Category Archives: School

Commenting on Papers and Americanos.

Posted on 15 January 2010 | 1 comment

You can read the history of the Americano here, though the explanation is not very good. Coffee lore tells that the Americano, shots of espresso watered down with hot water thus resulting in something similar to drip coffee, was so named after European baristas, or coffeehouse employees, who thought American soldiers were strange for desiring brewed coffee over their preferred espresso began calling watered down espresso Americanos. Essentially, I think my favorite coffee drink is named after men like my grandfather who were perceived as wusses by Europeans. I can drink shots of espresso, but why would you want to when you can prolong the enjoyment with a little hot water, a splash of soy milk, and a dab of honey or raw sugar.

I enjoy the decaf variety, so I don’t get heart palpitations, which have only begun since I started running, not drinking beer, and cutting out caffeine and soda. I shudder when I think about what I did to my body before I began caring about what I was doing to my body. Apparently, I have to experience a clean body before I can really begin to appreciate how good it is to be healthy. I don’t like it when my heart races, I can’t imagine what it was like with 40 more pounds, and I much appreciate the lack of animal products in my veins. I feel good. At 35, I feel better than I have for most of my life.

I am sitting here at Starbucks, commenting on papers from last semester, so I can give them back to my students on Monday. I feel bad because they have been waiting for them for two weeks now, and I should have had them finished when break was over. I procrastinated, though, and I am just now finishing them up. It is challenging to force myself to comment on papers that I have already graded. I made a note to myself not to do that again. I think I really won’t, too.

On a totally unrelated note, I have been eating several things in the past few days that are advertised as raw food. I love it. I can say that if I didn’t love a nice hot piece of pizza or a nice hot plate of pasta, I could easily be a raw foodist. Since that diet is inherently vegan, it would be excellent for me. I just feel better when I don’t eat things that come from animals, and I can see the benefit of not cooking all the goodness out of food. I saw a good quote the other day that said, “If you aren’t vegan, you aren’t vegetarian.” I hadn’t thought of it that way. Interesting, but not entirely convincing.

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I am thankful for Abbie, Ed, and Iz. On an unrelated note, I am also thankful for reconciliation.

Exercise: walked the dogs twice, ran 3 miles

Food: banana, juice, Pure bar, soy milk, decaf chai tea, sloppy jane with cheese on a wheat bun, salad with strawberries and honey mustard, decaf americano, green tea, Two Moms in the Raw granola, pasta with veggies and edamame, ice cream

1 Comment

Posted in Coffee, Fat, Food, Running, School, Teaching

Getting My Poop in a Pile, So to Speak

Posted on 9 January 2010 | 8 comments

I have spent the better portion of today in the bowels of Bracken Library, sorting out syllabi and preparing for the first week of my newest endeavor. I am really excited about my children’s literature classes, and I hope my students will love the class as much as I have loved putting it together. My hopes are that we will all benefit from our journey together and that we will all come out on the other side with a greater appreciation of literature and of each other. It seems like the class is going to be quite a bit of work for both my students and myself, and the key will be not to get behind.

The new scheduling device on my cell phone will help with time management because I have scheduled everything in and given alarms to each activity. At the very least, I will feel guilty for not doing what I am supposed to do at the right times, and I shouldn’t miss appointments like I did last semester. We’ll see how it goes. My office mate says my cell phone is fascist. I tend to agree. I may not listen to the alarms just to spite it, to stick it to the Verizon Wireless Man. I still call Deer Creek by its proper name for the same reason, sticking it to the man.

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I just signed up for a life-guarding class in March. I am more nervous about it than I ever am about teaching. I haven’t done any of those skills since 1999 or 2000. Wow. I haven’t used my life-guarding skills for ten years. I just made myself feel old, as in the age of rocks or dirt or air. Signing up for a class in which I have to wear a bathing suit and be groped by other people is a bit daunting as well. I am always embarrassed of my size. In my head, I know I can run farther than some of the people who will be in the class, and I can certainly swim farther than many of them. But, there is this element of fear at being stared at, picked last, shunned as a partner because of my pudge. Trust me, life-guarding class is always weird and there are bound to be several skinny, little bitches who only want to get good tans and sit in a chair in a bathing suit all summer long.

