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.
saam leeo.
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Category Archives: life
thanks, mom.
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.
tired.
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.
last stripe/last exam.
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.
mail day.
You know what else (besides turning in exam #2) made Thursday a great day? It was a great mail day. Which reminds me of the excitement surrounding the mail — sent ahead, general delivery, to post offices in small towns we’d be riding through every ten days or so — on a cross-country bike trip I participated in nine (whoa!) years ago. The joke was that “mail” day was actually “male” day, a celebration of all things male. There was a long (tongue-in-cheek) list of the kinds of things that were acceptable on male days (I’m pretty sure trampolines were on the list). I hadn’t thought about that in years, but typing out “mail day” brought it back and made me laugh, almost a decade later.
Anyway, I had ordered — and then forgotten about — Heidi Swanson’s latest cookbook, Super Natural Every Day. I intend to cook out of this ALL SUMMER, and I have big dreams of modeling my lake house kitchen on much of what Heidi describes about her pantry, kitchen tools, and emphasis on a range of grains and better-for-me flours. I know I’m only moving across town, but I am trying to use up extras hiding in my kitchen cabinets before the end of May. This book is beautiful and incredibly practical. I want to eat everything in it.
This guy got his own “male” day of sorts yesterday. Instead of working last night, I cleaned out a kitchen cupboard, and found a bone I’d been saving (and then totally forgot about) for Boh. He watched it intently (pictured here), tossed it around a bit, and then ran away from it/came back to it several times before settling down to eat it. Male day, indeed.
I really need to get back into reading (and grading) mode this week in order to feel ready for my third exam, which starts a week from Monday. Here’s hoping for a productive day!
umbrella, -ella, -ella.
I have no idea what Boh was thinking — except that it must have had something to do with that Rihanna song from a few years ago. To this day, when I hear it, I think of a friend of mine who made it his goal of the summer of 2007 to turn that into a campfire song. I love my silly dog.
The good news? Yesterday I needed the umbrella (-ella, -ella), but today I was in flip-flops! I knit these legwarmers back in 2007, and I wear them all the time — to yoga, when I get out of bed in the morning, when I just need a little extra warmth. They might get more use than all of my other knitwear combined, come to think of it.
Also, I turned in exam #2 this morning! One to go. I’m taking the night off.
mirror, mirror.
Idlewood. Again. Clearly I need to make another — after my exams. I snapped this picture before heading to one of my reading groups, where we discussed an excellent graphic novel (Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home) and talked about memoir, history, and voice — and about what makes something not feel self-indulgent. Which got me to thinking about blogging, especially because lately I’ve been snapping pictures of whatever I’m wearing (knits or otherwise) and posting them here. (Which seems incredibly narcissistic.)
On some level, blogging is self-indulgent. Really, all writing is. And I’m okay with that. The question we were wrestling with on Thursday night had more to do with the reader’s experience than the decision to write (or blog), and we kept returning to things like empathy, linking the ordinary and the particular to bigger (in this case, literary) themes, leaving space for interpretation rather than limiting how the reader understands and situates a particular moment, encounter, memory.
I want to think more about blogging as a form and as a personal process. How do conversations about blogging connect with discussions about memoir? In these genres, how do form and content interact? Can we identify conventions particular to blogging? In my own work, I’m thinking a lot about how I use the first person — what am I signally by choosing the personal pronoun? Am I actually revealing something personal, or is it a technique to make the reader identify with the “I”? (I’ve taken to calling this the “pretend personal” voice.) How much do I protect or reveal — here? In my academic writing? Once I’m on the other side of these exams, I’d like to spend some time (and space, maybe here?) thinking through, or maybe more accurately, writing with these questions.
Time for another picture of what I’m wearing? Clearly.
No knits in this shot, just a scarf that hasn’t been in rotation for awhile. Still faking it ’til I make it, and most days, I think it’s working. I managed to grade 10 papers yesterday, all dressed up. (She says, still in her pajamas.)
I knit less than five rows on this sock, and soon I’ll be ready to start decreasing for the toe. Ideally, I’ll finish the first sock this week, cast on the second and get through the ribbing before my first exam. That way I’ll have easy knitting handy to help with hard thinking.
Finished the carrot soup leftovers yesterday. There is another pot of this in my (near) future.
old school.
Another score from my mom’s closet. This is my mom’s ski vest, likely from the late 1970s, when she and my dad belonged to a ski club called the Schussmeisters. Or something like that. I love the way the stripes wrap around to the back.
Alright. Almost done with my first mug of coffee, and I’m going to need another before I start today’s pile. (Read, write, grade, [sleep?] repeat.)
Hello, Tuesday.
you give love a bad name.
An awesome pencil might be the only reason I am still reading this late at night.
Other things that make life just a little bit easier? Shawl pins. I picked this one up at a little antique shop downtown this summer.
Back to it.
dogs and catalogs.
This dog knows how to pose for close ups and wide angle shots. Where did he learn that?
You know your friends are having more fun than you are when you flip through the latest patagonia catalog and do a double take — because they are IN the catalog. (This made my day, you guys.)
When I was at my parents’ house for turkey dinner, I did my usual quick rifle through the closets, and found a few tops that were my mom’s when I was a little girl. For fun, I tried them on, and hooray — they fit me perfectly. She let me take them home (along with lots of leftovers, a stack of envelopes, some duffel bags from under the bed in my old room — which will be super helpful when I move in late May– and a ream of printer paper), and today I’m wearing one of them. This is a button-up-the-back blouse that was part of a cream/navy polka-dotted suit. (Which was cuter than it sounds.) Anyway, I cut out the shoulder pads (yes, it was the early 80s), and dressed it down. It is freezing out, so I’ll throw a cardigan on over this, but I love it. Wait ’til you see the red one…
Also, for the record, putting on a shirt that buttons up the back all by myself feels like a victory this early in the morning. Happy almost weekend, folks.
barefoot rooster 