraged her to audition for the school Christmas show. She brought the letter home; I (absentmindedly, I'll admit) signed it. She auditioned.
Heh. You know where this is going, I suspect.
So just this past weekend we got the dress rehearsal schedule for the _MTS_. Seems the final dress for the MTS is on the same evening as the performance for _Christmas at the OK Corral_ in which H is--surprise--the lead as "The Candy Cane Kid." And they are in completely different parts of the state. Well, I exaggerate; the Toy Shop is at the fairgrounds, and the school show is in Parish, about a 35 mile trek away.
::heaving heaving sigh::
I spoke to the director of Toy Shop and explained the mess I'd made as a half-aware mother. Luckily, the director was not unkind, and said if H could make the FIRST run-through of the dress rehearsal, she could sneak out and make the school show performance.
I'm not even trying to think of what that will look like in terms of driving for me.
::sigh::
You'd never know that she was so far extended, though. Her homework is always done; at my conference with her teacher last month her teacher gushed and gushed at what a great kid she is; she's got the highest average in her class**.
Part of me wants to discourage her from working so hard all the time. She's at the studio 4 nights a week and at least one weekend day; when she's home she's in her bedroom with her pointe shoes on at the barre that B installed for her. Working.
But then I remind myself that I am happiest when I have work to do. And I'm most productive when I'm extra busy. And that I like my busy life. Truly.
So now she's got a little planner that we're writing her schedule in, so that she doesn't have to rely on me to figure out what she's got time for. Because clearly I can really only do that for myself.
And just today we picked up her first pair of glasses; she's myopic just like her mama. I'll post a pic when she slows down long enough for me to snap one.
**(Big J's got the highest average in his class, too, I should mention. Lest I leave the post about him to simply talk about his gorilla arms.)
Posted by mryonker at 08:04 PM | Comments (0)
December 09, 2007
12 years
12 years ago today, in a tiny church in Pungo, Virginia, B and I got married. I wore a dress I designed and my mother made using recycled wedding dresses and a $100 piece of lace. (Something old, something new.) I might be exaggerating about the cost of the lace, but I remember thinking that the cost per yard of that stuff was ridiculous, and mom had to talk me into letting her buy it.
Posted by mryonker at 08:29 AM | Comments (5)
December 03, 2007
reasons the snow is halfway OK
1. I don't have to weed my garden.
2. I can run the dryer and the oven and not worry I'll overheat the house.
3. Little J can climb into bed with us in the middle of the night, and I don't immediately start sweating because of his extraordinary body heat.
4. I have a whole bunch of excuses to not run.
5. The switch back to hot coffee from iced.
6. When the refrigerator dies, as its clattering and groaning indicate it will shortly, we'll be able to move the frozen goods into the garage.
7. It, um...looks pretty. Kind of.
8. I don't have to look at the ugly hydrangia that I mangled last spring.
9. I have a great wardrobe of hats to wear. My wonderful mother, the shepherd, spinner, weaver, and knitter extraordinaire, gave me a whole box full of hats for Christmas, some of which you can see if you click through.
10. Soon, the kids will be able to sled off the roof. They are looking forward to it.
Me... Not. So. Much.
Posted by mryonker at 03:27 PM | Comments (5)
November 28, 2007
my middle
Big J is in the middle of a fascinating growth spurt. Yesterday for dinner, he ate: a plate of roast beef and vegetables, a plate of leftover enchiladas, two apples (seriously), another plate of enchiladas, and two granola bars. He then left to go to hockey, and came back home and ate another plate of roast beef and vegetables. And complained when I kissed him goodnight that he was hungry.
His body is also in an awkward stage; I cannot find long-sleeved shirts that fit him properly. It's as though his arms are two or three years ahead of the rest of him. If the shirt fits him in the body, the arms are three inches too short. If the shirt fits him in the arms, it hangs nearly to his knees. He's taken to wearing MY hooded sweatshirts, as they fit him in the arms. My son is a gorilla.
I'm trying very hard to not let Big J, the middle child, get lost in the sea of my attention. H is becoming super-independent these days; I don't have to tell her to take a shower or to do her homework anymore. Little J is a bit slow on the independence chart; I still have to get him dressed (and as he's just turned 4, I'm harboring a bit of indignance about this--Big J and H both could dress themselves by now), and he's developed this annoying fear of being in the bathroom by himself, which means everytime he has to go he requires a chaperone. I have to remind myself to remind Big J about his homework and to bathe and stuff like that; he has the tendancy to blend into the chaos of the house because he's soft-spoken and undemanding.
He lost a tooth the other day, and he gave it to me for safekeeping. I stuck it in a ziploc and promptly LOST IT. He was devasted that I could be so thoughtless. The toothfairy left him a note to explain that his mommy was sorry to have been irresponsible and that he shouldn't be angry with her.
She's just got a whole lot going on right now.
Posted by mryonker at 08:39 PM | Comments (3)
November 24, 2007
shoes
An update of the utmost quickness:
I was laid flat last week with the worst of stomach bugs. We've been lucky the past couple years to have escaped some of the nastier ones, but this year...ouch. Big J and I had it in the worst way. I'll spare your the gory, but I'm still a little weak and did not have much of an appetite for the feast on Thursday, understandably.
We hosted this year's festivities; in fact I called my sister and mom the day before they were to arrive (Monday) and told them to wait at least a day so they might avoid catching the grossness.
Dinner was mostly a success as result of the saving grace of gravy; the bird was dry and I managed to glue-up the potatoes as well--really I am lacking in the culinary prowess department.
The pie was good.
The relatives will leave town tomorrow after Big J's hockey game, of which I will attempt to record a short clip with my new digital camera that the great sis and bro-in-law brought us for Christmas.
Hopefully, when the mass exodus occurs, some of these shoes will go with all of them.
Posted by mryonker at 08:25 PM | Comments (3)
November 13, 2007
i'm not on strike
November is a bad month to have to travel. A quick jaunt to Virginia this past weekend put me waaaay back. With NaBloPoMo, my friggin' bloglines account is jammed to the hilt, and I know if I hit the "mark all read" I'm missing some great shoe and Cookie shots from Fussy. My students are all in various stages of their final papers/projects, so Blackboard is full of drafts I need to read and respond to. And somehow Chapter Three of the diss is taking about 4 times as long to write as I anticipated it would.
::heaving heaving sigh::
The good, though, is that the end of the semester is in sight. And even better, ze is offering up "post show" tidbits while, apparently, he is on strike.
Go Ze. We love you.
Posted by mryonker at 05:46 PM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2007
I'm it
I've been tagged.
I feel like 7 "facts" will be hard for me to come up with. I could see this reduced to metrics, as in, "I wear a size 7.5 shoe." But then I'd have the endless caveats: except running shoes, when I have to buy a full size up, and when I wear Birkenstocks, because then it's a size 38, etc etc ad nauseum. But I'll be good meme-er and follow Dr. Write's lead:
1. I tend to overthink things (see above). While this can be very useful in analytical writing, it sometimes gets in the way of the everyday workings of a household, and gets even MORE in the way when my whole family gets together and we're trying to make a decision involving the happiness and logistics of many adults and small children. My mom calls me the "baritone" of the family. Those of you who know barbershop will understand that.
2. I am secretly very competitive, and at the same time I disdain competition and assume that much of what is wrong with humanity is a result of opposition, rivalry, and fear of loss.
3. I often disgust myself with my own hypocrisy. At the same time, I strive to be more compassionate for myself and others. It's a bit of a vicious cycle, and sometimes my own awareness of it adds to the frustration.
4. I go to bed every night and think about how lucky I am to have a clean, dry, warm bed. This sounds rather cliche, I know, but it's true. I find it incredibly easy to name things I am grateful for--there are a lot of them.
5. One of my biggest pet peeves is when the cushions are off the couches and chairs in my living room. And, coincidentally, taking the cushions off the couch is one of my kids' favorite things to do. They make caves with them or stack them and bounce off of them, or they use them to lay on the floor in front of the tv.
6. Hard, physical labor makes me feel virtuous. This is why I like running. I am a bit of a masochist, I suppose, in that I equate discomfort with progress.
7. This post is an example, in the coding for my dissertation, of the following categories: MEME, EFFCON, LIST, RFLX.
And I tag:
Runningburro, Luna Boricua, aerobil, Krista, Marcia, J, and my mama.