During the class, I will be in the middle of training for the Indy Mini, too, which means I will have to rearrange my running schedule to accommodate the weird-ass hours of the class. We meet on March 19-21 and 26-28 (Fridays, 6-10PM; Saturdays and Sundays 8AM-2PM). Swimmers are such freaks. I am hoping that by this time next school year, I will be fast enough at swimming to join the Master’s Swim Club at BSU, but I need to shed a few pounds (30-50 is my goal) before that happens. Although, I am unsure if I can stand the rigorousness of their practice and meet schedules. Maybe the swimming and running can help me accomplish doing it, but we will see. I suppose I should actually try eating healthy, too.

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Last night Bec and I tried to go to Puerto Vallarta for dinner, but there were no parking spaces, so we drove over to Victor’s Gyros, Pancakes, and Ribs. Yes, you read that properly: Gyros, Pancakes, and Ribs. An odd combination, I thought to myself. We started with the combination platter for an appetizer—mushrooms, onion rings, and cheese sticks (all fried and oh, so healthy)—and I had chocolate chip pancakes while Bec chose the gyros, as I knew she would. Bec enjoyed her gyros platter, which came with an insane amount of food: gyros meat, a pita, feta, onions, tomatoes, rice, vegetables, french fries, and tzaziki sauce. My chocolate chip pancakes came with chocolate chip pancakes. They were sprinkled with powdered sugar, but I was fine with that because they were pretty doggone tasty.

I enjoyed the place more for the atmosphere than the food. It has a greasy spoon sort of diner-y feel, with waitresses who argue over tips and a hostess—maybe owner-ish sort of person, but at the very least super tight with Victor—who constantly told the wait staff to be quiet and to wash and sanitize their hands several times throughout our meal. One waitress protested that she had just washed hers, so blondy, the hostess, said, “Go, do it again,” as she flitted her hands in front of herself like distasteful birds. If I worked there, I would kick her in the trachea.

As a customer, though, you have to love a place that will work a high school student, our waitress, for more than nine hours without a break, simply because she doesn’t smoke. And who wouldn’t want to go to a diner where more than once you could hear one of the seedy attitudinal waitresses say, “I swear on my three kids ….” You can fill in the blank with whatever you think she might have been swearing about. Once it was her credit card tips. I felt right at home, honestly. It reminded me a great deal of working at Pizza King and to a lesser degree, Starbucks. On some levels, it even reminded me of the English department as each waitress jostled for favor with the man I assume was Victor.

I will go there occasionally to write. simply because of the entertainment value.

*

I am thankful for seedy, greasy spoon diners and for the people who work in them.

Exercise: walked the dogs

Food: banana, orange juice, chocolate milk, Pure bar, salad, Feng Shui rice chips, sloppy-jane (veggie sloppy-joe), spinach, chocolate milk, oat muffin

8 Comments

Posted in Food, Literature, Running, School, Swimming, Teaching, Writing

One Syllabus Knocked Out. One to Go.

Posted on 1 January 2010 | 2 comments

I got one syllabus/schedule knocked out today, and the second one is getting the same treatment tomorrow. On Monday, I will present Debbie with my completed draft, which thrills my soul and probably hers, too. No doubt she will be excited to know I am not a complete fuck-up. Though, I am sure there will be multiple revisions required. It’s hard to believe, but this break is actually going to be productive! Wahoo.

My brother and I had a good time running together this morning. Since I have been sick for about a week and because it was FREEZING outside, we only ran two miles. Then we went to Starbucks and had some drinks. When we walked in, my cousin who just got out of the psych ward was there having coffee and stealing movies with their “free” Internet. I said hi to him, but I think he is on heavy doses of some mind-altering drug, because all he said back was an almost inaudible, “Hey.” Weird.

