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Sep. 13th, 2002 09:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanpaku_backupIt's been a while again since I've written anything of worth here... Too much to do, I guess. Every time I think I am pretty much caught up, I remember that I still have massive things that need to get done.
Things are more or less settling down. I still have to take care of unpacking boxes in my closet, and there are a bunch of pictures to hang, and some other miscellaneous things to do before the apartment is done. I can't find the power cord for my CD player, which is a bummer. I'm still walking around with melodies from Rosh Hashanah stuck in my head, which is a little unnerving, what with the guilt and somberness and repentance thing.
My classes are turning out mostly OK. They don't give me so much as a mailbox at the Providence campus, but I have relatively few students, and they seem to be able to stay awake for the 3 hours of class. The culture class, which I stressed out about planning, seems to be going quite well, as I use an LCD projector and just riff on landscape paintings and stuff. Practicing art analysis without a license again. The other course is on US history from 1787 to 1848. As usually happens with these things, I thought this would be easy, but it has the prospects for being a lot more difficult. For one thing the students all came in mad at me for assigning six books for the semester. They are night students and no one told me they'd be all bent out of shape if they had to do too much reading. A couple of them in particular seem all skeptical of me, and it's hard enough when you hear yourself pontificating not to think "I am so fucking full of it" without feeling that they are thinking the same thing. Then also there's the fact that they changed the room on me and it's all seminar-style without a lectern. I haven't taught without a lectern in a long time and it is hard to get used to.
It's also a bit sad because I keep wanting to explore the city but I don't have any time at all. I had a massive uploading to oversee at work this week and another big one next week, plus running around on a lot of little projects that the uberboss gives to me. (I am a historian, so who better to make sure the history meetings receive a mailing packet? Etc.) In my "spare time" I am teaching, I have a big copyediting project due at the end of the month, and I have to write 10,000 words on patriotic mythology in the Early Republic or something. This was technically due by September 1, so I am hoping they do not call me about it anytime soon.
September is always complicated by plenty of holidays during which I won't do any productive work. The shul near us is OK even if we are the youngest people there by far. I will put up with a lot for being able to walk there, which I did this past weekend.
It was a great feeling on Monday afternoon to realize that I hadn't been in the car for 72 hours.
Last night was the Mrs.'s birthday, so we went to an Italian restaurant supposedly a frequent haunt for the now-convicted former mayor of Providence. We didn't see him, but the food was quite good. We also went to Waterfire, which is a tad on the cheesy side but really a beautiful way for this town to show itself off. My sister-in-law comes over frequently and was here last night for opening of presents. I got Mrs. kind of a "Homer" gift, a big nautical map of the port of Providence and Narragansett Bay, coz she likes ships (and I like maps). It was more of an "anniversary" gift, but for our anniversary last week I got her sapphire earrings (our 5th anniversary, so time for a splurge), more of a "birthday" gift. And the cake was slammin'.
So, we really, really like it here so far. Yeah.
Oh yeah, it's my birthday and all that shite.
This has been a pretty boring post, but then y'all don't want to hear me rant about this stupid fucking insane Iraq thing, do you...
Things are more or less settling down. I still have to take care of unpacking boxes in my closet, and there are a bunch of pictures to hang, and some other miscellaneous things to do before the apartment is done. I can't find the power cord for my CD player, which is a bummer. I'm still walking around with melodies from Rosh Hashanah stuck in my head, which is a little unnerving, what with the guilt and somberness and repentance thing.
My classes are turning out mostly OK. They don't give me so much as a mailbox at the Providence campus, but I have relatively few students, and they seem to be able to stay awake for the 3 hours of class. The culture class, which I stressed out about planning, seems to be going quite well, as I use an LCD projector and just riff on landscape paintings and stuff. Practicing art analysis without a license again. The other course is on US history from 1787 to 1848. As usually happens with these things, I thought this would be easy, but it has the prospects for being a lot more difficult. For one thing the students all came in mad at me for assigning six books for the semester. They are night students and no one told me they'd be all bent out of shape if they had to do too much reading. A couple of them in particular seem all skeptical of me, and it's hard enough when you hear yourself pontificating not to think "I am so fucking full of it" without feeling that they are thinking the same thing. Then also there's the fact that they changed the room on me and it's all seminar-style without a lectern. I haven't taught without a lectern in a long time and it is hard to get used to.
It's also a bit sad because I keep wanting to explore the city but I don't have any time at all. I had a massive uploading to oversee at work this week and another big one next week, plus running around on a lot of little projects that the uberboss gives to me. (I am a historian, so who better to make sure the history meetings receive a mailing packet? Etc.) In my "spare time" I am teaching, I have a big copyediting project due at the end of the month, and I have to write 10,000 words on patriotic mythology in the Early Republic or something. This was technically due by September 1, so I am hoping they do not call me about it anytime soon.
September is always complicated by plenty of holidays during which I won't do any productive work. The shul near us is OK even if we are the youngest people there by far. I will put up with a lot for being able to walk there, which I did this past weekend.
It was a great feeling on Monday afternoon to realize that I hadn't been in the car for 72 hours.
Last night was the Mrs.'s birthday, so we went to an Italian restaurant supposedly a frequent haunt for the now-convicted former mayor of Providence. We didn't see him, but the food was quite good. We also went to Waterfire, which is a tad on the cheesy side but really a beautiful way for this town to show itself off. My sister-in-law comes over frequently and was here last night for opening of presents. I got Mrs. kind of a "Homer" gift, a big nautical map of the port of Providence and Narragansett Bay, coz she likes ships (and I like maps). It was more of an "anniversary" gift, but for our anniversary last week I got her sapphire earrings (our 5th anniversary, so time for a splurge), more of a "birthday" gift. And the cake was slammin'.
So, we really, really like it here so far. Yeah.
Oh yeah, it's my birthday and all that shite.
This has been a pretty boring post, but then y'all don't want to hear me rant about this stupid fucking insane Iraq thing, do you...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-09-13 02:20 pm (UTC)and
mrs. sanpaku
:) i rhymed. it's a birthday poem.
Re:
Date: 2002-09-13 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-09-14 09:23 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2002-09-14 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-09-14 12:01 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2002-09-14 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-09-14 06:35 pm (UTC)And speaking of birth, I keep waiting for your musings on your imminent fatherhood. Give it up!
(On that note, yesterday I met the loveliest 2-year-old girl. Well, she was sleeping, but she was lovely. Her mom's stock salutation is "Have a baby!" )
Re:
Date: 2002-09-17 07:09 am (UTC)In other words not much that is very productive. We are settling into the new place and having morning coffee and late night drives around town and it is very difficult to believe that in six weeks that will all be over. In the meantime every so often she says the baby is moving and that's about the extent of things. Nine months is a loooong time.
We are supposed to take one of those daylong childbirth classes in a few weeks, so that will probably clear the mind. I assume that this whole experience is just something that you can't really imagine or describe until it's happened yet...