Posted by mryonker at 02:05 PM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2007
fragments
Things I should post about:
Little J's birthday post. It's already about 4 days late, as he is a Hallowe'en baby. I had the narrative set up: the way, four years ago today, I canceled classes by email; the trip to Taco Bell on the way to the hospital as I knew they'd deny me food once we got there; the way B snuck me into the bathroom--after the nurses told me not to--like a good good husband does so I could avoid crapping on the doc; the way Little J was immediately a cranky, cranky baby and fussed from the very beginning, etc etc. But now he's a grown boy, calling me from the bathtub: "Mom! I have a SITUATION in HERE." What four-year-old says "situation??!"
The race report from Bruegger's Bagel run. It was fun; we dressed as M&Ms courtesy J, who has a pic up. It rained and hailed on us, which wasn't bad while we ran through the woods, but while we waited for D to get her award (first place in her age group! woo-hoo!) the hail pelted us like peanut M&Ms. Ouch.
The way my mind and body are slowly rebelling. The long hours of writing, along with keeping on top of the prep and grading for three classes, along with all the stuff that my family is doing right now--all that stuff is finally catching up. I have moments during the day when I can't remember what I'm doing; if I'm in the car I can't remember where I'm going. For little J's birthday party on Friday, I completely forgot to put the salad and vegie tray out. I had $20 worth of cucumber and broccoli and salad, and it just hung out in the cripser, lonely and forgotten. I forgot last night to turn the clocks back, and only remembered when I opened up my machine this morning at 10 (well, really 9) o'clock. We spent last night working the Public Skate at the ice rink where Big J plays hockey. I sat at the front desk taking money and stamping hands, and at times I felt like I was in a stop-motion film, where I was moving frame-by-frame, and the people around me were in FFWD X2. And I don't mean this figuratively. Strange and trippy.
Posted by mryonker at 10:00 AM | Comments (3)
October 01, 2007
perfunctory list
Yes. I no longer can compose an entry unless I'm given the freedom of writing an incoherent list. My apologies. I'm happy to report that I'm past the rough of last week.
I just have some little whinging to do: maybe you all can help me out a bit.
1. Somehow during my writing session yesterday, I inadvertently turned on the formatting in Word, so that I now see every hard return and there's a dot for every space, etc. I don't have any idea how to turn it off. It's not incredibly annoying, but I'd like to know how to make the CHOICE of seeing the mark-up. My geek/techie status has just lost all credibility, I know.
2. In a similar vein: any body got any opinions about writing a dissertation in Word? (I know, probably a good number of you will tell me to get out while I can.) My main concern right now is that for some arbitrary reason, I've created separate files for each chapter. So, when I streamline it into one, I'm just praying that, say, all the footnotes decide to get along and change their numbers accordingly. I've checked; the disses in my dept have footnotes that run through the entire text; they don't reset to #1 at the beginning of each chapter.
3. H is turning 11 in a handful of days. She is bugging me to let her shave her legs. This is a cultural practice that I don't particularly care for; I am hit-or-miss about whether I manage to keep my own legs smooth (more often it's miss, esp in the winter). I'm holding her off, but I'm really not finding a good argument (to her mind, anyway) for the prohibition. It is dangerous-ish? Ah.
4. Dunkin Donuts has pumpkin muffins, which are really REALLY scrumptious...
5. Runningburro is not posting often enough. While she redeemed herself slightly in the last two days, I'm still beginning a campaign to make her post more often. Please head over there and comment somewhere, and please add something in your comment that will prompt her to post more regularly.
Posted by mryonker at 06:32 PM | Comments (5)
September 27, 2007
working through some kinks
I'm having a hard-ish week. I say "hard-ish," because really, every week is hard. So regular hard is pretty easy for me. But this past week (see, I'm already willing it to be over) has been harder-than-normal-hard. But not unbearably hard. Just hard-ish.
1. Not sure it it's the increase in coffee, or the crappy eating habits, or the general lack of exercise/running I've been doing, but I'm encountering a bit of insomnia. I lay awake, rolling over repeatedly, everything distracting me: the sheets, my clothes, the intermittent traffic, the cats, my ideas.
2. In a strange turn of hormonal events, I've had two non-consecutive days of severe "woman pain." While it's not strange for my cycle to run me through two days of cramps, I've yet to have a bad day followed by a good day just for the bad to return. This might be linked to #1 above as well.
3. I had a perfectly good excuse to NOT help someone out, and I told her no. Then she called this morning and said "Good News! [I found a way around your excuse to say no!]" Um, how is that "good" news?
4. Both big kids went to school this morning in rumpled clothes for picture day. *sigh*
5. In a fit of rebellious frustration, I allowed myself a peek at the "new arrival" shelf in the public library yesterday. Not. Smart. I picked up a new Joyce Carol Oates (title evades me) and _The Road_ by Cormac McCarthy. The good news is that it only took me about 4 hours to read _The Road_ last night. The bad news is that I should have been writing. The good news is I had something to do while I was *not* falling asleep. And I recommend _The Road_ to anyone who enjoyed _Parable of the Sower_ by Octavia Butler or _The Stand_ by Stephen King. It reminded me vaguely of both, except with more sentence fragments. In fact, I think McCarthy must have some rule. Each paragraph with only 2 full sentences. The rest fragments.
Posted by mryonker at 10:19 AM | Comments (4)
September 23, 2007
weekend report
In the list, as they are so efficient!
Picked apples. Good GRAVY, how have I lived in NY for 5 years and not ever picked and eaten Honey Crisp?? They are worth $1 a pound (over .50 more than the other varieties). I'm going back tomorrow to get more. I have eaten FIVE today.
Ran 10 miles. I skipped the 20 last week, but I'm all about the TAPER. :) In two weeks from RIGHT NOW, I will have finished the last marathon I'll run in a good while.
Weighed myself for the first time in about 6 months. And all my belly aching about gaining a few pounds was for not; I'm actually about 5 pounds down from my normal weight. I think it's because I'm replacing muscle mass with flab, though.
Made four apple pies. No Honey Crisp in the pie, though. Macs. We're eating it with vanilla ice cream. I love apple season. Love it. Was I just talking about flab? Get me another piece of pie!!
Made the HOTTEST curry I've ever tasted. It's almost too hot to freekin eat, but I'm stubborn and ate two bowls for dinner last night. The first bite tastes wonderful, until you can't feel your mouth or lips any more, and by the third or fourth bite your guts are warm like you're drinking Wild Turkey. By the middle of the bowl you're wondering whether you'll ever be able to actually taste again. I had a bowl for lunch today but couldn't finish it. I think it actually got hotter.
Used the word "Bourdieu-ness" during my diss-writing session today. Still wondering if that's an effect of too much Panera coffee combined with too much staring at words on the screen, or if I really mean it.
Rode bikes with the kids to the park, where I sat in the warm grass and read papers and the kids swung and jumped from the swings repeatedly. The sky is bluer and the grass greener here than anywhere I've been. I kept getting distracted by the contrast of colors and the shrieks of delight coming from the swingset.
Cut Little J's hobbit-like toenails. They grow so fast I can barely keep them a reasonable length, and his penchant for running around barefoot makes them impossible to get clean. He kicks and laughs and I risk getting clocked in the face, but I escaped unscathed this time.
Posted by mryonker at 08:50 PM | Comments (4)
September 21, 2007
running the numbers
1: number of hours it took me this morning to run three miles with Little J on his bike. We stopped to throw rocks in the river, to look at every spider crossing the road, and at several intervals to simply rest. "We have to rest, Momma. You're tired." It was lovely.
12: number of cavities Little J has in his mouth. Yes, I am completely horrified--not because of the number, but because he'll need 4 appointments to have them taken care of. No 4-year-old should have to go to the dentist that many times in a row in the span of 4 weeks. The reason I am not horrified about the amount of decay is that I went through the "soft bad teeth" thing with H, who had to have a root canal at age 9. I am a oral hygiene nazi and I know there is nothing more I can do to prevent my kids from getting cavities. I don't even buy juice or Kool-Aid. They just have bad teeth. I think Big J might be lucky--so far things have been fine with him. And now that H has all her adult teeth in (and they've been sealed), she's had no more decay either.
16: number of inches of hair I donated yesterday.
3: number of kids in my house who disapprove of the cut--though I think it's growing on them. When asked if they liked it, Big and Little J answered simultaneously, "No."
1: number of songs by Dexy's Midnight Runners I put on D's iPod for her.
Posted by mryonker at 08:35 PM | Comments (3)
September 20, 2007
the re-neg
I have been making substantial headway on my research. So much so, that I no longer need material incentives.
Plus, I think the sheer weight of my hair is causing it to fall out excessively. I dread brushing it; washing it makes showering a 10 minute affair (which in my books is gluttonous).
