TGIF, people!

Hello from a Winter Wonderland!

Oh, Denver.

We woke up to several inches of snow. It's supposed to continue throughout the day. There are blizzard warnings for the Eastern plains.

Never a dull moment.

I'll give you all my King Sooper's coupons if you'll write my prospectus and annotated bibliography for the American Novel class.

Back to It

A lot of yesterday (a lot) was spent like this:

Camped out at the airport, grading.

G's flight left a couple of hours earlier than mine, so we just went to the airport together. After he boarded, I got to work (determined to at least catch up if not to actually get ahead in life) grading my students' homework that flooded my inbox over the course of last week while I ate chocolate cake and ignored it.

Then my flight got delayed.

More grading.

Then it got delayed some more.

Finally resorted to grading in a much different setting:

Saturday night's introduction to my new love, the michelada, had me craving a Bloody Mary. And it's against my personal life philosophy to have such a heavy drink with no food - so, garlic fries for dinner!

Caught up on all grading and then decided to pretend to exercise and walk around the airport for an hour to perhaps burn off 3-4 fries. Got to see a beautiful sunset out the window.

Since G beat me home by a few hours, he was able to pick up this one from boarding and get her all settled, before picking me up from the airport.

Notice that she doesn't stray far from those pants. I still have my eye on them for good will, but she's so taken with them that I don't have the heart to rip them away from her.

Speaking of pants, my four pairs of wear-every-Friday, left-over-from-Africa, cargo pants are now too big. The first two pairs were the ones that I discovered a few weeks ago that I could put on and take off while fully fastened. Now the other two pairs are that way. It's not that I'm still losing weight - in fact, I'm in a several-week plateau. It's that those pants are pretty big and I think my body has changed just enough that they're not going to work anymore.

Since I still want to lose more weight, I'm not going to buy replacement pairs, but I need a lil something to tide me over, so I foresee a mini-REI trip in our future. One pair of bummy pants isn't asking too much, in my opinion. Especially with an REI dividend kick-back burning a hole in my wallet.

Today I'm jumping right back into it. Teaching, then errands, then a meeting with my Am Novel prof about my research topic. I keep proposing things and she keeps saying they're good ideas but not complex enough. So, I need to sit down with her and basically have her brainstorm a topic that will work. While I take notes and nod and basically pray that I'll be able to pull it off.

Then frantically reading more of the latest Woolf book before class tonight. What a short pseudo-sabbatical that was. But that's ok. I've cracked the code and now have a survival plan for the semesters ahead. Mwahahahaha.

Work Hard, Play Hard

Today was my conference presentation and it went really well! Woo Hoo! That's one for the CV (as soon as I switch over from a resume to a CV but that's a whole other story).

The early morning was full of grading - I've put it off the last few days and needed to face it before going home. Then there was the presentation. Then we met a good work friend of G's who lives here in Salt Lake City.

Then we ditched the professional clothes, donned the pj's, and watched the HOGS BEAT OLE MISS IN OVERTIME.

Then there was a 2-hr nap, thank you LORD.

Then! Dinner and drinks in a killer dive bar/restaurant!

I tried my first michelada, and people, I'm hooked. Have you heard of this nectar from heaven? Other than tequila reposado, it's my new go-to drink. It's beer, lime juice, and various seasonings (sometimes clam juice, sometimes hot sauce, etc.) mixed with a thick bloody Mary tomato-y juice. Oh. Em. Gee. Sooooooooo good. This was one served with the hottest spicy salt mix on the rim. I felt like I had trout pout the entire night but ask me if I care. (<-- No, I don't care.)

Then there was a deliciously crisp walk back to the hotel. I love that Christmas decs are starting to pop up. If I can only survive the next two weeks, we have a fun Thanksgiving planned, and then the holiday decorating fury beings in dawrighthouse. But first, I have to survive the semester.

This pseudo-sabbatical will go a long way toward that survival.

A twittle moo much tuh-kwee-luh!

Ok, time to watch Alabama (hopefully!) beat the crap out of LSU. Roll tide and all that. One more day of some Utah excitement and then back to my city. I heart you, Denver. I'm happy to call you home.

Loving Utah

Look who's here!

I worked like a mad woman all day in anticipation of a weekend of fun (and presentations). Read a lot, researched a lot, drank a lot of coffee (although not as much as yesterday!), did conference stuff, had some meetings, explored a little, and napped.

