is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Nerd Alert.
At the conference in Montreal, during one longish presentation, a friend of mine passed me a note. Note passing in class! The note said: �nerd alert.� It was right on the money. I stuffed it into my bag, and then found it again last night when I was unpacking the bag to figure out what I have to do for class next week. It made me laugh again, so I wrote him to tell him so. Then he responded thusly: �It wasn�t a question of discipline or orientation or sensibility or politics. It was simply time to warn the masses: nerd alert!� Ha.
Today, for the third day in a row, I got out of bed at 11:11. It�s a good thing 11:11 exists or I might still be in bed. Its magicacity as a number just means that whenever it strikes, and is noticed, something has to happen. Somehow, in my days of laying and delaying in bed, I have this week always ended up glancing at the clock at 11:11. That�s how the week is going. I�m tired a still and little sad and a bit undermotivated.
However I haven�t really been sleeping too much, since I keep staying up late getting various series of tiny annoying tasks done. I�ve had no time to attend to the routine labors that keep a household going, like cleaning and vacuuming. It�s ridiculous.
However yesterday I finally got myself into the car and drove to Conshohocken to go to Target, where I bought the huge list of things I need for the household. I had to put off getting some of them because I was already spending $200. Mostly I got boring things like cat products and cleaning products, but I did get a cute new retro-looking toaster for only $30. (My much loved Fiesta toaster�cobalt blue to match my Fiestaware dishes�recently gave out on me, and they don�t make them anymore (the link shows that sometimes you can find them used�look how cute they are!�but the truth of the matter is that many of the Fiesta toasters were lemons, so it's risky. New-in-box Fiesta toasters, sold as "collectibles," tend to run $150, and are surely not worth that, given the lemon-risk.). Sad. The cobalt blue Kitchenaid toasters are too expensive for me. So this is what I got. You can see that $30 is a great price. All the other $30 toasters were depressingly cheap-looking white plastic.) Now I have been reunited with my beloved toast!
These first weeks of the academic year have been so hectic. I�ve had very little time to think, or to write anything that isn�t required-writing. I don�t like it. I mean, the writing I�ve been doing is good, and that feels good, but now that I have instituted this diary-thing as a practice, my life feels a bit out of control when I have no time to reflect on it in writing. I�ve had no time for this public diary, nor for the private one that I keep for things that can�t appear here. However, I�m expecting things to calm down a bit now. I still have an impossible list of things to do, but at least I don�t have to travel anywhere until November. Well... I do have two conferences to attend in October, but one is in Philadelphia and the other is in NYC, so at least I won�t have to deal with airports and checked luggage.
(Man, this liquid-and-gel thing is such a bummer, since now I have to check my bag every time I travel, and so does everyone else. The good news is that it means there is less struggle over cabin storage space. The bad news is that you have to wait to check your bags and then once you land you have to wait for the airlines to unload the airplane and get your luggage to the baggage carousel, so everything takes just a bit longer than forever. A guy who sat with me for one of the lunches at the conference was insisting that it was fully possible to travel without any liquids or gels. I replied, �I see what you�re saying. But here�s something different: I�m a girl. I need products!� He found that he could not defeat my reasoning.)
I had written a whole slightly entertaining thing about some misunderstandings I had with my subletter, which she seems to have interpreted as a struggle or a set of accusations. But, whatev, in the long run it's just boring. I, too, was once a 20-22 year old person who combined 'a bit too ready for a fight' with 'a bit too certain I have the only perspective on an issue.' Now I'm forty, and I only fight when things are worth it, and even then, I often find that fighting isn't necessary. Maybe someone should make me President.
12:25 p.m. - September 23, 2006
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