I've decided that to lop it off would actually HELP me in that it would make life, in general, easier. Then I won't spend an hour each day sweeping up hair off the floor.
My appointment is at 5:30. Wish me luck.
Posted by mryonker at 04:03 PM | Comments (0)
September 16, 2007
i'm working. this is how you know.
I'm up so late writing that I forget what day it is, and then I stand up my running buddy the next morn.
When faced with an extra hour, I write--used to be, I'd run. I did run the Bud Run last Saturday. I ran with J on her first 10K and she did well; we finished in under 1:10. But mostly I am not running. I am writing. The marathon in Albany will just have to be an undertrained adventure.
My left wrist aches. I have arthritis in my toes, and this is the same deep hollow ache--and it hurts even when I'm not moving it. I attribute it to 2+ hours a day at the laptop keyboard. B thinks I should be working at a better keyboard (ie a fullsize) and that might help.
I have completely revised the chapter breakdown. And to me, this is huge progress. As aerobil sez (but I'm too lazy to find/link to the actual post), writing is mostly organizing. I'm working slowly on an exploded outline as ideas emerge (low-tech: newsprint and Crayola markers), and I'm nearly ready to send off the methodology chapter. (But afraid to.)
I've found that when I sit at the machine for 4+ hours at a time, I get a little shaky. And cross-eyed. And when you ask me a question I can't always answer right away because instead I'm TYPING WORDS in my head that I must read in order to respond to you. Sorry.
My house is a HUGE mess. My family is out of socks. I'm lucky H is big enough to do the dishes. B gets disgusted every once in a while and cleans the floors. But other than that: I've got my entire life spread out on the dining room table (and under it as well, in crates) and I've decided that it will JUST STAY there.
I don't cook. B cooks. That means we have steak and Rice-a-Roni most nights. He is a good daddy and puts raw carrots on our plates, too. He will be up for sainthood after this year; I guarantee.
Posted by mryonker at 08:32 PM | Comments (2)
September 08, 2007
le quik
Music is really important when I write. I need to have a little going on in the background to remind me to not fall into my own brain and go insane. So, when I came across this meme at elevene, decided to take a quik break. As in Nestle Quik, and as in "le quik," because, for some reason that I attribute to my frantic dissertation dash, I have developed an annoying (to others around me) habit of using LE for emphasis.
I don't even speak le Francois.
And I was just thinking last night that I would have to remember to thank Nickel Creek in my acknowledgments, because their music, specifically the This Side album, has become a Pavlovian trick I play on myself: when I hear Chris Thile and Sara and Sean Watkins' voices, when I hear the blistering fast mandolin, I immediately start thinking about narrative theory. It works. I'm not even kidding.
So, for the music meme.
What’s your ringtone?
I pretty much hate ringtones. I don't think my phone even does ringtones (might be why I hate them; I can't have 'em--real mature, huh?). My phone beeps once and then vibrates.
What’s the most incongruous song on your MP3 player?
Whinge. I has no player.
What is the one genre of music you cannot stand?
Don't really have intense dislike of any kind of music; there are songs that I can't listen to because I find them annoying (that Avril Lavigne "Girlfriend" song comes to mind).
What’s your desert island disc?
Probably a Nickel Creek. But that changes, depending on my mood. Jackson Browne's _Running On Empty_ or Fleetwood Mac's _Rumours_ are also "never get sick of" picks.
What’s your musical weakness?
As is evidenced above, late 70s rock. I also love Journey, and this has been cause for my public ridicule on occasion.
Do you play a music instrument?
In high school, I played bassoon, oboe, flute. I took piano lessons as a youngster and can still plunk a few out. Mom taught me to play the guitar (chord strum only) and it's the only thing I still play today.
Best make out song ever?
Gah. I'm finding this question really difficult. Maybe something by Pantera off _Far Beyond Driven._
Best driving song?
Really, anything.
One song that you think everyone should read the lyrics of?
"Don't Drink the Water" by Dave Matthews, or his new "Eh Hee."
Is downloading music for free a sin?
I don't believe in sin.
Do you karaoke?
Nah, I'd rather accompany myself.
One musician you would happily whore yourself to?
Dave Matthews.
First album you ever bought?
B 52s _Cosmic Thing_
Most recent album you bought?
The soundtrack to _House of Flying Daggers_ (iTunes).
Favorite Beatles song?
"Hey Jude."
One song that represents your teenage years?
That's hard, too. I had too many teenage years. "Fascination Street" by the Cure.
One song that represents your 20s?
I started listening to country and bluegrass then; probably something by Bela Fleck or Kenny Chesney.
One song that represents where you are right now?
"With Imagination (I'll Get There)" by Harry Connick, Jr.
One song that represents your blog?
"Soon to be Nothing" by the Indigo Girls. ;)
Posted by mryonker at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)
September 05, 2007
poor. neglected. parenthetical.
Yes, I am referring to this blog. As well as my running (I have only half-heartedly been out a handful of times since the GLER), my house (which looks as though that proverbial tornado hit it), and my general sanity and well-being (I have been operating on no more than 5 hours of sleep each night, forgetting to eat during the day while the kids are at school, and my body laughs heartily if I even think the phrase "down dog").
I'm back to teaching, trying like hell to write this dissertation, and working frantically to revise one article and draft another.
As one of my favorites likes to say: "workity workity."
For your enjoyment during what will be long silences here at acadeee, I offer you a not-embarrassing pic from the last weekend, a pic where you can see my bloody leg from when I wrestled with a some brambles during an off-trail foray, and how I will cut my hair AS SOON AS I AM ALLOWED TO by my resident diss-pact enforcers.
Posted by mryonker at 09:46 PM | Comments (4)
August 16, 2007
spider pig...spider pig...
...does whatever spider pig does. I've got a stack of "to-do" stuff to, uh, DO today: recommendation form/letter for former student. Teaching statement/philosophy. Design/compile professional web page (no, shocking as it is, I don't have one). Contact old institutions to get copies of my transcripts on file here with career services. Grade a few last papers and submit grades for the summer class I taught. And the list continues, to include writing a page or two on my diss (which is only slowly eeking out of me--waiting for the deluge here!!).
And what am I doing? That sad little thing that makes us human, while we wait to die. I am making D calculate my goal time for the 15K this weekend based on my goal pace for the Albany marathon. I am reading my favorite new blog, learning about proper bus-riding protocol in China. Reading the most recent Kripalu catalog. Browsing (and pining for) clothes at Eileen Fisher. Taking the kids to the pool. Lamenting that it's getting dark earlier and earlier...
Posted by mryonker at 10:58 AM | Comments (3)
July 20, 2007
that nasty...
...little meme, for which no one will tag me. The eights, many of which have been ganked from those who've come before me:
1. I got up this morning, of my own volition (no D waiting at the end of my driveway), at 430 AM and ran 14 miles. Well, D did meet me around 545 to run the last 8. And it was wonderful to have the company. And I am now a stiff MFer.
2. This one is hard to explain. But when I sing, and I *mean* the singing (that is, I'm not just belting off whatever with the radio), my eyes water and my nose really tickles. This also happens when I'm talking with an enormous amount of sincerity.
3. I've never dreamt that my teeth fall out, but I dream about falling *a lot*. I'm always falling slowly, and often it is toward water, and I dream I'm trying to steer myself to the water. I never land.
4. At 18, I lived in Colorado Springs and worked three jobs, and rode my bike to each because I had no car. I didn't have a plan for life. Marriage? Coast Guard? Professional Aerobics Instructor?
5. I have a cone-shaped head. This makes it difficult for any sort of hair style to lay properly on my head. Bangs have always looked ridiculous on me, for instance. This is why I have only two ways I can wear my hair: all-one-length long, or all-one-length short. (And yes, I'm preoccupied with my hair right now. Bear with.)
6. I think horseback riding is cruel. I've done it before, and I'll admit was a great deal of fun. But I just can't imagine that it's fun for them. And the argument "They [the horses] LIKE it," doesn't hang for me--horses can't talk. Also, we don't do circuses, and we rarely do zoos. I do like to *eat* animals, but I don't like to see them in cages.
7. As a child, I thought I was special and my existence meaningful--I thought I was meant for Greatness. Over the years, I've learned that that's a pretty common thing for a child to think of herself, and that one has to work to be special and meaningful. But it's worth it. ;) Even if I'm special because my secret ninja skillz involve super-fast pbj assembly.
8. I have arthritic toes.
9. My H has amazing legs. No, they're not from my side of the family. But I admire them nonetheless.
Yeah, I did nine. Sue me.
