Parts-n-Pieces

Good Things (I should renumber these)

• Knowing there are seven class days left in this semester, and that's seven too many.  I need this semester to be over.  But the good thing?  There are only seven class days left.

• Feeling so very ready to move on.  I want to, I need to move on today.

• Donating so many things to the Salvation Army and the local Domestic Violence shelter.  I need to make another pass through the house...downsize more.

• Printing out my dissertation earlier today:  420 pages of crap.  Truly.  It's not that great.  But it's done.  That's the good thing.

• Thinking I might work at another degree:  and MFA in photography.  My new institution offers such a degree.  Might be a good thing.

• Remembering someone from my past . . . and thinking good thoughts about a good person.  The good thing?  Age helps us understand.

• Hearing from a couple of cousins today and yesterday who live in the area of my new position.  I'll get to reconnect with them.  Good thing.

Good Things #915 (or something)

I have lost count of "Good Things" lists, so I make up numbers.  Hmmm. This sounds oddly like my bookkeeping strategies.  But I digress.  In order to shake off the sense of impending doom this job search creates, I think of the things for which I am grateful:

• My daughter.  In the shower this morning I remembered again how fortunate and blessed I am to have had her.  She changed (and saved) my life.

• My ability to rear her to become a strong, healthy, smart, generous young woman.  Ann Coulter (and her secondhand children article) be damned.

• Starbucks.  This is not news to the people who know me.  I'm grateful, though, to have found a place where I can just be for a while, where people know me but don't bother me, where I can relax, read, work, whatever.

• My classes.  I am teaching two brand new courses this semester, and while the pacing of these courses has been compromised because of the job search (and a rogue "snow day," the students seem OK with it all.  The work is interesting-- they think (and I believe)-- so it'll all end up OK.

• A tax refund. I'm getting one even though I lost one dependent this year.  Getting the refund surprised me.  Thank G-d for the ability to itemize.

• The Nikon D-90.  I'm so loving this camera.  The battery grip that I bought with it plus the 16gb card  means I can take over 1,000 images in RAW before I have to charge batteries or change the card.  Now, I am not going to let 1,000 images wait for processing . . . but still.  I have that ability, and that's good.  I'm a little behind in posting, but check out the third year of Project 365.

• My ability to be creative, tenacious, fearless, and smart.

• My idealism.  Idealism is not a dirty word.

• The job search.  It's horrible. I never want to go through this again.  But.  But I have options, and I know I do.  I'm grateful for those options.

What are you grateful for today?

RBOC (end of November edition)

Good Things, Random Bullets, The Dissertation, . . . and a some other bulleted stuff.

Good Things:

• The Bundle came home for Thanksgiving (her quarter break).
• The Bundle has now gone home . . . heh, "home" . . . her place.
• The house is fairly clean and laundry is done.  Good enough for now.
• The blogs that students created this semester are terrific.  Most students wrote most of the time, and they wrote thoughtful and careful posts.  I'm so proud. :-)   NaBloPoMo helped keep everyone accountable.
• The fireplace works just fine . . . as long as I leave one window open.  (It's not quite cold enough here for a fire.)
• The grading is done (almost) . . . just a few late arriving pieces.
• The social-networking tools I use frequently . . . what a great way to stay connected to people I enjoy and care about.
• The end of the semester in about two weeks.  This one has been surreal.
• The RSA Summer Institute.  I registered, and it should be just awesome.  One seminar and one workshop are directly related to the work I am doing and the work I'm planning for the spring/summer.
• The iPod and "shuffle" music
• The dinner at my sister's . . . playing poker with the fam is always fun.
• The classes I'm slated to teach next spring excite me greatly:  Intermediate Composition (rhetoric and documentary film), Sophomore Seminar (Writing through Photography), and Advanced Composition (multi-genre writing) -- those RSA seminar/workshop will be useful for future studies.

