Post-Birthday Visit from Erin and Eric

A couple of pictures from a lovely visit I had with my sister and brother-in-law yesterday.

 We're standing in front of a lovely crape myrtle Christian gave me for my birthday. Erin and Eric helped me plant it.

How cute are these two?

Spike is 50???

A friend sent me a link to this "where are they now" gallery of the Buffy cast. It's actually really comprehensive (including characters like Warren, Kendra, and Glory). Check it out!

Connie Britton interview

This woman can do no wrong. I'd watch her do anything. Anyway, check out this interview. Worth noting (in no particular order of interest):

• She still keeps in touch with members of the FNL cast (all the cool ones, of course) and had to close her eyes while watching Taylor Kitsch in Savages. (Aww!)
• She also has to close her eyes while watching parts of American Horror Story. (Me, too, but mostly for those uber-creepy opening credits.)
• She was worried about what FNL fans would think of "Mrs. Coach" in such a different role on AHS. No worries, Connie: you rocked it on AHS.
• Nashville will feature original music from folks like Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams, and T-Bone Burnett. How amazing is that?

Three tooth posts in a row?

Yeah, I know, I know. Things are a bit better today. I am really hoping tomorrow will be almost normal. That might be too much to hope, though. The upside is that all this time at home is helping me get lots of reading and typing done.

Ouch!

I woke up this morning with a majorly swollen face--at least one side of it, anyway. Gross. It is still really swollen, too. Fortunately the pain isn't too awful (although it hurts to open too wide, talk too much, etc. and I am really sticking to my pill schedule because, boy, do I need them!).

Anyway, as I convalesce this evening, I am typing some notes for my Fanny Fern paper, working on my syllabi, and watching Buffy Season 4. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Buffy makes everything better. 

Tooth (or lack thereof) update #2

It's an achy day here and a quiet one as I recover. The implant went in this morning and it should give me a good bit of discomfort for the next day or so. The actual procedure wasn't bad. The only part that hurt was getting the Novocaine shots. This isn't to say the procedure was pleasant--nothing pleasant about all that drilling, poking, lots of pressure, and a device that sounded/felt like a mini-jackhammer. And (it gives me the willies to even type about this) I am hoping to never have to repeat the experience of feeling something being screwed firmly into my jaw. Again, it didn't hurt, but it sure didn't feel normal. Now there's this metal bar in my jaw. It looks something like this, although I haven't had a very good look myself. It hurts to open that far and I also don't want to be icked out by any blood or gore.

Once again, I was described by the doctor as a "perfect patient." Once again, I was extraordinarily pleased with myself. Yeah, I got issues.

Anyway, I go back in nine days, then wait three more months for my regular dentist to put the crown/actual new (fake) tooth on. What a process!

Random Fanny Fern Greatness 3 and 4

On those who say to "bide the Lord's time": "If there is one piece of advice more bandied about by irresolution, imbecility, and moral cowardice than this, I should be glad to know it. As I take it, the Lord's time is the first chance you get" (qtd. in Walker 108).

On Providence: it is a "convenient scapegoat for all the human stupidity extant...a convenient theology for bad cooks, for unwise school-teachers, for selfish, careless, ignorant parents!" (qtd. in Walker 108).

Work Cited

Walker, Nancy. Fanny Fern. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993. Print.

Sigh...

Today I wish Facebook had the option to block all posts about a certain chicken establishment, especially those involving smug folks claiming they speak for all Christians and family values, idiots who don't understand what "freedom of speech" means, and people who are making me rethink our "friendship." Seriously--don't people (on both sides) even think about how they sound to people who might feel differently? The way their words can wound people? That they might care about (and even love) people who feel differently? Ugh. Internet: you lose today. Maybe tomorrow will be better.
 

Random Fanny Fern Greatness 2

"I never want to touch a baby except with a pair of tongs!"

A great example of Fern's multiple writing personas--and it made me laugh out loud. She's speaking here in the voice of an "old maid" responding to this sentiment: "FOLLY. For girls to expect to be happy without marriage. Every woman was made for a mother, consequently, babies are as necessary to their "peace of mind," as health. If you wish to look at melancholy and indigestion, look at an old maid. If you would take a peep at sunshine, look in the face of a young mother." As you can imagine, Fern has some fun with this idea. Alternatively, in other pieces, she would glorify motherhood, but that's what makes her so darn interesting. (More of the piece here.)

Badminton!

I hosted a little badminton/cook-out event here last night and it was so much fun! A friend of mine posted this cool piece partially inspired by it. (Hope she doesn't mind me linking to it.)

House stuff...

I will never claim to be a home-design expert, but I do think things are looking kind of good around here (at least on the outside) lately.

First: the siding got powerwashed. I can't believe what a difference it makes. Everything looks cleaner (duh!) and brighter. Money well spent! Because of the heat waves and  lack of rain, the flowers out front have been a bit slow to take off this year, but you can see them peeking through in front of the shrubs. (The flowers are a lot prettier out back--and there are more of them. Maybe I'll post some photos of those later.)

Special thanks to the sky for being a lovely shade of blue today.

Second: I paid some folks to tame the thorny shrubs that had threatened to take over the entire front yard. (Well, not quite, but it had gotten bad!) I don't have any "before" pictures to give you a sense of how crazy they were, but I do have some "afters."

Front view of the bushes. Still big, but much tamer!

This whole area that is now open/clear was covered by the bush. You couldn't even see that downspout before (or that cute little statue thing my mom got me for it.)

Finally: the trim got fixed. Yay!

Good as new. And again, check out that blue sky!

And then there's this...

Zoom zoom!

Yeah, that's not a house-repair exactly, but the trim and the shrubs got done within a couple of days of each other and I was so happy about it. That happiness was quickly tempered by the surprise of a flat tire and an eventual $330 charge for two new front tires.

The expensive summer continues...

It never fails...

My sister and brother-in-law got me this very cool popcorn maker for Christmas. Because it's kind of oddly shaped and bulky, I keep it in the box it came in and store it in the hall closet. Every single time that I use it, I set the box on the kitchen table. I make the popcorn, go into the other room, sit down, begin enjoying said popcorn, and then I hear a thud. The source of that thud?

Bing in the box. Every single time.

Sometimes when I catch him, he looks a bit upset or embarrassed, like in this one:

Most of the time, though, he's like, "Yeah I'm hanging out in this box. No big deal." Regardless, it always makes me laugh.

"Dover Beach"

Since waking up to the awful news out of Colorado today, I have had Matthew Arnold's well-known poem running through my head. I know that some people have made fun of this poem a bit or feel that its imagery is cliched, its ending a bit of a cop-out, but I've always found it moving.

"Dover Beach" 

Matthew Arnold

The sea is calm tonight.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits; on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

Only, from the long line of spray

Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,

Listen! you hear the grating roar

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,

At their return, up the high strand,

Begin, and cease, and then again begin,

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring

The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago

Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought

Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow

Of human misery; we

Find also in the sound a thought,

Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

My Daguerreotype Boyfriend

I heard about this fun blog on one of my favorite podcasts today. Enjoy.

A&R: Done!

We finished the fifth and final Advising and Registration session today. Everything went really well and was actually less stressful than in years past. I had two awesome A-Team leaders, too, which made things even easier.

Now to focus on my conference papers, syllabizing for the fall, and the P&T portfolio.