Exhibit A

A note scrawled across the top of a paper draft slipped under my door today:

"Mrs. GoodEnoughInstructor, My conference with you was scheduled for Friday at 12:30, I will be unable to make it. I am going home 2day & my ride can't wait. If you could email me with any comments on the paper. Sorry for the inconvenience."

No Show?

Really, it's fine if you don't show up for your scheduled conference. No, really. It makes my day a lot easier. I can futz around, researching what kind of lizard I should buy my son for his birthday. Maybe get some work done.

Your research paper will suck, but when you blow me off, my day is much easier.

Cloud Nine

Remember how my "To Do List" for spring break included a piece of writing for my supervisor? I did indeed complete that piece, which was about 5,000 words, and I sent it off on Sunday night. I thought the piece was quite rough; it has unfinished sections, etc., and is really about half of what Chapter One might eventually be. Well, I received feedback from her today (already!), and it was so positive that I am floating. Among other things, she said this:

"Overall, I thought this was very good indeed and not rough at all. You really are starting to get to grips with this and shape an argument which is convincing and original."

Perhaps, I might actually be able to do this! Plus, she is just the best supervisor ever.

Tipping Point

I think my students in Women's Lit are reaching a Tipping Point. I still think I need to revise the class so that it has more unity and clarity of purpose, but in the last couple of class sessions, after reading Glaspell, Loy, Hall, and Bonner, I think the students are starting to really "get" some of the problems of gender identity, definition, and politics. Their comments are becoming more insightful, and there is a greater level of "play" as they grapple with the texts.

I think they are learning!

GEW Trivia

Found this first over at Ink's place! And now for trivia about Good Enough Woman. I particularly like numbers 3, 4, and 5.

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Good Enough Woman!

1. In her entire life, Good Enough Woman will produce only a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
2. In Ancient Egypt, people wore glittery eyeshadow made from the crushed shells of Good Enough Woman!
3. Good Enough Womanicide is the killing of Good Enough Woman.
4. Every day in the UK, four people die putting Good Enough Woman on!
5. California is the biggest exporter of Good Enough Woman in the world!
6. If you cut Good Enough Woman in half and count the number of seeds inside, you will know how many children you are going to have.
7. The international dialling code for Good Enough Woman is 672.
8. Humans share about fifty percent of their DNA with Good Enough Woman.
9. The eye of an ostrich is bigger than Good Enough Woman.
10. Good Enough Woman is the only king without a moustache on the standard pack of cards.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

Recipe for a Happy Day

This is what I did today, and right now I feel warm and bursting with happiness:

1. Spent the morning just hanging at home with kids. They played happily, did artwork, etc. and didn't even ask to watch TV.
2. Ate lunch with the kids on a towel on the patio
3. Went to pick up tax return and was notified of a substantial refund
4. Took the kids to get their passport photos--very funny mug shots
5. Took the kids to children's museum to get caterpillars and make butterfly bungalows
6. Met hubby at county-clerk recorder's office to apply for kids' passports
7. Took kids to sushi for the first time, and they tried yellowtail, and they loved the shrimp tempura and the chopsticks
8. Ate yellowtail nigiri with lots of ginger
9. Drank a pomegranate martini
10. Observed that the kids did not fight at all today
11. Reveled in the fact that it's spring break so I don't have to teach tomorrow

How could I not be aglow?

At Last--Spring Break!

I know. You're thinking, "Spring break? Now? Shouldn't the term be almost over?" But in the world of 18-week semesters, and in a world in which spring break is always the week after Easter, we sometimes have spring break very late in the spring, indeed.

Usually, I spend spring break catching up on grading. But this year, not so much. Yes, I need to catch up with the online class, but as for those other stacks of grading, they will have to wait. See, I need to work on my PhD research/writing. No foolin'. This is getting serious, sports fans. So, in the spirit of clarification, let's make a list, shall we?

Must Do Over Break (in order of priority):

1. Spend time with family
2. Complete piece of writing for PhD supervisor
3. Do a bit of online grading

Would Like to Do Over Break:

• Catch up with laundry
• Purge and organize the linen closet
• Buy some new towels (dependent on item above)
• See a few girlfriends
• Get toes done

It seems that I had a longer mental list than this. I must be forgetting about 23 things. And of course this leaves me with an extremely long list of what I'll need to catch up on after break, but I guess that's the way I'm gonna roll!

Shake It

Tonight we revisited a ritual that we practiced a little while back: Nightly Dance Party. This ritual involves turning off the Newshour and turning on the music. It really is better for the family--better than when hubby and I shush the kids so we can hear about the latest supreme court decision or hear what Shields and Brooks have to say about Obama's trip to Europe.

Yes, we love the Newshour and have great affection for Jim, Gwen, Judy, and the rest of the gang. But it's better for everyone if sometimes we say goodbye to them and say hello to "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" or "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." News, schmews. Play that funky music, white boy.

It's the Little Things

Remember the hundreds of bugs my son gathered while camping (after losing the original cool bug and then being told by me, "Easy come, easy go")? Okay, so it wasn't "hundreds," but he did bring home quite a few in a little jar. Well, they looked like this:










I'll give you two guesses as to what happened to these bugs. Amazingly, the boy actually predicted the results. I thought he was just thinking wishful thoughts, but I'll be damned if he wasn't right.

Not by the Hair on My Chinny-Chin Chin

I have hair on my chin. I suppose it's been there for a while, but I don't think it used to be noticable. Plus, during pregnancy, most man-like hair croppings seemed to disappear. It started becoming more, um, prominent after I stopped nursing my daughter. Now, after turning 40 and leaving my pregnancies far behind me, I seem to have left some of my estrogen behind as well. Thus, my tiny blond beard.

Sometimes, I'll look in the mirror, and the light will shine off the hairs, and I'll realize how many--and how long--they are. The grow mostly right and left of center. So far, I have been engaging in sporadic, half-hearted plucking.

But then, a couple of days ago, I was at a meeting. A colleague came over to talk to me, and, as I was listening to him, I realized that I was stroking my beard. OMG.

So now, I'm declaring that the good tweezers must always be on bathroom counter next to my toothbrush. No using them to gets splinters out of kids' feet, no using them to examine dead bugs. No roaming around with Mommy's beard tweezers. They must remain in their proper spot, always accessible to me, or else Mommy/Wife is going to look like a dude.

P.S. This is my 100th post! A good, signficant topic for such a milestone, don't you think?