Posted by mryonker at 10:05 AM | Comments (1)
July 19, 2007
cup noodles, other
So, you know those Maruchan Ramen noodles called "Instant Lunch?" They should be called "Instant MESS." You think you're saving time boiling water and feeding the hordes some nutritionally void carbohydrates for lunch, and then you get an hours' worth of picking up noodles, one by one (because there ain't no "sweeping" or "wiping" a noodle, that's for damn sure) from ALL OVER THE HOUSE.
No, I did make them stay at the table. I don't know how the noodles got onto the bathroom floor.
In other news, the fall marathon schedule appears to be set. In preparation for D's imminent Boston qualification at the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon, we're running a few 10Ks and then running the Green Lakes Endurance Run (heretofore known as the GLER).
No, we are NOT doing the 100K. Just the 50K. B was quick to point out that the GLER is in AUGUST, the hottest time of year here, and that we are nearly out of our minds. That he is really beginning to question my ability to think rationally. That I am a bit selfish for leaving him with three young children to raise on his own.
I assured him I would only be gone for, oh, 7 or 8 hours.
Posted by mryonker at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)
July 14, 2007
wagers
In addition the pact I set with myself to NOT cut my hair until my diss is done*, a wager now exists as even more incentive for me to work:
B has bet me that he will finish the upstairs bathroom before I finish a full draft of my dissertation.
This is a good-natured wager, with the winner only earning bragging rights.
I am SOOO going to win this one. That bathroom has been raw studs for two years now.
*I wondered aloud, briefly, while running with D the other day, whether or not a TRIM would count as a cut. She berated me vehemently and accused me of near-cheating, and warned me that she would be policing the length of my hair from now on to make sure I don't try anything sneaky. And while we're on the subject of my hair, I'm going to record in the next few days, just how much hair I lose when I wash and brush it. And how it seems like soooo much because it is so freakishly long now. Seriously, I look like Cousin It. And no, I can't take a better picture; my camera's broke and all I got is this Photobooth crap (which locks up my MacBook frequently--bleah). And aiming the laptop camera at my own back to show my hair but NOT my fanny is nearly impossible (end of hair and fanny are mere inches apart). So this is all you're getting. Oh, and here is a great pic of me and my family + T and Ch + my aunt R and uncle J from our summer trip.
Posted by mryonker at 01:42 PM | Comments (2)
July 12, 2007
small worlds
This is my old friend Mike.
Years ago we struggled side by side through the great Dr. Page Laws' honors seminars at Norfolk State University and sat next to each other in alphabetical order to receive our diplomas in 1999.
Then we went our separate ways: me to an MFA program across town, he to be a chef in NYC. And then we diverged yet again: me to a PhD program here in Syr, he to Japan to teach English. We lost touch until this year, when he found me via the internets to wish me a happy birthday. After all these years, he remembered me and my birthday. What a guy.
And what a guy he is. Mike doesn't post to his own blog very often, but when he does, it makes my day. His pictures are always ecstatic and colorful. He is an amazing runner and posts great stories about biking up Mt. Fuji and marathon reports.
Anyway, it looks like he just had a birthday recently, so I just wanted to give him a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE! here. In addition, though, I want to think about Mike right now, and what great adventures he's having on the other side of the world, because my beloved Runningburro is leaving for the other side of the world in a few weeks. I will miss her terribly, but reading Mike's posts reminds me that she and Rainbowhair will have an amazing time in China.
So I'm hoping Rb will blog with pics, so I can live a bit vicariously through her.
But most of all, I hope to be able to visit her while she is away and have a bit of an adventure of my own. I even am dreaming that she and I can run this crazy-ass race together.
The first section which covers approximately 9 kilometres takes the runners up to, across and down the Great Wall of China. This part of the course is marked by steep ascents and descents of up to 10% and consists of thousands of steps. Runners are advised to run slowly going up and down the mountain, as well as to walk when passing the steepest parts of the Great Wall. Full marathoners will complete this section of the course twice.
Ouch. Well, they keep the course open for 8 hours. We could do it! And I would definitely have to buy a camera, and I would pose with my mouth hanging open and my fingers in a permanent peace sign. I could be like Mike.
Posted by mryonker at 09:34 PM | Comments (1)
June 27, 2007
another lamely themed post
Here are the things I'm "working" on right now:
1. My tan. I'm really like a smoker in this regard, especially with Heather's second removal as a reminder that I shouldn't be laying in the sun unprotected. I know it's not good for me, but I *like* it. My old, wrinkly, splotchy skin looks oh-so-smooth and less splotchy when it's brown. Plus, it makes me feel productive as I chase umpteen kids at my friend's pool. As in, I'm not just chasing kids, I'm working on my tan! Also, it's an old-school way of thinking that I can't shake, like eating bacon: as a product of the "non-fat" movement, low-carb logic--even with the studies behind it--makes no sense to me. None. And so neither does sunscreen.
2. My methodology chapter. I've got the study corpus nailed down, with help from the boss, but am a bit stymied about what I really need to be doing with it. So, I figured that writing the methodology will force me to reckon with what I plan to do, and how I should do it. It's ugly right now, and reads a whole lot like a literature review of other people's methods, but it's work and *I'm working*.
3. This online 205 course. It's been a few years since I've taught research writing online, and I forgot how grueling sometimes it can be having ALL your work be in front of a computer screen, and ALL your communication in writing. I've already made the viable students* meet me briefly in IM conferences so that I could make them talk to me in real time, but I'm about to make them meet me again as they gear up to write their extended research.
4. Gearing up for the road trip to Iowa, the biennial pilgrimage to see my dad's family that involves a shitload of fireworks, both homemade and not, and this year a trip to Adventureland, which will supplant our normal trip to Henry Doorly Zoo. I already have 4 kids'** suitcases packed and ready to go. I'm learning to NOT do things at the last minute. I did wait until the last minute to buy tickets for for Adventureland, though. If I bought them online I could have saved $5 a ticket--$35 dollars total. But you can only buy them online for them to SHIP them to you, which takes at least 7 business days, which I don't have anymore. Bleh.
*I also forgot how many online students go AWOL.
**I have an extra kid this summer, my niece Charlotte.
Posted by mryonker at 05:00 PM | Comments (1)
June 24, 2007
who taught me what
I'd been working up a post about things people have taught me--things that maybe should have always been obvious but weren't (to me, anyway). Then Krista posted today about influences, and so I decided to riff a bit off her.
Mrs. White, my high school English/comp teacher, Dostoyevsky and Raskolnikov, and Sartre taught me when I was a junior that I could think about life in ways that I didn't know were viable. I had a kind of life-changing moment, sitting in the quad of my high school reading some Intro to Philosophy reader under the hibiscus, where I realized how tenuous my simple-minded perspective was. I remember that moment with great detail: the feel of the humid air and the hum of water fountain--and the way this epiphany brought me an equal sense of freedom and fear.
As an undergrad, I worked at a volleyball club in Virginia Beach as a referee and office person. The assistant director taught me that I could put as much cream cheese on a bagel as I wanted; I could even tear the bagel into pieces and drag it through the cream cheese. She also taught me (through her example) that infidelity in marriage, something I thought only existed in soap operas, happens all around us, all the time.
My step-mother's mother, who babysat us during those summer days we stayed at my dad's house, taught me that people actually DO watch General Hospital. She was the first person I ever met (and one of the few in total I've ever known) who watched soap operas. every. day. She also taught me that smoking can keep some people very skinny, and that smoking can eventually, after a good deal of suffering, kill a person.
My step-mother tried to teach me that running would make my uterus prolapse and render me barren and childless. I figured I would have to either smoke or run, and at 14 I'd yet to witness death-by-running. Since then, of course, I've read about runners dying because of hypo- and hyper- all kinds of stuff, but I clearly didn't have to worry about the barren part.
My mother sat me down when I was 14 and said, "Every single time I had sex without protection, I got pregnant. The same goes for all your aunts. Your eggs are of extremely fertile stock. Make sure you know how to use a rubber."
That same year, in English class with Mrs. White, we were talking about RU-486 and sex education. Within that context, I said something about rubbers, and got hugely quizzical looks from the entire class, including Mrs. White. "What Madeline means to say is condom," Mrs. White hastily added.
Posted by mryonker at 09:54 PM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2007
dunkin distraction
I neglected to post when, a few months back, Dunkin Donuts opened up shop in my village.
Really, a DD does not belong in my village, because there is so very little in my village in the first place. We have no McDonald's or other major franchise. We have a small library that still uses a card catalogue, and the librarian stamps and takes the cards out of the books when you check them out. There is a hardware store, an auto shop, a laundromat with about 4 washers and dryers, and a diner. There was a small market when we first moved here 4 years ago, but it has since shut down; there just wasn't enough business.
