The fair-weather friend about whom I wrote earlier no longer has any reason to text me. I returned his camera and he returned my bike lock. It took less than a minute and now it’s done. What a relief.
I woke up with a sore throat today. It’s odd because nothing else hurts and I don’t even feel like I’m getting sick except for one nasty clot of phlegm.
Ptichka has another feather cyst and a vet appointment on Tuesday. This one is under his beak. I’m worried because I don’t know if there’s enough skin under his beak for the vet to put stitches in.
Why the video? It’s bloody hot in Tucson. And, I’m having a falling out with a friend who is best described as the fair weather type. By now I shouldn’t feel so taken when I realize that someone’s character is far less than I imagined it to be. If there’s such a thing as good friend karma I’ve earned heaps this time around. The task I’ve set for myself is to make more acquaintances because it’s too disappointing to invest in making a close friend only to find later that they aren’t really a friend at all.
Thanks, JG for telling me to download Lily Allen’s latest album. The video for Fear is wonderful.
In terms of what’s up with me, my legs have recovered from the 18 mile hike I did with Ryan on Saturday at the Grand Canyon. Yes, we finally did the hike we planned with Mel and Kieran. Since they’re travelling around the world right now, I’m sure they won’t feel even a pang of jealousy that they missed the most amazing scenic vistas imaginable.
My mom is back in the hosptial after falling and having another grand mal seizure. Hope springs eternal that she’ll actually take her seizure medication after this most recent injury. Perhaps the fact that she nearly lost an eye to the corner a dining room chair will be adequate motivation.
He should be asking me for “mercy, mercy.” And, telling me that he’ll “treat, treat me right.”
Thanks, Edi. This Le Kid song is great. It reminds me of the Kylie video for Slow. The redhead looks a little like the character Joan Holloway on Mad Men.
I’m getting a new Macbook Pro next week. I’m so excited I got a job making videos for the Writing Program. The Final Cut Pro software I ordered with my new computer in going to come in very handy.
The title of this entry owes a debt to a friend from high school with whom I have lost touch. When went to the Holocaust museum in D.C. together he wore his woefully inappropriate Partridge Family tee shirt. Only Jared could pull off such irony.
I frequently post videos to my blog. This song Osaka Loop Line by Discovery make me want to dance. Anything to keep the doomsday daiquiri at bay. Jason and I showed up to yoga tonight and the class was cancelled indefinitely due to low attendance. Ryan and I went on a walk, but yoga would have been more effective.
This morning I am contemplating what in the hell it all amounts to: my education that is. I have to write because I’m so in love with reading that it’s becoming a bit of a problem. I have to form comprehensive exam lists and demonstrate comprehensive knowledge. I know I have a problem synthesizing information. I don’t know if it’s a cognitive issue or something else. I am having a very challenging time in what I can only describe as a maelstrom of information.
It seems impossible to know too much and yet I feel as though I might. It all adds up to little more than a long CV. Is that how I’m supposed to define my identity? I mean by the size of my CV. Strange to imagine a test for comprehensive knowledge tripping me up so terribly. What if they make me write a thesis that can be sustained for 200 pages? What if they don’t want one argument, but a quirky pastiche. I should just come up with one arguable thesis statement. That’ll be easier. But everything that gets left out makes me anxious too. It leaves out, quite simply, all the cool stuff.
I made a list this morning of my favorite things. And it’s an idiosyncratic list because it has items on it like Canada and RuPaul’s Drag Race. Is there a methodology for creating an uncanny network of meaning? If so, why would I want to create such a network? The binary between one single thesis and the rest of the known universe still evades me. Focusing on one issue does as well. I just have to focus, I suppose. Forget perfection, forget the universe. Focus. Land the plane. The closest I’ve come to the holy grail is the dialectic/rhetoric split. I think it’s a generative area of inquiry, but worry it will end up being dry as dust. Oh well. The minutes turn into hours and the hours turn into weeks, so I must trudge on and prepare to be tested again.
I just got my final grades today—my GPA is still a 4.0. I’m very happy to be done with the final courses I’ll ever have to take. I’m also happy to have rejoined the land of the living. Last semester was hellacious. I have one paid project I’m working on this summer, but other than that I’m studying to take my comprehensive exams in the Fall. That is right after I complete a textbook chapter I agreed to write. I looking forward to exercising, socializing with friends, trying new recipes, reading fiction, and watching movies as much as I can while still getting things done.
The supervisor I asked to chair my comprehensive exams and dissertation committee wants to work with me. We even shook hands on it. I didn’t get the “I won’t say no, but…” like I did from my former supervisor at York. Instead, I got enthusiasm and interest. I totally needed this validation today, as the two-year course release position I applied for went to someone else in my program. Oh well, I’ll be teaching a two-two load for the rest of my time in the program. But, at least I’ll be working in the area rhetoric and mass culture, with an emphasis on kitsch. I’ve half jokingly said before that I’d rather do a dissertation on zombies than teacher research, so I am nothing short of ecstatic to be closer to pursuing a research agenda that has panache.
