The View From Kalamazoo

Draft special session title:
“Weblogs and the Academy: Internet Presence and Professional Discourse Among Medievalists – a Roundtable”

(Co-organized by Shana Worthen at Toronto.)

Anyone interested in being on board (besides Michael Drout, who I was very pleased to meet at the dance, and the first to be pitched the session idea), or in giving any feedback on this?

Form due the 15th, so sooner commentary is particularly helpful…later still welcome, of course!

HEHEE!

At work today.

Crazy, you say?

Why yes. (I’m sooooo tired)

Updates, links, and general nonsense to follow at some point. I am so very behind. I now have a blow-up stressbuster bat with which to pummel my poor, unsuspecting co-workers and students. I am disturbingly pleased about that. 😉

Snow and sleet yesterday. You’ve been warned.

May 4 Tomorrow
Mainly sunny. High 63F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.

May 4 Tomorrow night
Clear skies. Low 41F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.

May 5 Thursday
Mainly sunny. Highs in the upper 60s and lows in the mid 40s.

May 6 Friday
Occasional showers possible. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the low 50s.

May 7 Saturday
Partly cloudy, chance of a thunderstorm. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the upper 50s.

May 8 Sunday
Times of sun and clouds. Highs in the upper 70s and lows in the upper 50s.

I’m sick of cleaning, and I haven’t ironed a thing, yet. Or packed.

I woke up Saturday morning to discover that
-Em had been up for a while, didn’t alert us, and was, therefore, unmedicated
-There was any number of combinations of
–Hersheys baking cocoa
–Hersheys powdered chocolate milk mix
–Hershey’s syrup
–and hot fudge ice cream topping
–(oh, and some milk)
—in the bathroom (entirely covering, among other things, Colin’s little potty)
—On the stairs
—Through the living room
—In the kitchen
—All over some articles in a box I haven’t taken the time to file properly
—Let’s not discuss the state of the ‘fridge.

Needless to say much of what I planned to get through Saturday (the whole weekend, basically) was set aside to deal with the nasty, sticky, unimaginably infuriating mess through the house. It’s amazing what outstanding timing Em’s ADHD extremely symptomatic behavior problems have… When I’m living in the dorms for most of a week I do miss my kids…and yet..

As for Beltaine/May Day – no fertility for me (can I get a ‘praise the lord!’ ???), save fertility of creative energy.

I worked on my intentional mosaic project, started working on the slab project I’ll mold and then reproduce at will. One more intentional mosaic to go, but this one will be so much less intense – Mondrian inspired, all straight cuts, and easy to number the back and get it organized. The other is irises – and so many small pieces, it was insane to cut, then clean up, then re-fit upside down so I could try to mark the back in such a way to allow me to put the puzzle back together later. The mold will be a copy of Em’s portrait of herself and Colin (see icon) she drew shortly after he was born – up til then she hadn’t drawn people much at all (and no representational drawings at all until she was nearly six, in fact, the day she first went on meds and could concentrate long enough to try to draw anything).

I think the mural I’ll put on my rustic stoneware tiles will be a series of Etruscan dancers, although this tree of life is radically tempting.

Last day to pack boxes, as the university movers are coming tomorrow morning first thing to pick my and MIP’s enormous piles-o-crap to transport to Vly III. Finally had my new ID picture taken this morning and I look less helter-skelter than I had thought I would, considering the early hour and the lack of coffee anywhere near my person. I even tried to smile – HA! what a charade! 😉

Dude, something wicked this way comes. And in less than a week.

Crazy people are calling. Seriously. I don’t get paid enough to deal with some of these choice specimens. If I wanted to be verbally abused daily I’d work in fast food, you know? I don’t have student loan debt that makes me eligible for World Bank assistance and advanced degrees to be talked to like I’m four. I don’t shop at Walmart. Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?

I have so much to do. Congress crap at work, at home. Much ironing in my future. I’ll have to rob a bank to pay for my drycleaning I must drop off today (or be nekkid next week – not a pleasant thought). Details, details, details. All of the stuff that’s last minute because it has to be. I still have to work more on the showcase in the Bernhard Center. that’s been an entirely too-time-consuming exercise.

I have clay in my car. Yes, you read that right. Stoneware and red earthenware, to be exact. I need to carve the stoneware slab ’cause we’re making molds next week (I think I’ll do the tree, as well). And I have to deal with the two earthware slabs to design and cut intentional mosaics (center piece – I have already made all of the 4 X 4 tiles that will surround – and all decorated with majolica). And I’d better than them done by the end of the weekend or I’m toast. Must bring those back to class Thurs. (yes, I’m going to play with clay anyway, staffing students to sit in my stead. So there)

Oh, and clean the house, get caught up with laundry, get the kids clothes out and bundled for the next 10 days, refill ‘scrips, buy lunchables for Em for next week so Bri isn’t futsing with peanut butter and jelly…

Not to mention the powers that be require an answer on whether we’re doing private tutoring or summer school for Miz Thang this summer – perfect timing.

Uuugggh.

Great clock site on Wells Cathedral clock and Salisbury Cathedral clock!

On the Morgan Library

I’d run down the hall screaming and tearing my hair out, but I just spent a lot of money on a hair cut so I’ll just be screaming today. The Congress is a harsh mistress.

Note:
Last week we had two days in the 80s and a honkin’ snow storm.

Those coming next week should be frightened, very frightened. It has been 80 and snowed the same Congress. Jus’ sayin’.

This is your friend. Check early, check often. Pack layers!

I never find things this interesting digging in my yard – unless you count beer bottle caps, broken glass, and other student-party debris as interesting.

Does the idea of a crafting cage match scare the bejeezus out of anyone else? Those crazed ladies at the Michaels are already scary enough, thanks.

Have received email from a new reader – thanks for flying the friendly skies of CarnellAir, where the arguments can’t get off the ground and I can’t even give a flying f-ck!
Heh. Seriously, good to hear from you! Another satisfied customer from Bitch, Ph.D.!

Oxyrhynchus Papyri decoded!

`Impressive’ villa mosaic unearthed near Caesarea (thanks to mirabilis.ca for the link)

If you haven’t yet registered for the International Congress on Medieval Studies DO IT TODAY OR PAY A LATE FEE!!!

**runs screaming from the room**