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| Next year, I'm going to have an office with a door that locks. I'm also going to have windowsills and bookshelves. All of this means I'm going to have space to display my growing collection of fun and geeky English teacher toys. Currently my collection consists of Flannery O'Connor Peackock Feathers, a Jane Austen Action Figure and Shakespearean Insult Gum (which contains two gumballs and a different insult inside each Shakespeare Play shaped box). (Oh, and my Instant Irish Accent Mints - though those have nothing to do with literature). On the wishlist? Shakespearean Magnetic poetry, the Prose before hos t-shirt, the Dickens action figure, and the Freud Action figure (because after all, after Freud there's no not Freud - especially for us feminist modernists.) 2 weekends worth of weddings begin on Saturday ... I'm gearing up! | | |
| I'm not normally a spur of the moment traveller, but I've been listening to Camera Obscura this afternoon, and I'm feeling incredibly compelled to hop a plane to Glasgow for the June and July concerts. *sigh. I was born in the wrong era. I love that all the pop music these days sounds like it was created in the early '60s. In unrelated music news, Patti Griffin's newest album is absolutely amazing. If you're into folk at all it's worth a listen. Weddings coming up over the next few weekends and I agreed to play summer frisbee. I sure hope that proves worth it. Reading Gender and Grace and The Tale of Despereaux, and I've got to say, it's a good things May sweeps is over because I need to get disciplined about reading! | | |
| Pink Martini has a new album! It's called "Hey Eugene!" and from what I can tell, most of the songs are on the same theme: I gave him my number. He said he'd call. He didn't call. I hope it's good. They're coming to Ravinia this summer. Yay! | | |
| "I don't believe you're sinful for owning it any more than I'm sinful for not getting out of bed an hour earlier every day to take the train." We were reading two articles about making choices in transportation. The WWJDrive article has its issues with needing more evidence, prooftexting and the like. The WSJ article is increibly well written but so poorly argued, so I pointed out all of these things. "I disagree with Miniter's argument, not with you. An object isn't inherently wrong ... it's how we use that object that matters." I acknowledged my own bias against SUV's but I also pointed out that if they become fuel efficient, I'll have to rethink my position. (See Arnold's Hydrogen Hummer ). One girl in my class had just gotten a new SUV literally a week ago. As all of the other students filed out, she sat in her chair quietly crying. She felt attacked, so, I went to her, sat down next to her, and took her hand while she cried. "Now, you have the choice. You get to think through the issues and decide how you'll use it. Love it well, use it well. Give thanks for the blessing of prosperity that lets you have it in the first place." | | |
| And yet somehow my students manage to hear is an unpatriotic, liberal crazy. I'm tired of feeling like the bad guy. | | |
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