is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Long Day. Good Presentation.
This morning I had to take Hans Blix (TCNTUNWI) to get an ultrasound and me to get a bloodtest, so both of us had to fast last night. This meant that I woke up a few hours into the night STARVING and unable to do anything about it, except not sleep much. The vet had told me she would have to shave Blix�s belly, which, if you ask me, means his underside, but when I picked him up this afternoon, they had shaved his underside AND big swatches of his side fur, like someone had put a skin saddle on him upside down or something. Now he�s totally certain that this is ALL MY FAULT, and all he can do is glare at me about it.
Meanwhile, at the scene of my bloodtest, starving, un-pepsi�d, I had to undergo some sort of interview? I mean, is it just me, or is the drawing of blood usually an affair where you hand over a piece of paper, pull up your sleeve, get poked, and go? But apparently my blood test was more complicated, and I had to answer questions, but I was so tired and hungry that I really could barely understand what the interviewer was saying. I think she must have thought I was a drug addict or an idiot, or an idiotic drug addict, or something.
Then my phlebotomist was crazy-distant-strange, like someone with Asperger�s Syndrome or something. She scared me, because she wouldn�t make eye contact, and wouldn�t let me tell her how my veins are hard to get, that they roll around, and usually you have to use the child�s butterfly needle on them. Countless are the broken-vein bruises I�ve sustained from phlebotomists who will not listen to me. However, Asperger�s-phlebotomist was really good. She used an adult needle on me and got a vein on the first try and pulled that blood right on out.
When I went to pick up Hans Blix (TCNTUNWI), it turns out there were two troublesome areas revealed by the ultrasound, so they had to take two �samples� from him, which means the procedure costed $600 instead of $300. And then my AMEX card was turned down. So I called AMEX and they said my card was fine. But the machine at the vet kept refusing the card. Over and over again. So I had to use a Visa card that has a much higher percentage rate on it. All of which made me sad.
But not as sad as I�ll be when I get my credit card bills next month, what with the feline ultrasound and the broken-down car-fixing fee. But really, this is a boring topic, is it not? It�s just a way of establishing that this has been a looooong day and it did not start well.
Well, except that at the very beginning of the day I found myself waking up next to a very very cute boy.
So. Not much sleep. Woke up. Then I dropped the cat off, got the blood test, stuffed some food in my face, went to a meeting to plan food things for the conference I�m hosting next week, picked the cat up, stuffed some food in my face, went to another meeting, then to an academic presentation, then to an academic dinner, and now, finally, I�m home. I�m going to watch the SHIT out of LOST and then SLEEEEEEEP.
So, yeah, I saw another academic presentation today, and it was great! I was so happy the whole time, because it reassured me that I�m not just un-please-able or something like that. This presentation was interesting and absorbing, and I had no time to spend wondering what could have been done differently. Well, except for a few moments toward the end when he was clearly getting tired and repeated himself a few times. Then I had time to think about my new grey boots! I have a new pair of grey suede boots. They are just like my blue suede boots and my dark red leather boots, Fluevog CeCe High boots is what they are called. I got them on eBay for cheap. And today I was reminded about the hard work of breaking in a new pair. Man. Those boots kicked the ass of my feet today. And it�s going to be that way for awhile. I had forgotten, because I hadn�t gotten any new pairs for years at this point. The things are too expensive for me to buy new at my current socioeconomic level, so I always troll eBay, circling like a shark, waiting for someone to sell some in my size for a low price. And, it just so happens that in the last month I got two new pairs for Very Little Money. Luck be a Boot-Wearing Lady Tonight! I bought them even though I should be transferring my eBay earnings to my bank account to pay for my catbills. Anyway, I�m convinced that the boots sometimes get resold by people who despair of them ever being comfortable, because of the Punishing Break-In Phase that has to be Weathered. But, man, once it is weathered, these boots will be my friends for LIFE. And I know, because I already have FOUR PAIRS, which now means I have SIX. In addition to the new grey suede ones, I got a pair in metallic blue. (The others are pink, and brown.)
You have to understand that these boots are not just shoes. They are like full outfits, magic outfits, and problem-solvers, and, like I�ve said before, they do the rocking when I can�t do it myself.
Anyway, I had time to think about my new grey boots! What I love about the boots when they are new is not that they kick the ass of my feet, but that they fit my calves like they were made for me. They are precisely the size of my calves for a year or two, as they slowly stretch and become looser. They�re still cute when they stretch. But right now they please me even more!
Anyway, the presentation today. It was about Cinderella, Blade Runner, and photography. It is a field (film studies, visual art, aesthetics) that I know very little about. And yet the presenter managed to get and keep my attention throughout the hour of his speaking time. Plus he said a couple of things that amused me, like �the theorist always has a backside� (and, really, are you ready for that jelly?) and, as an aside, after he said, �well, it�s not that every conversation involves you in it in a real way,� he added, �there�s plenty of annihiliating conversations; we�ve all been involved in them.� (Ha. The perfect underbreath aside for a job interview day.) But mostly the presentation was about what it means to �do theory� versus to �create art,� and it was about dreams that we think define us even as they constantly disappoint us. Who knew Cinderella and Blade Runner could tell similar stories?
So why did this presentation succeed, to my estimation, more than the last one about which I ranted a bit? Well, he combined interesting conceptual ideas with just the right kind of signposting language to tie it together as he proceeded, such that I never lost interest or felt lost. If anything went wrong, it was that he didn�t tie all the ends together at the conclusion, but that�s because he ran out of time. That is a mistake, of course. It�s important to aim at the right amount of time. But if you end early in the right way, as he did, it just allows the audience to ask some of the questions that had gone unanswered.
Of course this doesn�t mean he�ll get the job necessarily. Lots of other factors will matter. And I�m not involved in deciding. It was just good to see a really good talk.
I also found out today that the department I�ll join next year hired two philosophers this year, and the other one is someone I know and like! I don�t know her that well, but she�s an awesomely cool and smart woman. Yay.
OK. Time for the sleeping now.
11:10 p.m. - March 21, 2007
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