Why I'm Glad to Be Moving

From 1:30 to 4:30 this morning, my neighbors argued over whose turn it was to plunge the toilet.

Seriously.

How do I know this?

Because, owing to paper-thin floors/ceilings/stairways, I was AWAKE.

"oh well that class"

Yeah, it's that thing that everyone's doing.

okay and i'm sure
this isn't original
but it's also

once in a day or
two off the cuff i have a
tendency to ask

hours to prep for a
t t job at this kind of
thing oh well that class

that i'm living here
maybe that's just an
inherent problem

they've published in
my head which i'd been doing
on and off for years

oof here we go what
am i doing teaching
4 classes and showing

Each one sort of takes on its own special significance, no?

I Think I Know the Answer

OK: I'm pretty sure that I know what to do here. But I'll ask anyway.

I got an email today from an acquisitions editor at an academic press expressing interest in the book I'm "working" on (not having worked on it in about 3 weeks). It's pretty clear from the email that this person came across my profile on Field College's website, where I briefly describe my work in progress, and is emailing me based on that.

This is not--I don't think--a disreputable publisher; I've often used books that they've published in my research. It's not one of my top choices, but it's fine. (I think. There's some press out there that consistently publishes horribly edited books, and this might be it--I'm not sure; I kind of think it's a different one, but I can't remember, and don't have anything around to check.)

But. This strikes me as weird. I assume that the acq. ed. is just trolling academic websites and emailing everyone with a topic that remotely fits their lists, and that therefore being published by these guys (just let me get ahead of myself for a moment) wouldn't be the best way of placing my manuscript. So my question is the following: Is this something that's "done"? Is there any reason at all to reply? I assume that the answer is No, but I might just be overly cynical and/or timid. Thoughts?

Goodness

(Time to bump the maudlin down from Position 1, I say.)

Thing I am happy about.

1. Although it's currently 41 degrees out and rainy with no foreseeable improvement in the near future, and although the leaves have not yet begun their unfurl, there are little flowers here and there, the grass is noticeably greener, and the birdsong these last few weeks has been phenomenal. I have, on my own, learned to identify the warble of the cardinal, and I am infallible in my cardinallocation. Having lived in urbanish environments for so long, I hadn't realized just how happy birds' singing makes me. The coinage "cardinallocation" is also pleasing.
2. School ends in just under 2 weeks. What with peer workshop days and a library resource day, I only have 11 preps to go. And two of those won't really count because they'll be for the last day of class, when we don't have to do much of anything, and 2 more will be negligible because of course evaluations. So there are really only 7 discrete preps to go.
3. I'm teaching some truly awesome courses next year. One is the senior capstone seminar and I get to do whatever I want, so I'm doing some serious medievalist shit which will be awesome, according to me. I don't know how the students will feel, but since they're all senior majors and I know most of them and they're mostly quite good (and they mostly like me, I think), they'll deal and should be fun to work with. The other awesome course is a one-credit honors seminar--it only meets for 50 minutes/week and shouldn't be too taxing--on a topic that I've sort of fantasized about teaching for a long time. So while this means that technically I'll be teaching 5 classes in the fall, I think that I'm okay with it.
   
4. I'm being semi-groomed to take on an administrative-type post next year which would give me a course release. Plus it would be interesting and pretty great on the CV. It might not happen, since I'm so ridiculously new to the college and it's ultimately up to the dean, but apparently no one else wants this position (or any other position--the senior folks here are seriously overworked), so it might happen.
5. I've been reading the application packets for the search committee that I'm on, and the process is fascinating. It's a creative writing search, which helps--I get to read a lot of wonderful short stories and poems without having to think about how I'll teach them. I'm a little worried about getting the search wrapped up before my anticipated Fleeing the Scene date; however, I'm choosing to be optimistic.
6. And finally.... I'm moving! At the end of May! Into the Smallest House in the World! Yes--it's a house! A tiny little guest house. Approx. 650 square feet. TINY. But I thought it would go well with the Smallest College in the World (okay, not the smallest, but pretty damn small) and Tiny Field Town. It's all about miniaturization. What's great, though, is that it has a basement and a garage and a yard. And it is quite seriously adorable and hobbit-house-like (I will post pictures when I move, I promise!) Also, I will be driving all of my furniture and books and things out here in May, and it'll be great to have all my stuff again. I miss my stuff. Lately I've been thinking about my books--for some reason, I keep getting flashes of yearnings to pick up my Proust again; I'm about 5.5 volumes into a beautiful old edition that I've been reading on and off for years--and this makes me acutely conscious of how much I love having my little library around me. I also love setting up new living spaces; I'm quite good at making them nice and homey, if I say so myself.
   
