Shakespeare on Ice

new job for fall?

2010-01-08T13:51:00.004-05:00

I received a verbal offer from the new dept chair at Kendall to teach writing for them in the fall. YEA!!!! She was very nice during the interview on Wednesday, and their refurbished building is really, really cool looking. There are 2 morning classes that she offered me, and I accepted. Unfortunately, I won't get the contracts until July. I can only hope that nothing changes in the meantime. And, even if I had the contracts now, I've learned the hard way (a couple of times) that a signed contract for teaching adjunct doesn't mean much--it can be cancelled at any time.

The classes have only 20 students, which is LOVELY. Writing and writing intensive classes should be capped at a low number. Aquinas caps theirs at 18, and I love it. And the pay at Kendall is really great. It ranks up there with GRCC, which is the top paying institution in GR (from what I've found). Although I love Aquinas and they have a fond place in my heart, the pay is pretty lousy, at least for the area.

So, I have some hope for the fall! I certainly need to increase my pool of options for where I can teach. I should be okay (fingers crossed) for fall, but I'm going to have a similar problem next winter (similar to what I'm facing right now). Everyone offers fewer classes of the classes I teach in the winter. I really need to teach 4 (full semester) classes per semester to make ends meet. This semester I have one class at Aquinas and two mini classes (5 weeks each) at Cornerstone. I can't even pay half my bills with that pay. The adjunct life sucks. It really, really sucks.

birthday

2009-12-28T11:30:00.004-05:00

I had been "looking forward" to having some pictures taken yesterday at my birthday party. For months I've been putting off looking "good" because I figured "I'll have some decent pics taken on my birthday." Well, hopefully no one will notice that I still don't have any pictures from 2009 posted anywhere because we didn't get many taken yesterday. I (stupidly) forgot my camera at home when we left for the restaurant in the cold, snowy mess that surrounded West Michigan last night. Miserable driving, partly because of conditions and partly because Michigan drivers are morons.

We bought a cake, but it's still sitting the kitchen unopened and uneaten. It was a nice birthday, though. Thanks for those who came out to help celebrate.

Blogs

2009-12-18T15:29:00.004-05:00

I wish more people I used to know had a blog. Blogs are am amazing way to feel like one hasn't lost touch with someone even though one may never want to see the other party again. I don't like losing touch with people, although sometimes it's in everyone's best interests or is fairly unavoidable. Blogs are a great link to the past somehow, even though they're generally about the present. I often remember what I liked about the person to begin with. Sometimes, though, I read a post and wonder if we'd get along now--political posts mostly.

Is is stalking to occasionally check someone's blog that one knew years ago? Is it stalking if one used to date that person? I hope not, because I get a kick out of blogs.

Life....

2009-12-11T11:10:00.005-05:00

There's just too much to write! Maybe taking 2 1/2 months to update this wasn't a good idea....

First (and at the forefront of my mind right now) is that fact that I'm underemployed next semester. I have my 2 classes at Aquinas and 5 hours in the writing center. I cannnot pay the bills with 2 adjunct classes. Grand Valley didn't warn me when they hired me for the fall that they offered significantly fewer sections of the class I teach in the winter. I lost both sections. I've applied to other colleges, who have thus far either politely or impolitely declined my services. I won't mention names, but I will mention that it makes me feel like crap. I guess I don't interview as well as I thought I did. So, I'm feeling pretty crappy right now and am desperately wondering what I will do next semester (and next summer, but that's a completely different subject that I won't get into right now).

I'm convinced that I'm going to have to get a "real job." Boy, do I not want a "real job." I've never done 9-5 particularly well. Hmm, I guess I've actually never really done 9-5, except for 2 summers working at a bank. I guess I just figure that since I haven't really done 9-5, I won't LIKE 9-5. However, steady income and steady work would be a trade that I'm willing to make at this point. I can't stand this feeling of not pulling my weight in my family.

Teaching 4 classes this semester has been rough at times, but with all the time I spend at home on the couch, it feels much less...stressful than a "real job." It's the students that create the stress. They're so needy and demanding. I do not remember being 1/10 as needy and whiny in my college experience, but that was 10 years ago, and this generation is quite a bit different.
I'm thinking about going to library school, but cost is the biggest problem right now. I'd need some serious scholarships, as I am completely unwilling to take out another dollar in student loans. I will already be paying on my student loans longer than we'll be paying for our house. I like the idea of working with students one-on-one, and working at the library in college was one of my favorite jobs. There's a lot for me to like about the idea.

And now to the embarrassing part of the post: what I've been reading. I needed something to listen to the car a couple of months ago, and my choices were Little Women, Danielle Steel, and Twilight. I cringed and picked up Twilight. The woman who read the novel bugged me at first, but I eventually got used to her. Even listening to it, I could tell that it's not well-written literature, but I stuck with it. I got to the end and was only slightly ashamed. Then a few weeks later, I found that I was interested in what happened next. This is about the time all of the New Moon hubbub was starting. So, I reluctantly went to Barnes and Noble and picked up a copy (and held my head in shame as I went to the check out counter). I read it in 3 days and a week later went to get Eclipse (I bought the new John Mayer cd at the same time and was wondering if I'd fallen into a time warp. I felt like I must be 16.). I read Eclipse in 2.5 days and went to the store immediately to buy Breaking Dawn in hard cover, which I said I wouldn't do. I was finished with Breaking Dawn in less than 48 hours.

