Today is a historic day…

- Barack Obama’s speech

- My first day of teaching

Discuss

all the changed lately.

Last week consisted of A LOT:

- Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday was TA training (a bit repetitive and obvious from time to time)
- Thursday I had two doctor’s appointments.
- Friday I met with the professor I am TA’ing for
- Saturday I had my department orientation

Today, I slept in and took a nap.  Yep. That’s about it.

My first class is at 4 tomorrow. Here we go!

I recently read First Grade to Final Day: A Graduate Student’s Guide to Teaching. I bought it on amazon.com via a third party seller. When I was finishing it up, I found a receipt from Ohio State University Bookstore in it from June 2007.

I started to think about the life of a book, how it floats from one owner to the next, another reader to take it on.

I wonder who the person is who read it last, a brand new teaching assistant like me? Someone reading up on teaching technique?

So I finally have my own office, a room of one’s own ala Virgina Woolf

Here she is…

Oh yeah my room is a mess…:)

I haven’t been posting because I’m in denial about being on vacation. See I think I am on “vacation” even though I finishing up an essay that is due in five days. Yep, five days!

Reasons I think I’m on vacation:

- house is kinda together
- I am so lazy!
- I actually watched tv last night

Also, I am realizing how quickly my life will change in less than three weeks.  Why should I rush into organizing my files when I know I will have no free time until December. I might as well soak up the free time now because who knows when I’ll ever have it again!

Well, I officially no longer live in New York City and now live in Michigan.  The reasons for not blogging can be fit into several categories:

(1)    Unstable internet
(2)    Never ending home improvement projects
(3)    Unpacking
(4)    Family issues
(5)    Grad school preparation
(6)    Working on an essay for possible publication

However, when I look at my list I am reminded of how much we haven’t gotten done. Sure, we have gotten a lot done like painting our living room and hallway but the kitchen remains unpacked as does other parts of the house (RE: my office eek!). It feels like some chore or home improvement is standing in the way of getting stuff done.  So what do we do? Pack up the car and the kitties and drive up north to stay in my parents’ cottage.  We’re in vacationland now.  It’s nice to be here but also busy. We’re here when everyone else in downstate Michigan is. I am quickly learning the geographical politics of my new state.

What to blog about then? Well, items one through four are either commonplace or too personal for this space. So items five and six…

Grad School Preparation:

I have done zero to nothing for this category.  I wanted to take July by storm with reading and so far that hasn’t happened.  We were coming up to vacationland yesterday and I could not find the box of books I need/want to read.  We had in the van we drove to Michigan from New York City in.  But I COULD NOT find it. Gah. So I grabbed a bunch of other books that will be helpful to read. Hopefully, when I return to the house I will find that box. Of course, I didn’t write down all the books I had in that box because why would that make sense? Grr.

Also, I need to write some emails to professors, the DGS, and potential advisors to tell them I have moved to Michigan and am ready to start school in less than five weeks.  I don’t know what is keeping me from writing these emails? Am I scared? Just distracted? Probably because I have no desk set up in our house yet.  I do have a room of my own but so much to do to it before I can really use it.  I have to paint it and then file all of my files in a way that makes complete sense.

Working on an essay for possible publication:

In late June, I was approached to contribute to a collection about soap operas today.  My initial hesitation was that I didn’t know if I had enough time. But I decided to do it anyway. Soap opera research is my pet project. I intend on writing a book about Soap Operas as a indicator of essential/key Historical Events after I write a book or two first about religion and gender.
The article I am writing about is the current state of race on daytime television. Clearly that’s a broad topic but I am focusing on a particular set of characters, Angie and Jesse on All My Children.

One task I had to do was to watch some footage of recent storylines on youtube.  This was hard to do without Internet for a while. So I sat in starbucks with earplugs in watching all of these scenes. Of course, I found them interesting from a racial standpoint but also it seemed a bit old fashioned, especially the scenes when Angie and Jesse get remarried.

“A man is born, a woman is born for him.”

