Eat Fresh

I really enjoyed the people who built my Subway sandwich today.

As my chicken breast, lettuce, tomato, spinach, black olive, and a little-bit-of-sweet-onion-sauce on wheat bread sandwich was being made, this rockin' song came on the radio and all three of us (customer = me, kinda nerdy white teenage boy who worked the cash register = Curtis, and other girl working = Funny Latina Teen), started bopping our heads and kinda singing along.

FLT: Curtis, who is this?
Curtis: I don't know.
Me: Matchbox 20.
FLT: Ha! Curtis, you don't know anything!
Me: Do I win anything?

later on

FLT: Curtis, do you know the band 311?
Curtis: No.
FLT: You suck! They are only, like, the most awesome band out there!

later on

FLT: Curstis, can you beatbox?
Curtis: Be bop?
FLT: No, duh, like beatbox, you know?
Curtis: Oh, no. I can't beatbox.

enter other worker, Gladys

FLT: Gladys, you're like 4 minutes late!! Curtis said he wasn't gonna talk anymore until Gladys gets here.
Gladys: Oh, I'm here.
FLT: Curtis, are you leaving?
Curtis: Yes, (incoherent manager's name) told me I could leave at 4 instead of 5.
Gladys and FLT: You suck, Curtis!

Curtis exits, the new Alicia Keys song comes on, and Gladys and FLT sing their hearts out while refilling the tomato bin.

*******
And, I am mere hours away from my last class of the semester. Are you kidding?

Totally Awesome Workout Mix

Run, Run Away -- Slade

Whenever, Wherever -- Shakira

Me Love -- Sean Kingston

Sweet Pea -- Tommy Roe

Jump On It -- DJ Twitch

Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!! -- Vengaboys

Trouble -- Pink

You Can't Stop the Beat -- Hairspray Soundtrack

All Over You -- Live

Ooh Ah, Just a Little Bit -- Gina G

Touch My Body -- Mariah Carey

The Rubberband Man -- The Spinners

The Heart of Things

I heart my smarty-pants students who care about the stuff we read, who go and find stuff on cummings and Williams and Alexie and bring it into our class discussion.

I heart my course evals, even when I have to fill out confusing items about positive and negative impacts on learning.

I heart the brown skirt I borrowed from Bridgie today cuz it's super-cute.

I heart salary.

I heart the last real week of teaching, the last peer review, the last vocab quiz, the last roll call, the last reflective assignment.

I heart my fun office.

I heart the poem "i carry your heart"

I heart, I heart, I heart.

The Dress Barn?

Nothing to write home about.

The River

The long days keep me outside as long as possible.

I went down to the big river last evening. I was feeling poetic and wistful, probably. Also, I wanted to be near water.

What This Will Tell You, If You Let It

The sky:
blue,
then blank,
then yellow,
then purple.
Then,
river.

A Canada goose, alone
in the middle of this span of water,
will call out until hoarse,
until her mate returns.

Plaintive mourning doves
sound like morning and evening,
(the same)
even 600 miles away.

My name in the sand
is unfinished without yours.

We are all just daughters
of the boys who joined the branch
that took them to the water,
only to come back and raise
us on the growing, dying
prairie.

My fear of heights softens
with banks of duned sand,
the calm at the edges,
the fisherman down at the dock.

Six words

We received a boxful of awesome books from B's sister this week. What? A box full of books? Yes, please! Thanks, M-Dawg!

One of them was from SMITH's online mag, called Six-worded Memoirs. This idea came about from way back when--Hemingway was asked to write a story in 6 words, and here's what he gave them:

For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.

Well, damn, there you go.

I've been trying to come up with my life in 6 words all day:

Big heart, big hair, many rules.

Heart on sleeve, sometimes gets disappointed.

I love our life, house, bed.

Ukrainian girl writes poems about farm.

Stay off my lawn, damn kids.

You have 6 words.

Go.

Check, check

On-campus interview where I demo'd my awesome (??) abilities to teach gender stereotypes and performativity, then sat with two committees for an hour each? Check.

210 reading/lesson plan done? Check.

101 ready to go for next week? Check.

Strongly suggested to innocent students that Timon and Pumbaa shared, if not a homosexual life, a homosocial one, which then led to all my male students second-guessing all their bromances? Check.

Totally cute shoes today with my totally cute green flowy skirt? Check.

The irresistible urge to raid Shopko every Tuesday night? Check.