Tomorrow, I am going to Anderson to take Adam to get new tires on his car. To say thanks, he is taking me to have sushi for lunch. I am picking him up at Midas at 8AM, then while he is coaching diving, I am going to sit at his house working on my last syllabus. I must admit that I am nervous about this one, because I have never taught this class before and because the syllabi and schedules I have looked at seem so much more complicated than what I am used to making. Is it necessary to list everything you plan to do in a class period on the schedule? Is it wrong to believe that the schedule should merely be a list of what is due that day? Things to contemplate by tomorrow night. My goal is to finish the syllabus before I go to bed.

David and June are here. We had dinner and now they are playing Rock Band while Bec reads (EDIT: sleeps) and I finish some of my projects and write a bit right here. I am trying desperately to get my calendar squared away for the spring semester, but I will have to wait to completely finish it until I finish my other syllabus.

Last night, we rang in the new year with the Combers. Good times. Even the slightly special, too tired to play properly, Trivial Pursuit and the jacked-up MadLibs were good times. We were so tired that we left before we gave our resolutions, which I usually break within a couple of weeks anyway. My New Year’s resolution is to stop procrastinating like I do. I really didn’t procrastinate like this until graduate school, and I am trying hard to figure out how I can change back into my productive, over-achieving self. Somehow I have morphed from a competitive, perfectionist into a slacker who waits until the last minute to do everything.

How did I become who I am today? I think it started in seminary when I was working full time (for a bit, two jobs) and taking 15 credit hours of graduate classes every semester. I think I just got into the habit of doing everything when I could and that turned into doing it when it was due, which then became completing everything as it has to be turned in. It’s not healthy, though; I swear.

But, I digress; as usual, we ate too many nachos. Sean Lovelace would argue that you can never eat too many nachos. I heartily disagree. Too many nachos can be had. In fact, they were. Last night.

This is all I have left to do from my huge long list at the beginning of the break:

  • Write my ENG 204 syllabus.
  • Send my ordination information to Las Vegas for Rachel’s wedding.
  • Scan in my students’ comics so they can have them back.
  • Finish my dissertation proposal and submit a copy to Debbie before she returns from (Georgia?).

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I am thankful for strange adult children invading my house. 🙂

Food: banana, decaf caramel macchiato, blueberry scone, Christmas goodies, grapefruit, apple, cheese, wheat spaghetti with mushrooms, tofu, basil, and parmesan cheese, salad, strawberry ice cream

Exercise: run two miles

2 Comments

Posted in Dissertation, Family, Food, Relationships, Running, School, Teaching, Victorian

Almost Back Among the Living

Posted on 18 December 2009 | 3 comments

Well, as you may have noticed, I haven’t written anything for a while. My absence has been caused predominantly by my over-zealous scheduling and lack of early completion of projects. I can honestly say, though, that I am improving on this front. I have merely had more to do this semester than I usually do because of teaching at Burris and teaching two classes in the Writing Program. I really haven’t procrastinated as much as usual, at all. I am pretty pleased that I am left with only fifty portfolios, twenty-five memoirs, and twenty-five finals to grade. All of these have been turned in this week, so I couldn’t have graded them any sooner.

My to do list over break includes (in no certain order):

  • Rewrite my American Literature syllabus.
  • Write my ENG 204 syllabus.
  • Send my ordination information to Las Vegas for Rachel’s wedding.
  • Scan in my students’ comics so they can have them back.
  • Finish my dissertation proposal and submit a copy to Debbie before she returns from (Georgia?).
  • Meet with several old youth group members for lunch/coffee (Dec. 21, Dec. 29, January 2?).
  • Watch Comber cats, Mix-Berg cat, Weiss cats, and my own animals.
  • Take Elizabeth to train station (Dec. 23rd) and pick her up (Jan. 6).
  • Spend some time with Amy on the 26th & 27th.
  • Turn in my grades by 10AM on Monday, work at the mission at 9AM on Monday.
  • Spend Christmas Eve with the Combers!
  • Spend Christmas with family!
  • Celebrate Izzy’s half birthday and her baptism anniversary.
  • Run the Inaugural Running in Circles for Fun at Minnetrista on New Year’s Day.

