My list of "To Be Read" is ridiculously long. By Catherine on 4/27/2007 08:03:00 AM
So, I'm going to share it. And probably keep adding to it.Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver)
A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini)
Birthday Letters (Ted Hughes)
Swastika Night (Katharine Burdekin)
Walden (re-read, HD Thoreau)
The End of This Day's Business (Katharine Burdekin)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (JK Rowling)
Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
The Celtic Nights (WB Yeats)
I'm at work, the rest of the list is chez moi. More later, if I complete more homework. This time of year is the most stressful for everyone, so good luck to the rest of the grad schoolers out there and hang on, cause summer vacation starts in just a few weeks!
Labels: academic burn-out, reading, summer
I have to post something... By Catherine on 4/23/2007 11:00:00 AM
Or else that god-awful picture will be the first thing anyone sees until forever. A lot has happened in the past few weeks... I was sick and got better, the worst mass murder in US history closed down an institute of higher learning, A and I went to Amherst to visit old friends, a whole group of my students got arrested for possession, and it's finally spring! Summer, even.The news broke in during a game of Scrabble with A's mom-- thirty feared dead at Virginia Tech, among them, the suspect. It was chilly that day, and rainy, and I'd just taken a big sip of molten-hot coffee. I thought I'd choke-- we both gasped, "Oh, my God!" and nursed burnt tongues. Everything that has come out in the last week doesn't need to be rehashed, but, WOW will suffice. I don't have anything intelligent or insightful to add, but I feel weirdly attracted to the story.
The trip to Amherst was wonderful! I miss having all our friends around, and S&S have such a cozy little place for themselves. The BOSB dinner was really fun. Maximus was hysterically drunk, and received his award with much more grace than I could have mustered, given how tanked he was. BOSB dinner tradtion-- get hammered. That's one UMass tradition I didn't participate in... Getting skunked and interacting with administrators never did seem like my cup of tea. I get so self-conscious when I drink, I can't imagine being that confident. Friday was perfectly lovely, complete with corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast (Sylvester's, in Northampton MA, is wonderful, try it out) and plenty of sunshine. I've eaten more take-out and restaurant food this weekend than is reasonable OR healthy. The diet starts tonight! :)
Saturday and Sunday kind of blur together-- sunshine, reading, Scrabble, couscous, beers and burgers. I've got the first touches of color on my arms and face-- legs still too pale to be shown outside the back yard!
As for my students, everyone is ok. That's all I'll say about that here, you never know who trolls your internets...
Labels: Amherst, friends, sunshine, vacation, VT shooting
By Catherine on 4/11/2007 07:12:00 PM
Seriously, WTF?
"the universe is wider than our views of it." By Catherine on 4/10/2007 11:37:00 AM
Easter Sunday, worst day ever. I spent the morning at UMass Memorial Medical Center at the ER, because I woke up at 6:55am with my throat so swollen I couldn't breathe. Strep, as it turns out, can infect not only the throat but also the soft palate and base of the tongue. I cannot talk, or eat. Today is day #3 in bed with only a laptop for company... I slept so much yesterday that I've been up since 6:30, trying to go back to sleep. Usually I feel better after a dose of antibiotics, but I've had three and I don't feel really any closer to normal. It feels like having strep throat, a sinus infection and an ear infection all at once. Don't adults usually grow out of this? :( C made me some great homemade chicken soup, though. Maybe I'll actually be able to get some down today. It's funny, my mom doesn't visit, doesn't call... and someone else's mom invites me over for Scrabble and tea and makes me soup when I'm ill.I've been getting together some submission stuff for Agni and a few other literary magazines, but I'm not really sure how I go about sending, soliciting, etc. I also don't have a whole lot of recent poetry to send out. I let my pathetic.org membership lapse a few years ago, which unfortunately held some of the only copies of the few poems I managed to produce while at college. I thought some of the stuff might be on my old computer, that maybe I could revisit and tweak if necessary, but alas. They're gone, and I've got to start alllll over.
