Current Distractions

Follow-up to Monday: The raccoon did come back. This time, Otis shooed it away, and Selkie went after it. I intercepted him and avoided a Selko-Raccish war. Mountie watched it all with little interest.

Tuesday: Y'all know there ain't no Tuesdays on this blog.

Today: I went downtown between morning and evening classes, to run some errands (including dropping off applications for the last three of the eleven teaching positions I am shooting for). It had been a long time since I was downtown; it actually seemed less crowded than I thought it would be. I was not 100% successful in my missions, but I did make it home in time for a leisurely lunch.

Tonight: I got some work done, but mostly got distracted by household stuff. I did manage to fix the toilet paper dispenser in the master bathroom, using one of the mollies that Johnbai had bought to effect repairs after the Great Banister Disaster.

Anti-intellectualism? I found it odd that I received these two links separately but almost simultaneously: a review of a book by a Paris University professor on how to fake having read a book and an article about the decline of the American college education.

Snow day? Man, who knows anymore. The north end did look pretty bad today, at least according to the news; we'll see what Bothell does tomorrow.

Interruptions

So, yesterday I worked almost all day, blah, blah, blah, until Otis and I went to Third Place books to get some school stuff and grab a bite, and then went grocery shopping. We sorta skipped the Oscars, just watching a few minutes here and there, and a little of the Barbara Walters thing afterwards.

Today, I taught in the morning, stayed at school to do some responding, and then came home and got a wee bit of work done, but Otis and I took the shank of the afternoon to walk/run around Green Lake. It was glorious! When we got home, I planned to get settled right into work again, but I got a surprise phone call from my great and good friend of 30 years plus, Liam. Recognizing that the members of our old crowd are all turning 50 this year, Liam wants to have some sort of reunion or joint party. So, we talked of that and other things for quite a bit, until I had no time to do any work before dinner.

After dinner (veggie dogs!), I settled in and made some headway on prep, and Otis left for her book club. While working, I heard the distinctive clink of the cat food dish outside, and something told me it was not a sound that had been made in the usual course of cat-business. I went outside and there, as bold as brass, was a raccoon, stealing Mountie's food. Mountie was just siting on his box watching it. The raccoon skittered a ways down the fence when I came out, but didn't leave the area until I came at it aggressive-like. Selkie showed up after the raccoon had left, but something had got his blood up, and he started whaling on Mountie, so I had to separate them. I hate to see what Selkie would do to or with a raccoon. I guess it's time to start bringing the food in at sundown.

Anyway, that little adventure knocked me off my stride once again. I was about to settle in to filling out applications when I realized I had to tend to the laundry, so I headed upstairs.

I figured that since I seem to be in the midst of an eruption of interruptions, I might as well post to my blog, too.

And so I have.

Not a day of rest

Boy, I sing this song so much that even I get tired of the tune: I sure have a lot of responding to do today. I really am looking forward to working only 100%, rather than 140%. I guess my attitude was not helped by projecting out my teaching schedule from April through September; while it'll be nice to have the money coming in over spring and summer, seeing all those days will little red symbols on them was a bit daunting.

Innyway...

Yesterday was a pretty good recovery day. Dingo delayed dealing with her car issues, so we didn't have to mess with jumper cables and such; we'll do that today. Otis had one massage appointment, and I got some work done during the day as well, but mostly it was pretty low-key. We went out for some pizza for dinner, and watched a movie (that I reviewed over on my comics blog) when we came home. Life in the fast lane.

It seems a bit odd not to be getting the house ready for a big Oscar party tonight. Some of the edge was taken off the decision to skip the event this year by the fantastic turnout for Flapjack Friday; maybe the gang just has a migratory urge this time of year. My apologies to anyone who was counting on the affair; remember, there's always next year!

Bits and Bobs:

Given their recent posts on the same theme, here's a challenge for Yojimbo and JustJon: find one of these.

I think that Shutdown Day is a great idea, but it's easy for me to talk: we'll be in Hawaii then.

Pancake pandemonium!

Well, Flapjack Friday turned out to be a real barn-burner - the townhouse saw the biggest turnout in some time!

