Urban Honking

Hello, children, hello It finally got cold and snowed, sort of. It happened right when we got back from our Christmas trip to Phoenix. The trip, like many family christmas odysseys, was tiring, and then there’s that thing where when you’re finally in the airport starting to make your way back home, you just feel […]

Okay y’all, so after being brutally schooled in my comments section I decided to give the dishwasher another good old college try, because I pride myself on being open to criticism and to the idea that I am wrong, and in fact, in my professional life, at least, “feeling constantly like I am wrong” is […]

Once a year the dining zone on campus gives away all its food for free all day. It’s crazy. I didn’t understand it the first time I heard about it. I thought maybe it meant free samples, or like you got a free drink with your meal. Or maybe you had to go through some […]

We were sitting around yesterday, ranting and raving, as usual, about how much we hate Black Friday and how bizarre the whole scenario is. I keep imagining scholars of the future trying to make sense of it: “Every year they had a special day of quiet contemplation during which they ate turkey, even though it […]

Pro: I love autumn Con: I have seasonal menopausal symptoms Pro: I got medication for these symptoms Con: The medication doesn’t totally alleviate these symptoms Pro: There are worse things than seasonal menopausal symptoms, for example constant menopausal symptoms, or having to flee your homeland only to face racist violence abroad Con: Racist violence abroad […]

Oh! But I also forgot to tell you about the Cider Festival we went to last weekend! I mean, I may be filled constantly with career-based anxiety but in other ways I am TRULY LIVING THE DREAM, it’s worth keeping in mind! As you know, we have this enormous apple tree. We have decided that […]

I am at my discipline’s big yearly conference. It is interesting to look back on the ten years (!!) I have been attending this conference and to sort of assess the changes in my life by examining the changes in my relationship to it (the conference (also my life)). At first this conference was fun, […]

I’m having one of those great moments where I just very sweetly and sincerely love my job and my students. Last year in my huge crazy art appreciation class I assigned one of my TAs to come up with “a creative assignment that teaches them close listening skills.” He spent weeks on it and invented […]

Well, we made it about one month before abandoning our whole concept of taking Saturdays off. We call Saturday “Life Day,” and in September we made a solemn promise to one another (we actually shook hands on it) that we would take every Saturday off work, and instead spend the day together, doing errands, working […]

Bathtub! It’s so gratifying to learn that some of you are worried about this issue. Especially now that it is 50 degrees out and falling fast. Well, we didn’t “fix” it, per se, but we did figure out what the problem was, and we found a work-around. After calling every plumber in town and being […]