Monday, October 22, 2007

"It's simply beyond words. It's incalculable."

I am coming off a hellish few weeks in which I experienced the multiple joys of paper grading , mid-term grading, and having a professor evaluate one of my sections. I had a whole spiel about how teaching the classics makes me feel a bit like Michael Scott at times, but I fear my Google-savvy freshmen.


"I am an adult. I don’t have to think…or…do anything!"


This blog has suffered greatly for two reasons. One: I spent the summer mentally convalescing in Chicago, which was great for me, but not so great for blogging. I had a ball reading Hawthorne and going to the farmers' market, but that kind of fun doesn't always translate . Two: Since coming back to New York, time that isn't spent reading for exams, prepping for teaching, and teaching is spent actively avoiding anything that involves rigorous thought. Yes, this blog is dinky, and shouldn't require much. But that's how far gone I am. This post took three weeks to write. Previous posts were starting to veer off into that scary place where grad students go which is rife with words like "epistemology" and "othering." Yeah. Gross.

Anyway, visitors offer good excuses to play hooky and be out and about so here goes.

The parents were in town a couple of weeks ago, which is always fun especially when it includes dinner at Lupa and Pastis.

I love my parents but I love them more when they feed me.

At Pastis we ended up getting into this long involved conversation with two sisters about politics because my mom was wearing this:

Apparently these shirts are designed to smoke out Republicans even in French restaurants in the meatpacking district. The details of the conversation are hazy but we did hit several points including the Iraq War, Israel-Palestine, Ayn Rand, abortion, and the decision of one of the sisters' daughter's to become a sex therapist. It ended with them wanting to have dinner with us the next time they're in Chicago. Who says there's no hope for bi-partisan civility?

BFF Mimor* was in town this weekend, and I got to see Harlem up close and personal for the first time.



Fun trip, Indian food, shopping, and one valuable lesson learned: there is no such thing as an unmonitored subway platform.

TBC...

*I kinda hate myself for trotting out the oh-so-mature BFF, but it's late and the 2 of you that have been bugging me about my lack of posting should be grateful I can find the mouse. So, suck on it, and good night.