voncookie | January 30, 2007
I am also feeling thoroughly mediocre: as a teacher, as a writer, as a student, as a scholar. Just, to use the technical term, kind of blah. I’m feeling like my research is redundant, that it’s completely obvious and sheds no new light on anything; that my new group of students thinks I’m a complete [...]
voncookie | January 30, 2007
… the reason I haven’t been blogging so much lately (usually I try for an entry every other day or so) is because I have been ungodly tired. So tired. Very tired. I can’t seem to wake up! I slept for 12 freakin’ hours last night. TWELVE! And I didn’t even take any Benadryl. To [...]
voncookie | January 28, 2007
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about literature by other people. Mostly, of course, literature written by people in Spain in the 1920s. But also Modernist and contemporary poetry, coming at me from places like my subscription to the American Life in Poetry newsletter, that plops a poem in my Inbox every week with some [...]
voncookie | January 26, 2007
It’s a well-known fact that I could never possibly have enough closet space. The only good thing about my last apartment was its walk-in closet that was large enough to sleep a grown man. I loved it. And it was always a mess, but at the very least I could just shut the door and [...]
voncookie | January 25, 2007
In my usual passive-aggressive way, I decided not to make a decision today, leaving it to the person in charge to determine the way forward, rather than taking a stand on my own… Can you tell I’m conflicted about this decision? What happened was, the department where I study asked for us to supply information [...]
voncookie | January 22, 2007
ahhhh… the dulcet tones of smoke detectors, hailing your first foret into the kitchen in nigh on 10 years, telling you as you enter the Inferno, “abandon all hope, ye who cook in here.” DISASTER!!!! I think cooking is like yoga. Start with small, small moves. *Don’t* start off your new adventures in cooking with [...]
voncookie | January 21, 2007
A: Nutty-Crunchy California Vegetarians… kinda like me… although I’m not so nutty-crunchy. I am wearing leather shoes right now after all. The point is, my new diet sent me out in search of wheat germ. Isn’t wheat germ, like, so 1975??? I mean, wouldn’t something like ground flax seeds be more 21st Century? And hey [...]
voncookie | January 21, 2007
…which is, take my health seriously. I have been eating like crap for the past several weeks. Take-out all the bleedin’ time, maybe the occasional run to Trader Joe’s for cottage cheese and California rolls. But grocery shopping? Haven’t done it since December. Sad, isn’t it? I’m 31 and I haven’t learned how to feed [...]
voncookie | January 18, 2007
In my quest for heat—see previous entries about the cluttered freezer that is my apartment—and armed with a 20% off coupon from BB&B, I went out the other day and bought myself an “oscillating ceramic heater” just so that when I cross-stitch my hands don’t icily knot up with pain as I sit in my [...]
voncookie | January 17, 2007
I have not been this productive in quite some time: I finished documenting two volumes of the magazine that I’m reviewing for my dissertation today. Usually it takes me two days to document just one. And I’m on my third. Someone also recalled a book that I checked out of the library months ago—whoever it [...]
voncookie | January 17, 2007
It’s almost 10 a.m., and this semester I’ll be teaching at twelve. (I lost the game of pick-up sticks that would have given me 9 a.m., but no matter. 12 is just fine.) I’m excited to get started with this class. The second time you teach a class, you always learn a lot, even more [...]
voncookie | January 17, 2007
After at least four years of teaching, I now know that no matter how confident I may feel about my skills as an instructor, I will always have butterflies in my stomach on the first day of classes. Part of it is excitement about having a fresh start, because by the end of every semester, [...]
voncookie | January 16, 2007
I had the most startling experience last night while doing some reading in my home. As part of my dissertation, I am having to go over the first fifty-or-so volumes of a popular literary magazine published in Spain in the 1920s and ’30s. The volumes are hard-cover bound (of course) and rather durable; still, it [...]
voncookie | January 15, 2007
I’d just like to give a quick shout-out to my cousin Tori, who is about to depart for some adventures in France. Enjoy it with all your being, Tori!!! Studying abroad is a life-changing experience—well, duh, of course—and for that reason alone it deserves all your energy and attention. Go forth, live, learn a new [...]
voncookie | January 14, 2007
Sorry for the growing pains, folks. Things will be a little unsettled here for awhile; please be patient as I shuffle the deck a bit. Anonymity does not exist. Remind me of that when I’m job hunting.
