Old People Say the Darndest Things

AKA, Somebody stop me before I unleash my pent-up fury on not just the MIL but my own parents as well.
All three of them are in the house.  In the livingroom. Right outside my door, the door behind which I’m supposed to finish at least another quarter of this fucking chapter before I send it [...]

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ARRRRRRGGGHHHH.

Question:  How many times can one (passive-aggressively) express one’s disagreement with the number of toys one’s grandson possesses via conversation with said grandson?
Answer:  I lost track.  But I’ll tell you what, the woman’s capacity for invention is endless.  Every game with the baby is a game that starts with “You don’t need a _____ when [...]

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On Being Pregnant and Pro-Choice

Happy Election Day.  I’m going to rant.
I like to think of myself as an informed voter who weighs the issues, but the truth is that I ultimately vote on one issue, and that issue is Choice.  I don’t care how good a candidate might seem otherwise.  If he (oh, it’s always he) wants to rummage [...]

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We’re all Kenleys today.

I don’t talk much about pop culture here, probably because I’m too busy whining about school and work and stuff. On that tip: still working on the diss. proposal. Made it through one “bad” draft which was, I kid you not, faulted mostly for being badly written as opposed to full of bad [...]

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You see, I am easily annoyed.

Hi.  I am happy to report that I have gotten over my recent and ill-advised whining, crying, and heavy sighing the only way I know how: America’s Next Top Model Marathon.  I am also lucky in that I have absolutely no shame about my tv-watching habits. I come from one of those departments of oneupspersonship [...]

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Back to School

As the whine-a-roo post below indicates, I’m immersed in 9/11 lit, and it’s depressing the hell out of me, so I’m not capable of posting something coherent right now (which is not to say I’ve ever posted something coherent, come to think of it). My dissertation is not exclusively on 9/11 texts (note to self: update wholly [...]

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I used to think college is for everyone. (Part One)

Surprisingly, this delusion lasted me through an M.A. program and at least two years of a Ph.D.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about full disclosure (don’t worry, I’ll come back to the college thing). When I set out to write an anonymous blog, my assumption was that I would feel free to write about [...]

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Your books are the ILLest.

I’m going to the library today to pick up a dissertation that I ordered through Interlibrary Loan.  Muy interesante, no?  No, not really, except that it raises issues of class and the academy.  Ordering a dissertation would cost me something like $40 if I weren’t affiliated with my institution.  I’m not entirely sure why (maybe [...]

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Don’t piss off the librarians.

My mom taught public school for 30+ years, and one of the best rules of life to come out of that experience was: don’t ever piss off the janitorial staff. They are key to keeping your classroom running, and yet they are generally underpaid and under-respected for the essential services they provide. If [...]

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