It's not very good writing, but it's very compelling. I'm not a book critic, just a lit. major, so I don't know how to critique modern writing. I'm embarrassed by my near obsession (it was temporary, don't worry!), but I still couldn't stop reading. I've been trying to figure out why, and I've come up with a theory. Each of these books is about impossibly beautiful, impossibly rich, impossibly learned and talented immortals. It's an appealing subject matter. I've done plenty of reading about fairly regular people. My interest was piqued by a much more glamorous group of people. I'll admit, I wouldn't mind being beautiful, rich, learned and talented. Heck, I'll take any of the above. I was fun, mindless reading, and I was entertained for days. Reading books for class takes 3 times longer; it was really nice to read for fun, to read so quickly, and to not have to concentrate on any nuances/symbolism/hidden meanings. And the obsession is over now. I will not drag my husband to see New Moon--at least not at the full price theaters!

2009-09-28T21:05:00.004-04:00

I'm presenting at a conference this weekend. It's called Shakespeare Connects, and it will be at Grand Valley's downtown campus. I'm pretty excited for my first real academic presentation. I presented a couple of years ago at a writing center conference in Traverse City (with my boss), but this one feels different. This one is solo, and I'm adapting a chapter from my book for it. I think I'm about finished with most of the prep work: the cutting and altering of the text and the (probably too lame) PowerPoint. I just need to practice, practice, practice. I'm using a couple of speeches from Richard III, so I really have to make sure I brush up on my acting, otherwise it could be painful.

The same day we're going with Ted and Tara to a Tiger's game--nearly the last one of the regular season. Yea! It's my reward for presenting at the conference, or at least that's what I'm telling myself. It's also our anniversary weekend. Our anniversary is this Thursday, but where will I be Thursday night? Not celebrating with my wonderful husband of 4 years. No, I'll be teaching at Grand Valley. At least it's a good class.

I finally finished Neal Stephenson's Crytonomicon. Tedious! It took me months to work through it (I read several other things in the meantime!). Right now, after being done with it for 12 hours, I have to say the payoff wasn't worth the time--1100+ pages and my satisfaction lies solely in the fact that I'm finally done with it. It wasn't terrible and it wasn't poorly written (it was actually really well written), it was just really, really long, and I expect considerable payoff when I've invested that much time and energy.

the garden

2009-07-17T15:02:00.003-04:00

We've had several meals with green beans, but most of the garden hadn't been doing much of anything except get more greenery--not anything to eat. The tomatoes are 4-5 feet tall and, until a couple of days ago, didn't have any tomatoes! But I now have 3 green balls that I can only hope will turn into tomatoes. I also have picked 4 cucumbers in the last 3 days, and there are 3 more that will be ready in the next few days. They are taking over the garden, wrapping little tendrils around everything near them. They're actually creeping up the back fence. If the deer don't eat what's creeping, they might take over the world. I have 6-8 pepper plants, and they have nothing even resembling peppers on them. The corn, a big surprise, is already 6 feet tall and is showing about 4 ears. I have no idea how to tell when they're ready, but I suppose someone in my family of farmers can help me out. The broccoli that I had completely given up on now has decided to get little green...broccoli on it.
Ah, my boring life of watching the garden grow.

Snake Season

2009-06-06T13:48:00.004-04:00

I can't believe it's already snake season. Actually, I think I expected to see them earlier, and when I didn't see any, I hoped that last year was a fluke. Or maybe I already got them all. But, alas, I didn't. I killed two when we got home from breakfast this morning. It took forever--they're fast and wily, it turns out. I'm quite sure there's one more in those hedges, but it hasn't turned up again (and I've been frequently checking). Last year I used my "snake killing shovel," which I had by my side, but today I found Jon's golf clubs more useful. I don't think he'll ever use his driver again, which, if he were a sportsman, might mean something.

I want to take a nap, but all I see when I close my eyes is slithering. (Or Slytherin, but I'll review the Harry Potter series later. We're finally done with it.)

2009-05-18T10:27:00.003-04:00

We embark on our cruise next Monday at about noon. We'll go to Key West for a day and then we'll go to Nassau for a day. We booked passage for a cruise to Cozumel, but as you can see, Cozumel is no longer on the itinerary. Thank you World Health Organization.

I'm delighted the semester is finally over, that papers and presentations are graded, and I don't have to deal with that group of students again. There were, of course, some diamonds in the rough, but I had an all around bad vibe from this group for 16 weeks. And having to fail 5 didn't help matters. This wasn't 5 out of 50 students, or 5 out of 30 students. I failed 5 out of 18. Now that I think about it, it's really unfair to say I had to fail them. They failed themselves.

swimsuits

2009-05-12T20:44:00.001-04:00

Why are bikinis such a huge trend? I wouldn't wear a bikini when I was 16, and I certainly won't wear one at 31. We're going on a cruise in 13 days, and every one-piece swimsuit I've seen is in a plus-size.

Oh, yeah...we're going on a cruise!!!

more kitties!

2009-03-27T09:53:00.004-04:00

Here are some pictures of my kitties, who are basically my kids--be patient with me, this is as exciting as my life gets!

Here's Bailey at Jon's old place. "May I help you? What, haven't you ever seen a cat just sitting patiently in a cupboard under a sink before?"

Here's Remy, also at Jon's old place. She thinks she fits here; we beg to differ. She could not care less.

Ginny: "Wait, you can see me?"

Remy again. "Yes. I was taking a nap in the pantry. (And yes, I understand I'm not supposed to be here.) Just close the door and walk away before I kill you with my death stare."

Ginny and Bailey. Biggest two-headed cat EVER.

Ben Folds in Ann Arbor

2009-03-10T13:33:00.004-04:00

Out of the 20 pictures that I snagged the night of the concert (February 18), I wound up with 2 that were any good.

The concert was GREAT! He played a lot of his newer stuff (a bunch from Way to Normal and from supersunnyspeedgraphic), but, of course, he tossed in some old favorites, like "Army." I really wish I'd written down the set list, because, typically, I can only remember a handful of songs he played.