However, my village has the great distinction of being stuck to the side of interstate 81. And so we also have a truck stop and a couple gas stations whose business is not dependent on the 34 people who live in the village. *This* is how Dunkin Donuts came to town; by way of interstate traffic. Our DD actually shares space with one of our gas stations.
But it is NOT the interstate traffic that is keeping DD in business, I can tell you that. Nosirree. I alone am keeping that damn donut shop in business.
And I'm not buying donuts, either.
Once there was a great guy who I shared an office with here at SU. He was the best office mate: quiet, good-natured, and would ALWAYS ask if I wanted a coffee when he got up to traipse down the hill to the student center for a cup of his own.
I asked him one day, "Why do you walk all the way down to the student center for coffee when you can get coffee from the deli in our building? Or the little student-run place in the Chapel next door?"
He said, "Dunkin Donuts has better coffee than ANYONE. And don't ever forget it."
I haven't. And now a small iced coffee is 99c. And so for the price of 24 oz (medium), I can get 32 (two smalls).
buzzzz. buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
(I typed this entry in about 90 seconds.)
Posted by mryonker at 03:10 PM | Comments (4)
June 12, 2007
this is what happens when I think too hard about method
I have several posts I'm ruminating--the most pressing probably a response to Henry's reportage of the Hirshman-Schmitt debate on data about women voting rationally, or irrationally, or something. I have a good deal to say, most of it incoherent babble and objection to the "data" from a census being more valuable than anecdotal evidence (ie, real experiences narrated by real people).
I don't have the energy to link it all up here, but essentially Hirshman (in one breath, more or less) is somehow both critical of academics AND insists that people who make claims about mothers BE academic.
Um. That wasn't especially coherent. Clearly Hirshman would get all up in my face for that. But anyway.
Hirshman says that data from the census and from the Bureau of Labor Statistics proves mothers who leave work to raise their children, thinking they can "go back later," are screwing themselves economically.
When a non-academic refutes this claim, using anecdotal evidence, Hirshman is scandalized that such poor journalism exists.
My reaction to this exchange, which kind of devolves in the comments of Henry's post into an argument about rhetoric, is not about the the topic itself. I think it's abusive that this woman is trying to scare mothers into trying to keep their jobs and have kids just so they don't lose that time moving up the corporate ladder. But frankly I don't care about women who are in corporate jobs that are so high-stakes that to leave for a couple of years would keep them from making partner. Sounds heartless, I know. But the mothers I worry/think about are those who have to decide whether to quit their job at Burger King or if they'll be able to work enough hours to justify paying a sitter. I might be ignoring a part of this, but it just sounds like a rich person's dilemma, and I. don't. care.
Yes, Ms. Hirshman, both your daughters are working and have children. But their mother has a law degree. They were able to go to college. They have money for decent childcare. I think you offering up your own daughters as evidence is--gasp!--anecdotal and unacademic. And not fair.
Posted by mryonker at 02:44 PM | Comments (1)
June 09, 2007
late
I've gotten bad around here lately with the blogging. I wait until I've got a few good things to write about, and then I can't figure out how to make them all thematically fit, so I end up making up some lame tag that connects them all.
So here, I offer the epitome of dumb themes so that I can write about several things that have nothing to do with one another (except to maybe show that I've become...*gasp*...a lazy blogger!): this week I was LATE!
I just found out that fellow writer, teacher, runner and ODU alum zunshyn had her first baby, Aren Pierce, almost 3 weeks ago. (His daddy's beard will be a fun toy in about 3 months!)
LATE! getting this rhubarb pie out of the oven. Rhubarb courtesy the boss. It still was quite wonderful.
And finally: I was late leaving the beach yesterday. Yes, this would have made a great picture, but my camera's dead, and photobooth works for taking pictures of pies on counters, but less so for pictures of sunburnt bodies. I am always hugely annoyed when I get sunburned; I imagine myself cut of swarthy cloth, immune to the fears my fair-skinned, hat-wearing, SPF-slathering friends have of the sun. I lived in Puerto Rico for three years, worked on the beach for the entire time as a lifeguard. I am NOT A BURNER.
But apparently living 8 months of the year with every inch of my skin covered in SWEATERS for the past 5 years has rearranged my melanin make-up.
Posted by mryonker at 10:01 AM | Comments (1)
May 22, 2007
the busy
After a week of painting and cleaning, and then a weekend of carousing with B's family up from VA for B's graduation, I slept for 12 hours, nearly straight.
We returned from the graduation ceremony + dinner on Sunday night at about 6:30. I promptly put my fanny on the couch and slept until bedtime, whereupon I woke, brushed my teeth, and then went to bed.
I woke up Monday morning to put the kids on the bus and give Little J a bowl of cereal (or, "bow seeyall apple gacks"), and then sat down on the couch for a bit of _It's a Big Big World_, only to fall asleep AGAIN for about 2 more hours. (Luckily, B is off this week, so I was not neglecting Little J in my excessive snooze-fest.)
Then Monday after I woke up from my million years of sleeping, we went out to run some errands. Y'all know we've had some car trouble? One of those errands we ran involved the purchase of a brand new car. Now, we have a car that will not stall, will start whenever we need it to, will not drop the transmission on the interstate, and will not require B to crawl under it and change rusted break lines, rusted exhaust, or any other rusted rustiness (for another couple years of CNY living, anyway).
It is black, 6-speed, and mighty nice. And now we're mighty broke. But B will be able to get to work next week when he starts his new job! Happy days, people.
Posted by mryonker at 11:31 PM | Comments (2)
May 16, 2007
grateful
Today I am grateful. It is a day of thanksgiving.
Thank you to my amazing dissertation committee, who during my prospectus hearing yesterday were supportive and full of ideas and renewed my enthusiasm for my project.
Thank you to my mom and my sister and all my far-flung friends (esp you, digital penny) whom I have ignored in some fashion over the past few weeks as I finished the book chapter (it's sent!) and wrapped up the semester. Thanks for loving me anyway, and calling to talk to the answering machine, and knowing I'll call back but only briefly to say I'm too busy to chat, really, and I'll call back later. And then I don't call back, 'cause the busy hasn't really gone away yet.
Thanks be to my B, who yesterday chased kids in a field across the street from the potluck while I visited with my friends and colleagues. Thanks to him for wrestling Excel into submission and putting up with my convoluted grading system (I thought it would be easier??) so that I could actually record grades.
I'm also grateful that:
Collin earned tenure here at SU!
Susan graduated! (Hooray dradams! sez B)
Derek also passed his prospectus hearing yesterday. Nice work, man. He's up for some Olympian CCR-speed matriculating or something.
and Chris is now offically ABD, having passed her oral defense this morning.
Lots to be grateful for today.
Posted by mryonker at 12:00 AM | Comments (5)
April 22, 2007
on not-blogging
I've been preoccupied with:
jail. In the last two weeks, jail and possible-jail have entered my life (not for me, of course, but for someone close). It's raised a couple of issues for me: 1) it seems like if a person had any sense it should be really easy to stay OUT of jail; and 2) that a person's definition of "sense" might become a problem in making jail avoidable. Sorry for the vagueness.
moving. B, after drumming up a handful of interviews, has been offered a sweet deal at a large corporation about an hour south of where we live now. If we were to move there, I would still be a half hour from SU. My commuting makes sense, since I normally only have to be on campus 2 or 3 day a week. We spent today scoping out the town, looking at some possible rentals just to get an idea of what we could afford. We found a great park, the hockey/sports arena, one possible dance school, and the Dunkin Donuts. :) Because coffee is important.
the marathon in less than 6 weeks. My left knee has been giving me hell for about two weeks now, and I've dropped my mileage down to damn near nothing to let it mend. I'm pretty sure I screwed it up the week that I was alone during the kids' spring break--we nearly double our mileage that week just because we could (D was on spring break, too), and I was a sad case by the weekend. I had to skip the first 20-miler, and skipped the 12-mile taper yesterday. Bleh. I coughed up the dough for new shoes last week and went and got myself a neoprene sleeve today. Looking back in the archives, I found that my knees gave me hell last year about this time, so I suppose I should not worry too much. Still, it's a bit depressing to know that I'm not training the way I should.
writing. I have an article due on May 1st, and it's taking everything I have to squeeze out one measely sentence (and then one more...). I suppose this week I'll turn into the hermit lady and let the house go to shit and ignore everyone and finish it. I suppose I could be working on that right now.
Yes. The not-blogging.
