flaneuse.org

The breakfast of champions. Just ask all those tiny gymnasts.

I have the flu. I have piles of papers to deal with. I ache all over. I think the dog should do the grading. She’s probably much more lenient than I am.

Am back from the conference and catching up with everything there is to do in this last week of the semester. It’s a sprint from now until grades are due, with the added stress of the holidays. Still, I can’t help but like the Christmas season even though we have yet to see a flake of snow (Colorado, on the other hand, has had several good storms. Dammit.). Thank you Global Warming, which I think of as a large man who sits almost right on top of an electric heater in a dingy apartment not unlike those from the BBC series, How Clean is Your House? (The answer, invariably, is that it is a sty). So we all gasp for breath here and there, keep reading papers as soon as they come to us, fill out forms and make it to as many meetings as we possibly can.

Christmas this year is going to be very different in terms of gift-giving. Chris and I are giving each other a Christmas tree and his family went with the idea of choosing a name to give a gift to. With my family, I am running out of ideas. My parents told me that my ticket home was enough, but what to give my brother and his wife? They are doing well financially and, to be honest, I don’t know what I can give them that they would want or don’t already have. They don’t read this, so I feel OK about writing here. They both love animals, so I was thinking about giving a holiday gift or membership to the ASPCA in their names (or maybe the World Wildlife Fund instead), but what do people really think when they get a gift like that? I know I would really life it, but would it just seem like a cop-out or a waste of funds to someone else? How do I know without flat-out asking them?

Any ideas are welcomes.

and I head to Orlando for the National Reading Conference. It’s funny, even though this conference comes at a tough time in the semester (always the week after Thanksgiving), I still look forward to it even though I always transport one or two writing projects and a bunch of student papers to work on. Maybe it’s because I will be able to work on them poolside — but I think the draw of a conference is that you get to spend time with people who are excited about the kinds of things that make you excited. Even if no one comes to our presentation (a common thing for us, given both our topic and the fact that we almost always get an 8:30 am time), the chance to talk with other people about literacy and language — and to hear about the other research being done and new grant work is undeniably sexy. Most of the year, professors balance their research against so many other things. The ability to really focus on your writing and research ends once you defend your dissertation — unless you get some huge grant, and there aren’t many of those out there anymore. So this is the one place it’s OK to be geeky about what you’ve been doing. And given that this conference isn’t that large, there’s plenty of gossip and going out for fancy dinners. And a pool. Did I mention that before? I might even bring my suit this time.

Last night I went out with a friend who was in town for the holiday weekend. We decided we wanted to go and have a drink and she suggested a new place, a restaurant I didn’t even know existed (so that should tell you how often we go out right now) that had a very fancy bar. It did indeed and the classic pub next door where we used to hang out has apparently become a college hangout. The two restaurants are connected, but one is definitely for the 30+ crowd while the other looked pretty much like any collection of students I see on campus, just a little more dressed up. Being at the fancier bar, I was surprised to see more men than women, and not all that surprised when a woman I know talked about her boyfriend, and his wife who was at the bar with someone else. Life gets complicated after a certain point and all of us who date or have dated after 30 know that *everyone* comes with baggage. At that point, you’re not middle aged and your life isn’t over but chances are you’ve had some of the knocks that come with living. The trick is not to let the knocks take you over, but to continue to open a soft heart with love to possibility.

If you ever get a chance to read Eat, Pray, Love — she says it better than I ever could. There’s always possibility, even right on the other side of pain. But I also have to say after hanging out last night with the well-to-do older set, just how glad I am not to be dating anymore.

Am sitting here with eggnog in my coffee, waiting for the right time for a turkey sandwich and working (sort of) on my presentation for NRC next week. Mostly Chris and I are surfing web news sites and shouting out headlines to each other. Surfing for the most up-to-date news works best when there’s two of you to do it with. And I have absolutely no intention of going near any mall and/or store (other than perhaps the drugstore) today. One person was trampled to death this morning on Long Island at an opening of WalMart at 5 am; a woman at the same store miscarried. Haven’t we figured out yet that this Christmas is going to be different? There won’t be so many gifts or additions to the credit card balances all of us carry. This year should be all about how less is going to be more. Right?

All I want for Christmas is for our families to be healthy, for Chris’ phone to ring often, for us to be happy. Simple things, but ones I cannot control. Getting gifts is lovely and fun, but getting to see the people I love is so much better.

Happy beginning of the Christmas season, everyone.

I love Thanksgiving. It’s about all the right things — family, food and not about buying a car just so you can put a ginormous red ribbon on top. The ads for this year’s “holiday season” are garish bordering on sad — every time I see a Circuit City ad, I am reminded that they filed for Ch. 11 earlier this year. There’s a desperation to Christmas even on the best years — who will get the best toys — and this year, while we have the chance to do it right: spend less, save more, be with people more than gifts, all the retail stores are praying for us to change our minds and add to our debt.

This Thanksgiving is just Chris and I, but I know we’re thinking about family hither and yon, and realizing how many things we have to be grateful for.

Little details, deadlines upon deadlines, gray days, behind for next week’s conference, coffee and cigarettes to get going, checking things off my list as I work throughout the day. Sure, that’s the deal, little things build up to big ones, and everything matters — at least until tenure. But sometimes you hit the limit of the little things and only one thing can save you. Cable television.

perfect for chaining myself to my desk and searching for more good examples of teacher and student blogs. And reading and working on my proposal for NRC next week — although on days like this, my comfy bed and stack of books waiting to be read call out to me, ever so sweetly: “Daaaaannnaaaa. Come and cuddle, the cats will keep you warm, no one needs to work all the time (even in front of the tv set? I wonder)…. there are things to read and read about that are absorbing and interesting and much less worrisome than sick family, an economy in shambles….”

Must. Resist.