Friday Five, An Occasional Series

1. I am rather grumpy that I have to spend my Friday frantically preparing for a week-long training of newbies next week and A. gets to release some Black-Footed ferrets about 50 miles from here. No fair.

In grade school, the Big Red Square State Game and Fish would distribute kiddie newsletters three or four times a year. I distinctly remember the issue with Black-footed ferrets on the cover and the article about the breeding program. The color of that particular newsletter was kind of orangey-brown, something kind of like this:

I WANT TO HELP RE-INTRODUCE THE LITTLE FELLAS TO THEIR NATIVE HABITAT, DAMMIT! Instead, I am preparing presentations for a week-long, painfully dull, dull, duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuull training on program procedures. I am having to train myself on this shit; I have NO BUSINESS training the new employees. Hmff.

2. Last night, A. and I, as well as our friends C. and B., and BG, watched the #24 Big Red Square State Cowgirls beat the Montana Lady Grizzlies. It was a big win; Montana beat BRSS during both match ups last season. Go, Cowgirls!

3. Brief update on The Thesis: K. happily agreed to serve on my thesis committee, and gave me more suggestions for my bibliography. I was thrilled that I'd already read many of her recommendations, though I had read those just for fun and not with my Thesis Hat on. (Could I be a bigger nerd?) I am happy to revisit these texts, especially Coming Home to Eat by Gary Nabhan and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I have about 50 pages left in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and I was already planning on, at the conclusion of this reading, flipping to the first page of the book and immediately reading the volume again, regardless that now I need to rescan it with my Thesis Hat on. It is amazing. I'll write a proper review of the book in a bit, but for now, if you are wondering what to read next, I heartily recommend this book. READ IT. (Wow, there are some run on sentences going on.... Eh, whatever. It's Friday!)

Also, my third committee member from outside my department is delighted that I have a new chair. Just saying.

4. Getting myself all hyper and totally wired over a book makes me think of one of my favorite places on the entire planet, the Long Room at the University of Dublin, Trinity College. What an amazing, reverent, secular-holy place. The Book of Kells resides there, too. Holy cow, if I didn't almost cry when I saw it. Also, I was surprised at how much stuff from my art history classes came back to me, and came back full of life, no less.

5. About twenty minutes after A. dropped me off at work, he called to tell me with no amount of pleasure in his voice, that he had just plunked down "a small fortune" on the dogs. What?! Twenty minutes wasn't enough time to drive back out to the house (seven miles north of town), see the pups, ascertain that something was awry, rush them to an emergency vet appointment and empty our checking account. What the hell had happened?

Well, the pups are now seven years old, closing in on their eighth year. So they are senior dogs. *sniff, sniff* And the new "senior" dog food we decided to put the dogs on? $42 a bag. Um, yeah. Granted, this will last a month. However, this food had better make the doggies stay youthful, springy, full of spunk, and happy as all get-out, and! AND! I had better not see any sign of stiff joints for at least, oh, four more years. And I thought it was ridiculous we were spending $32 on a bag of the diet stuff. Sheesh.

Happy Friday to you!

Quirky Loveliness

A couple of you had mentioned that Pushing Daisies was kind of a neat little show. Last night, as A. was flipping through the channels waiting for the Colorado Avalanche game to start and I was basking in the new-found happiness that is a productive and competent thesis committee, I noticed that Pushing Daisies was about to start. I asked A. to flip to it for a bit so I could check it out.

OHMYGOODGRIEF!

Is this show always narrated in a Dr. Seuss-like fashion? Are the reds and greens always kicked up a notch or two? Is there always a bit of dark humor wrapped in kitschy tartness?

BECAUSE I LOVE IT AND I HOPE IT NEVER, EVER, EVER GOES AWAY.

Ever.

Sugar. Also, Trying Not To Barf, Part 6 and Still Swooning

Um, yeah. I just spent no less than three minutes in the office break room, staring at my coffee cup. What was I contemplating with such dedication? Or rather, what was on my mind at that moment that had me paralyzed?

Whether or not to put two teaspoons of sugar in my coffee or a packet of Splenda.