This should be an interesting break. The two things I must accomplish: dissertation proposal completion and 204 syllabus creation. I will also return to writing here everyday, running, and recording my food. It’s been a weird week or so.

*

Exercise: walked the dogs, walked from Burris to RB to Lafollette and home

Food: Snickers bar, tea, muffin, tea, sugar cookie, chocolate cupcake, spinach artichoke ravioli, salad, bread

I am thankful for not getting sick earlier in the semester, and I am thankful for exaggeration.

3 Comments

Posted in Christmas, Dissertation, Family, Food, Relationships, Running, School, Teaching

Mama Day in the Student Center Redux

Posted on 3 December 2009 | Leave a comment

Today I am sitting here, waiting to have lunch with Abs, in the the newly improved student center. This new renovation reminds of when they redid the Tally when I was an undergrad. We were so stoked to have a Taco Bell, a Wendy’s, and a couple of other restaurants to choose from. In fact, some of my best memories from college come from the times I spent sitting in the Tally during the Humpday Cafe; they couldn’t just leave Wednesday alone, so they provided the students who had to eat at the Student Center with open mic entertainment. All of us rascals from the HC would sit together at a table and make fun of the bad performers and applaud the good ones; we did much more of the former than the latter. But, it was such a good time of bonding over food. Any bonding done over food is good. 😉

The experience was only made better by the fact that, for a brief moment, Taco Bell brought back the enchirito, the most amazing menu item from our childhoods. It was like a little bean burrito, nestled in a silver tin, covered in red sauce and cheese, and topped with two or three olive slices. Essentially, the enchirito was heaven in a miniature pie plate. I think everyone at the table loved the enchirito, since each of us ate one everyday. It was a toss up between that and the big beef burrito. Ew.

Anyway, the group was such a strange mix of people: Julie, Angie, Tommy, Mike, Amanda, Allen, me, and some others I am sure I am missing. I know there was a whole gaggle of us, and it was a blast. I don’t remember ever leaving without pains in my sides from laughing so hard. One of our chief objectives every day was to make a huge sculpture with all of our trash and then to heckle the person who was chosen to try to carry it—without spilling any of it—to the trash. Those were some of those magically immature times where we had one foot in adulthood and the other one squarely planted in childhood. I mean, how fun is it to watch one of your friends drop everyone’s trash all over the floor and have to pick it up and possibly even have to go get the mop to clean up a drink spill?!? That’s funny.

The student center now houses Taco Bell, dining services, The Chef’s Corner, and Starbucks. The Tally has been opened up and redone with new furniture and a vaulted ceiling. And, the hotel has received a face-lift, as well. It’s actually quite beautiful, but I wax nostalgic for those earlier days that seemed so simple.

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Today’s weather makes me want to sit in the coffee shop all day, reading and writing. I wish sometimes I could cancel classes in order to take advantage of these moods as they strike. I feel like I could write this whole damned proposal today. Or better yet, I could write my way into the sunset like an old-school Marlboro Man and squint my eyes into my own brightness, wondering if I will ever stop shining. Realistically, though, I will teach at Burris, then walk to the other end of campus to teach my college students. Then, when I finish teaching, Drew is in town so he is taking Bec and I out for dinner. It should be good times. I know Drew really appreciates Bec’s ability to accept him for who he is and be nonjudgmental. She’s kind of sweet like that.

Alas, no writing will ensue, though some reading will. Actually, I have already gotten a good start on Mama Day. This dissertation thing may come together after all.

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I am thankful for my new (mostly waterproof) coat and its hood. I love Carhartt. Here is my coat, only mine’s purple, of course.

Exercise: walked the dogs 1.5 miles, ran 2 miles, walked from Burris to Lafollette

Food: banana, juice, chocolate milk, oatmeal, 7-layer burrito, Enchirito (oh, yes, they have them still), Puerto for dinner (veggie quesadilla, chips and salsa)

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Posted in Dissertation, Food, Just for Fun, Personal, Relationships, School