My two critiques would be that 1) there were just too many people on stage playing too many instruments (FIVE!) which made the music sound almost cacophonous at times. The other two times we've been to his concerts it was just Ben, bass, and drums, but I would love to see just Ben sometime. 2) Also too many songs were too slow. I felt like many of the newer songs, especially, dragged; I kept waiting for them to pick up the pace.

Overall, the show was really good. Our seats were in the front row of the balcony and proved to be some of the best seats I've ever had for a concert--unimpeded view of everything. Despite my two minor complaints, I wouldn't hesitate to buy tickets for another show.

I missed the entire opening band while I waited in line for a t-shirt. There was one person working the booth, and she seemed rather...unmotivated. I got back into the theater and waited and waited, and finally the lights went down. Unfortunately, it was not Ben Folds who came out, but the University of Michigan glee club. What?! I waited, rather impatiently, for them to finish, and then had to keep waiting for Ben Folds. When he finally came out, he gave us a really good show, though.

2009-02-24T12:24:00.003-05:00

I will soon write about the great Ben Folds concert that we attended last week, but I need to upload the pictures first--what's the point of writing a concert review these days without pictures?! So, since I haven't bashed/reviewed a book in a while, I'll get caught up.

After my Last Templar experience I moved on to a book entitled Katherine, by Anya Seton. As I've mentioned, I'm a fan of historical fiction, especially English history. It was on sale, so I ordered it. It's about Katherine Swynford, lover and eventual wife of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster. It was a bit slow going at times, but I honestly attribute that to its copyright date, 1954. The more recently published and written historical fiction is geared toward the reader who is easily bored and needs constant plot advancement (or, in lieu of plot advancement, sex). But Seton's 500+ pages are well written with elegant descriptions (even of unpleasant situations) and well researched details. Overall, pretty good. I enjoyed it.

Next was Marley and Me, which my mom lent me. I haven't watched the movie yet, so don't tell me how it ends. :) John Grogan is hilarious, and I laughed out loud throughout the book. His descriptions are vivid and clever, showing off his wonderful style and obvious intelligence. I literally cried through the last 20 pages, but the book is completely worth reading despite this inevitability--I know that some potential readers will be turned off to the book because of its sadness at the end just like they are turned off to movies with sad endings. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but just skip the last 20 pages if you don't like to cry. It's really a good read.

Then I read Susan Cooper's Over Sea, Under Stone. It's young adult sci-fi, so it was a pretty quick read. Unfortunately, it was formulaic and therefore really, really predictable. Just call the children Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. It's very Lewisian in formula but lacks the joy and wonder of Lewis' fiction. This is probably because the book takes place in Cornwall rather than Narnia, but my judgment against it stands. Puzzlingly, I will probably eventually read the other books in the series, and I think this is because of the mysterious Great-Uncle Merry, the Drew children's (whose names are actually Simon, Jane and Barney) secretive, not-really-an-uncle uncle. I think that the second book in the series, The Dark is Rising, is being made into a movie--eek! I generally hate it when they do that, but in this case, there isn't that much to ruin by making a crappy, expensive movie of it.

I've moved on to Firstborn, the last installment of the Time Odyssey series that Steven Baxter co-wrote with Arthur C. Clarke (one of my favorite authors). I doubt the late Clarke had much to do with this novel, however. So far, 80+ pages in, it's quite dull, but I'm attempting to reserve judgment.

"Global Warming"

2009-02-13T15:34:00.005-05:00

I still firmly believe what Mr. Gribas taught me in 9th grade Earth Science: human-caused Global Warming is a bunch of hogwash. I believe that the Earth's climate naturally changes throughout an age (geologically speaking), which is how we get ice ages, for example. I also believe that climatology is a bunch of crap. How can we actually make predictions of any kind regarding the climate of a future age when modern climatologists have only been collecting data for 40 years?

Perhaps there is a warming trend. I certainly believe that is possible, but I do not believe that humans have had a noticeable impact or have caused a climate shift. However, this does NOT mean that I don't believe in conservation. I do. I think that we can and should treat the planet better.

My particular rant here is inspired by dislike for anti-Global Warming groups requesting donations. No, no, no. I will not donate. I will not support these scare groups. Facebook's (Lil) Green Patch actually pisses me off. And it's not that I'm opposed to saving the Rainforest; I'm all for saving acres upon acres upon acres of Rainforest. But it's marketed as a Stop Global Warming application. Getting all 70 of my friends to accept and send back digital plants is not going to change the climate. One million Facebook users accepting and sending digital plants is not going to change the climate. Will we have a nicer place to live? Sure, I'd like to believe that, and I will support reforestation projects. I'll go down and plant trees myself if I'm given the opportunity. But I will not do it in order to stop global warming. We (as human beings) are not capable of doing this. If the planet is indeed warming up, we can't stop it.

End of rant.

Ben Folds!

2009-01-15T14:44:00.002-05:00

Thank you Live Nation email! I opened up the email this morning at about 9:15 am telling me that Ben Folds pre-sale tickets would be going on sale at 10:00 am TODAY. I've been checking Ticketmaster at least once a week to see if he's scheduled any dates in MI, yet I didn't know about this. (I'm really not terribly obsessed with Ben Folds. We've been to a couple of concerts, and he's a great entertainer who's been putting out some great albums. My current favorites are Way to Normal and Whatever and Ever Amen. Plus, we danced to a Ben Folds song at our wedding.) So, I logged on at 10 and got tickets! Yea! Not thrilled about it being on a Wednesday night (a school night!!!), but since I'm not yet a member of the AARP, I figure I'm allowed to go to a concert on a week night once every 5 years. (After AARP membership, I think that right is revoked.)

disappoint...ing

2009-01-05T15:46:00.005-05:00

To complete my review of The Last Templar (see below), I will begin with, "Boo. Hiss." I hope this book isn't considered a thriller, though I fear it is. There was little that was thrilling; hell, there was little that was even surprising. The last page or so was not terribly expected, but it was also not terribly well written. Actually, it was quite poorly written, as well as poorly reasoned. I feel cheated of the time I spent reading it. I like fiction. I like fiction that uses history as a base. I even like fiction that jumps around in time. However, when the historical base is inaccurate, incomplete, or incompetently portrayed, my respect for the text is lost. Perhaps I'm too much of a purist, but to me, claiming "it's fiction!" does not give a writer permission to alter history or even misrepresent historical fact. At the very least, Khoury inaccurately presents Biblical textual history, and as an area in which many people do not even have a good working knowledge, much less expertise, I frown on this use of creative license. As often as people are told, "You can't believe everything you read," we often still do.

