Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

I’ve recently had the chance to learn what a migraine is first-hand.  Three times in the past two weeks I’ve woken up with a migraine (thanks to my doctor for telling me what it is, even if he hasn’t yet found a way to make it go away).  When I realized I had one today, I was worried: my students’ papers are due at the beginning of next week, so I had a lot of conferencing (and consoling, and counseling) to be doing today, both before and after teaching class.  Thankfully, both conferences and teaching went well, in part due to my intense concentration on not spacing out what my students were saying.  Such good kids.  Nothing like a classroom full of students to make you pull out the reserves–which I only discover through some very fervent praying.  Poor Sydney–I don’t attempt to save face in front of him, so he gets the down parts.  Bless him for his patience and caring.

Erin

to say their mail carrier had a package that required a signature for delivery.  We’re assuming that package is Sydney’s passport.  I guess I can begin my mourning now . . . and start my list of teas and books for Sydney to bring back with him!

Erin

On to finding a plane ticket for him.  Something tells me this is going to be expensive.

Tonight Sydney and I went to see Apollo’s Fire, a group that does 17th-century music and that includes musicians playing period instruments, singers (ahh, love the clear sound of early music soloists), and even a dancer.  We weren’t totally sold on the dancer, but loved the rest of it.  Particularly as this was our first concert of the semester (wow, things have changed since college days), we were pretty happy that it was such a good one.  It was a little weird that we ended up sitting right next to professors from my department, surrounded by even more that we recognized, but I guess it is a small town, so I’ll get used to it.

One thing we still don’t understand, though.  Concerts in Ithaca are really sparsely attended.  We’ve been really embarrassed a few times that we were such a large portion of the audience, particularly for orchestras, where the number of people onstage rivaled those in the house.  Maybe we need to take it on as our personal mission to attend more concerts and beef up (if only by two) the concert attendance around here.

Erin

Okay, so it’s been an interesting couple of days.  I am in a seminar that is supposed to help students prepare their dissertation prospectus after they take their qualifying exams.  I’m just gearing up for my exams, so I’m behind the other students, but it’s been really great for helping me see what that stage should look like, what kind of dissertation I might write, etc.   The downside to being in this class is that I have to submit, like the other students there, a prospectus draft.  I barely know anything about my topic (unlike those who have passed an examination on theirs!), and I need to dream up a dissertation on it?  At any rate, I was resistant to pouring forth infantile thoughts to be worked over by my professor and classmates, but it turned out to be a good experience.  Although pushing the deadline, I finally worked up something that sounded almost intelligent, and I got some really useful feedback on the work that I presented and places I might take it.  Now that’s done, I’ve commented on half of the students drafts I received on Monday, and I’m going to reward myself by settling in with a book of poetry for the rest of the evening.  Ahhhh.

Erin

Sydney and I have spent the last two hours reading comics on http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php

Needless to say, Sydney and I are tired and very grateful for the amusement.

Erin

I was able to ignore my strange dream the night before last, when my squeaky-clean friend was joined on a motorcycle by a huge, scruffy older man, and I suddenly realized a bunch of teens I saw in an SUV were living out a GAP commercial.  That dream was weird enough.  But last night I drove our car into the ocean.  Driving along the shore of some beautiful beach, I took what I thought was a bridge across the expanse of water . . . only to realize I was driving on a huge cable at the side of an ocean liner, and the water was rising up to greet me.  My car was covered, I was saved from the water, and my thoughts were filled with, “I’ll never live this one down,” “My dad told me never to submerse my engine in water–what about this?!” and “Wait, I just drove into an ocean.  I am not totally comfortable in large bodies of water.  I can’t believe my feet were dangling above the vast deeps of an ocean.  Okay, now I’m thinking really scary things.”

I had amused Sydney earlier in the day with a news article about a 63-year old woman who had mistaken a Long Island Railroad track for a road and almost gotten herself killed in the process.  I guess my dream took that mistake to a whole new level.

Erin

“Silent Light (also known as Stellet licht and Luz silenciosa) is a 2007 film written and directed by the Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas. It is a Mexican, French and Dutch co-production. The original title (Stellet Licht) and the language of the film is Plautdietsch — the language of the Russian Mennonites.” – Wikipedia

The movie is apparently set it Mexico, performed by Mennonites who are not professional actors (though Sydney has some eyebrow-raising to do about the label of Old Colony Mennonites to people who would agree to be filmed), and is about a story of adultery in a conservative Mennonite community.  Reygadas is best known for particularly racy sexual content in his movies, but this one intrigued me.  I did think, though, “Wow, can’t you even visit a conservative Mennonite community without trying to sensationalize things?”

Erin

Today my friend Stephanie was over for a day of work, food, and conversation.  She brought a black bean stew, I made a southwestern pumpkin soup, Sydney made a sundried-tomato bread, and I made cornbread.  And, of course, there was tea that was had by all.  All of this made Stephanie’s work on a creative writing application and my work on a draft (very draft) dissertation prospectus much more palatable.  It was a great day.  Lauren, it reminded me of (and made me miss terribly!) our Sunday reading days.  And Sydney, seeing my need for girl time, worked with us while outnumbered 3 to 1 (if we count the cat).  🙂

Erin

Big, fat flakes of it.  Not much is sticking on the ground, but it’s really gorgeous on the trees.  It’s also particularly gorgeous as it falls in front of the large oak in our yard, brilliant orange and with all of its leaves.

Erin

This past two weeks I’ve been planning my teaching for the rest of the semester and trying to get things ready for next semester, so that I don’t spend all my time working on teaching next semester–I’ll have an exam to take and a husband to miss!
Teaching The Awakening as the book on which my students write their final paper has some interesting consequences.  Yesterday and today I met with each of them for 1/2 an hour (15 students, you do the math–that’s why we’ve been particularly silent here) to talk about their paper ideas.  Four Nalgenes of water each day and I’m still a bit ticklish in the throat.  Guess that means I do a lot of talking during a conference in which they’re supposed to be doing the leading.  *sheepish*  A good half of my students are writing about the conclusion of the novel, which means that they and I are teasing out the intricacies of the heroine’s suicide.  How do you read that?  What do you bring to the book in making a judgment about the novel’s end?  Is there a way to resolve the various (and, sometimes, seemingly contradictory) readings of that conclusion?  And, as these discussions are often held in a hallway nook, I’m always hoping no one will walk by and catch half a sentence of our conversation.  No need to be disturbing the Cornell campus with our literary analysis.

Erin