is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Since Then.
Since then.
Well, you know about the egregiously overpriced $200 hotel layover in Dulles. Last weekend I went to Philadelphia for a job interview and the driver who was supposed to pick me up wasn�t there, so I had to call the woman who organized my travel to ask what to do and she suggested I take a cab and ask for reimbursement later. The cab cost $65, and I had $80 in cash left, for the whole month. Now I have four dollars. Luckily it is soon April.
The interview went well. It was at the least well-known of the three ex-Quaker schools outside Philadelphia (not Bryn Mawr, not Swarthmore, Haverford). The faculty are all very nice, and engaged with the work of their colleagues, and the campus is very pretty. The students I met were very smart and engaging. Whether I get an offer will of course depend on how things go with the other two candidates they will be meeting. And I will of course keep you posted on this and other job-related developments as they develop.
My week in San Francisco was fun. I was a bit stressed out trying to manage time between seeing everyone and writing a new job talk and grading a bunch of papers and writing a response to give to a paper at a conference and preparing lectures for my class, etc. But, well, that�s life, is it not?
Evany, Caroleen, Heidi, Adrienne and I went to see Ice Princess at the Metreon. Man, was that a made-for-TV movie or what? Fluff, clich�, bad, bad music, and a watered-down version of various forms of human conflict. But of course that is what we all wanted that night anyway: Bad Teen Movie. Synopsis: A physics geek (played by Dawn, �the Key,� from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) undertakes a project studying aerodynamics in ice skating, becomes enchanted with the sport, and starts skating. Only her mom (Joan Cusack) is an old-school feminist who will CRY if she ever sees her baby Key in a tiny little hussy-skater�s outfit. And the skating-teacher mom (Kim Catrall) of the popular girl at school seems to be supportive but also wants to undermine the Key�s chances at winning a spot at regionals! Turns out, both moms want their daughters to live mom-dreams instead of daughter-dreams! But all gets put aright, during which time we get to hear a lot of really shitty music, and, of course, in the end, we get to see the Key kiss Zambone Guy, who really didn�t even need to be in the movie. Realizing how ridiculous was this pinned-on-at-the-end kiss is the only thing that makes me ready to consider seeing Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. Because I heard that Sandra Bullock lobbied long and hard to make it a movie about two female cops and their friendship, without any male romantic leads. But designing a game called �pin the kiss on the random unromantic movie conclusion� (PTKOTRUMC) might be time better spent for me. Plus, Caroleen has said that she is going to put out an album of songs called �Songs for Inspirational Teen Movies.� We can listen to it while we play PTKOTRUMC! I will make cake and sugary sugary beverages, and will lace those beverages with liquor, and you will be oh-so-happy to spend your time this way, OK?
About The Key kissing Random Zambone Driver Guy� much of the movie was about how the Key was a shy geeky girl who had a hard time expressing herself in words. But through her skating she gets to express her true being, and show much more of her flesh! And for some reason she is able to talk with RZDG so easily! So RZDG sees her true inner beauty (aka her tongue). To which Evany said, �when you finally meet someone you can talk to, all you want to do is plug your mouth with their face!� And that, I think, makes for the best and most concise summary of the movie�s inspirational message.
Also while I was in SF, I spent a lovely afternoon walking around downtown with Stephen. We discussed an inspiringly immense number of topics, and we had a random public-art moment when we walked by an empty storefront in which 70,000 paper airplanes were hung at different heights and angles throughout the space. By the end of the day Stephen found himself to be well-fortified with caffeine, in pleasant disagreement with me about a host of topics, and in possession of three new ringer Tshirts, one of which was a bit outside of his normal color scheme� but I made a case for it and he was persuaded, if only momentarily. In the meantime he told me about a mysterious deep-sea-dwelling creature whose noises sometimes get picked up by aging navy recording devices, and no one can explain what kind of creature it might be, except that it must be HUGE! Stephen says he needs to believe that there are still such undiscovered creatures out there, deep in the ocean. I agreed. Then I of course brought up NESSIE, who LIVES! He does not believe in Nessie, even though he would like to. That is one of the many paradoxes that make up Jill's Friend Stephen.
On a Friday evening I had a friends over, including Evany, the always-surprising Andrew, Caroleen, Jeff, Marco, and Adrienne. We ate many different snack foods, and drank beer and champagne. Someone told a story about how otters are being killed by cat feces. I am not joking. Apparently outdoor cats pee and poop outside and their dookie-duty gets washed down storm drains and into the ocean and there the germs are killing the otters. Cats against Otters! Marco said, �man, I feel like you just told me that giraffes are getting killed by popsicle sticks!� The lesson you should take away from this story is that it is better to flush your cat feces than it is to put them in the garbage, because if they get flushed they are treated with chemicals but if they are sitting in a landfill somewhere their otter-decimating germs are getting washed out to sea!
And now I am back in Amherst. Right now it is very quiet. I promise to return very soon with more wisdom for you, including these upcoming topics:
Evidence That Heidi�s Right Eye Is Not Getting Smaller
The Genius of Count Blah
On How Jill�s Life Has Prepared Her Best For Being Alone In A Rock Club
Piano-Based Pop Music That Doesn�t Make Me Puke
12:38 p.m. - March 27, 2005
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