We made the mistake of renting Journey to the Center of the Earth (in 3D!). A bottle of wine did not fool us into believing this was a decent film. Oh, was it bad! Particularly painful was the scene of the thirteen-year-old receiving a call from his mom while battling an ocean squall--in the center of the earth. Man-eating plants, a T-Rex, characters falling hundreds of miles and landing without bruises, and characters being ejected from the center of the earth via a volcanic tube gushing magma and water without receiving burns or bruises are just a few of the treats awaiting viewers of this soon-to-be-classic movie.

I have had two weeks of pleasant surprises on the nighttime reading front, however. Jon reads to me most nights before we go to sleep; we started the tradition in Korea when he thought it might help me sleep and we went through The Iliad and The Odyssey. Since then we've read things like the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Chronicles of Narnia series, and the Bible. On Christmas we started... Harry Potter. I have been firm in my resolve to NOT read any of the Harry Potter books for the last 5 1/2 years. I have been stubbornly resolved to stay off that particular bandwagon. The whole phenomenon just felt too cultish. It was talked about everywhere; people lined up to buy each new book at midnight on the release date. Creepy. Plus, I'm certain there was at least a hint of literary snobbishness in there somewhere (my M.A. thesis was on Shakespeare after all. Where in the world does pop children's sci-fi fit in my life?). However, we finished book one in a week, I'm almost embarrassed to say. I'm thoroughly enjoying Mr. Potter's adventures and find Rowling's narratives to be quite amusing. I frequently catch myself laughing out loud. I'm probably the one person on the planet to be this far behind the times, so surely no one needs my opinion or critique of this particular series, I'm just admitting I was ... wrong about it.

Birthday

2008-12-29T09:22:00.005-05:00

I had a party! My first one in years! We went to Outback and had a great time! Evidence of fun:

Not a good picture of Ted, but the other ones weren't great of Tara (Sorry Ted).

Cutest picture of Jeremy and Denise! They were able to come at the last minute due to a cancellation of his family's Christmas (bad weather).

Eric and Nicky. We're losing more friends to far away places. They're moving to India in February!

I have to post this because it happens to be a pretty good picture of me; Jon is not smiling because he's swallowing--whoops! (Notice the beautiful sapphire necklace that Jon got me!)

I'm pretty happy at this point--with a tummy full of steak!

Part of my birthday present from Ted and Tara. I figured I'd model it while they sang "Happy Birthday" to me. Stylish.

Ted's operatic "Happy Birthday."

We had a wonderful cake from Arnie's while sipping my favorite champagne and a great late harvest reisling. I didn't expect the champagne to taste so wonderful with the chocolate cake; perhaps it was just the birthday euphoria. Perhaps not.

In our thirties

2008-12-23T11:44:00.002-05:00

Jon pointed this out to me yesterday. One of his seminary professors has a link to this guy's blog on his blog (Mike Wittmer's link to Zach Bartel's blog). I almost cried by the end when I realized how true I find the statements. I've added a few of my own to the end of the list.

It's quite poignant, especially as I consider my impending birthday.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Getting older...
I'm thirty. No, that's not old in years. It's still pretty young. But old has several definitions and one of them indicates a state of mind. Some people, at thirty, are still more or less like they were in college (and still living more or less the same kind of life). Others are consumed with the daily grind or raising a couple of tweens.

Now, I haven't much thought about it, but in the back of my mind, I think I've always just assumed that I'm on the "younger" end of things for a thirty-year-old. I mean, I still listen to hip hop and punk music from time to time. I watch a lot of movies and can follow most pop culture references. But upon further inspection, these are not nearly enough to hold me back from my relentless and apparently passionate pursuit of boring-old-guy-ness.So what are the signs? Well, here are a few:

My favorite cereal is no longer Cinnamon Toast Crunch or even Honey Nut Cheerios. It's Special K. That's right; if I could have any cereal on a given morning, I'd always choose Special K.
When I go to a concert, I don't want to mosh. I don't want to dance. I don't even want to stand. I paid good money to sit here and listen and that's what I want to do, thank you. Down in front.
When I read Calvin and Hobbes, I get a far bigger kick out of Calvin's dad (heck, I am Calvin's dad) than I do out of Calvin himself.
I think of ten-year-old songs that were popular during my college years as being more or less "new." (I seriously can't believe that Time of Your Life and Iris are actually a decade old; heck, the Coolio song in my last entry--the one that Erin and I used to crank in my car--is thirteen years old. How did that happen?).
In addition, I couldn't name one song that's on the top forty right now (if there even is still such a thing) and when I happen to hear said current pop music, I hate it 95% of the time.
So I pretty much just listen to podcasts of financial and theological radio shows. Wow, when I write that out, it's just... man, I'm old.
I frown when someone tells a dirty joke.
I wear a tie just about every day. And I like it that way.
I'm far more excited about watching everyone else open Christmas presents that I bought than actually opening presents myself.
I'd rather play Pac Man on my Palm than learn how to play some new photo-real, adrenaline rush video game. On second thought, I'd rather play cribbage or backgammon than any of that stuff.
When I employ slang whilst talking to the youth of my church, I can see them exchanging sidelong glances and trying not to snicker.
More often than not, the thought of going to a party drains me, rather than exciting me.
If the subject of music, television, fiction, newspaper funnies, shopping malls, etc. comes up, my first instinct is to begin a diatribe about how it used to be so much better.
I don't yet have the old-guy-up-at-dawn-ready-to-go thing down just yet, but I want it more than anything.
And here's the real nail in the coffin of my youth (at least by this particular definition)...I drink decaf at night now. Decaf. If my 19-year-old self could have a meeting with me, he'd beat the tar out of me for my own good.