Posted by mryonker at 10:10 PM | Comments (2)
April 17, 2007
everything's a narrative
Chick with the Orange Running Hat blogs, in two parts, her Boston marathon (in which I believe she PRs).
Mommy, PhD posts Annabelle's birth story.
Lee captures the story of my life every morning.
Posted by mryonker at 06:07 PM | Comments (1)
April 12, 2007
an explanation
I just want to offer a quick excuse for my silence here as of late:
This week was the kids' spring break, and my family left me. Well, didn't *leave me* leave me, but everyone but me traveled south to my mom's. I have been alone for almost an entire week.
I was supposed to have a writing-fest, but unlucky for me, this was also the week that I collected and returned 3 classes worth of extended research papers--what amounted to about 600 pages of reading and grading.
Happily the grading is done, but the only writing I have been able to finish has been another substantial revision to the prospectus. And there has been a good reason for my inability to get anything else done: I don't know what to do with myself when I don't have other people to take care of. I don't know how to take care of MYSELF by myself. I forget to eat breakfast. I lose track of where I'm supposed to be. I don't know what day it is--one day I nearly forgot it was a teaching day. Luckily I have friends: running with D has been a godsend in that I actually have a reason to get up in the morning.
Left to my own devices, I've done things like:
stop at Arctic King (our favorite local ice cream stand) on the way from from work for dinner. What was dinner, you ask? A Hoffman hot dog and a 24 oz chocolate milkshake.
watch movies "to keep me company." Which movies, you ask? Only movies I've already seen: The 40 Year Old Virgin, The Italian Job, and Tristan and Isolde. My theory is that having the TV on makes me feel less lonely, but playing movies that I've seen doesn't require me to give all my attention. The problem is that James Franco essentially requires *ALL* my attention. He's required all my attention FOUR times already. (See what I mean? I'm useless! and crazy!)
sleep on the couch. I've become so lazy I can't drag my fanny upstairs to sleep. Well, that's only half-true. I'm also a teensy bit scared to sleep upstairs by myself. (What is WRONG with me??)
spend hours on YouTube watching (what else?) trailers and interviews with James Franco. (Pathetic, really.)
bug all my friends to hang out with me. I have successfully wrangled a ham dinner AND home made meatballs out of my dear neighbor D; a great celebratory fest and blueberry pancake breakfast out of C in honor of her exam-finishing, a salad-sharing eve with T, and lunch with Rainbowhair and Runningburro.
So you see? I've been busy with very important stuff. I'm off to make a batch of Rice Krispie treats--all for ME!
Posted by mryonker at 04:21 PM | Comments (3)
April 05, 2007
this is not a post about how I hate snow
The melancholia hangs on. H is still spending her days on the couch, shivering under a blanket, her eyes bloodshot and her energy nil. Little J is better-ish--not as hot but still sluggish and cranky like a grizzly who woke early to find the stream still frozen and no fish to be had.
Or like the grizzly who woke (on time) in March and then had to weather a blizzard the first week of April.
I did not run this morning in a fit of protest against the plow's passing of my house.
Chinese take out for din. Since the stream is frozen and there's no fish to be had.
Posted by mryonker at 05:13 PM | Comments (2)
March 29, 2007
spring morning sampler
Yoga last night was *lovely*. It may be because I missed last week's class, or because I spent yesterday from 930 to 530 talking through research papers with students and my body thought it would have to remain in that hunched over position forever. But I felt amazing when class was over, and I still feel this wonderful looseness and lightness even now. I'm looking forward to my first Bikram class this weekend, which I'm taking at H's dance studio.
Lance's post on being a generous audience. Indeed, there has been a flurry (or fury?) of posts about the best way to present during a conference, and Lance's post struck me as grounding: this may not be a debate we can ever come to a consensus on, and it seems like as presenters we can do what we think will work best. But it also seems that as audiences we can try our best as well. It reminds me of Anne's theory of generous audience (for which I have no citation right now, but I remember her talking about it during a talk she did here last year).
The sun is shining, and my curtains are open.
The Departed came from Netflix yesterday. We splurged and watched it on a weeknight, and we weren't disappointed. I'd heard mixed reviews of this film, and I knew that it was going to be gory. I expected the dropped accents, too, especially by Nicholson (who, I'll say, really has only one character left in him any more: old, lascivious, and under-the-influence-with-a-mean-streak scary dude). But I did not expect to fall in love with Leonardo DiCaprio('s character) the way I did. I might actually have to watch it once more before we send it back, just to make sure I didn't miss any of the twists.
We (D and I) are registered for the Buffalo Marathon. We have a hotel reservation. I will miss my runningburro, though, as she has opted out of Buffalo this year since it was pretty cruel to her last year. (I'd argue it was cruel-er to me.)
I'm working up the gumption to clean the house, which is so taken over by goldfish crumbs, balls of cat fur, laundry and duplos that I don't even know where to begin. It's so bad that I can't
*It helps to have different colors.
Posted by mryonker at 08:02 AM | Comments (1)
March 25, 2007
jiggety jig
I have returned from NYC in fine, if overstuffed, shape.
I "ate my face off," as the beloved running partner would say, the highlight being an amazing dinner marathon at McCormick and Schmick's, where I was pretty much sure I'd died and gone to seafood heaven.
And because I was too busy eating the whole time, I managed to break my running streak in heinous fashion, skipping all three days I was away.
The trip was totally worth it.
Posted by mryonker at 09:11 AM | Comments (1)
March 21, 2007
mama's takin' us to the zoo
Well, in this case, "mama" is my good friend C, and the "zoo" is NYC for 4Cs, the hugest composition conference evar.
It's been a while since I've been to the big city. Nearly 10 years. Let's hope it is kind to us. I plan to eat a lot of good food.
Catch y'all on the flip.
Posted by mryonker at 06:06 AM | Comments (3)
March 17, 2007
this made my day (worse and better)
Today was the last day of the show. :( But I still laughed out loud when he threw up scrabble tiles onto the board, because this is EXACTLY how I play.
Little J and I will miss you, Ze.
Posted by mryonker at 07:40 PM | Comments (1)
shitty shamrock
Is my foul mood coming across properly in that title? Good.
On a quick break from writing, I'm trying to assuage my weather-related depression (blizzard--yuk) with a some creative iTunes playlisting.
Mexico (James Taylor)
Carolina In My Mind (JT)
California (Joni Mitchell)
Get out the Map (Indigo Girls)
Southland in the Springtime (IG)
Oceano (Josh Groban)
We Will Be Burning (Sean Paul)
Happiness (The Weepies)
Long Way (Antje Duvekot)
Paradise Cafe (Arc Angels)
Sail Away (David Gray)
Lubbock or Leave It (Dixie Chicks)
And then I give up, and start finding those that *really* reflect my crankiness.
Sullen Girl (Fiona Apple)
Creeping Death (Metallica)
Bad Mood (The Murmurs)
And then I realize I'm stalling. And that what I really need is a bag of Doritos. Because they're orange like the sun.
Posted by mryonker at 12:24 PM | Comments (4)
March 13, 2007
the luck. it runneth out.
aerobil posts today about what she's finished since the break began.
What exactly have I done? Stayed home yesterday with a "sick" child (H complained of a stomach and head aches all day). Today, I drove little J to preschool and then proceded to be stranded because the truck would not start. Again.
I walked home. Called B and explained the non-starting status and behavior. He gave me some suggestions to try to get it going and so I walked back to the preschool to try again. And *sigh* no dice. So I walked home again, plopped myself in front of the TV and watched The View and ate liverwurst and crackers for a half hour. Walked back to get little J. Rolled the truck out of the parking lot so the teacher I'd parked in would be able to get out. Tried not to care about the other parents watching me leave the truck and walk down the street.
And I'm home again. Jiggity-effin'-jig.
But hey. The weather's nice. I guess.
Posted by mryonker at 12:07 PM | Comments (3)
March 09, 2007
some up catch
Wow, I guess it's been a good while since I've posted here. The shit (and not-shit) that has gone down since I've updated last:
1. The break down of two of our cars on the SAME DAY. Last Tuesday, we lost the transmission in the Camry and then subsequently had some important heater hose burst in the Montero (said hose compromise is apparently symptomatic of something else that needs fixing). That leaves us with the Civic, pushing 200K miles and in desperate need of a muffler (and a tranny itself soon). In any other universe, I'd be appalled that we have two drivers in the house and own 4 cars (the 4th is T100 awaiting a transplant engine, ie B's resident "project"...um, note the irony of us having a "project" vehicle), but right now I'm understanding B's "extra car theory." That is, we're too poor to own sufficiently reliable cars; therefore, we own a couple "extras." At any rate, being down to one car has put a cramp in our schedules--a cramp that will be temporarily relieved since this week I essentially don't need one. And a big shout-out to D for lending me her trusty Tracker on Wednesday! Howdy good neighbor!