Random Bullets of Crap:

• Using the Geo-phyzz bath bomb from Lush Products is mighty fine. Relaxing.  It makes for an expensive bath, but worth it.
• Stressing just slightly that I have only heard from a handful of places from this current job search.  The wait is expected, but still difficult.
• Checking the rhet/comp wiki too often.
• Feeling sad for the young widow who lived behind me (she moved out today). Her husband passed away a few days ago (he was 36).  She now has no job (he was the family provider) and three young children.  So sad. She's gone home to live with her parents.
• Feeling a bit disappointed in some folks I know quite well who said nothing (not a word) about my own illness this semester or my sister's death.  But then, they did the same thing when my mother died a few years ago.  Par?  Maybe.  Disappointing, nonetheless.
• Learning that Patti Smith was awarded an honorary doctorate from Rowan University this past May.  Good for her and good for Rowan!  A bit of a site note:  Rowan sent me a very, very nicely worded rejection letter.

The Dissertation

• Wondering why it's not done yet . . .  it's not like I have anything else to do (besides, you know, teach 9 million students and read 19 gazillion essays).  Truly.  The date they gave me to make the corrections the rogue committee member demanded is 12/3 (Wednesday).
• Wondering if I am close to being done?  Not on your life.  The more I change, the more that needs changing. 
• Wondering when "enough" is "enough"?
• Wondering "what if" they (or this one person) still has issues with something that's taken me two years to write?

Other stuff:

• Headache.  'nuff said ... I've had this headache for weeks (months), and it won't go away.  Sometimes it's mild; sometimes it's not (like now).  Nothing seems to help.
• As much as I like working with student-athletes, realizing that having 80-90 percent in one class (or in two classes, actually) makes it almost impossible to keep on a schedule . . . some group of them is always gone. The lack of a consistent schedule has been hard on everyone . . . but guess who's course evaluations will suffer?
• Patti Smith appears frequently on my iPod shuffle. I'm not complaining, mind you, just noticing.  (I really love the B&W image on her site.)

I suppose I should end on a positive note: 

The semester is almost over, the diss will be finished before too long, MLA (and San Francisco) is coming up, I have some really great students this term, I'll be teaching classes that I'm excited about next term, my daughter is healthy, and there is money in the bank.  Life is good.

15 Good Things (end of October edition)

Fifteen good things at the end of October.

1. Listening to Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell."  An oldie, but an oh-so-goodie.  I'm banging my head with the music.  He is, on a side note, an awesome performer live.  Really.
2. Having my blog platform upgraded with the new Compose Editor.  If you are a typepad user you know just how sweet this is.  Sweet.
3. Knowing the Bundle is in very best city on the entire planet:  San Francisco.   She'll love it.  It's as beautiful place.
4. Eating lunch with a friend today.  Perspective is always a good thing.
5. Drinking coffee with another friend yesterday.  Perspective is always a good thing.
6. Having cooler weather.  An awesome thing.  Sleeves on clothes?  A good thing.
7. Getting a flu shot the other day ... the flu shot last year didn't keep me from getting the flu, but at least while getting these two flu shots, I was able to meet up with a super-secret blogger.  (It was a super-secret blogger meet up.)
8. Attending a soccer match tonight to watch a favorite student kick ass.  Always fun.  Football game tomorrow where other favorite students will kick even more ass.  Good times!
9. Receiving notices from universities that they have received my application materials . . . a good thing.  It's an even better thing that I can't see or hear them laughing. 
10. Having my electricity turned off yesterday due to nonpayment.  Yes. It was a good thing.  Life had been hectic and uneven and I forgot.  (Yes, I really just forgot about it.)  The technician turned it back on in about 30 minutes because I paid the bill immediately, but the good part?  When the electricity was off I could see just how dirty my ceiling fans blades were.  Gross, actually.  They are now clean.
11. Knowing Ginger is getting better.  The super-duper prescription (read: expensive) dog food and antibiotics are helping her.
12. Feeling more and more comfortable with my decisions of late (not writing about those decisions here. You crazy?  I'm not.).  But knowing from my own history that by the time I make a firm decision about something, it's a good decision.  Even if it's not a good decision (however one defines "good"), I'm good with the consequences and with the outcome.  So for me?  It's good.
13. Receiving Southside Johnny's Under the Grapefruit Moon (the Songs of Tom Wait) and "Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes' Jukebox," the four-CD set.
14. Listening to Van Morrison.  'Nuff said.
15. Seeing students engage and respond, watching them learn.  I love teaching.