Beth's additions:

Jon and I have a regular Saturday morning breakfast place. We've been going for about 3 1/2 years, our waitress knows us so well she got us a housewarming present, and she can generally put Jon's order in without having to talk to him about it. Oh, and we prefer to be there before 7:00--our waitress arrives around 6:00, and we like to be there when there are virtually no other patrons present.
I'm leasing a "practical car" rather than a "kick ass" car.
I don't text. I don't send picture messages. I don't IM. Hell, I don't answer the phone if I don't absolutely have to.
I think the mailman has delivered more bills than Christmas cards this year.
We eat dinner at 5:00 pm, sometimes a little earlier. If we go out, we're frequently the youngest people in the restaurant by about 20 years.

Anyone have anything equally or more pathetic? (Please!?!?)

Boo!

2008-12-22T09:02:00.002-05:00

Exam week was not all I had hoped for here. I played not a single game with our students. Instead of going through 11 bags of popcorn in the circus style popcorn machine like we did last semester, we went through 4 (and most of that batch is sitting there, stale, in the machine. It was a week of long meetings, tons of snow, and alternating extremes of maddeningly boring spells mixed with serious job responsibilities. Eek! The college closes down on Wednesday for the holiday break, and I seem to be the only one here for these first two days of the week. The rest of my department is full time staff, and they have each accumulated copious amounts of vacation time. I, part time peon that I am, accumulate none. Two long, boring days are in store for me.

On a different note, I reread Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstasy in the last several months (it's long and I'm busy!). It's my third time reading the fictional biography of Michelangelo. I found new things during this reading and was able to correct things I just plain remembered wrong, and I discovered that I still enjoy it and find it to be insightfully and engrossingly written. It's well worth reading every 7 or 8 years!

On the other hand, I started (and am about half way finished) with another novel. I had lent a book to a student of mine, and she returned the favor. I'm now reading The Last Templar, by Raymond Khoury. I wish I could say that I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying having something to read, but the novel is so poorly and awkwardly written, it's actually a bit painful. I try to console myself with the idea that "at least it's an interesting story," but I'm just kidding myself. It's predictable in that I'm not surprised by anything that I think I'm supposed to be surprised by. But I'll keep reading it because I tend to finish books I start and because, even though I'm reading it half braindead, I still don't have to go back and reread the parts I was totally braindead while reading. I'm not expecting greatness in the second half, but I suppose anything is possible.

I know I'm just fooling myself again.

Exam week

2008-12-15T15:54:00.002-05:00

I love exam week here at Aquinas!

Food, games, and talking--that's about all I do during our exam week hours. We are a "Stress Free Zone" for students this week, which happens to mean that my job is virtually stress free as well! My 8 hour Monday has felt more like 2. Wonderful!
If only I didn't have those essays to grade for my class!

Holiday Shopping Trip

2008-12-10T19:35:00.004-05:00

I volunteered last night for the GR Jaycee's Holiday Shopping Tour and brought a big group of students from my department at Aquinas (and then assembled into a bigger group with students from GVSU and GRCC). The Jaycees take underprivileged kids shopping for Christmas gifts for their families, and then the children meet Santa and get a present for themselves. I was a personal shopper last year and did it again this year. This is bit problematic for me because this involves shopping... with children.
I'd heard that there were going to be local celebrities helping out yesterday, but I didn't really think much of it. But I saw Mary Ellen Murphey, a DJ; Antoinette, a spokesperson who I see on tv who promotes GRCC; Gerry Barnaby, a tv news guy; and John Gonzalez, a reporter for the Grand Rapids Press. I was paired up with someone to shop with because, for a little while, there were more volunteers than kids. My partner was Dr. Bernard Taylor, superintendent for Grand Rapids Public Schools, a fairly influencial fellow. It was really cool to see television and radio personalities, but when I talked to my students about these people, they had no idea who I was talking about. I suddenly realized how long I've lived in Grand Rapids and how damn old I am. I'm all excited about seeing and meeting local celebrities--this is not what many people, especially college students, give a crap about.
However, I'm still damn impressed.

plow service

2008-12-03T10:03:00.002-05:00

We decided to hire a plow service for our driveway, in this first winter in our house. It's hard enough to do all of the other crap around the house for the first time, we really didn't feel like buying a snow blower and then having to snow blow every day or every other day. We'd be playing a lot of rock, paper, scissors to see who had to go out in freezing temps to do it. Okay, that comment is not fair to Jon--I'd want to help out, but I doubt he'd ever make me do it.
Back to my complaint--yes, how could I complain about it, you ask? The plow guy will come at, like, 2:00 a.m. A lot of snow can fall between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. when Jon leaves for work. And a lot more can fall between 8 a.m. when I leave for work and when we get home in the afternoon. Our driveway still has a crapload of snow on it! It's snowed all of 3 or 4 times this winter, and I'm already wondering why we didn't just bite the bullet and buy a dang snow blower!