The tote board tallied a lucky thirteen revelers, including some guests we haven't seen in a good long while. BK and Tyrtle made the long trek in from the farm, and by my reckoning it has been just a week shy of two years since their last visit, at a moovie nite featuring The Incredibles! Wowsers! Like some of the rest if us, they are settling gracefully into the afternoon of life, including starting to count down to retirement in months rather than decades. Also returning after a fairly long stretch were JagGirl and Dvd, bringing their usual sweetness along with some marionberry dream to top the flapjacks. J-Force and Keeps arrived, a little tired but a lot fun. Johnbai and O came bearing fresh strawberries and a delightful breakfasty, bread-puddingy, casseroley thing that was a bright; Sachet brought them, as well as a veritable grocery cart of goodies, including two varieties of chocolate soy mile for taste-testing, some edamame (?!), and a lot of attitude française. Dingo surmounted car-battery woes to bring E-rik, who came with homemade marmalades of diverse and wonderful composition: sweet, savory, and spicy, just like him. Soapy bounced in with some old-school syrup and Yojimbo rounded out the party, reconnecting with BK and Tyrtle after two decades or so. And thus was the circle made complete...

The food-fun part of the evening was a rousing success; as griddle-master, I got to stay put and let the party come to me, while Otis was circulating. Flapjacks got flapped, and topped with toppings, and soysage got nibbled and mimosas sipped, and all was well on the comestibles front.

At a certain point, we cranked up the spectrator unit and watched Our Feature Presentation, carefully selected by Otis and I at random, after minutes of intense consideration, from whatever was in the indie section of the local Lackluster Video: Raising Genius. Although the movie had a killer cast (with Wendie Malick, Steven Root, and Ed Begley, Jr. among the principals and with cameos by Shirley Jones and Tippi Hedren), this film-festival fave was perhaps just a but too quirky for its own good. While no one really thought it was a bad movie, and some people actually enjoyed it, the viewing experience never seemed to coalesce into any identifiable response. Oddly enough, for a purported critical darling of a film, I couldn't find any reviews online, other than these from people who had bought the video from Amazon.

But cinematic ambiguity did not dampen the evening! The lights came up, the talk began, the revels renewed, and all was good with the world. Even a repeat of Dingo's car troubles when she finally headed home didn't dampen the evening too much (she just borrowed mine and put off the solution for another time). It was a great night with good folks and worth every bit of batter.

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Speaking of revels, a three-year streak is snapping: There will be no Oscar party this time around. No multi-screen, no giant image, no costumes, no jammies. Maybe it's because I have only seem one or two of any of the films that have been nominated for anything that I couldn't get up the requisite interest this year; maybe it's just that the townhouse doesn't seem as suitable a venue as the apartment was. If you want a weightier reason, here's an ex post facto rationale from The Guardian. Perhaps the whole tradition was too tied to a particular place and time. In any case, not this time; but we'll never say never again, right?

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And finally, for Otis, who always roots for the winged ones, here's a video of a bird who did not accept a gilded cage:

From an undisclosed location

I took yesterday evening off after a longish day of teaching, which meant that this morning was filled with last-minute lesson prep (i.e., getting photocopying in order), which meant that there was no blog post (until now).

The day is going swell!
I am completely over my cold!
It appears that Otis may have come down with a cold!
Flapjack Friday is a definite go, with some not-seen-for-a-while pals making appearances!

Stop me before I exclaim again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Talk around town

Who is sending early-morning emails despite his being on sabbatical right now? ... What hard-working adjunct teacher has an interview with Whatcom CC in two weeks? ... What reluctant administrator is finally training her replacement? ... Which tough-as-nails cynic has opened her home to a guest kitty for the foreseeable future? ... What busy massage therapist got on an art jag and filled the house with encaustics?

And what is Flapjack Friday?

Blah blah blah

Yesterday: Started working at 8:43 am; quit at 8:58 pm.
Today: First class starts at 9:00 am; last class ends at 9:30 pm.

Yeah, this is livin', man!

I got into teaching for all the free time

So, yesterday, I started working at about nine or so (ay em) and wrapped it up at about nine or so (pee-em). It wasn't quite as formidable as it sounds; I did take lunch, dinner, and a walk to the grocery store, so I was actually only mining the salt for about nine hours. Otis was doing something all that time; I don't know exactly what, but the house looks awfully clean and sparkly.

And today: well, like the weather, the work forecast seems to be pretty much the same as it was yesterday.

This what I get for taking Friday off, I suppose.

At least I'm not trying to sell a house or anything.

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Here's a last goodbye to Vicky Lynn Hogan, the 21st century Wal-Mart version of Norma Jeane Mortenson. Her story had the tragedy but not the talent; more bathos but no pathos.