7. Oh, and the Summer Trip of Mystery is still in the works, but I'm not ready to talk about it yet.

That's that. Now: Off to grade!

I suppose it's time I tell you

I've been putting this off, but it's time I break the news:

The Boyfriend and I broke up last week.

I'm not going to go into detail; there's no reason. Obviously this is related to the unbloggable mess that I was blogging about a few weeks ago, as anyone surely could have guessed. The upshot is that it's sad, we both behaved well, and it was amicable. It's sad. But the relationship--I hate to say this, but I have to admit that it's true--had grown impractical. There was virtually no way we could ever end up in the same place; best case scenario would have us together in two years minimum, and that would only be if we could both have our pick of fabulous jobs, which never happens. (This is more than just the two-body academia problem--believe it or not, his career trajectory is even more complicated.)

So I don't need lots of pity. I'm okay. Of course, I've barely seen him in the last three (or even eight) months, so it's not really a change day to day. And I've had plenty of time to process this over the last month, so really, I'm okay. I'm not even blaming academia anymore.

There. Done. Let it never be blogged of again.

All Hamlet

As I may have mentioned, I'm doing--teaching? conducting? overseeing? not sure of the verb--an independent study on Shakespeare this semester. The student is a theater major who's studied Shakespeare before and is particularly interested in the translation of plays to film, so we've been reading plays (obviously) and then watching cinematic versions of them. Fine. So but now we're watching a couple of different versions of "Hamlet," since there are so damn many and it's a play that s/he likes a lot. Again, fine.

Only! I am evidently inept when it comes to Netflix, which means that I have fallen behind and we've had to schedule a double meeting for next week--I had to cancel a meeting when a film didn't get here on time. (Actually, it's even more complicated than that--stemming from at least three different Netflix failures--but I can't reconstruct the whole sequence.)

Which means that I have to watch two Hamlet movies this weekend.

And of course they are the LONGEST Hamlet movies.

So I get to have a seven-hour Hamlet-a-thon between now and Tuesday morning.

I watched Hamlet last weekend, too.

Is it okay to be kind of sick to death of Hamlet?

Reasons Not to Be a Teacher

No, I'm not actually listing reasons not to be a teacher. But that might be one of my favorite of the Google searches that have brought people to this blog--disturbing as that thought is.

In lieu of substantive blogging (is there ever substantive blogging around here? Anyway), I bring you Recent Searches, organized by Category.

First category: THE WINNERS
These are by far the most popular searches. So popular that I am baffled. What are these people looking for?

• Let the cat out of the bag (image search)
• age to perfection (once again, it is age of perfection, or aged to perfection, but fine)
  

Second category: SARTORIAL
My one post on interview clothing has proven to be by far the most popular thing I have ever written, in any genre or medium. Scary.

• is it ok to wear the same pants
• same clothes different tie
• can i wear black suit jacket with stripe pants
• can you wear a solid
• can you wear the same sweater two days in a row
• black suits different shirts
• how to wear pinstripe pants

Apparently there are a lot of people out there wearing the same damn thing day after day.

Third category: ACADEMIA
This one's rather thin, I admit--perhaps owing to the scantiness of genuinely academic writing on this blog? However, the searches (few as they are) do suggest a very particular category of angst. I unfortunately didn't copy one of my favorite (sad) searches, which was something along the lines of "Not writing dissertation sad."

• skipping grad school classes sick
• gradcity complaints
• FRESHMEN BOYS (okay, so right, this one doesn't really belong, I know. But I appreciate the all caps. It suggests a great deal of enthusiasm, no?)

Fourth category: PHRASEOLOGY
I just like the sound of these. I'm glad that they led their searchers here.

• metamorphosis perfection
• ahem. le sigh.
• there are moments when
• i am rather
• all knowing all mighty
• ah there you are, do i know you?*

*Any guesses? What could this possibly be? At any rate my blog seems to be the #1 hit.

Fifth category: PARTY TIME
These just go well together, I think. They suggest an intriguing narrative.

• party time looking forward to it
• one minute dance party
• CAT PHOTO TATTOOS
• fucking strange things
• i'm sorry for drinking

Sixth category: MISCELLANEOUS
These last ones are just too good to leave out, but they can't be categorized.

• why we need stress
• ugh like slippers
• eyeballs falling out.
  

A thought: Has anyone yet written a story (or poem) entirely in Google searches? Because if you read through the entries in categories 4, 5, and 6, they kind of make up paragraphs of a sort.... And I'm tempted to reorganize all of the entries to make a narrative out of the searches, but frankly I can't be bothered. Maybe tomorrow. Which means that I won't do it. I am nothing if not self-aware.