NO SHIT. I really need not feel so insecure about every decision in my life. Geez. I am not kidding about being paralyzed with this decision. Because, what was the right decision and will I be happy with it? Lordy. There is some fodder for another lengthy, scary post, eh? Also, you can imagine how much I squirm trying to make a decision at the hair salon, no?

Anyway. I went with the sugar. At least I can pronounce it and I know it is minimally processed. It occurs in nature (yes? Or am I stretching the truth, here?) and I am not introducing crazy, manufactured concoctions into my body. I even know that this particular sugar was processed in the northern part of my state, so bonus points for local food from my foodscape!

But I am hypoglycemic, and if I don't watch my diet, sugar can really throw me for a loop. So, substituting Splenda for raw sugar every now and then has its benefits. I don't like feeling as though my legs are not connected to my body at 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon, or being so disoriented as to not know where I am, or sometimes, who I am. So, I limit sugar when I can. (Um, right. I bake cookies at least once a week...)

***

I e-mailed professor K. from my department to see if she would discuss serving on my thesis committee over coffee. She replied that she'd be delighted to serve on my committee, and even more delighted to visit together. (Woo hoo!!) She and I are meeting tomorrow over the lunch hour to review my prospectus, discuss my lit review, and to chit chat and catch up a bit. She and I have always gotten along very well, and I was her teaching assistant for two of her undergraduate classes. In fact, the most challenging and rewarding class of my entire academic career, The Ecology of Knowledge, was developed and taught by her. That class was one of my favorite experiences of my life. (Nerd? Yes!) Damn, that class was amazing.

Also, A. and I met in her class.

I think K. is one of the most brilliant minds I've ever encountered. In particular, I am always blown away by her ability to see patterns. In everything. Patterns of thought, patterns or speech, patterns of behaviour, patterns of knowledge, patterns of learning, patterns of consciousness, even. The stuff she is interested in blows my mind. Truly, hers is a mind I respect entirely.

She is also an excellent writer. She sees writing as a necessary vehicle to convey information, yes, but also as an expressive craft that deserves uninterrupted attention. Needless to say, I have much re-writing to do as well as hours of careful proofreading. ;-) I am a little bit scared of this task, as it is daunting, as writing for her always is, but am also gingerly anticipating the work with a bit of excitement.

Even though she isn't going to be my chair, she doesn't do anything halfway and I know she will be involved in my work. There will be no half-assed work passing for acceptable here. (I might be in deep shit!)

I am a bit nervous about our meeting. To be honest, I don't know if I could tell you what I am writing about at this point. Truly. Much of what I am working on now is muddling through all the vague, pointless suggestions of Advisor #1, my own mediocre approach to the material and whittling my project down to something I can get my head around. So, I've decided to put myself out there and have a frank discussion with K. about the situation I find myself in. (But, I will be careful not to mention Advisor #1 and what it was like to work with him. I am sure she will understand that without my saying it, and I don't need to put her in a position to hear negative comments about a colleague. I'll spare her that.) Whenever we are discussing something, she picks up on my patterns of thought that my worrying and fretting keeps me oblivious to and gently points out ideas I am hitting upon. It seems like she is almost saying, "See. You know more than you think." Or, she is really good at planting ideas and making me feel like I came up with it all on my own. Whichever. I am really counting on that quality of hers to shine through.

I have to help her help me, right?

(Why, WHY, do I let grad school and The Thesis riddle me with doubt about my abilities?)

***

A (new?) song by Bon Jovi just played on my online XM radio. Living on a Prayer was a hit about the time I was 15 or 16, and Jon Bon Jovi's voice played an important part in my, um, awakening. His voice still makes my knees weak and my heart flutter!

Thanksgiving Travel Checklist

• Pajamas - check!
• Toothbrush - check!
• Knitting paraphernalia - check!
• A.'s shorts so he doesn't walk around naked - check!
• Three days worth of dog food and appropriate amount of J-E-R-K-Y - check!
• Puppy-proofed car - check!
• "Fun" book to read in the car* - check!
• "Thesis" book to read to reassure the parents that yes, I will indeed finish The Thesis someday - check!
• Laptop for A.'s papers and *wink* my work on The Thesis *wink* - check!
• Prerequisite winter storm with snowy, icy roads, blowing snow to obstruct driver's vision and general travel shitiness - check!
• Snow boots, just in case - check!
  