Half a long weekend is better than none?

Yesterday turned out be a swell day, cold or no cold. We started out in the morning with a turn around the lake for some fresh air. It was such a sunny and warm day that the path was just full of walkers, runners, dog-walkers, and even some dog-runners. We even ran into Invisible Adam, taking his constitutional and rockin' out to some tunes (or listening to a talking book).

Otis had plans to spend some time around lunch with her mother, so I fussed around a bit, cleaned up the office, had Chinese leftovers (Gung Hay Fat Choy!) and made my To-Do list for the weekend. Composing the list was about as far along on my work as I got; I managed to get things a bit squared away and ready, but then Otis and I went out for some errands (like the comic book store) and generally found more fun things to do than work. We watched Sullivan's Travels after dinner (you can't go wrong with Preston Sturges) and even though we texted out to see what others were doing, we got involved in a hot game of double-nine dominoes to end out the evening. Yee-ha!

So, today it will be brekkies and then work all day - I have stacks of responding to get though, and two more apps to mail on Tuesday. No classes on Monday, so I can repeat the process then.

Maybe we'll sneak out for a movie tonight.

Oh, and I changed my mind - I think what I really want is one of these.

Still schtick

Friday was peer-review day in both of my classes, so the work day went pretty smoothly, but my cold was back so I was less than 100%. As the afternoon progressed, it didn't seem that the moovie nite was achieving critical mass; even stalwart Stella had hit her own personal wall (she's been working too hard lately) and most of the RSVPs were in the negatory. The combination of those elements - cold and small crowd - persuaded us to cancel the spectration.

Since Dingo, who had planed on coming, was just down the street getting off work, Otis and I met her for an early dinner instead. The restorative powers of pho were tremendous, but short-lived. We loaded up on vitamins and stuff at QFC and headed home. We wound up watching Joseph Cotten get totally creepy in Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, and then both fell asleep on the couch. Yep, that's life in the fast lane, eh?

Over optimistic

So, this is apparently one of those sneaky little colds, the kind that lets you feel good by mid-morning, so that after lunch you're all "Hey, I'm getting better" and you start to perk up but then you can hardly keep your eyes open during dinner and then you fall asleep early but can't get any rest because you're stuffed up again and keep waking up.

That kind.

Well, it's still better than a lot of other ways to feel, right?

So, if you want content, go read JustJon's post on Valentine's Day, or either of Johnbai's last two posts. I'm saving what I got for tonight.

Slightly under weather

On Tuesday night at 8:10 pm, I caught a cold. I was sitting in class, discussing an essay analysis in which we were about to engage, and bam! - there it was. Scratchy throat, stuffy nose, all the usual suspects. It's amazing to me how we can just know that a rhinovirus has activated.

Anyway, it hasn't been enough to significantly slow me down, but I just feel a half-inch off on everything. Morning classes Wednesday were fine, but I took a nap between lunch and grading in the afternoon. The early evening class went without a hitch (although I was swigging Emergen-C! all evening), then Otis and I went out to dinner at the Healthy Hedon (which I recommend to all, vegetarian or not, and especially to O). Dinner ran a little late, so when I came home I wasn't up for much besides bed.

I feel better today and anticipate lots of productivity!

Never much of a post on Tuesdays

This article helps illuminate why.

Tales of the City

Spring fever is upon us; it's early, I know, but palpable nonetheless.

Yesterday was marked by elevenses at Silence heart nest with Otis, Dingo, Johnbai, and O (and a late appearance by Mom-O). The company was as delightful as ever and the food tasted even better than usual (spring fever!). After the meal, there was the walk, and the farmer's market, and the surprise phone call from Wheylona, and it was truly cool urban Sunday deal.

So cool, in fact, that upon coming home, nothing of any great import got done for the rest of the afternoon, until after the lounging and the nap were completed. I did manage to complete two job apps and cooked a yummy roasted sweet potato/yam/carrot/onion dinner, but I did have to put in some hours grading and prepping after dinner. Such is the price of being an educator.

This morning's classes went fine, and I ran some errands after school. At the post office, there were baby screams while I waited in line; a mother with a complicated transaction was trying to soothe her fussy infant and occupy her restive toddler; occasionally the two children came into conflict, and hence the wails. The clerk was trying to remain focused, but just at the end of the transaction and the peak volume of complaint from the infant - and this was a heckuva scream - her computer froze up. So now it was the mother who was being inconvenienced, still trying to keep her kids occupied, while she waited for the terminal to unstick. I managed to mail my apps and get gone before the denouement.