2008-11-13T08:53:00.002-05:00

New favorite site:

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

For example:

work weekend

2008-11-10T12:26:00.004-05:00

"On tap for next weekend: trimming back about a dozen lilacs, rototilling my future garden area(s), painting windows, raking leaves, killing (more) weeds, spreading grass seed, moving a crab apple tree, spreading mulch." That's what I wanted to get done. Ha.

Friday was beautiful!!! Saturday, work day, was awful. Rain and sleet, mud and grime. We hired two guys Jon works with, had his friend Matt and Matt's dad over, had my hard working husband, and ... me. Thankfully I had raked the front yard Friday afternoon, when the weather was lovely, but since we didn't have any yard waste bags, they just sat in piles on the front lawn getting wet Saturday morning. There was no way in hell I was going to try to tackle the back yard. It took me 45 minutes just to rake the front!

So what did we get done? Basically nothing on my list. I did have some help bagging the leaves and I spread grass seed in the front and back yard--in the sleety wetness--right before my back gave out. I knew it was going to happen, I just didn't know when. Jon and company did crazy stuff in the back yard. They moved a whole bunch of really big concrete blocks and rocks to our ever expanding "random rocks, blocks, and landscaping paraphernalia" region in the backyard. Also, there were these railroad ties being used as rudimentary landscape timbers that were removed and chopped up into burnable pieces for our fire pit. There was also a set of bars installed by the original owners to use for hanging clothes lines--cemented into the ground starting at about 18"-24" and ending at least 2' below that! These things were installed to stay! But they needed to come out so that we can move the shed from its present inconvenient location to right behind the garage (where the railroad ties and laundry poles were). Now we have even more DIRT lying around from where everything was dug up! Well, with the appearance of the snow this morning, I can maintain a blissful ignorance about the appalling state of my back yard. Yay snow?

winterizing

2008-11-03T14:23:00.002-05:00

This being the first year we've owned a house, we're trying to figure out all that we have to do to winterize--and get help doing it. Our yard is a disaster--that backyard anyway. There are huge patches of dirt all over the place from where we've had "extra" from other projects and dumped it in a low patch in the back. And there are a lot of low patches. There are still a lot of low patches. It's looking pretty bare back there, but I knew that this was going to be a year of removal and hoped that next year would be a year of planting. It looks like grass seed will be essential to the plan of improving the yard to make our 1/2 acre more "Edenic." It'll take a few years, but it will look wonderful.

On tap for next weekend: trimming back about a dozen lilacs, rototilling my future garden area(s), painting windows, raking leaves, killing (more) weeds, spreading grass seed, moving a crab apple tree, spreading mulch.

No problem.

driveway expansion

2008-10-24T17:17:00.005-04:00

So I promised Jon I'd get these pictures posted--they're of his hard work last weekend.

Here's what it looked like just after he got started. Grass, dirt, and pebbles.

Phase 2: remove the landscaping fabric and pebbles.

And the end result: a driveway that will be considerably easier to shovel and snow blow!! Yea!

Facebook???

2008-10-16T13:58:00.004-04:00

So, I'm on Facebook now. I don't know exactly how it happened, since I said 3 years ago that I would never join. If I'd gotten in on the ground floor many years ago it would be different, but I figured it would be really lame for someone my age to get in on it so late. Who joins when they're 30? Well, I do, apparently. What's surprising is how much I'm enjoying it. As of today, I have 22 friends, including a couple of people who I've been trying to find for years! Now, many people would say, "ONLY 22 friends?! How sad!" And I say, holy cow, 22 people claim they know me?!?! That's frickin' fantastic! I may just have a heart attack if I reach 25!

Irksome!

2008-10-03T08:43:00.005-04:00

For those of you out of state and/or who don't give a crap about Tiger's baseball, I'll tell you that this was a disappointing season, well a disappointing END of season. The Tigers (stupidly) traded away veteran, All Star catcher Pudge Rodriguez on the trade deadline in July to the Yankees and acquired a (crappy) relief pitcher, Kyle Farnsworth. This trade was bad (idiotic) enough, but after their season has ended I read this:

C[atcher] Dusty Ryan has shown enough that Detroit feels he could at least open the 2009 season on the major league roster, but the Tigers prefer to have a veteran to at least split time with the rookie. “Do I think we could get by (with Ryan)?” Leyland said. “Probably. Would it be the best thing? Probably not.”

They need a veteran catcher? Damn straight they need a veteran catcher, after they (moronically) traded away the best catcher in the league. But, hey, Pudge is with the Yankees now, so we couldn't get him back anyway, right?

Wrong. The Yankees won't be renewing Pudge's contract, which means he's up for grabs. But will the Tigers bring back our beloved Pudge? Heck no. Dave Dombrowski has done some fantastic things for the Tigers (including bringing Pudge here in the first place to anchor the struggling team in 2004) and some pretty dumb ones (most notably trading Pudge, but also the acquiring of Gary Sheffield, 2006, and Edgar Renteria, 2007). But even though we need a catcher, and one of the best catchers in the league (I don't care if he's 36) is available, this match up seems unlikely to occur. I suppose it would be a little embarrassing to bring back a player who was so recently traded away, but heck, the fans don't care. We just want our Pudge back!!!

Sarah Palin/Tina Fay?

2008-09-29T11:59:00.001-04:00

I know virtually nothing about Sarah Palin, except that she and Tina Fay share a striking reseblance to one another. Here's an enlightening view courtesy of SNL.

America

2008-09-25T12:48:00.003-04:00

I really hate to get political, partly because I'm not the most qualified individual and partly because I don't like the arguments that inevitably ensue, but I just can't keep my take on this presidential campaign to myself anymore.

