the first day of classes

The summer has come to an end, although it mostly feels like I never had a summer and basically spent the whole summer working. I did get a great new laptop out of the deal though.

We had what I would consider a fantastic orientation where we were able to do a lot that we had never been able to do before. This being my second year working on orientation, I finally feel like the group I was working with really got the hang of what we were doing and were able to implement enough hands on activities to help really prepare the new grads to teach. It was an exciting although super busy work. It'll be nice to stop working all day long like that and return to the more normal grad student schedule of early morning and early afternoon work.

And so I start classes today and teaching tomorrow. I can't believe I've been doing this for two years now. I'm not so new anymore. I wasn't even new last year. Time FLIES by. I'm a PhD student now. Exciting, but terrifying since I have no idea what I want to do or where I fit. I guess we'll see.

Great womenfolk

As I was talking to one of the new Writing Studies students and Business Writing instructors, he told me he likes women and folk music, but his knowledge was limited to Dar Williams, Lucy Kaplansky, and Joan Baez. Well, to expand his horizons, I immediately came home and made him a CD. Here's the playlist:

1. Rain and Snow--Be Good Tanyas
2. Subdivision--Ani DiFranco
3. Rachel--Buddy and Julie Miller
4. With Our Hands--Edie Carey
5. Underdog--Anne Heaton
6. These Pines--Kasey Chambers
7. Out in the Country--Kristen Hall
8. Hurricane--Kris Delmhorst
9. Fireflies--Lori McKenna
10. Everything I Need--Melissa Ferrick
11. Tailspin--Nerissa & Katrina Nields
12. Sunrise--Norah Jones
13. Starting Over--Rachel Bissex
14. Basement Apartment--Sarah Harmer
15. Penitent--Suzanne Vega
16. Happy and Satisfied--Toshi Reagon
17. By Way of Sorrow--Cry Cry Cry
18. Long Ride Home--Patty Griffin
19. Amai--Amasong

I really need a radio show. I would be so good at it. I think I missed my calling to write fiction, sing in women's choirs, have a radio show, and stay up all night dancing. Bummer that I chose academia I think.

back at the beginning

um yeah. first day of work in a new semester. i feel that need to write all in lowercase letters and not think about everything i need to do today. but rather than letting life bowl me over today, i'm taking it by the ears and pulling real hard. maybe once life calms down, we can chat and walk like normal people. for now, i think i must be in charge.

I just got back from a lovely vacation to Nashville, Tennessee. I love the South. If it wasn't for the ridiculous politics, I think the South and I would be a perfect match. Anyway, that being said, perhaps Nashville isn't really the South, and neither is Florida, although both of them really are. But I could live in Nashville. I could live with cheap live acoustic music every night. I could live with the amazing food. I could live with Publix the greatest grocery store in the country. I saw my first plantations, which was fascinating and totally renewed my interest in African American studies. I bought 2 Tennessee cookbooks, 2 fiction books with slavery & Nashville women, a memoir about Jim Crowe, and a Southern history book. Now, I just gotta find some time to read for fun.

it's 6:48 am, and i'm thrilled to be awake, and ready to take life by the ear.

students' final project

I thought some of you might be interested in seeing my students' final project. They did an ok job, not where I wanted them to be, but decent considering it was the last week of summer II. I'm working on ways to make this project a bigger part of the class in order to keep their interest in it. Today we had the website release party, and I said good-bye, but I'm not as sad as I would expect. Possibly it's because I get a whole new set of students in less than 3 weeks. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's that.