I proceeded to my LCS (local comic shop), which for the purposes of this post shall be called the Cartoon Closet. As I walked in, I thought I heard the end of an angry shout, but a quick look around told me that the only other person in the store was the clerk. He was checking e-Bay on the store computer and didn't appear to be in visible conflict with anyone. Then the phone rang, and I was treated to this drama:

Clerk: (professional) Cartoon Closet. No. No. I told you. I don't have time for this. Fine.
(hangs up)
(phone rings almost immediately)
(clerk answers)
Clerk: (tired) Cartoon Closet. What? Look - just don't. Stop. Stop. Go ahead.
(hangs up)
(pause)
(phone rings)
Clerk: Sigh.
(answers)
Clerk: (defeated) Yes?
(pause)
(clerk slams the phone down and walks across the store)
(phone rings)
Clerk: (under breath) Goddammit.
(walks across to phone and picks up)
Clerk: (challenging) Cartoon Closet! Oh, yeah, hi. Oh, it's fine, fine. Sure... those are in the back, right? Okay.

I got my funnybooks and left.

Upon returning home, Otis and I took another turn around the lake. It feels good to be getting a bit more active again (spring fever!) and it makes me think of prepping the bike a little earlier than usual this year. After all, time is fleeting - I got my invitation to join AARP in the mail today. Neepers.

South by southeast

I worked a double shifty yesterday. The first shift was a normal Saturday-day, doing house stuff, having lunch, walking around the lake, &c. It was sunny and nice and the day was good, although not particularly exceptional.

Then, in the evening, I moved to a whole different shift. Otis and Dingo were doing a spa-party massage gig on the east side, and I decided to act as their cabbie in Renty Red. They thought the gig was in Factoria, but it actually turned out to be in Newcastle, smack dab in the the middle of the district I used work as a patrol officer and a detective back in the day. How far back? Well, here's a picture of me on my last day on the job:

Yeah, I know, it was 1988, okay?

Anyway, since I was geographically back in old haunts, I decided to make the most of it. I toured around for a while, doing the "that didn't used to be here" thing - I had a hard time finding my way around, because not only had the landmarks changed, but in some places the actual contours of the roadways were different. The suburbanization of King County is a thing to behold, I'm telling you.

Through the magic of wireless telephony, I met up with SandyLynn, whose friendship with me pre-dates even my law enforcement days, but who lives out in that neck of the woods now. We had dinner in Maple Valley, within walking distance of the precinct house - as a matter of fact, it was at the same place we used to have our detective squad breakfast meetings. There was the requisite amount of walking down memory lane, but there was just as much of the present and future in the conversation, which felt good. In any case, it was wonderful to catch up after what we figured was about a three-year gap.

After dinner, I started heading north on SR 900. My plan was to head back to Sunset and Duvall in Renton to do some grading while waiting to pick the masseuses up. I used to take graveyard dinner breaks at a little 24-hour restaurant there; the restaurant is gone but there's a Starbucks there now. (Quelle surprise!) As I was heading up the highway, I remarked to myself how dark it was in the country; that led me to thinking about how easy it was to get into an accident on this road; that led me to think about all the times I had closed the highway for accident investigations. Well, the universe must have a perverse sense of humor, because not a mile later, I saw the lights and the flares: the highway was closed for an accident.

Knowing that alternate routes are scarce in that neck of the woods (the Cedar River runs next to the highway and doesn't have many crossings), I just sat for a while, grading papers in the car: the fire rigs were pulling out so I thought it might be just a short wait. After about 25 minutes, I gave up and wound my way around the back roads of Maple Valley. After about another 20 minutes, I reconnected with the highway on the other side of the accident and could see the backup was still there. Just like old times, except I was on the wrong side of the flares. Sheesh.*

I made my way up to the Starbucks, finished off a little more grading, and then picked the ladies up. They were tired but in good spirits: the gig had gone well. But I'll let them blog about that themselves.

*Note: while I was actually typing that paragraph, the radio announced that some truck had just lost its load at almost the exact same spot on the highway, blocking traffic with spilled cargo. Not a good traffic weekend in Maple Valley.

Retro-ness

Retro-diary:

Stick-it! had moments of whimsical charm and some great visual bits (uptight gymnasts bustin' loose and doing cartwheels through the mall in prom dresses) but overall was neither good nor cheesy enough to make it into the so-bad-it's-good category. More a meh-plus.