This was an easy list to construct.  I'm feeling better.

RBOC: Day #13 Edition

It's a mixed bag today:  random bullets and good things.

The Random:

• I'm looking at $2.79 in nickels, dimes, and pennies on my desk.  I should save these.  You know, the funds for two trips to San Francisco this year must come from somewhere.
• In the SuperTarget parking lot this afternoon, a young man on a skateboard tried to "race" me.  Oddly enough, he won.
• I wonder if all-encompassing fear is common at this stage of writing/job hunting?  It must be.  I can't be the only one feeling this way.
• Sometimes I just don't think people "see" me.  Yes, they sense my presence-- they see my physical body-- but they really have no clue who I am, what I can do, what I think.  They assume; they assume incorrectly.
• Last night I had a dream about my high school boyfriend.  I don't really remember the dream, but it was sad.
• Occasionally, people will tell me that I am an inspiration. (I don't know that I am any kind of inspiration, but I do have an inspiring story.)  I heard those words today . . . from a man I have not seen in about 6 years.
• I'm missing the Bundle more and more everyday.  I will drive to LA in about a month to visit her.
• I will be finishedwith the dissertation by then.  I will be (she tries to convince herself).
• Sometimes I just need to cry.  But there are no tears.  These days?  There is no time for them.

The Good (and listing three instead of ten ... that's a good thing all by itself):

• I am so very proud of my daughter.  Forever and always.  Amen.
• Yesterday, I talked with a former ICW student who is destined to be a professional football player.  Every time I see him, he hugs me and thanks me for riding his ass in our class for a year and not letting him get away with the buffoonery he (and others) tried to pull.  Again, I wish others could see these young men as I do, see them for who they are inside, not just their race, their muscle, their attitudes.  It was good to see him.
• My graduation present to myself is rather sweet:  a 42" HD flat screen television.  The HD is just effing awesome.

Enough for now.  Off to grad institution.  I'm realizing that four nights a week is a lot to be away from home.  I'm tired and it's only mid-September.

Good Things (end of summer edition)

Since I am trying to save all my words for the dissertation, I haven't blogged in a bit.  And I'm not going to today, either.  Instead, a list of "good things."

• Being almost done with the dissertation.  You cannot know how good that feels.  Well, maybe you can.  I'm so very tired, but I feel accomplished, too.  It's  all good.

• Writing syllabi for the fall isn't normally a "good thing," but this time around it is.  I'm teaching a few classes I haven't taught in a long time, and I'm excited about that.

• Deciding on my graduation present . . . which, of course, I'm getting early:  a large (really large) flat screen television.  I can't wait to watch sports games on that baby.  (Given that every television in my house is broken, getting a new one is a good thing.)

• Having a fortuitous conclusion to my dissertation land in my lap today.  I can't say more than that, but having this "perspective" is helpful.  Really really helpful.

• Knowing that it's all going to be OK.  (I never doubted it.  Yea, well, whatever.)

• Having smart and generous friends.

• Being able to spend the weekend with the wonderful Bundle next weekend.  She'll be in the area with her soccer team, and I'll  travel to that city to watch her to do thang.  I'm excited!

• Being so ready to move on I can't stand it.

• Loving the way Remember the Milk, Jott, Twitter, Facebook, delicious, Linked In, FriendFeed, Flickr, Typepad, WordPress (class blogs), and Box.net can all "talk to" each other.  Simplifies my life to no end.  Now I need to get Outlook and Google Calendar to sync with each and with my Treo755p.

• Stumbling upon some really nifty websites during the past few weeks, websites that allow me to see the world and not read about it.

1. Sociological Images (Need fodder for class discussions?  You need sociological images.)
2. Shorpy Images (Need to see the way life was during the early 20th century?  You need Shorpy.  [Be sure and enlarge the images to full size.])
3. Ill Doctrine (Need explanations of Hip Hop culture?  You need Ill Doctrine.)
4. Photoshop Disasters (Teaching NewMedia?  You need PSD.)

