Amazon Meme

Haven't seen or done a meme in ages. I spotted this one at Profgrrrrl, Seeking Solace, and Snarky McGeekerson's.

My first Amazon order was December 1999. I believe it was the first time I did Christmas shopping online and boy did it change my life. Previously, Christmas shopping was always hell. I was always in school and battling end-of-semester deadlines and exams. It didn't help that I'm a horrible shopper and can't stand going into stores. Then along came Amazon.

Here's what I ordered:

Phantasm (This must have been for Drax!)

Togepi and Psyduck (ahh, the Pokemon years)

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: Animal Edition

We have three pets living in the House of Dirt and Rocks.

The Good (She really is the sweetest pup ever)

The Bad (He can be evil but I love him)

And The Ugly (Actually she's very cute but she is an ugly pet to own)

I write frequently about the first two but have never really described TOC before. TOC (not her real name) stands for The Other Cat. Its not a good pseudonym for her. The other day I told b her name was Smudgy McDoodle, or Smudge. That seems more fitting. [All of our animals have multiple nicknames. Pupzilla is also Pupsicle, Puppy Chulu, and Maximus Fartimus, just to name a few.]

We have a love/hate relationship with TOC/Smudge. Most of the time it is closer to hate than to love. I know that sounds horrible but the truth is you don't always like every family member you have but like them or not, they are still family. You stand by them and you love them even if most of the time you wish they would just disappear.

Smudge is odd. She stares at walls. She will stare at the door without saying a word until someone notices that she wants to go out. That's not really the part we dislike however. I think the part that gets me the most is the amount that she vomits. There isn't anything physically wrong with her. She's been doing it since she was a kitten (she's 10 years old) and several doctors have checked her out. She may be bulimic as she often does it after gorging herself (and she's never weighed more than 6 1/2 lbs). When I say vomit, I really mean projectile spewing. Luckily it starts out fairly loud so about half the time we can catch her at it before she throws up on something valuable. A few weeks ago she threw up on my pillow while I was sleeping. Unfortunately I wasn't fast enough that time.

As small as she is, she's a fierce fighter. This ability only comes out when humans (like vets) are trying to do something she doesn't like. Around other animals she's quite the chicken. Last month the doctor tried to give her a pill. It took her and the technician several attempts. They used a long pill inserter, a towel, and a syringe filled with water and the doctor still walked away with several deep scratches.

The second thing that bothers me is her need to climb the clothes in my closet (there is no door so I can't keep her out). She has really sharp claws and particularly likes leather. She climbs leather jackets and silk shirts and scratches at my boots. She doesn't seem to possess the ability to completely velvet her claws. She does like affection. In fact she likes a lot of it and if you don't give it to her or if you stop after several minutes, she reminds you of her desire by extending her claw into your arm. Of course if you continue petting her and she likes it too much, she bites you.

She likes people but can't stand any other animal on the planet. The feeling is quite mutual and we often need to rescue her from the neighbors' cats when she's outside. When she's inside we have to rescue her from The Brute. Pupzilla no longer cares about her one way or the other but she still hisses and claws at her whenever she gets too close. To get away from the other animals she sometimes climbs into the kitchen cabinets. We try to catproof as many as possible but some are just not set up for locking. I cannot begin to describe the number of glassware she has broken as she walks her way around the shelves.

She is a big fan of the "Make The Bed" game and manages to be in the room every morning when this event happens. Sometimes I play along.

She is a climber and it is one of the few things b respects about her. She used to climb on top of the doors constantly when she was a kitten.

She still does it occasionally. It is her best trick.

What I'm Doing When I'm Not Writing My Grant

• Reviewing other people's work
• Having lunch out with b
• Filling out my annual report (and realizing I did a lot more this year than I thought)
• Deflating my balance ball/office chair so we can return it to the store
• Going to the library for an early start on next year's syllabus
• Following interesting blog conversations on mothering, feminism and power. Check them out.

RBOC: Last Week of Classes Edition

• I taught my last class of the semester on Tuesday night. They were a great group and I'm sorry to see them go.
• I'm actually kind of sorry to see the semester go. I only had to teach one class and it was one I've taught several times before. I know I'm not going to get such a light teaching load again in a very long time.
• This semester was also chock-filled with drama and I'm not sorry to see that go.
• Unfortunately I don't think its going anywhere anytime soon.
• I was in my office with my door open for a little over 2 hours this afternoon. In that time I got 7 "visitors." Only three of them were invited. Not that I wasn't happy to see the others but really this is why I work at home or with the door closed.
• I've been using an exercise ball as a chair at work and at home the entire semester. This week my work ball sprung a slow leak.
• Students like to buy me food (and sometimes coffee). I'm not really sure why that is. Trust me I look well-fed.
• This is also the last week of my Unravelling class. It was an interesting experience and I'm glad I did it. I'm toying with the idea of another photography ecourse but once that is more focused on technique. Now that I've gotten more comfortable with the idea of taking photographs, I'd like to know more about what I'm doing.
• I'm also toying with the idea of auditing an advanced statistics course next spring. This is not as much fun but I think it may be necessary. There is a statistical technique that was not taught when I was in graduate school but is now routinely taught. The questions I want to ask can't be answered without this technique.
• Last year I thought I would take it super-easy this summer, since it would be my post-tenure summer, but now it looks like I'll be crazy busy at least until July.
• BTW, the tenure letter finally arrived.