Friday was a good teaching day, with "good" defined as "the students worked hard and I didn't have to" -- a position which is not totally as self-serving as it might sound. The students in the comic-book class continue to surprise me with the depth of their inquiries.

Yesterday afternoon and evening included more fun stuff - a walk (actually a walk/run: Otis is started to put me through my paces) around Green Lake and a surprise visit from Ms. Macha (who has signed her whole family up for house- and cat-sitting duties next month). I made pineapple fried rice for dinner, and we watched Buster Keaton's The General, which is still hilarious.

This weekend promises to include more fun amidst the work - and I have two more job apps on my plate to complete.

Retro-Stella:



Speaking of cheesy glory, Stella bravely foolishly shared this photo from 1988, which she got in the mail from an old pal. After a little judicious photoshopping by me (just to remove bystanders) we have a shot of Stella in all her late-eighties prime: mullet, yellow socks, and all. Let the mocking commence.

Retro-video:

Of course, the only one who could share the stage with Stella is Raquel Welch. Here, via The Cartoonist, is a bizarre, sci-fi themed, 1970-vintage dance film from the esteemed actress. Enjoy:

Raquel Welch ? Scifi dance ? 1970
Uploaded by gippo

A thought or two from a thoughtful day or two

Wednesday was a challenging teaching day, not so much because the teaching was a challenge, but because so many of my students have been experiencing personal challenges this quarter, and lately they all seem to be manifesting more acutely. So, classrooms great; conferences dicey.

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Yesterday evening, Otis and I had a great time at the C.E. Putnam reading at Hugo House. We were joined by all the Putnam kith and kin in the area code, as well as Soapy, smack dab on yet another cusp. Dingo, Johnbai, and O begged off, but were with us in spirit.

C.E. (that would be Otis's bro) was reading from his latest book, Frolic:



Here's an excerpt from the book, the beginning of "Go-Go Poem #71"

The boss let me borrow
his soft inside her kiss.
My cheek: Porsche 944

The rest of the evening after the reading was anticlimactic.

You can find out more about C.E. or order the book at his website, P.I.S.O.R. Industries.

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Today's teaching went pretty well. The students were pretty much on task, and I think I did some stuff that worked. You can't ask for more than that. I had some quality time with Stella between classes, as well as a nice phone call from Dingo, making up for her missing the prior evening's festivities.

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I received a been-too-long email from my great and good friend Liam in the city of big shoulders. I (will have) replied, telling him to read this. How self-referential, eh?

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When I got home from Bothell, Otis had both made a super-yummy pot of lentil soup and rearranged the living room, to wit:



In return for all this cheery goodness, I sprang for some peach lambic to go with dinner, as well as a movie for tonight (Stick It!). Yay!

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Coming soon: Stella got her groove on - secret photos from the dim past!

Splitting the difference

Here's the Tuesday morning post and the Wednesday morning post combined on Tuesday night:

Monday was unusual, in that it was not spent working all day. I taught in the morning and responded some papers when I got home, but when Otis came home after lunch we did real-world stuff, such as (a) go grocery shopping; (b)take a walk around Green Lake; and (c) watch a movie. (We saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which was very much better than I had expected it to be.)

Of course, that meant that this morning when I got up, I had to make sure I had all my ducks in a row for today, since I had done no prep the night before. Luckily (?) I woke up at 5:45 and couldn't get back to sleep, so I had plenty of time to enfolderize my photocopying and so forth.

And then it was off to the races, teaching from 9:00 am until an hour ago. Today had a special bonus in the midst of all the classes: Otis was up in Kenmore for a massage, so she came to Cascadia to have lunch. Yay!

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Here's a picture of where we'll be staying in Hawaii. We'll be in the building that is not on the beachfront.

Done deal

Well, by dint of buckling down and sticking to it and all those other inspirational words, both Otis and I got all our work done yesterday. She finished the stack of grading that she has been working on for a week, and I finished all the assessing that I should return today and completed three job application packets (for Whatcom, Highline, and Pierce Colleges). Yay!

The only real break in the day was for a walk down to a new pizza place that opened up on Green Lake. The walk was great; the pizza was okay.

Stella came over in the late evening to kill some time before picking up a friend at the airport, but mostly she read quietly in the corner like a good girl while the work went forward.

In other news, I heard there was some football game yesterday that somebody won.