Good Things (after some dissertation whining)

Yes.  Yes, this graphic depicts my state of being at the moment.  (However, if this graphic were true to life, it would have a dress.  You know, to show that I'm female.)  But I've digressed. 

Headless.  I am headless.  My brain is mush.  My eyes are shot.  My back hurts from sitting at a computer for weeks on end.  I'm not thinking clearly in any sort of way.  I am spinning my wheels with the dissertation, reading and moving the same few paragraphs over and over and over.  None of it makes sense right now.

I have one chapter to finish (analysis) and two more to finalize (intro and conclusion).  Then I'm done.  I have 10 days, and while I don't want to psyche myself out, I'm not sure I'm going to make it.  As I noted before, this is a soft deadline, one I set for myself, so if I don't make that 8/22 deadline, the world won't come crashing down around me, but still.  I'll keep on with it.  One step in front of the next.   Eventually I'll get there.

But in the midst of this fatigue, a list of 10 good things:

• I truly can see the end of this project.  Last night, I started making mental plans for my home office when I throw away all the copied journal articles I have.  The space it'll open up!
• I know more about intercollegiate athletics (in Division I-A) than I ever hoped to know.
• I have saved money by not eating out.
• I feel smart.
• I see how my work can be generalized beyond the subgroup of student-athletes I am writing about.  This work can be useful with almost any marginalized student group.
• I have a healthy research agenda based on this dissertation (and all those things I could not include).
• I like my subject, and I like (very much) the students I had in this study.
• I appreciate the nexus of critical pedagogy with feminist pedagogy . . . relational pedagogy.
• I like that I have worked very hard on this project.  (No one else will probably ever read the whole thing, but I know what went into producing it.)
• I know the project is on "the tip of my tongue," and I like how that feels.
• I can't wait to get back to Project 365.  I miss the creative outlet photography gives me.

Five Things I'm Grateful for Today

The point about "good things" (at least for me) is to push away all the negative thoughts and emotions (and there are lots of those these days).  So instead of moaning and groaning, five things I am grateful for today:

• My daughter.  That she has grown up a smart, talented, generous, ethical, beautiful young woman.  She makes good choices, right decisions . . . decisions good and right for her and for what she wants from life.  (Raising her alone was so very hard, but I did good.  I did.)

• My mother.  It's taken 15 months since her passing to realize that I came from her, that whatever I have accomplished is because of her, that whatever talent I possess, I received from her and my father.  Her role with me was not the same as my role with my daughter, but I am thankful for whatever it was that she gave me.  (I can't yet define it in positive terms.)

• My photographic eye.  Without conscious thought, I took a photograph of three chairs at the Stockyards on Sunday morning.  It's an appropriate image for these past few days.  (My mother's ashes arrived the next day.)

• My career. I'm not done there yet.  There is a place for me, a place that will accept (embrace) my talents and energies and my ability to see broadly, my ability to accept (embrace) difference, my ability to find new avenues, new spaces, new ways.

• My future. I'm not done living life yet, either.  I know that.  I don't quite feel the excitement of the future today, but that's OK.  I know that it'll all be fine, that I'll be fine.  Ultimately.  I'll be able to forge a new life apart from being someone's mother.  I'll be able to use my strengths and passions in a way that will benefit other people.

And a bonus thing I'm thankful for today:

• My bloggy friends.  I know that lately I've been a bit, um, negative about all that's going on, but I appreciate your kind words and your thoughtfulness more than I can express.  I'll be OK through these significant changes, and I'll be OK in large part because of you. 

Good Things

A Good Things List (because I'm sick):

• Air conditioning (it's not that hot outside, but it's nice and cool in here)
• Chicken marsala for dinner (left over from dinner at a nice restaurant last weekend)
• TNT and USA channels on cable (day and night Law & Order episodes)
• Cardio and Weight Lifting (10 of the last 14 days I have worked out quite intensely) [maybe that's why I'm so sick and achy?  I can't find a correlation in on-line searches I've done today]
• Dissertation (OK, I'm reaching here, but it's coming along.  I see the light)
• Dissertation bootcampers (what a great bunch of people)
• TwitPic (I like Twitter, but I love TwitPic ... check the new item in the gutter)
• Sleeping during the day (I never take naps . . . naps are good)
• Bath bombs from Lush (I save these for when I need them . . . and I need one today)
• Buying 25 or so of these bath bombs about a year ago (now that I see how much more expensive they are ... GeoPhyzz is my favorite)
• Reinventing myself (is harder than I thought it would be [yea, it's only been two weeks], but it's also exciting ... it reminds me how strong I have been [and will be])
• Hitting the "send" key a few weeks (more on this another day)

Good Things (to clear the head on Tuesday morning)

I'm having difficulty focusing this morning, so to focus myself, a list of good things.

