Things Fall Apart
So, there you are, you're a graduate student, and you're writing your dissertation and teaching Freshman Comp, and you figure, well, this is hell, but pretty soon I'll be outa here, and I'll have a job, and then things will ease up. So then you're an assistant professor, and you're worried about getting tenure, and you're teaching a bunch of classes you've had to invent out of more or less whole cloth, and you figure, well, ok, this is not good, but someday I'll have tenure, and then things'll ease up, and it'll be so much better, just wait and see. So then after that you get tenure, and you're an associate professor, and you serve on about 10 committees of various sorts, and you help out on oh, bunches of projects, and you help search for three new professors, and you're still teaching classes you've had to invent, not to mention which you've got of course all that research, and you think to yourself, well ok, this is pretty damn bad, but soon the semester will be over, and then I'll have a chance to get some stuff done around the house, or better yet, clean the office up, and you try all week to clean the office but there keep being little fires to put out (somebody please explain to me how you can possibly have an actual emergency in an ENGLISH department; I'm still trying to figure that out), and so by Friday, there you are in piles of books and papers, not nearly done, not nearly done, and you go home anyway, and about that time you have a little hissy fit and today you're pretty much not doing ANYTHING.
Well, the laundry, ok.
One of my colleagues told her students that this last semester was so bad that she didn't have time to do her laundry, so she had to buy new clothes when she ran out. I don't believe this for a moment. Really.
But as for knitting:
Scapa's done! Ta da! Here it is being heavily blocked:
And Catherine Parr is coming along nicely; I'm working it in Hebridean, in Selkie and Corncrake. I've started the back now (I actually follow the sequence in patterns -- front, back, sleeves, accoutrements -- I like it that way):
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And back to the now-over semester:
As mentioned previously, one of the nicer parts of those four months was the Poetry Workshop -- twice a week I could count on an enjoyable hour and a half. Here is the Fabulous Picnic Loaf, meant to dazzle and impress -- it's edible, but you wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night and wish you had more:
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Nice afternoon. Sam's napping; Andrew's watching some Deadly Venoms of the World and How They Affect You, In Gruesome Detail program, on the Discovery channel (he's allowed to watch natural disasters but not actual evil -- naughty snakes, fine; naughty humans, no); and I'm doing laundry. And knitting.
Well, and to be honest, watching MST3K -- "The Horrors of Spider Island" is on, and it's one of the best. The movie's so bad that it would be worth watching even without the chatter, but the little robots are in fine form with this one. And so much to work with! An entire dance troupe of lovelies in 50's sundresses! A horrendous spider made out of a cereal box and some pipe cleaners! Life is good.
Well, the laundry, ok.
One of my colleagues told her students that this last semester was so bad that she didn't have time to do her laundry, so she had to buy new clothes when she ran out. I don't believe this for a moment. Really.
But as for knitting:
Scapa's done! Ta da! Here it is being heavily blocked:
And Catherine Parr is coming along nicely; I'm working it in Hebridean, in Selkie and Corncrake. I've started the back now (I actually follow the sequence in patterns -- front, back, sleeves, accoutrements -- I like it that way):
*********************
And back to the now-over semester:
As mentioned previously, one of the nicer parts of those four months was the Poetry Workshop -- twice a week I could count on an enjoyable hour and a half. Here is the Fabulous Picnic Loaf, meant to dazzle and impress -- it's edible, but you wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night and wish you had more:
***************************
Nice afternoon. Sam's napping; Andrew's watching some Deadly Venoms of the World and How They Affect You, In Gruesome Detail program, on the Discovery channel (he's allowed to watch natural disasters but not actual evil -- naughty snakes, fine; naughty humans, no); and I'm doing laundry. And knitting.
Well, and to be honest, watching MST3K -- "The Horrors of Spider Island" is on, and it's one of the best. The movie's so bad that it would be worth watching even without the chatter, but the little robots are in fine form with this one. And so much to work with! An entire dance troupe of lovelies in 50's sundresses! A horrendous spider made out of a cereal box and some pipe cleaners! Life is good.
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