I saw an Obama ad a couple of nights ago, the longest ad I've seen, in which he is talking about how he wants people to check out his website where he details his "plan." Yes, his "plan;" now you know the direction I lean. He wants to impose a tax surcharge on oil profits and give some of that money back to Americans. Though I like the idea of free money (which, by the way, Bush already did this year, which, by the way, Obama opposed), the source of the funds troubles me. Taking away profits from companies is decidedly in contention with the greatest of American ideals: capitalism. The United States is not a socialist or communist country. This leads to my second "plan" problem: reforming Wall Street to protect investments. Investments have been protected about as much as a capitalist society can. There are even safeguards in place so that the market cannot crash like it did in 1929. If one wants investment security, use a savings account or a CD. If one wants to make money in an investment, one must take a certain amount of risk. Limiting that risk limits one's potential earnings. Warren Buffett did not get rich by purchasing CDs. He made some money; he lost a little; he made some more; he lost a little; he made a crap load; he lost a little. Just because everyone happens to be losing a little right now does not mean that the system is flawed. Barack Obama cannot fix this system without changing the foundations of American capitalism, which cannot be done by anyone. By proposing such changes he is either showing that he lacks knowledge of the foundations of the American economic system (which I find unlikely) or that he thinks that the American public will actually believe that he can and will make these impossible changes. Stop believing politicians' promises!!! Think first: is this even possible?

Ginny

2008-09-08T19:37:00.009-04:00

Okay, we got another cat. Jon fell in love with this little Humane Society tabby at the pet store last weekend. He/we filled out an adoption form so that we could get her out of the cage (that's about the only way they'll let you play with them), and we were told that there were already two applications in for "Lucy." I breathed a secret sigh of relief--we already have two hard to manage cats, why get a third. Plus, we just tried introducing a new cat here just a few weeks ago, and it didn't go well.

So, when we/Jon got the screening call from the Humane Society Friday night, I was a little concerned. Apparently, the other two applications for her adoption were denied--they failed the screening process. "Lucy" was offered to us if we were still interested. We went to visit her on Saturday and brought her home. She's about 7 pounds, less than half Bailey's size. I was a little worried about her, considering how poorly things went with Zoey, but we followed similar procedures (keeping her isolated, giving her extra attention, etc). The newly dubbed "Ginny" had other ideas, though. Within 3 hours she had escaped from the guest room and had begun exploring the house. She sniffed Bailey and got as close as Remy would allow, and that was her adjustment period.

She came to the Humane Society a few months ago as a pregnant stray. We were warned that "mama cats" don't always do well in their new homes, but we weren't sure why that was. I'm guessing it's because they're pretty ballsy (for lack of a better term). She's holding her own quite well!

Since there are no other pictures of Remy and Bailey, I'll start with them.

Remy

Bailey

The cats in the box Jon's mandolin came in.

I call this one "Bad Cats at Christmas." Yes, they're eating the tree.

Here's Ginny! This was snapped this morning before I left for work. At first glance she looks a lot like Bailey--only she's half his size!

This was taken within 8 hours of bringing her home. Clearly, she's having a rough period of adjustment. Poor thing.

SNAKE

2008-09-06T13:27:00.001-04:00

I just killed another snake. So, we're up to 5 total snakes, removed dead or alive, from the property, and up to 3 that I've killed with my snake-killing shovel. Phew!

moving day--last year

2008-09-01T09:49:00.000-04:00

I was thinking, a year ago today, we were moving to our second townhouse after living in the first one for three years. Three years! We were very sad to be leaving and probably would have stayed for much longer than we should have, but we had a lot of space, a good view, and a great location. But, bad neighbors have a way of ruining things, just when one least expects it. I found some of the pics from what townhouse #2 looked like at move-in.

Entrance: stairs right in front, kitchen and dining on left, living room on right. The kitchen was very small: Jon complained about its size at least once per day.

The master bedroom had a half bath attached to it on the left of where the picture is being taken.

Bedroom 2 was tiny, at least by Townhouse #1 standards where all of the rooms were huge (much larger than we appreciated at the time).

We traded "up" to a slightly worse location, more neighbors (we had neighbors attached behind us as well as to the left and right of us), more money, a shared parking lot, and at least 400 sq ft less space. However, with some finagling, and a payment, we were able to get out of the lease three months early, which was a real blessing. We wouldn't have been able to buy our house if we'd had to make two payments each month.

Jon and Jeremy will be working on expanding our driveway today (what a way to spend Labor Day!). We should be able to fit both cars side by side when the day is done!

Cat herding

2008-08-25T13:53:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SmgLtg1Izw

I really don't spend that much time watching videos online, but I can't seem to stop posting them here! I am so cat obsessed! Maybe we should just have kids. People don't think you're crazy when you talk about your kids all the time, but they sure get uncomfortable when I talk about my cats as if they're my children. Go figure.

Tigers!

2008-08-22T16:28:00.000-04:00

So we went to see the Detroit Tigers last Sunday at Comerica Park. I've been wanting to go all season, and I was finally able to get tickets--at auction. They started losing the day I won the tickets, and Sunday was no exception to the sad new rule. 8-16. How humiliating.

Curtis Granderson posing with his glove on his head. (This one's for Tara!)

Here we have Zach Miner being (blessedly) taken out of the game in the second inning, after more than 50 pitches and allowing 5 runs. Way to go.

Ted and Tara

Jon and me. A picture of me? Who knew one existed?

We still had a good time, despite the absurd heat and the devastating loss. I sure hope they can pull off a win for us if we have another chance to get down there. As we headed back to the car, the same homeless guy who'd joked with us on the way in was still there, so I gave him some money and received a much needed and appreciated, "God bless you," in return.

Olympics

2008-08-18T11:49:00.000-04:00

In the spirit of the Olympic Games, I came upon this and found it too funny not to share. It's just a couple of minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woYG6Uq6OVU

GVSU

2008-08-11T21:47:00.000-04:00

GVSU called to retract the adjunct offer I accepted 3 weeks ago. A tenured professor needed another course, and he decided he wanted my Thursday night Brit Lit. Super.