Under-buckled but not buckling under

So, I didn't get as much done yesterday as I ought to have. One stack of responding took a lot longer than it should have, since I insist on making detailed and constructive comments, few of which are ever actually read, and fewer of which are acted upon, but all of which are, I hope, valid and helpful, and therefore deserving of being made. On the next stack (shorter papers), I'm trying a straight line/squiggly line method of responding to see how it works. It's a lot quicker. Otis had a hard time plowing through her pile, too, and she still has a giant stack for today.

Anyway, it looks like we both will be spending most of this rainy Sunday with red or blue pens in hand.

Buckle down, Winsocki!

This rousing tune is my theme for the weekend. After a week full of teaching busy-ness and social fun (J-Force Wednesday, Stella and Snakes Thursday, and taking Mater Putnam out for a birthday dinner last night), I have a ton of stuff to do before next week. In addition to the usual 150 or so papers to respond, I need to mail the first two of the nine-so-far applications for full-time teaching positions this fall by Monday. So, it looks like I'll be scrivening non-stop for a bit.

I am hopeful of an offer for the fall - with that many openings, I should be able to click with someone. Nonetheless, I am continuing to apply to non-teaching jobs in the meantime.

One the one hand, I really enjoy teaching. On the other hand, I'm not sure I enjoy it enough to continue this part-time struggle for very much longer. Teaching offers a lot of scheduling flexibility, but sometimes it would be nice to walk away from work and leave it at the office. Of course, teaching full-time should give me the summer off. The other jobs I'm looking at pay about as much per day worked, so working more means more money, and usually have pretty generous vacation anyway. And not having to wonder every few weeks whether I will have work* the next quarter would be grand.

I think if you look back in the archives of this blog you'll find a post where I established September 2007 as the deadline on this waffling. It looks like the final march to that decision is beginning.

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Air fares to Hawaii are lower than they have been in years. Otis and I scoured the internets for some "cheap" accommodations, and decided to grab the bull by the horns and book a spring break trip to Maui. So, we'll be considering suggestions and offers for cat patrol duty for a week at the end of March. Any ideas?

Snakes on a blog

Yesterday would have been pretty much the usual teach-prep-teach Thursday split shift, except that we added some Samuel L. to the mix: Stella, Otis, and I caught a free showing of Snakes on a Plane up at Cascadia last night.

I have got to say up front that this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. A gazillion CGI snakes couldn't eat all the cheese that made up this film. It felt like the abandoned love child of Quinn Martin and Irwin Allen, a misbegotten mash-up of an old Hawaii Five-O episode and some seventies disaster flick. It is not merely that the movie failed to live up to the incredible Internet buzz that it had generated: it is a genuinely bad movie, a film which, even if screened for members of an alien race with no knowledge of earth culture, would still be recognized as awful.

That said, we had a great time. The student leaders who put on the show were all dressed as members of an airline crew and greeted people as if we were coming on a plane; they even pushed a beverage cart down the aisle to hand out free pop (along with the free snacks). The crowd was in a good mood, and everyone screamed as snakes attached themselves to various body parts and cheered as FBI agent Samuel L. Jackson muscled his way through the film by pretending he was actually in a real movie. Our favorite line was not the much-quoted signature line, but Agent Flynn's response when told pheromones were making the snakes aggressive: "That's good news; snakes on crack." Maybe because the night was such good craic.

Aside: This isn't the first bad snakes-in-an-enclosed-place thriller. Check out Fer-de-Lance, a 1974 TV movie starring David Janssen and Hope Lange (!), about poisonous snakes menacing a submarine.

Missed a day

I almost made it through the first month of the year with a post every day, but last night stopped my streak. The gap was caused by the most delightful of reasons: J-Force stopped by after a long day at the library and spent a good portion of the evening with Otis and me in front of the fireplace, drinking tea, catching up, checking chakras, and suchlike. It certainly made for a warm night, in several ways.

Besides that, life has been pretty much work around here. Otis is still plowing through a stack of papers as tall as she is, and the workload from my classes hasn't quite started to let up. I'm still trying to get all my job app ducks in a row; I sent a resume in to the county for a community communications positions (writing and editing); it would be working for The Man but he'd pay very well. I'll need to make a big push on the teaching apps this weekend. I'm getting my letters of reference in order and I think there's now nine positions to apply for (if I include Bellevue). When it rains, it pours!

We've been pausing a lot in our work to think about spring break and hope we can work out going somewhere sunny and warm for a bit. We'll see.