Miscellany

The following material is somewhat disturbing but will be of interest to anyone doing critical race theory and history of rhetoric. These are pages from my grandfather's grade school primer, Geographical Nature Studies: For Primary Work in Home Geography, by Frank Owen Payne, copyright 1898.

We get three days off for Mardi Gras. Down in Lafayette, there's a lot of bead-throwing, king-cake-eating, and other celebrating going on, but I'm in Florence, AL until Wednesday. I have a writing project I'm trying to get out the door, so I'm going to put in a lot of time at the public library working and take advantage of the free babysitting from my mom, which is no easy task now that my ten-month-old-day-after-tomorrow baby is constantly on the move:

This is just a post to check the RSS feed of this blog's content into my Facebook profile. But just so there's something of some substance, I'll give you this. At about 9:00 last night, I started to get overwhelmed because of all the work I have to do -- all my active projects, etc. So I cleared out one of my plastic file boxes, got a few hanging folders for it, and taped my business card to it. I'm putting materials for my mid-tenure review, and eventual tenure review, in there. It made me feel better. My mid-tenure review isn't taking place for another year, mind you, but this is an example of what soothes me.

What do you do when you need pen holders in your office but don't feel like buying any?

Take one old Crystal Light container and one old peanut butter jar, or whatever cylindrical container you have around. Then hot-glue tissue paper from your stash of gift bags/wrap from presents you've received onto the containers (I used three layers). Then take some of those parade beads you saved and swore you'd find something to do with someday and wrap them around the jars. You'll have the following:

• Hey everyone, don't submit anything to CCC for a while.
• I had a dream the other night that Brooke Shields was my cousin. She was very snooty and unpleasant, and she smoked. She also didn't have any children. I woke up puzzled because that's not at all how I imagine Brooke Shields. I read her book, Down Came the Rain, and I like her, based on the book. I imagine she'd be friendly, genuine, and fun.
• I got an email a while back saying that I'd been nominated to submit materials to run for the CCCC Executive Committee and the Nominating Committee. I'm still trying to decide whether or not to do it. I might run for the Nominating Committee. The Executive Committee requires NCTE and CCCC attendance, and I don't want to commit to that. We'll see, though. Whoever nominated me, if you're reading this, thanks for thinking of me.
• I dread going to work tomorrow. I'm so behind on just about everything, gah.
• Okay, Jack Bauer now.

Ugh, it's been forever since I posted. Not much has been happening to speak of, really -- Henry is growing, of course; he has his two front lower teeth, but those top teeth have been taking their time coming in. He laughs all the time, especially when I laugh at something. I'm watching him gum Cheerios right now. We're finally getting his nursery in shape; I just bought a 4-in-1 crib that converts into a toddler bed, a day bed, and a full-size bed. I also got him some wall-mounted shelves for books and these prints, which I hung up in a windowpane configuration.

I have a ton of research work and teaching prep to do, as one would expect, and not much time for it. However, I am making one much-needed trip to Florence, AL before the semester starts. I leave tomorrow. More soon.

By the way, I am so glad I'm not at MLA.