Yipee!

2008-08-10T10:38:00.000-04:00

I finally got the contracts for both the Grand Valley gig and the Aquinas gig! There are adjunct orientations next week, and I'm probably the only person on staff who is actually pretty excited to go to them. I don't have access to either GVSU's Blackboard or Aquinas' Course Connect yet, though I suppose it wouldn't much matter if I did; I don't know how to use either them (though I have a much better idea of how to use Blackboard, even if it was 7 years ago!).

One of Jon's coworkers (and formerly one of my coworkers from the dry cleaners) has had issues with her cat, Zoey. Ever since they moved into their new house, she (the cat, not LeAnn) has been peeing on their carpet. So... LeAnn dropped Zoey off at our house yesterday--as if a house with cats is going to make her feel more comfortable, but I figured we'd give it a try. I feel like we're making very little progress. She's holed up in the guest room. We haven't introduced her to Remy and Bailey yet--everything we've read says not to do that for the first few days. I haven't been able to pet her yet. I've spent several hours in the room, just so she can get used to me, and we played with a stick for a little while earlier. Ah, well.

Kitchen

2008-07-27T13:53:00.000-04:00

Time for some before and after photos!

It's time

2008-07-27T13:05:00.000-04:00

Not that I have that much interesting stuff to say, but I figured I'd check in. Though, as I write that I realize that I really do have stuff to write.
I received the free copies of my book yesterday. They're very skinny, but they look pretty darn cool. And they have my picture on the back, a sign of a truly great author, no?
I was offered a teaching position at Grand Valley State University last weekend. Not that HR has contacted me yet, but the head of the English department called me, we talked, and it seems pretty settled. What course? A literature course!!! Brit lit I. Holy cow! So I feel like I'm madly trying to prepare for two courses, but in reality, I'm moving pretty slowly. It's a daunting task, and I'm pretty nervous (freaked out, actually), but I'm also incredibly excited. I've wanted this for soooo long. I'll keep my job at Student Support Services at Aquinas while teaching a writing class for their gen ed dept (and conducting a math lab for SSS). Boy, I feel pretty multi talented right now. Fame and fortune are sure to follow.

Discogram (This is NOT a "musical message from John Travolta" or some other clever word play, so no more jokes!)

2008-06-28T12:41:00.000-04:00

Discogram: painful procedure in which needles containing a special dye are injected into discs in the spine in an effort to reproduce the patient's normal pain. The patient must be awake and aware for this procedure. And it sucks.

This is what I had performed yesterday morning--3 hours late. I was hungry; I was nervous; I was annoyed. I'd nearly cancelled the test several times in the days leading up to it because every source I'd read in trying to figure out more about it talked about the pain involved during and after the test. The pain, The Pain, THE PAIN!

I can say that it wasn't AS BAD as I had feared--no screaming out in pain on the table. We'll see what the results have to say in a week or so. Yesterday I felt pretty bad and stayed in bed most of the day (blessed sleep!), and today there's a lot of muscle pain--I realized this would be because they stuck three large needles through muscles in the bottom left quadrant of my back into the discs in my spine! Of course it still hurts! I've had so many tests done (X-rays, MRI, bone scan, CAT scan, and now Discogram), and there still isn't a solid diagnosis (or prognosis).

cats

2008-06-18T08:40:00.000-04:00

Now, don't get me wrong, I love my cats. I really do, despite what you may have heard to the contrary. They're often big pains in the butt, but they're adorable and they're funny. This clip is one of the funniest things about cats that I've seen in a long time (besides clips of cats falling off t.v.s and such). It's about 6-7 minutes and it MUST be listened to, not just watched, so be armed with some time and speakers/headphones before you click the link. It's an engineer's guide to cats: http://www.youtube.com/user/klusmanp

I have a newfound love for my cats--even though they don't yodel.

# 2

2008-06-06T21:11:00.000-04:00

I just killed snake # 2 in 2 days. Phew! This is nerve racking!

On being published....

2008-06-06T17:43:00.000-04:00

Wow, searching for my book on Amazon just isn't getting old. Even Target.com has it for sale. It's published under Elizabeth Westbrook Shelley and the ISBN is: 3836493187. It even comes up if searching for Shakespeare Richard III. Jon keeps joking that I'm now an internationally recognized Shakespeare scholar. Sure wish I had the Ph.D. to back it up.

Day 5

2008-06-05T21:50:00.000-04:00

It's a great day. It's day 5 in our new house, I found out yesterday that my book is now on Amazon.com, and I killed a snake in the back yard.

1.) Yes, we bought a house! After renting for almost 4 years, we've bought a house--about a mile from our last townhouse. We bought the house from our friends, Jeremy and Denise, who have recently outgrown the home they'd owned for about 10 years after the arrival of child # 3 in less than 3 1/2 years. We're still working on it and are still putting stuff away, but things are going well and we're making progress. I'll post pictures.

2.) My thesis advisor was contacted a few months ago by a German publishing house who was interested in speaking with me about publishing my thesis. I went through their process, and it was approved for publication! I checked yesterday, and it's now for sale! For $64. $64? Yep.

3.) I pulled weeds today and was taking a load to the backyard when I saw our snake. To say Jon is terrified of snakes would be an understatement. He's a wonderful man with many, many amazing qualities, but his fear of snakes is debilitating. He called our pest control guy who declined to come out here. Jerk. I was feeling brave (VERY brave), so I went out there, tracked it down and bludgeoned it with my newly christened snake-bludgeoning shovel. What does it feel like to be a hero? Well, I wouldn't call myself a hero... yes I would!!! And it feels pretty darn good!