and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.” (Remember how I told you I attended a screening of Anchorman last month? Thank you, Ron Burgundy.)
The insides of these photo albums, diaries, and scrapbooks were pretty cool too. Home tomorrow!
The word “unpacking” gets used frequently in academic conversations: we “unpack” complex concepts, fraught words, and ideas or moments with contested meanings. I’m done with that kind of unpacking, at least for a little while. (Hooray!) Which means it is time to pack.
I considered only showing you this picture. Look — a laundry bag full of delicious, neutral shades of Cascade 220! This picture suggests a calm, orderly apartment (and packing process), everything under control. Here’s what the rest of the room looks like:
Yup. It is hard to pack up a small apartment. Boh is handling the disruption with dignity. I’m hoping to take a few carloads over tomorrow so that I’ll have enough space to pack up the rest of my stuff as the week progresses. Keys — and pictures (and knitting, I promise) — soon!
Last night I found myself making Boh’s face wrinkle (like this) and asking him, “Boh, what do you think about modernity?” For his sake, I’m glad my exams are over, and that I passed!
Here’s how we both feel about that: happy, relieved, and exhausted. More soon!
I may have attended a screening of Anchorman yesterday afternoon.
In all seriousness, though, Ron Burgundy’s words seem to have relevance beyond newsrooms and street-fights between rival news teams. Ethel Louise has an incredibly thoughtful post about yesterday’s response to the assassination of OBL. I know I don’t talk about my work very often here, but in a very broad sense, I am interested in narrative, in how we tell stories about what is happening/what has happened to us, in how we make (and remake) meaning. I, too, found yesterday’s celebrations disturbing.
I have a lot more to say about all of that — but I just don’t have the energy this week. I brought a bunch of boxes and bins up from the basement over the weekend to remind myself that I am almost there. I’m feeling tired and overwhelmed, and I just need to keep going. My orals are on Friday, and I just need to get there, and for my performance to be enough.
I’m working on the border of my stripe study shawl now, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to find enough time to finish it before next Friday. (Note how Boh is making a point of ignoring the camera.) So much to do between now and then. Thank you for all of your encouragement! It makes such a big difference, whether it is in the form of sweet emails and blog comments, Easter bread (see picture), or Vladimir the petite lap giraffe’s web cam.
Ethel Louise baked this amazing Easter bread for me, and it sustained me during the last 12 hours of my final written exam. I can’t believe I had the self-control to take this picture before inhaling it. So good.
More soon — knitting and otherwise. Happy almost weekend!
Or “three, already” in Lao. As in, three comprehensive exams written, and only the oral to go. Let’s celebrate with a Boh photo series, shall we?
More knitting soon.
My mom sent me an Easter care package: just what I needed. (Seriously. I would not be surviving without EmergenC, especially with all of the germs circulating on campus.)
Boh wants you all to know that he’s tired of reading and writing. We’re almost there, big dog, almost there.
This is how Boh subtly suggests he might like a belly rub: he lays on the ground near me with a leg up.
And here’s what he thinks (a) of all this rain and (b) of all this writing. I know, Boh. We are almost there.
Yesterday was windy, rainy, and grey. When it became clear that the wind was blowing at speeds that could easily overturn trash cans, I dashed outside and cut a mason jar’s worth of the daffodils which have just begun to bloom. These flowers helped me to get through most of the pile of grading I’ve been hiding from all week.
Boh is struggling to keep his eyes open this morning, which is pretty much how I feel. It has been a long semester, and I am so close to the other side of these exams. One more.
My last exam begins tomorrow, so today I’ll be doing my best to feel ready, by reading more, reviewing my notes, and organizing my thoughts. I’m also going to knit a few more rows on my stripe study shawl. Another row and a half and it will be time to begin the border. I should be able to finish the shawl before the oral part of my exams in a few weeks, and I think I’ll bring this with me as a tangible representation of all of the energy I’ve put into this process.
Onward.
Have we talked about this? I write in my cookbooks: dates, love notes to myself, substitutions, impressions. This does not strike me as odd — I write in all of my books — but I will say this: my cookbook annotations might make me happier than all my other marginalia combined. I like to flip through them and think back to the meal, the evening, heck, even the kitchen in which I last prepared a particular recipe. You can see my notes on Heidi Swanson’s Sun Toast in the picture. Here’s the toast:
I made it again today, and snapped a cast iron pan picture:
So simple, and seriously delicious. I may rub garlic on all future toast.
Somebody is excited for spring. (And so am I!) It is getting harder and harder to stay inside and read, grade, and write. A few more weeks of this pace. Just a few.
barefoot rooster 