femminista: thoughts of a feminist rhetorician

Why does it seem as though there's never enough time to do the things I need to do, much less the things that I want to do?  In between grading papers and writing them, I've been doing a spot of internet browsing of the shopping variety.  My mother wants a wishlist from me and I'm trying to oblige (as difficult as it is).  So, I've been surfing the indie shopping sites for interesting trinkets.  It worked out really well last year, so it seems sensible to go that route again, but what I'm finding is that my greatest wish is for more time-- time to make my own jewelry and knit my own lovely kitty creations and time to paint and play with various media, time to make my own nifty creations.  Unfortunately, in spite of all of my good intentions, it

My left arm hurts more than usual tonight; I have an icky metallic taste in my mouth; my head feels like it has been filled with poisonous jello and epoxied closed. Yes, that's right; I'm sick again.

Well, I suppose it's a bit more complicated than that. It always is, isn't it? Today, I woke up entirely too early (though not early enough to be on time), pulled on jeans and a t-shirt, and drove, coughing and sneezing, down to Home Hospital. It always strikes me as ironic when one sickness inhibits my ability to take care of another one. Luckily, today I made it to the hospital, where the other irony struck me (never have liked golf)--I'm sick and I'm in a hospital but they won't be doing anything to make me feel better. In some ways, it's kind of comforting, having "the bug that's been going around." I'm normal people sick. I'm the kind of sick that I know will get better. I'm extra tired, but I know why and eventually, I'll feel better. The hospital thing--well, that's different.

Oh so long since I have seen you lovely little blog. Well, I am finally back in Lafayette after my whirlwind weeks of travel. Oh my, yes, it has been interesting. Spring Break in SC and then the Bronx, a jaunt to Chicago for 4C's then back to NY (Manhattan this time) for the NN/g Usability Week, a weekend trip to Binghamton to visit Evan's home and then an eight hour stop in SC to pick up Miss Beloved (my pretty kitty cat) and then Indy. Whew, I am tired just recounting that trip. Well, as you might guess I have much to tell but alas, I also have quite a bit of catch-up to play and as the responsible young woman that I am, I will be catching up with my classes and other varied responsibilities before I catch up here.

Well, I have fulfilled one of my "must do before I die" goals by attending a live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion. To listen to the Purdue-centric episode, click here.

While peace would certainly make the world a better place and after last night's speech by Gen. Wesley Clark, I believe that electing him to political office would make the world a better place, there are some other things that I think would (at least) improve my world and I intend to list them here.

1. Serial number stickers: All items that come with serial numbers should come with extra stickers. You can put one in your planner and the other on the item in question, specifically software cds. Am I the only person incapable of putting software back in it's cd case? Surely, I am not the only person who loses serial numbers. Well, here's a brilliant thought--a serial number sticker could go on the cd and while, granted, you'd need to take the cd out of the drive to read it, at least you'd have it when you needed it.

Well, here I am again, being negligent in my blogging duties. I am awed by other academics who manage to post to their blogs regularly during the school year. I feel like I don't even have time to eat with everything that's going on. These other academic bloggers who can post daily, while I am edging closer to a monthly blogger, seem like superbloggers to me.

My life has been a crazy mix of illness, teaching and writing. I still haven't kicked the sinus infection that I got in the beginning of September and in the past two weeks or so, it has manifested as spells of vertigo. Being unable to stand or sit up well makes it very difficult to get any work done. Luckily, my BFF drove all the way from Georgia to visit me and I was able to enjoy her company. Our animals were perhaps less than thrilled, but they're starting to grow on one another. Who knows, by Christmas they may be pals and instead of my cat, Beloved, terrorizing Mel's beagle, Mary, they can join together in terrorizing my sister's dog. I'm kidding...sort of. I'm a little worried about my sister's husky, Coyote, being around Beloved. I'm sure that he's a great dog and sweet to humans, but he is, well, biologically trained to dislike cats and perhaps view them as lunch? This concerns me. Beloved's pretty fierce but I don't know how she'd do against such a large dog. I don't want her to spend the entire vacation under the bed or have to shut her in a room to protect her.

Well, I must say that I am saddened by all of the things that take me away from blogging. It is now 12 days since my last entries and I have had so much to say in these past days but no time to say it.

My heart failure subsided as I finished my paper in time for the conference but was reignited when, because of illness, I was unable to attend and present it. I've had a sinus infection that won't go away and the flu, making the nine hour drive to Michigan and the Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference a non-option. Unfortunately, I'm not the only one who missed the conference as many Fems/Rhet presenters and attendees were stuck in various airports because of a snow storm in Minneapolis. However, fortunately for all of us, our tireless conference organizers are giving us the opportunity to post our papers on the web, giving us the next best thing to being there. Even though I am sad to have missed the conference, I know that my decision not to go was best. I became more ill during the week and would have been (even more) completely miserable had I gone. On the bright side, I've been able to get some work done in spite of my illness(es). I have sent Chapter One and the preface of my thesis to my director, finally. Even better, I'm almost done with Chapter Two and Chapter Three is well on its way!

I've been away from my blog for some time now. First, because I was headed back to Indiana and preparing to start the fall semester and trying to clean my house. Lately, because I've been struck mute by the horrors in the news. I've wanted to post so many times, but I haven't been able to bring myself to write anything. I'm back now and I'm going to try to write about all of the things I've been reading.

and I will be, soon. I'm back in Lafayette studying for my foreign language proficiency exam, which I shall take tomorrow. I'm unaccountably nervous because, although I will be allowed a dictionary and although I know that I can translate any Italian document at least well enough to glean its meaning, I don't know what standards my test will be graded by. What constitutes a pass for this sort of exam? Hmmm, I don't know. However, I'm not getting any closer to passing by sitting here and writing this. Unless I start writing exclusively in Italian....No, better get back to work.

I am still in SC awaiting the birthday celebration of my baby brother. I've spent the last week hanging out with some old friends and making some new ones, all the while imbibing more alcohol than I should. Now I'm trying to get back to work so that I'm not in too much of a crunch when I return to Indiana to teach summer session. I've also been getting a bit of knittin' done and showing off my impressive needle and fiber collection. As promised, I will be adding some LYS reviews.