---

• Watching my daughter graduate last Saturday and realizing what a good job I did as her mother.  (Her graduation was as much my graduation as it was hers . . . only different.)
• Buying a new web-cam yesterday that has a built-in microphone is good. The video updates will be better with a faster camera and without that black microphone covering my face.    Maybe next Monday's version will be a little smoother/cleaner.  I hope so.
• Wearing makeup -- maybe not so good, but I probably look better.  For the video updates, I think I must wear makeup (when I don't wear much in the summer).  I look a little more alive with some color.
• Being caught up with Project365(+1) photos (the graduation and final exams got in the way).
• Receiving random telephone calls in the last two days about next fall's ICW course.  Why are these people calling me?  Maybe because I'm here?
• Seeing former ICW students graduate last Saturday was special-- not as special as seeing my own daughter graduate, but still.  Sweet.  They have grown up and matured, and they are so terrific.  None of the ones who graduated are going on to professional sports careers, but they each have a college degree.  They are on a good road, and I'm so proud of them.
• Seeing my former husband this last week reminds me of so many things -- most of them good things.  He reminds me how strong I am.  I forget.  He reminds me in so many ways.
• Receiving dissertation feedback last Sunday.  Very few comments (which is good) -- a little direction (very good) -- and I'm good to go. 
• Using Sea Island Cotton anti-bacterial gel from Bath and Body Works.  I look forward to dirty hands so I can use this stuff.  It smells great.
• Starting a workout regimine yesterday.  It felt good to move and stretch and exercise.  Really.
• Cleaning out my office.  I took all the nonprofit stuff home and dusted everything that remained.   This place is a paper-dust(y) mess at the end of a semester.
• Being excited about the future -- my future (and hers) -- now that I can reinvent myself in some ways.  I will always be her mother, but that is not my primary role any longer.  The options are open.
• Finishing the dissertation this summer.  With that, I must get to work.

Good Things (end of semester edition)

It's been a while, and I need one of these.

• Knowing the semester is almost over (tomorrow is my last presentation day), and other than those projects, my grading is done.
• Having some wonderful students.  A few goofy ones, a few forgetful ones, but overall, very smart, funny, engaged people.
• Receiving some of the best end-of-term projects from these same students.  The graphic novellas have been so very good.  (I'll write about this tomorrow and will post an example.)
• Hearing from an a friend/confidant today about how much this person's advisees have grown while in my classes.  (This doesn't refer to students in this semester's classes.  These are from prior semesters . . . no grade negotiations were involved.)
• Knowing this man.  I'm a better person knowing him.
• Finding some unusual pieces of my china pattern on eBay and winning the auction for them.
• Having history with people.  (You'd have to know my whole life story to understand why this is important to list right now.  Trust me.)
• Taking some pretty cool pictures of baseball pitchers the other day.
• Believing, even tho' I don't believe it so much today, that there are options.
• Receiving such pretty flowers for my birthday last week.

Good Things (because I'm spinning them that way)

It's all good.  Or at least that's how I'm spinning it.