 Here is the link because my blog won’t let me load a video…wha!

Dr. Angie Hubbard saying she prefers to be called Mrs…for the day only. Its at the beginning of the video.

I was struck most by the poem about woman being made for man.  I guess I forgot how patriarchal soap operas are.

The paper is coming along so far. Its progress will be interrupted by a weekend of fun on Beaver Island where I can indulge in my real passion…early offshoot Mormon groups.

In the next week of having some solitude and relaxation away from unpacking and home improvements, I will sink my teeth into some good stuff like reviewing Simone de Beauvoir (How I love her!) which is always worth it to do.

So items one through four deserve further explanation but until then I am focusing on me!

idea maybe?

I think about dissertation ideas all the time. I think this is probably normal for those of us who desperately want and know they need to go to grad school for whatever subject. My goal has been to read a ton of books. I just finished Women, Family, and Utopia: Communal Experiments of the Shakers, the Oneida Community, and the Mormons. I was intrigued by the connections between the Shakers, Oneida Community and Mormons. But it wasn’t until the last the conclusion that I read something that got me thinking (again) about dissertation ideas.

The author Lawrence Foster made the assertion that Mormon literature during the Victorian era was much more Victorian in nature than the actual “Victorians.” This reminded me of an idea I had to trace the history of the Anti Mormon (aka anti polygamy) movement of the last part of the nineteenth century. As far as I can tell, there has not been a comprehensive study on this so far. The time is definitely ripe for such a study.

Of course, I am not sold completely on this idea. But it does have something to it. I know I will probably be completing research on gender and religions in the later part of the nineteenth century. This is the first time in awhile I’ve had such a revelation (yes to use a “Mormon” word) toward my future research. I am going to start seeing what this could possibly entail. I am very excited to have an idea that may have something to it.

But first I have to get through

• the first two to three years of course work
• TAing for the first time ever
• Comps
• Language requirements
• And the next few month before school begins!Here we go!

Wow, I haven’t updated this in awhile. I’m going backward:

Currently reading:

Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood (short stories that keep bringing up the women’s movement in different ways)

Books Read:

Cat’s Eye by Atwood
Falling Through the Earth: A Memoir by Danielle Trussoni
Moral Geography: Maps, Missionaries, and the America… by Amy DeRogatis
The Common Ground of Womanhood: Class, Gender, and W…by Priscilla Murolo
Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner
Race, Gender, and Work: A Multicultural Economic History by Teresa Amott
Moral Disorder: and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood
Baby Proof by Emily Giffin
Something Blue by Emily Giffin
Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Graduate Study for the Twenty-First Century by Gregory M. Colon Semenza
Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen
Surfacing by Margaret Atwood
In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin
The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta
Then We Came to the End: A Novel by Joshua Ferris

Basically, I spent the first part of the year reading what I wanted to fiction wise: Then We Came the End and The Abstinence Teacher were both very witty and sarcastic (as Perotta usually is.) Then I switched gears and tried to read more about my Patagonia trip.  Over the Edge of the World was surprisingly riveting for me.  I didn’t think I’d like it as much as I but I was happy to read while I visited the actual Straights of Magellan.

As soon as I found out I got into graduate school, I started to read some books that I thought would be necessary to read before I began. This, unfortunately, has not been going as well as I hoped–mostly because I have been very unfocused in that area lately.  I am going to get back into it as soon as I finish Wilderness Tips by Atwood.

One area that has been successful is the Atwood. I do adore her writing and am happy to report that I equally liked Surfacing, Moral Disorder, Cat’s Eye, and–almost done with– Wilderness Tips. Next up is Oryx & Crake. I want to read some of her poetry but I never really just sit down and read poetry for pleasure. I did it in high school and a bit in college and then analyzed it.  I think I may enjoy poetry by Atwood though.

I want to get back to a month to month list of books read.  Next up is a long list of books I WANT to read. I may have to abandon reading books for fun sooner than later. But I find this whole academia *FUN* right? Right.

FIN