is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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to hug or not to hug. and lots of NEWS.
I was in Philly last weekend, and so was Gus, and so were Marilyn and Linda. It was fun to see them� though they had lots of plans, and so did we, so Gus and I only saw Marilyn and Linda once. We all went to the cute little Mexican place where you can bring your own tequila and they mix up some tasty margaritas for you. They mixed up quite a few for us, and it was fun.
I also went out to Haverford on Friday and Saturday for events. On Saturday I went to a panel discussion on Clarissa Sligh�s photographic work about racial passing and transgender transitions. It was organized by our friend Israel, and he invited my friend Gayle to come speak. Plus I saw lots of old Haverford friends, as well as Emma and Homay, while I was there. I narrowly avoided being hugged by "Jill�s-off-to-have-sex-in-the-city�-lady. I felt that I had somehow managed to negotiate, successfully, the morass that exists between being rude and being civil, using body language to enforce a non-hugging relationship.
But then on Saturday I ran into her again and she was bound and determined to �win.� And since if I had been rude about it I would have �lost� even more than I did by getting hugged, I had to let a half-hug land on me. I mean, I really have no problems with this woman. It�s just mysterious to me that she seems to think she likes me, even though most of the evidence she�s ever given to me would point toward her not-liking me.
Anyway, to-hug-or-not-to-hug was just a small part of the weekend. The only good part of that scenario was how much it amused Gus. On Saturday we also got to see an excellent art opening at the Haverford on-campus gallery, drink some wine, and then attend a dinner party at the artist�s house. It was nice to catch up with some Haverfordians. And in general Gus and I had a nice, if busy and too-short weekend. (I didn�t arrive until late Friday, went straight from work to Haverford, and then had to leave mid-Sunday to be back in NYC for a doctor�s appointment. Being able to stay until Monday is key to the sanity of both of us� plus I won�t see him this weekend because he�ll be in Buffalo and I�ll be in NY with my mom and sister. But, yeah, we�re still lucky.)
On Monday I went to the orthopaedist to discuss the results of my MRI, and finally got some good medical news. Turns out, I will not need hip surgery now, and probably not ever. That�s good news, obviously, because it is not good to need surgery. And when I began this whole hip-doctor process back in December, my main fear was that I was going to be one of those old ladies who ends up burning up a bunch of hips, and not in a sexy way. I don�t have a tear of the labrum (cartilage) of my inner hip, which was what the doctor suspected. When we first met in December, he instructed me to do some months of physical therapy first, to see if things cleared up on their own.
I did that, and things did get better�I almost never have back pain anymore, I rarely have hip pain, and when I do it is much less bothersome than it used to be, and the prescription Naproxen takes care of things when it needs to, which isn't very often. But, since things were not all the way better, he ordered the MRI. Turns out I have a little bit of a tendon problem, probably due to having one leg longer than the other, and a small bit of bursitis. Most of that can be fixed or managed by me keeping doing the exercises I�ve learned in physical therapy and wearing a lift in the shoe of my short leg to even out my hips.
Physical therapy deserves to be written about, by me, but I�ve found the whole process really exhausting, and sometimes emotionally draining. So, while I�m there I�ll compose things to say. And then I�ll never get around to writing them down. Maybe someday.
The other good news: I got a fellowship for next year! That�s right. Instead of teaching at my home campus I�ll have a year-long residency at CUNY�s Graduate Center. I won�t be teaching at all. I�ll be co-directing a faculty seminar, running a speaker series, and working on my own work. Wow! When I applied I thought I might get accepted to the faculty seminar but really never for a moment thought I�d get offered one of the two residencies. (I thought this not because I think I�m unqualified but because this particular project of mine, that I pitched� whenever I�ve spoken about it to people who work more directly in the field in question�the theme is �the sacred and the secular��has been viewed by others as idiosyncratic or strange.)
So it�s funny, perhaps, that after all this time of moving around, I finally end up in a job where I can settle in, and already I have to move to a new place for a year. But at least I don�t have to move APARTMENTS. Just my office, from Columbus-Circle-ish to Herald-Square-ish. It�s all good. ALL GOOD.
11:46 p.m. - April 08, 2008
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