• Being.  The weather today is perfect.  Warm and sunny.  Perfect.  No spin necessary.
• Waiting.  Youth soccer will be over in one week, and the current teams will move up to the next age level and onto larger fields as the next season begins in August.  Thankfully, one of those coaches will go with them. 
• Questioning.  The administrative assistant in my office is so thorough . . . he went through my expense report for NOLA and questioned the amount of a tip I left at dinner one night.  He's so, um, studious.  Spinning.
• Grieving.  Danny Federici passed away on Thursday, and this isn't a good thing.  What's good is that he is onto a better place.  No pain.  No cancer.
• Learning.  My new mantra:  "They don't deserve to win."  But trying to avoid the tendency to let them win (that learned helpless model) . . . choosing to fight.
• Seeing.  Springsteen perform last weekend in Dallas was a good thing-- it's also a good thing that I got to sit where I did.  I never thought I'd be able to sit so far away from the stage.  But the tickets were a gift from my sister for my birthday.  I'm grateful for that.
• Listening.  To new music and to old music.  Remembering that Springsteen's music serves as the soundtrack to my adult life. 
• Writing.  A lot . . . even though it's hard for me to get started, once I do, I have a lot to say.  I need to learn how to write more quickly . . . to not fear the process.  But that's a good thing.
• Posting.  Here, Project 365(+1), and Dissertation Boot Camp.  (I suppose I should include Twitters here . . . you know, those mini-blog posts).  I'm lovin' the Twitter.)
• Moving.  Over the next two weeks, I'll be moving my archives over from my old blog (blog-city), so all the posts will be in one place.  That's a good thing.
• Receiving.  A letter of apology from a local corporation for the unfortunate behavior of its employees.
• Attending.  The basketball awards banquet this week.  This is the first time faculty have been invited, and I was.  Invited, that is.  I can't wait.  One of my first ICW students is on this team and he's graduating in about 15 days.  I get to see him.
• Purchasing.  When I earned my M.A. degree, I bought myself a ring (I didn't have any need for a school ring).  It's an amethyst surrounded by diamonds.  Gorgeous.  I'm starting to envision what kind of ring I'll buy myself in August . . . when the Ph.D. is finished.
• Realizing.  There will be no ring if there is no dissertation. 

 

Good Things (after some bad things)

Good Things . . . and today's list was very easy to construct.  It's centered around friends and community.

• having friends . . . I'm so very grateful for friends, for friends who love me no matter how weird I can be.
• being grateful for the friend who reminded me yesterday that my response to life in NOLA-- while atypical for most people-- was *very* typical for me because of my history. I won't go into it here, but I sometimes tend to forget about my past as I'm so caught up with the present and the future.
• remembering not the past is a good thing.
• listening to the mix-CD this friend sent a few months ago . . . rockin' women, indeed.
• being home.
• connecting with grad school folks, folks I had not seen in quite some time (Jenny, Byron, David, Matt, Sarah, Thomas).
• teaching the first-year seminars in the graphic novel . . . these students are awesome.
• learning today that my scheduled courses for next fall (intermediate comp) are 75% filled with student-athletes from just about all represented (major male and female) sports on campus.
• visiting Central Market this afternoon to buy this ($2.99) but spent $27.35 on stuff I didn't particularly need right now.  (But I love Central Market and its wide assortment of hard to find food products.) 
• ending the NCAA basketball season ranked #1 in Derek's basketball tournament pool on Yahoo! Sports.  I'm #1!
• knowing it's T-minus-5 days and counting until . . . . HE arrives in Dallas.  And I have tickets.  I think.  (I'm not sure where they are as the tickets are a birthday present from the Bundle, but she swears to me that she has them.  But she won't tell me how close to the front we'll be.)
• gearing up for Wednesday and binge writing.  I'm ready.  I have a lot to write.

Random Bullets (Wednesday Edition)

RBOC Wednesday-- a mixture of good things, random things, disappointing things.  It's RBOC!

• Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of my mother's death.  In the mail today was a card from the hospice where she died.  Nice folks.  Their sympathy and their cards have been appreciated, 3-month, 6-month, 9-month, one-year anniversary cards.
• It's hard to imagine that it's been a year.
• Grief is an odd thing, really, and people react so differently as they work through it.  I wonder if tomorrow will be a hard day.
• My younger sister got married the day after Valentine's day.  She didn't tell anyone . . . not even her children.  Oh, and this marriage?  Her seventh.  Grief.  Good grief.
• Lots of books in the mail this week.  A recommendation from a friend:  Basketball and Philosophy:  Thinking Outside the Paint, and some books I might use in a class next year, something about writing for the web, web 2.0, that is:  Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations, Blogging  Heroes, and Facebook: The Missing Manual. 
• The "special" class I taught?  The course that's the foundation of my dissertation?  I'm not teaching it again next year.
• On Sunday, it was 75 degrees.  On Monday, it snowed.  Tuesday and today, maybe 60 degrees.  Tomorrow?  It should snow again, 29 degrees.  Did someone forget, this is Texas, in March? 
• I wonder if 40 pages in dissertation's Appendices are too many.  Probably.  The entire thing is too long.  I spent the afternoon reformatting all those files to fit within the margins of the dissertation template . . . then I made those new files into .pdf files.   Everything looks so neat and clean.  Organized.  So different than real life.
• Spoke with a friend/informant today who reminded me of the ugly side of my dissertation topic.  Ugly.  Really.  Really ugly.  Deplorable human beings, he said.
• NCAA President, Myles Brand is visiting my campus in a few weeks.  Should be interesting.
• I took the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel-- the beautiful Ginger-- to the groomer's a few days ago and she was so clean and soft.  We'd been home about 20 minutes, and she poked her head into the fireplace and got soot on her face, on the white fur.  Soot that won't wash off.  Lovely.
• New Orleans.  Three weeks away.  Can't wait.

Good Things, Random Things, and some Music to Not Travel By

It's a mixed bag, good things and random bullets.  You get to decide:

• Having a Roadside Assistance Plan on my cell phone.  It's expensive until I need it.
• The tow truck driver, Robert, only had about three teeth and a phlegm-filled cough.
• He told me a bizarre story-- after he saw my camera-- about how he took photos of the Challenger explosion and donated those pics to NASA . . . he also had photos of the tornado that hit downtown Fort Worth about 7 years ago, but he had to move from his home "very quickly," and his landlord destroyed them.
• Income tax refund arrived on Friday.  In time to buy a new set of tires and an intense auto detail.  Whohoo!
• My car looks almost new, and the leather is so shiny and soft.
• Youth soccer begins this weekend:  I referee four games Saturday and two on Sunday.  I'm hoping my knee will be OK ... I'm hoping even more than there are new parents out there this season.
• I should have won an Oscar.  Really.  My acting skills are (cough) amazing.
• My new cell phone allowed me to answer email this morning as I waited for the tow truck.  I'm such a multitasker.
• I edited a dissertation chapter at the car wash . . . and took a boatload of pictures as I thought about Springsteen's song about working in a car wash.  I don't know if my multitasking during this time produced effective edits to the chapter, though. 
• I did get rockin' pics of dogs, dogs at the car wash.  Oh, and the white stretch limo.   I guess somebody has to wash the limos.  Might as well be the Cityview car wash . . . they do have framed pictures of Miss Americas on the walls.
• Bought ticket for New Orleans.  Can't wait .... the mother ships calls only once a year.
• Looking forward to meeting lots of über cool folks while there....
• Looking forward to a photo excursion..., er, sessions that concern photography in NO.  Yea, that's it.

Stranded on the Side of the Road Music:

• "As Long as I Can Be With You," Patti Scialfa
• "She," Elvis Costello
• "While We Wait," Jack Johnson
• "It's Not," Aimee Mann
• "Dance Without Sleeping," Melissa Ethridge
• "Dirty World," The Traveling Wilburys
• "I've Got a Feeling," The Beatles
• "The March of the Black Queen," Queen
• "Right Hand Man," Joan Osborne
• "Walking Through Midnight," Southside Johnny
• "Looking for Elvis," Patti Scialfa

What?  I waited for two hours....

• "To Try for the Sun," Lindsay Buckingham
• "Radio Nowhere," Springsteen
• "Ships Don't Disappear in the Night," 10cc
• "Turn off the Lights," Teddy Pendergrast
• "Embraceable You," Charlie Parker
• "Between a Laugh and a Tear," John Mellencamp
• "Truth," Amos Lee
• "Tupelo Honey," Van Morrison
• "Exhuming McCarthy," R.E.M.
• "Where Did My Baby Go?" John Legend
• "Smooth," Santana

Tomorrow, back to something sort of remotely academic.  And some pics.  Lots of pics.