A. and I are all packed up and ready to drive about four and a half hours across the state to see my folks for the holiday. I like Thanksgiving with my folks, step-grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. They are good people. They drink whiskey throughout the day to increase the cheer. Woo woo!

I am not bringing my favorite Thanksgiving Potluck Dish - cranberry pie. Noni always makes so much food, and there are some picky eaters, so I chose to save myself the disappointment.

I really love this pie, though. Maybe I'll make it when A. and I get back home. It is such an easy, easy pie to make and is so yummy. A designer friend of mine from DC gave me this recipe. It is perfect for the holidays and travels well. It almost has a cake-like consistency in the middle. So yummy!

RB's Cranberry Surprise Pie

Line 10" pie pan with unbaked pie crust (I usually just buy a pie crust. Works out pretty well!)
Put 2 l/2 cups whole cranberries on crust (I plopped frozen cranberries on the crust and they bake up fine.)
Add l/2 cup chopped pecans (I never add these as A. would FREAK OUT, and then MOPE AROUND because there are nuts in his baked goods. It is much more pleasant to just leave out the damn nuts already.)
Sprinkle l/2 cup sugar over this

In a bowl mix:
l cup sugar, l cup flour, 2 eggs, l stick melted
butter or Land of Lakes margarine. (I ALWAYS use BUTTER!)
Mix well and pour over cranberry nut filling and right to crust edges. This will be the pie cover.
(This will be kind of thick and sticky so I use a spatula to smoosh it to the edges of the underneath pie crust.)

It is thick. Bake 400 degrees for about one hour or longer.
The crust edges often get too brown, after the top has cooked a little and isn't sticky, you can add a rim of foil.


Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! I wish you safe travels, lots of quality time curled up on the couch watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and plenty of leftovers!

* Can you read in the car? I can read while riding in a car upside-down. I used to do that when I was a kid! If A. so much as looks at me reading in the car he turns a little green around the edges.

Demographics

Late Saturday night:

[Me, setting my alarm: beep beep, beep, beep]

A.: What time did you set your alarm for? *snort*

Me: 8:00 a.m.

A.: *snort*

Me: I'd like to get down to the greenbelt first thing in the morning and distribute some more surveys.

A.: Yeah, there is an entire demographic you are missing.

Me: "Morning People." The fuckers. *grumble*

A.: *chuckle*

Friday Five

1. Sometimes those word verification things are really hard for my poor eyes to decipher, but this is because my eyesight degenerates further with each passing minute and I am kind of a dork. But yesterday I ran into a combo of letters that was something like, "bdbdgb" and it dawned on me that these must be a bitch for folks with dyslexia. It also dawned on me that I take an awful lot for granted.

2. I've started messing around with a rewrite of Chapter One of The Thesis to give to Advisor #2. My goal is to have it wrapped up by the weekend and shoot it off to D. on Monday. I have a lot of refresher reading to do, and need to really dig into the material; it's been a while.

3. Surprising in a happy, happy sort of way, this doesn't feel nearly as daunting as everything associated with The Thesis did previously. I am in a much healthier mental neighborhood this time around. I not too worried that the world will end if The Thesis is not Perfect and contain observations of such a caliber as to Shift The Paradigm. Now, I'm residing in the Whatever Neighborhood. This neighborhood? It is awesome. The neighbors are so much more friendly and forgiving of my messy front yard that appears to have no rhyme or reason, and some neighbors have even delighted in my choice of periwinkle exterior house paint instead of the typical beige or white.

4. I am quite certain that I will get helpful and timely feedback from Advisor #2, who lives just down the road in my new neighborhood. Also, I am not currently convinced that needing some guidance through This Process makes me Unworthy of Academic Recognition and that D. is not going to think I am stupid and unfit or a nuisance because I want to work with him to finish The Thesis.

5. This is a much, much better place to be. If any of you notice me futzing around with the idea of moving back to the Neighborhood of Unrealistic and Harmful Expectations, please remind me that I can't afford to own in that neighborhood and that the rent there is much, much too high.

Happy Friday to you!