2. The running streak is still going. I've lost count which day we're on, but we've managed to run in the most disgusting weather. Mostly disgusting because our snot freezes in our nostrils and when I get back my thighs look first like two slabs of raw roast beef--and as they thaw these ghastly purple splotches emerge. The first time it happened I though I was disfigured for good, but it went away, and it went away this morning (when we ran it was -6 air temp). We're in week 6 of the Buffalo schedule, and have already knocked out a 15 miler (last week). I'm feeling especially strong, and I think it's mostly because I'm also being dilligent about a regular yoga practice. It would be nice if I could try to do something with my diet, though. I thought briefly about attempting a modified South Beach thing, just to try to cut out some sugar and flour, and then I promptly ate a huge bowl of granola and had a BAGEL ON THE SIDE. And then a Kit Kat (which little J calls "Kitty Kats," which I find adorable).
3. I received a tentative "go-ahead" on the prospectus. This means I have to start actually working on the research--which I have been doing for a while, but only in half-hearted fits and starts. I need to get set up with some kind of proper organizing system--and I hate to say it but I may actually end up doing a lot of printing to read and code. I'm going to renew my commitment to zerodraft, probably by posting later today about Web 3.0.
4. And for the enjoyment of those of you who actually made it to the end of this long, boring post, a quick dialogue from my office yesterday:
Big J: Moooo-om! H deleted all my email!
H: No, I only did what you told me to do! I clicked on the ar-chive link! [pronounced: AR + the herb] Moooo-om! What does ar-chive mean??
Me: ...
Big J [exasperated]: Ar-chive means DELETE in SPANISH!!
Posted by mryonker at 04:36 PM | Comments (1)
February 22, 2007
nasty talented
Fun stuff for a snowy day:
The link is to the Inspector Gadget theme (which has a hint of, what is that, Miami Vice at the end?), but his Mario and Sesame Street themes are pretty amazing as well.
Oooh. Peter and the wolf, too.
I've found clips to jumpstart class discussion on Weinberger's chapter on Perfection.
Posted by mryonker at 04:46 PM | Comments (0)
February 15, 2007
hate. snow.
Today was the third morning this week I've put big J and H on the bus thinking about the bus accident I endured as a first grader on my way to East Butler Elementary in Dwight, Nebraska.
Nothing terribly traumatic. Snowy icy roads, and the bus slowly slid into a ditch and then slowly fell on its side. No one was hurt. The only pain I felt was from the third grade girl's elbow that jammed into my ribcage as she slid over on top of me.
It is bone-aching cold out. The wind is brutal. And it is STILL F*CKING SNOWING.
To take little J to pre-school, I have two options: the little bitty Civic, whose heat works great but will most assuredly get stuck at the end of the driveway; and the great big Montero, whose heat DOES NOT work but is four-wheel drive so I'd be able to muscle my way through the barricade of sand, salt, ice and snow the plow has so thoughtfully dumped at the end of my driveway.
I go out to start it. As I sweep off the snow and scrape the ice, the wind stabs me through my jacket. In 60 seconds, all my fingers are stiff with pre-frostbite. I curse. And curse.
After I drop little J off, I come home to read student work. I have 2.5 hours to work.
After 2.5 hours, I go back out to start the Montero to pick J up. But noooohoo. I left the LIGHTS on in the Montero, the battery is DEAD. And I had smartly parked in the middle of the driveway so I wouldn't have to climb through any snowdrifts to get into the truck, and in so doing effectively blocked the Civic in.
I know I already said the F word once in this post. I'll try to restrain myself.
So, I had to walk to get J from preschool. Now, granted, it's *maybe* a half mile to the preschool. Maybe. And I know that I run in crap like this all the time. But what. a. pain.
Thankfully one of the teachers was kind enough to drive us back home (I think she felt bad that J would have to walk in the crummy weather). But when we got home, I had the great pleasure of having to learn how to use a battery charger in the freezing-ass cold.
However, then I watched ze frank's post about valentine's day, and I laughed my ass off when he explained that he had to "shovel" the snow when he was a kid... and that they were too poor to buy a shovel...
I will be *so* sad when March 17 comes. So sad.
Posted by mryonker at 02:10 PM | Comments (4)
February 06, 2007
snowed in, day 2
Over night, we got a couple of feet. Another snow day for the kids.
Here's the garage, buried nearly halfway up. If you click through, there's more pics. My favorite one is of D's husband Ch, snowblowing the driveway while holding a beach umbrella.
I'm going to bake something.
edited to add: Here's a video from the weather channel--the reporter is at a gas station down the road from me. There's an 30 second commercial on the front end...sorry for that.
Posted by mryonker at 09:43 AM | Comments (5)
February 05, 2007
the anatomy of a snow day
At 5:45 this morning I peered out my front window. In the light of the street lamp, I could just barely make out the house across the street through the thick sheets of horizontally-blowing snow.
We postponed our run for a time in the day when there would be less snow blowing and more visibility.
I curled up on the couch to watch the news, which this morning, was all weather. Over one hundred school closings in the area, with many of the one- and two-hour delays surrendering as the morning wore on.
The neighbor called. Neither of the cars would start. Could he borrow the battery charger?
The snow continues to fall as the kids, one by one, slide down the stairs to wonder where their wake-up call went.
"It's a snow day," I tell them.
"YES!" is the collective response.
As the day wears on, I enlist the kids with various chores to stave off boredom (ha HA!); I attack the kitchen with a particular vim not seen in these parts for lo a few months.
Big J decides, once he's trekked up and down the stairs a few times putting away laundry, that he will twine his ankles together for the rest of the day, to experience the life of a person with fused legs. Thud thud thud thud...he makes his way to the kitchen. Thud thud thud thud...back to the living room to watch a Harry Potter movie.
At one point I venture into the office where little J has commandeered my machine to watch Nemo, and H is on B's machine with three IM windows open.
B is busy running wire in the upstairs remodel, which for some reason requires me to spend a good deal of time in the basement pulling a thing called a fish wire through the walls of the house for him. During the lunch break, B says to the kids, "Quit putting stuff in the trash. It's getting full, and then someone will actually have to go outside in this mess."
And then D and I trip out for a quick three miler. I wrap my feet in Wegman's bags before I put on my running shoes so they would not get soaking wet. We combat the windchill by actually wearing our winter coats to run in, which we realize after the first mile was completely unnecessary (our bodies are plenty efficient in making heat). Our ears and faces, however, remain cold throughout the whole ordeal.
Now I'm going to continue to do laundry, grade papers, and wonder how an average citizen like myself will take responsibility for slowing the warming. If you missed Charlie Rose's interview with Michael Oppenheimer (Feb 2), I suggest you check it out. He is optimistic; he says that things will slow down (not turn around, mind) because "...humans are not that heedless."
I feel heedless as I run my dryer today. :/
Posted by mryonker at 02:50 PM | Comments (1)
February 02, 2007
lavender's blue, dilly dilly
The early morning version of the daily dilly-dally:
If your secret ninja power happens to involve divining the location of items lost, you might send me some of that action. I cannot find my wallet. :(
I ran 109 miles in January. Not too impressive when you divide it by 31, but it still was a month with a day mot missed.
If someone would have told me sooner that volunteering at the kids' school book fair would have earned me a ten dollar gift certificate to said book fair, I would have dragged my fanny down to help out sooner.
The weekend is upon us. At the edge of every weekend I am filled with hope: hope for a clean house, hope for some productive writing sessions, hope for a decent movie for movie night (this weekend it's a double header: Open Season and High School Musical). At the edge of this particular weekend, however, I'm only hoping that a small light-blue canvas wallet finds its way back to me.
And for that reason, I will *not* do the Friday happy dance in class today. There's nothing happy about canceling credit cards and paying inordinate fees to have IDs and licenses replaced. Bleh.
Posted by mryonker at 07:03 AM | Comments (1)
January 30, 2007
birthday booty
A quick inventory of all the great stuff I got for my birthday yesterday. [For the record: I'm 31 now. Apparently, when you turn 31, you don't get a kick-ass surprise birthday party like you do when you turn 30.]
The first present came at 5:59 am when D met me to run. Still half asleep, I'd forgotten that it was my birthday and wondered why D had brought a book along for our run. Ah, no, that's a present. And it's NEW YAK TRAX! My pair from last year wore down at the heel and snapped, so this year I'd been struggling in the half-plowed streets to not slip and break my neck. Can't wait to try them out--thanks, D!