Semester mini sabbaticals need to be a thing. I'm trying to figure out how to do that.

It was a gorgeous day here.

It started off cold and snowy, then it blew over. Just like Denver. I love the mid-West.

The sad thing? I made all this progress, and there's still so much left to do. C'est la vie.

More exploring tomorrow!

A Most Productive and Wonderful Day

It was a snowy morning in Salt Lake City. I was up bright and early (Lucy and I are both morning people), and gobbled down oatmeal and fruit in pajama coziness while enjoying the view.

The morning: 6:00 a.m. - noon

*Finished a novel (House of Mirth --> for a honkin research paper)
*Started a novel (Invisible Man --> for a critical essay)
*Gulped down coffee
*Researched critical essays about Woolf for class; picked one to write about
*Read the article twice (it's by T.S. Eliot, Lord help me)
*Started Woolf critical essay
*Gulped down more coffee
*Registered for my spring class! (Critical Theory, kill me now, requirement)
*Got my teaching schedule for spring! (Two classes again! Yay!)
*Worked more on Woolf critical essay
*Did some conference prep texts/emails
*Got conference materials and planned out my sessions for tomorrow
*Realized that drinking an entire carafe of coffee was not a good idea
*Got increasingly jittery
*Worked on essay until too jittery to sit still
*Vowed not to drink this much coffee ever again in one sitting
*Got dressed for lunch

Too much coffee.

The Afternoon: 12:00 - 5:00 p.m.

*Lunch
*Explored downtown Salt Lake City!

I saw something I expected:

And I saw something I didn't expect:

Ha ha! I'm not gonna lie. I took this picture, texted it to G, and immediately walked inside to see if they had Starbucks Salt Lake City mugs. I was going to buy one for the simple pleasure of having reached the absolute height of irony that one can reach in a lifetime. But alas, they don't make those for Salt Lake. Not surprised.

The temple was smaller than I expected, but very beautiful. The grounds are pretty and they let visitors walk around for free. There's an area in the visitor's center where there is apparently a cut-out in a wall that lets the heathens see inside the temple (since we can't enter it) but I opted out of that in favor of walking around outside.

Shhhhhh! I drink coffee! Shhhhhhh! And wine!

G is the designated selfie photographer. I'm helpless without him, with my useless T-Rex arms. They're too weak to hold my over-sized phone.

*Leisurely walked back to hotel
*Read
*Napped
*Finished Woolf critical essay!

The Night: 6:00 - whenevs p.m.

*Keep on keepin' on with reading The Invisible Man (must get through at least half of it by tomorrow)
*Read two lengthy articles about The Invisible Man
*Ponder which of the two articles to incorporate into an essay that's due early next week
*Start last Virginia Woolf book (Between the Acts --> it's about a play! Very different!)
*Start research & annotated bibliography for Woolf research paper (due soon)
*Start research prospectus for American Novel research paper (due soon)
*Watch Big Bang Theory on the phone with G
*Repeat my new life mantra: "I will never take two literature courses at the same time again"

I'm seriously contemplating a "Sabbatical Weekend" every semester! It's kind of unbelievable how productive I am when I (1) don't have to grade, (2) don't have to teach or go to work, and (3) am not in my house and tempted to clean it and do a thousand errands and chores. Too bad room service is so dang expensive. Must eat a dinner of left over fruit from breakfast and the rest of last night's chocolate cake. The life of the mind and all that. So Dickensian and everything.

Something Different (Or: Bunny Momma Takes a Sabbatical)

Hello from Utah!

I'm attending a conference here (And presenting! Like an actual adult or scholar or something.) and decided to take full advantage of some time outside of my usual routine. Let's call it a bunny momma sabbatical, if you will, from this:

For the next couple of days, I plan to catch up on actual grad school stuff. Not grading, not lesson planning, not writing consulting, not leading workshops. Grad school stuff. I brought along my books and research materials and articles. I ordered a piece of cake and a bottle of wine from room service. I'm going to read and write. And sleep.

Repeat.

In the busy-ness of life, I manage to get everything done except my reading. Well, I eventually get it done but it's hap-hazard and often rushed and crammed in between the more tangible tasks. I have two enormous research papers coming up - not to mention a slew of smaller papers over the next two weeks - and this is the perfect time for me to step away from teaching and from work, and just hole up and nerd it out.

In style, of course.

My digs for the next few days:

I do plan to (1) workout, and (2) see the sights tomorrow, but for tonight?