Seeking Help

I never cease to be amazed at the difficulty I have asking for help. I know it is a huge stumbling block for me, both in my career and personal life. I don't know why I hate it so much but I will do anything to avoid it, even when I know ultimately I can't.

I just spend two days procrastinating because the only next logical step for my grant application was to ask for internal and external reviews. I get asked to review work all the time. I know it is a given in academia and that people generally do it if they can. No one likes being pressed into service when we all have our own work to do, but we all do it. But it took everything I had to compose the emails and then hit send.

sigh.

At least its done. Now the worst case scenario is they say no and I'll have to find other people to ask.*

*Actually the worst case scenario is they say yes but don't do it and then I have to nag them.

A Camping Interlude

Last month b and I realized that between both of our schedules we had not spent more than a day together (and usually it was an errand day) in over a month and we were unlikely to do so again before the end of the semester. So he put in for 2 days off in the middle of this week and I carefully guarded those two days on my calendar.

b rigs the tarp as I watch from inside the tent.

With only 48 hours to call our own we decided not to do the "longer drive-more gear" paddling version of camping and instead we went to our favorite nearby campsite. This spot is our home-away-from-home and where we sometimes do Thanksgiving. It is only a 20 minute drive and in the middle of the week the tent sites are pretty much empty.

We did almost all the prep the morning we left, including buying some yummy food at our local gourmet supermarket. We also finally bought new camping chairs. Then b loaded up the car, I grabbed Pupzilla and off we went.

I get some fiction writing done with Pupzilla by my side.

It was an overcast day and we got a little bit of rain passing through. We stayed warm and dry and soon the sun was shining. Our camping trips usually revolve around food and this one was no different. b cooked us scallops, cheesy potatoes and string beans for dinner the first night; an eggbake for breakfast in the morning; and lamb stew on the last night.

b prepared a lovely feast for two.

It was a relaxing trip. We spent most of our time reading trashy sci-fi novels and staring at the fire. We didn't even talk as much as we usually do but that was fine by us. Sometimes you just need to shut it all off.

Pupzilla keeps an eye out for intruders.

Teaching Feminism

Angel is taking his first "Gender and..." course this semester. The class meets on Tuesday nights. I'm teaching my "Gender and...." course this semester. My course meets on Tuesday nights. We're in completely different fields and I'm teaching a graduate level course but we've swapped stories a few times. Its been interesting to hear his perspective--as a student, as a man, as my son. I read a draft of his final paper and enjoyed it immensely. Not only is he developing as a writer but it involved his first stint at research and he had some good insights.

Today he called to tell me something he learned in class last night that he thought I would find interesting. It seems his teacher was covering feminism and Angel was shocked to find out that feminists are portrayed negatively by much of society. She showed them clips of people describing feminists and told them a personal anecdote about being left at the table and stuck with the bill on a dinner date after disclosing she was a feminist. Angel has since then polled some of his female friends to see if they identify as feminist and has again been shocked and a bit dismayed upon hearing their reactions. Now Angel is the sole male member of the only feminist organization on his campus and is close friends with the president but I don't think he was polling those friends. I believe he was talking about his sorority sisters. He goes to a pretty conservative school so he heard some harsh reactions.

I'm not quite sure what to make of it all. Of course I am thrilled that he is enjoying the class so much; that he is interested enough to talk about it with others; and that he finds it so hard to understand why feminists have a bad rap. What I don't really get is how he managed to reach the age of 20 without learning of it before. I'm not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing (and probably it is neither) that he's been sheltered from this knowledge his whole life. He grew up in a very liberal environment. He grew up the son of a feminist mother who hangs with a feminist crowd and honestly I've received very little flak over my lifetime on my feminist positions. So I guess he has had very few opportunities to learn about it.

It does make me think about what my students (including the undergraduate 'Women and...' course I teach in the fall) and what bells I may be ringing in their heads. The longer I teach the more I realize how much I incorrectly assume something is general knowledge. I think this happens the most when I "teach feminism."