Actually, the real first present came in the mail a while back; my mom sent me a hefty check. I signed up to take a yoga class once a week--thanks mom!
Next, during our impromptu cupcake feast after dinner, my family presented me with: a bag of Doritos (best present EVAR! it's the FAMILY sized but if they think I'm sharing, they'd better think again), a bag of Hersey's Nuggets (the toffee and almond variety--they know me WELL), a new can opener (chucked the old piece of sh*t in the trash immediately), AND a new Targus backpack, which I needed badly. The great messenger bag I'd been carrying, which was frankly too big, busted a fastener while I was walking on campus last week and it flew off my shoulder. Luckily, the laptop compartment was padded enough that my machine didn't sustain any damage. And while I'm sure we could have fixed the old bag, I wanted a backpack (carrying the messenger bag, even when wear it across my body, is not a comfortable as a backpack to me).
I still have some birthday money to spend recklessly, but we'll probably need it for, I don't know, groceries or some other pesky necessity.
The last present I got was in the form of a phone call from a dear dear friend who just so happens to have the same birthday I do. We talked about taking a trip to Cancun in 2009, which sounded lovely especially as I watched the snow fall and fall and fall.
And fall.
Posted by mryonker at 10:19 AM | Comments (5)
January 25, 2007
a rare peek into my illogical mind
I'm sitting in the quiet house. B's at class, little J's at preschool for the morning. Big kids at school. I'm going through my initial study corpus of blogs for the diss*, scanning briefly to get an idea of what they post about, how much traffic and comments they get, how long they've been around and etc.
We** have the house set up with those automatic thermostats, so that during the day when theoretically no one is here, and at night when we're all snug under five blankets, the temp drops down to a frigid 55 degrees.
Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester, I am home. And it's quite lovely; I can run laundry and read and write in the house with only the cats to worry about.
Today, though, it's 6 degrees (sayeth the AccuWeather widget). And in the house, it didn't take but a half hour for the temp to drop from the balmy 65 it's set at for the wake-up-get-ready-for-school time slot to the 55 no-one-is-here-but-the-cats-and-they-have-full-time-fur-coats time slot.
I'm frickin' cold. So I venture out of the office into the living room to get a blanket to wear on my legs (I've already got several layers and a hoodie on the top half of me). But I forgot that in our push make the house as airtight as possible, we*** tacked up blankets in the windows of the second floor. So while usually the living room has various extra blankets folded (eh, who am I kidding? strewn about) on the couches, today when I walked into the living room (while repeating my mantra "don't look at the mess...ignore the train set scattered everywhere...") I found that the ONE blanket left was already taken.
George was fast asleep in the nest of it, warm and happy in a brief spot of sun.
I could not take the blanket from him. He has just as much right to be warm and comfy, right? I stood in the living room and argued with myself.
"He's a CAT," part of me insists. "Built-in FUR COAT. You are a poor, bald-skinned human. Take the blanket!!" But I just could not.
Because I refuse to turn the heat up (stubborn, I know. or maybe another word that begins with S-T-U. but whatever), I scrounge and find a heating pad to wrap my slippered feet in, and I get my winter coat to put on my legs.
I'm aware of the irony: I won't turn the heat up to save fuel, but I will plug an electric heating pad in, which clearly costs money. The fact that I gave up the last blanket in the house to a cat, however, should be the first clue that I'm just not all that bright.
*Notes and links will soon be up at zerodraft.newmedia29.com.
**I say we because marriage makes you one person, right? No. B put the digital thermostats in. I had nothing to do with it.
***Yeah, he pretty much does everything around here that involves fasteners and implements. I could learn to swing a hammer, but why?
Posted by mryonker at 10:53 AM | Comments (1)
January 12, 2007
another stress dream, and a good game
I had a nearly sleepless night last night, which is something I rarely encounter. Normally, I don't have insomnia, ever. The minute I'm curled up under the covers (and I also like to sleep in a winter hat), I'm out.
And last night I fell asleep OK, but around 1 my eyes snapped open and I couldn't relax to fall back asleep; it was almost like an anxiety attack without the anxiety-inducing trigger. I drifted off probably near 3:30, and then had this horrible dream where B and I were on this old, rickety, yet incredibly fast Catalina. I had my backpack with my laptop in it, and I kept pleading with Brian to slow down, that the heeling boat would for sure throw my backpack (and all the work I've done to prep for classes, and all the diss work I've done) overboard. Sure enough, during a hard jibe the backpack goes flying and I'm in the lake swimming after the damn thing, knowing full well I should just let it sink; there's no saving a drowned MacBook. So I was awake at 4 again, sweating and shivering.
The dream surely was a reminder that I should back my work up. Now. Which I will do, in a sec. But one more note:
I'm planning on using The Wikipedia Game in my research writing class this spring, since we're reading Weinberger's Small Pieces Loosely Joined. Thanks, jo(e)!
Posted by mryonker at 08:58 AM | Comments (0)
January 11, 2007
insight comes
I tend to be hard on books. I always prefer paperback to hardcover because I like to bend them and lay on them and etc. The bindings of my books, especially those I have read and re-read, are lined with white and sometimes illegible. I am quick to lend books, and when I "lend" a book, I normally mean for the recipient to either keep it or to pass it on to someone else. I learned this from my mother; when I was growing up, my house was a channel through which books flowed freely. She would loan and replace (with a different book), loan and replace. There were always new books to read. Books are not to be kept, they are to be shared.
What I've found in academia, however, is that this tenet of mine is not regularly shared by my collegues. Clearly it's a function of books being integral to what we do, and I understand this fully, and have even adopted a "book keeping" policy for any book that I anticipate will be useful to any work I may do in the near future. But for the most part, I still am, what some would characterize as, careless with books. This makes me not the best book borrower in the world. And I am attempting to change my ways, mostly by not borrowing books unless from a library (library books I tend to treat with great respect). And I have successfully borrowed and returned unscathed books to several friends in the past year.
[No, Deb, this is not a post about me ruining the book I borrowed from you last week. You can breathe that sigh of relief now.]
But I happened upon another explanation for my irreverent treatment of books and my specific affinity for the bendy paperback today as I sat with Big J at the piano while he practiced. As we turned the pages, he and I took turns taking his primer down from the sound board and forcefully flattening and/or bending the spine of the book so it would lie still.
I remember as a child that I would beat my piano books into submission so that while I played, the pages would not turn themselves.
Posted by mryonker at 07:55 PM | Comments (2)
January 10, 2007
some obvious, some not
The posting here has been light-to-nonexistant lately. It's mostly been a function of the strange manic person I turn into over semester breaks. I spend half my time worrying about the writing I should be getting done, and the other half of my time pursuing completely unnecessary yet all-consuming projects that keep me from my writing. So, I end up feeling virutous and productive AND like a total sloth all at once, which *really* effs with my mood.
This break, I decided to paint the downstairs bathroom. Nevermind the fact that there is an entire roughed-in bathroom on my second floor that should truly be the object of all our efforts at this moment. My reasoning, though, is that *I* cannot be the one to be running plumbing and wiring; however, I do know how to wield a paint roller and blue tape rather handily.
Besides, a bathroom is a small room, right? And I should have been able to pull it off in a couple of days, by myself.
Ha. The new colors I picked, white for the wainscotting/trim and sunny (a bright yellow) for the upper walls, required that I PRIME and then use several (3) coats to cover the OLD colors (cranberry on the wainscotting and cream on top).
Needless to say, a 2-day project turned into a week-long nightmare. The bathroom is pretty now.
I finally sat down yesterday to work on diss stuff. On Monday I wrote a proposal for the Computer Connection at Cs. Today I started planning the calendars for my classes that start exactly a week from today. Hopefully this push of productivity will sustain itself and this weekend I'll have a whole BUNCH of stuff done.
Ha.
Posted by mryonker at 07:33 PM | Comments (0)
January 01, 2007
i'm still here
Happy New Year, y'all.
We're back from the southern pilgrimage; this year we trekked to both families' houses which means: 10 hours south to Southampton County, VA; then a 7 hour drive west to Webster County, WV; and then the inevitable 12 hour trip home. >sigh< The kids are finally not a huge PIA in the car; they read mostly and listen to music. Josh still can get a little cranky, but I no longer have to soothe any screaming unconsolables. I'm thankful for that.
The big news of the hour is that I managed to leave my power cord at my mother's house in WV, so I'm wandering around the house aimlessly, feeling lost and friendless. With the holiday today and the Na