Well that's the one that's not a vacation

Oh, did I mention that I'm moving? It's all kind of a messy and crazy sitch right now, because I'm subletting my old apartment and moving and finishing up the semester all at once. But here's what's good about my new apartment:

• My roommates are both "creative types."
  
• Our building has a stoop.
• I get my own bathroom, which has blue tiled walls.
• It's right next to the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
• It's right next to Target.
• It's right next to the LIRR, with AirTrain connection to JFK! What a money saver.
• It's not Morningside Heights.
• It's cheaper than where I live now.
• It's near practically every subway, including the G, which means it'll be easy to visit people in Carroll Gardens and Williamsburg.
• It has a fireplace.
• The landlord has the same name as my dad.
• My bedroom window has an actual view, not just a view into the windows of another person's apartment.
• I have a babysitting job lined up! Weird.
  

I'm moving most of my stuff next weekend and then moving myself the weekend after that! Just in time for a nice vacation.

Anyway, I was looking for "That's So Raven" music videos, but I don't think TSR fans are as technologically advanced as VMars fans, because the most intriguing one I found was set to "Defying Gravity" from Wicked. I love Idina Menzel as much as the next person, but that's just not a good combo. This is better:

In case you were wondering...

Molly had a rad Thanksgiving dinner. There was more food than could fit in one photo. I made the salad in the blue bowl and also the brussels sprouts pictured at rear. It was a real who's who.
We watched this.
Oh no! Not Laura Palmer!
I forgot my cell phone at home so Liza and I had to do Oxygen on-demand rokes. Then I met up with these dudes. We had brunch across from where Karen and I used to get the school bus. We all drank too much coffee. Mariko almost ordered a panini. Here we are after brunch, back for a visit to the rough streets that raised us. Karen lives in Manitoba now! And that is not an African nation, FYI. But I am the only one of us who knows how to drive.

No fake hand?

One of my students asked me to give a presentation to a bunch of high school juniors about "the difference between writing in high school and college." I really have no idea what that means. I asked Liza for help with this right when this kid invited me to do this, and she told me something but we were drunk and now I can't remember what she said. So today I googled "high school writing college writing" and found that I am not the only person to have pondered this question, thank goodness.

In honor of this, here is more "best of my google search toolbar":

fake knee
famous jews andy warhol [it's a real art project, I swear!]
fenestration [is there such a thing?]
figueroa st, los angeles
flights to cuba
frank o'hara
french anagram
ways of knowing
weird war
what is a high angle
what is a script supervisor
what is the meaning of life
willowy
worldly

And here are some boring pictures.

I have a total fear of heights, although I try to keep it to myself, so taking this picture out my bathroom window was slightly freaky.

It's symbolic.

You got some grass on your chif-fon

Fashion is art, and art is fashion.

-- Santino Rice

The experiment has evolved

I only watched three episodes anyway, but did anyone else totally lose interest in "Beauty and the Geek" after Erin and Jesse got eliminated? They were just the heart of that show. The heart and soul!

I know what you need to work on

I'm totally lazy so here are some of my fave emails JUST FROM TODAY ONLY. Wild life, wild wild life.

1.

From: Bla Blablabla@myschool.edu
To: manypeople@myschool.edu
Subject: In the Name of Identity

Hi all -

A copy of Amin Maalouf's "In the Name of Identity" and a couple of
papers have been sitting mysteriously in my box for weeks, if anyone
is looking for them.

Best,
Bla Blablabla


2.

From: somekid@myschool.edu
To: me
Subject: Postpone meeting

Is there anyway to postpone the meeting until tomorrow sometime so I
can revise my draft a few more times, so I truely know what I need to
work on?

Hateration (interlude)

Oh man. today I had the worst meeting ever with one of my students. I know I should not be discussing these matters in a semi-public zone but I can't help it! I basically forced this student to meet with me, because she never participates in class, she never comes to my office hours, and when I have the students do in-class writing she writes two sentences and then just sits there.

I've had shy students before. But this girl, she isn't shy -- she just doesn't care. She does not care. I said to her, "your work suggests that you aren't very invested in this class. Is that the case?" She just shrugged. I said, "your lack of participation is ultimately going to effect your grade." She shrugged again.

I just don't understand how you can get to be 18 or 19 years old and not know when to fake it. I don't mean "fake it" like the way that we're all "performing identity" everyday, I mean fake interest, fake a smile, fake a "what I want to work on this semester" paragraph. Just pretend you're something more than an overprivileged, overeducated waste of space. I bet the students at LACC or Erie Community College know how to fake it pretty well -- and they might even be psyched to take a class at an Ivy League school, who knows -- so why can't you?