Thursday, May 5, 2011

"For a Girl I Know about to Be a Woman"

With graduation and good-byes on my mind, I found this poem last week and read it at the last Sigma Tau Delta poetry reading/open mic night of the semester, the one where we sort of bid farewell to our graduating seniors. It's not completely appropriate (most of the Sigma Tau Delta graduates are incredibly mature with good heads on their shoulders), but I figure most women (myself included!) can use the reminder that this poem gives us about the company we choose.

"For a Girl I Know about to Be a Woman"
Miller Williams

Because you’ll find how hard it can be
to tell which part of your body sings,
you never should dally with any young man
who does any one of the following things:

tries to beat all the yellow lights;
says, “Big deal!” or “So what?”
more than seven times a day;
ignores yellow lines in a parking lot;

carries a radar detector;
asks what you did with another date;
has more than seven bumper stickers;
drinks beer early and whiskey late;

talks on a cellular phone at lunch;
tunes to radio talk shows;
doesn’t fasten his seat belt;
knows more than God knows;

wants you to change how you do your hair;
spits in a polystyrene cup;
doesn’t use his turn signal;
wants you to change your makeup;

calls your parents their given names;
doesn’t know why you don’t smoke;
has dirt under his fingernails;
makes a threat and calls it a joke;

pushes to get you to have one more;
seems to have trouble staying awake;
says “dago” and “wop” and words like that;
swerves a car to hit a snake;
sits at a table wearing a hat;
has a boneless handshake.

You’re going to know soon enough
the ones who fail this little test.
Mark them off your list at once
and be very careful of all the rest.
 

That photo...

 
All politics aside (as if that's ever possible), this photo has fascinated me, as it has lots of folks. CNN has a pretty good article about it. My favorite part: "But look deeper and that photo becomes historic in a more subtle way. It's a snapshot of how much this nation's attitudes about race, women and presidential swagger are changing, several scholars and historians say."

Again, politics aside (and yeah, again, good luck with that), that's a pretty awesome development in American history.

Done! (For real!)

Just submitted my last set of grades. I am in a state of semi-disbelief, as they aren't actually due until Monday morning. Go me! Time for a bit of celebratin'. For some reason, this has been my anthem for the week. Not sure why, but I do like the sentiment.

No rest for the weary, though (well, not too much anyway). This weekend, instead of grading, I'll be concentrating on a couple of abstracts for SAMLA.

It won't be all work, though. Saturday is May Day in Shepherdstown and the Opera House is playing Jane Eyre, so I'll do my very best to squeeze in some fun.

And so it goes...

Sunday, May 1, 2011

"Kitchen Fable"

"Kitchen Fable" 
Eleanor Ross Taylor

The fork lived with the knife
     and found it hard — for years
took nicks and scratches,
     not to mention cuts.
 
She who took tedium by the ears:
     nonforthcoming pickles,
defiant stretched-out lettuce,
     sauce-gooed particles.
 
He who came down whack.
His conversation, even, edged.
 
Lying beside him in the drawer
     she formed a crazy patina.
The seasons stacked — 
     melons, succeeded by cured pork.
 
He dulled; he was a dull knife,
while she was, after all, a fork.
 

Almost done...sort of...

Just finished my last stack of papers. Now all that's left are the final exams, which start coming in tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Relief...

Sometimes, the good guys (and girls) actually do win. Yay! (Purposefully cryptic, I know.)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

A sad day for TV

ABC cancels All My Children and One Life to Live. I am more upset about this than I thought I would be. Those are iconic shows for me--I grew up watching them and still catch up on them when I get the chance. The end of an era...

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Paper Airplane

Wow. This new Alison Krauss and Union Station album is pretty darn terrific. Now I just need someone to volunteer to go with me to see them in concert this summer. Finding someone shouldn't be as hard as it's been!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Yeah, The Giving Tree sucks...

Over at the Dish, readers take on one of the most messed-up books for kids, with an assist from Sassy Gay Friend. I actually meant to post the Sassy Gay clip eons ago.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Sigh...

I had three advising appointments scheduled for this morning. Two of them stopped by almost 30 minutes late and rescheduled for Thursday. The last one contacted me this morning (via email) to reschedule--for the second time. So that's 0 for 3. Not a very good average.

Well, at least I've been able to get some work done.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

"Figure"

"Figure"
Josephine Miles
 
A poem I keep forgetting to write
Is about the stars,
How I see them in their order
Even without the chair and bear and the sisters,
In their astronomic presence of great space,
And how beyond and behind my eyes they are moving,
Exploding to spirals under extremest pressure.
Having not mathematics, my head
Bursts with anguish of not understanding.

The poem I forget to write is bursting fragments
Of a tortured victim, far from me
In his galaxy of minds bent upon him,
In the oblivion of his headline status
Crumpled and exploding as incomparable
As a star, yet present in its light.
I forget to write.
 

Marry me, Mike Holmes

 
Maybe it's just the completely ignorant of all things home-improvement/maintenance-related part of me, but I've got a bit of a crush on Mike Holmes. He's like a a superhero or something: Contractor Man! He arrives to "make it right," filled with indignant anger to those who have done you wrong. The only thing that would make it better: if he could hunt down the bad contractors and make them pay.

And he looks kinda hot in those overalls.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Opening day!


Although it is cold, rainy and even snowy outside, it's also that wonderful time of year: baseball season! The Yankees open their season today, with a 1:05 game against Detroit. I'm in class until 1:40 and usually stay on campus until at least 5:00 or 6:00, but not today. I'll be out of here by 2:00, use the DVR to catch up on what I've missed, and settle in to see the boys in pinstripes do their thing.

Follow-up to the previous post

Even without the 8:00 a.m. meeting, I still pulled into the campus parking lot at 8:15, and that was after taking care of a couple of errands (paying the mortgage, etc.). And I felt fine. In fact, I usually get to campus every day between 7:45 and 8:30--no big deal.

So why was/is the idea of the 8:00 a.m. meeting so awful? I suppose it's the difference between being able to come in, relax a bit, check email, settle in for the day, and then get going, as opposed to the "you must be here at 8:00 and then sit at a table while we discuss important matters" vibe that comes from a meeting. If I get to campus at 7:45, but my first class isn't until 9:10, I don't have to talk to anyone for over an hour. I don't have to be "on" yet.

Does that make sense?

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The little things...

I just realized that the 8:00 a.m. meeting that I thought I had tomorrow is actually next Thursday. Now, I still have an 8:00 meeting coming up, but right now, I am so thrilled by the fact that it's not in less than nine hours.