Ugh, I want something to eat, but my cottage-cheese tonsils have another plan for me. Time for a nap. If this is nt marginally better after that, I'm calling the doctor. This is frigging ridiculous.
soy chai lattes make my morning By Catherine on 4/07/2007 08:54:00 AM
And so do kitties who like to play with the strings on your sweatshirt, and good poetry, and outdoor exercise. *hums to the tune of "My Favorite Things"*Yesterday afternoon, I was at A's family's house, hanging out and playing Scrabble (I know, just leave it for the time being, I know I'm a huge nerd) and they got three big trees taken down in the yard. It was really neat to watch: the guy climbs up with his spiky shoes and ties a rope, and they cut a bit and pull it down. I'm going over to help them chop it up and stack it this afternoon, that's the outdoor exercise.
I wish someone was home to play Scrabble with.
Good Friday: An Old Deluder of Satan By Catherine on 4/06/2007 09:20:00 AM
So, as some may or may not know, Massachusetts was the first state in the colonies to implement compulsory public education. Ye Olde Deluder of Satan Law of 1647 stated that villages of over 50 families to hire a teacher and towns with over 100 families to establish a "grammar school." Being Puritans, they also demanded that Church holidays be given off. Like today, Good Friday. This, of course, has morphed from Puritanical fire and brimstone to the more wishy-washy-feel-good-everyone-gets-Christian-and-Jewish-holidays-off. I can't help but love where this is going. Soon, we'll have Ramadan and Boxing Day and Saint Patrick's Day off, too. Hell, why have school at all? It's not like most kids care about it, other than to get into a "good school" and get a "good job" to make "good money." School for learning's sake has gone the way of the four-hour Puritan mass-- that is to say, a few intellectually curious, self-motivated students continue to study for love's sake, but, like Mass, it's watered down and attendance is waning.Not that I'd attend Mass, even a watered down one. But I don't think school is deluding anyone but the students anymore, especially not Satan.
Labels: massachusetts history, school
Another rainy April morning By Catherine on 4/04/2007 07:09:00 AM
I really need to be more on top of things. My basket of mail is overflowing, my inbox looks like I haven't deleted anything since, oh, high school, and it's my turn to do the dishes. It's very easy to get into this kind of avoidance-funk, and I vow this afternoon to break it. What I really want to do is write, but lately the pen has hit the paper at a funny angle, and nothing decent comes out.AH gave me a copy of Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott, which has served its purpose in making me laugh through my "shitty first draft." I can't manage to get anything down that doesn't sound trite and manufactured, and it's fairly discouraging-- which of course makes me want to work on it like, less than never. While the insights are heartfelt and the advice solid, I can't seem not to take the whole block I'm experiencing at the moment personally. Pshh. I'm going to ask publishers to send a red envelope for yes and a blue one for no, that way, I never even have to open them.
I think, this evening, I'd like to sit down and just type. Type, type, type, and try to let Sarah talk through me. So far, I haven't managed to relinquish enough control to allow her to come full circle, and she certainly isn't flawed, which is a big problem. Even thirteen year-old protagonists in fantasy novels need some kind of flaw. Maybe some more dialogue would help. Maybe that 1"x1" frame would help.
Maybe I should shut up and write. That would help, too.
Labels: working through the block, writing
strange kitty & new pretty By Catherine on 4/02/2007 07:46:00 PM
So, Radar now exclusively eats by dipping his paw into the food and licking it out from between his claws. He thinks he's people.So, do y'all like my new design? A is so handy! He can cook (like he graduated from the Cordon Bleu, I'm surprised I'm not fatter), he can fix stuff, he is good about picking up after himself most of the time, and he can freaking DESIGN like no one's business. What a talented boy. :)
So here's my shameless plug for SolvoMedia: USE THEM. SolvoMedia is owned and operated by three people who mean quite a bit to me, but that's not why I'm plugging them.
Wow, that sounds dirty.
I'm advertising for them because they truly are three of the brightest, most hardworking and talented twentysomethings I know, and everyone who knows them agrees. They've been independently owned and operated since 2000 (when, ahem, they were a freshman/sophomore duo at Tahanto Regional High School-- M joined the team in 2005 as a graduate student in Biology.)
SolvoMedia makes beautiful, functional, and affordable websites that focus on the small business market-- their goal is to help small businesses be more self-sufficient. You might think that would kind of phase their products out-- but you'd be wrong. There are so many small businesses out there that still aren't on the web... Or, the website is crappy. SolvoMedia's artistic precedent and quality of work speaks for itself.
If you don't believe me, take a look at their website-- they're linked all over the place here on PavotsRouges.