Killer cramps? Check.

Tylenol PMs to knock me out tonight? Check.

60 freshmen research papers graded? So far from checked it's not even funny.

8 Days a Week

I've just had the wind knocked out of me this week.

The grief my friend is going through, the stress and frustration two other friends are dealing with, my on-campus interview on Monday. And, while I do appreciate the experience an on-campus interview will give me (I recognize this is invaluable), it essentially means I have to take huge chunks of time out of my own teaching and grading and planning to interview for a job I've been doing--and doing quite well--for the past two years.

All this stress has gathered in my left eyelid, which has been pulsing for the past two days. The gym has been the only place I can go this week and just have an hour to myself. All that changed today, when my idiot neighbor boy walked in and got on the treadmill next to me.

Really?

Just back off, dude. You are a thorn already--you park your big, dumb, stupid, SUV an inch away from my driveway and never move your car when the snowplow comes. Just give me an hour at the gym without having to look at your big, dumb, stupid, face.

********************

So, there's this biorefinery company in Sioux Falls called Poet. And they are always hiring. And I see their ad, which always starts with "Poet!" And I think, I'm a poet! I should apply! Then I realize they make ethanol (or something).

Or, Poet is always in the newspaper with headline like, "Poet, city make 13 billion dollar deal," and I usually think, Am I the poet the city had made a deal with? Am I gettin' bank, ya'll?

********************
The text messaging conversation I had with my 11 yr. old cousin last night:
(He is in my phone as "Rovert" which is a name I have called him for years. It's his real name backwards.)

Me: Hey nerdo

Rovert: Hey geeko

Me: Do your homework. Stay in school.

Rovert: NO! :)

Me: What are u guys doing?

Rovert: Notin. How about U

Me: Making pizza for dinner. U wanna come over?

Rovert: Heck ya, dad wants 2 know if u are cookin for ur boyfriend

Me: Ok, u can come, but leave your nerd family at home. Tell ur dad I am cooking for my 7 boyfriends.

Rovert: lol ya right

Me: Ok, tell everyone hi 4 me.

Rovert: i will

Me: C U later, donnie dorko!

Rovert: Its darco! c u, fred

I haven't remembered yet why I am Fred.

My friend Krissy

has been my friend Krissy for the past 21 years. She hates when I call her Krissy; she's all grown up now.

I probably went to Krissy's house every afternoon after school. She was a town kid, and whenever there was a game or dance or banquet going on, I'd head over to her house and we'd kill time, mostly trying on her sister's make-up and snitching her mom and dad's Benson and Hedges. As we grew up, we graduated to buying our own Marlboro's and make-up.

Krissy is funny and gorgeous and brave and takes no shit from anyone.

Krissy's dad died from stroke-related complications four years ago.

Krissy's mom died Monday after a two-year struggle with cancer.

GenCon

Isn't that like a Star Wars thing, or something?

I am just proud of all my friends and colleagues for our showing at USF's "Intersections" conference yesterday.

*Please note: I am using our real names.

Sarah, Katy, and I went up early to hear the keynote speaker, a woman from the Sociology Department at Augustana, and after her talk, we three were huddled in a mass picking apart "gender" and what's natural and what isn't.

We went to a panel on gender and its visual representations, and were introduced to some iconoclastic photographers and pop artists. Super cool.

Then, after a cafeteria lunch, I heard my friends and fellow teachers, Erica, Ken, Katy, and Sarah present on gender identities during the Medieval age. I did lots of Medieval as an undergrad, so much was familiar, and all four did a fantastic job. I've never heard my friend Katy present a scholarly article before, and she did such a nice job--engaging and smart--check her out on the news!

After an amazing dinner at Sanaa's, this colorful Mediterranean place in downtown Sioux Falls, we headed over to Warp and Weft, a funky art gallery. That's where the artwork and creative readings took place. One of my BFF's Erin came to listen, too!

I have to brag, USD represented. I love hearing Annie read, and each time I hear her pieces, I get more and more out of them. She's so energetic. And Marcella. Her poetry is perfect. Completely perfect, and she reads with such quiet passion. And me? OK, I gotta brag a little bit, I brought down the effin' house. People were rolling. It was so much fun.

Me, Bridge, Annie, and Marcia then went for cocktails at Minerva's, where I had vodka and Marcia ordered a Sex on the Beach. And it's just so cute seeing a grown woman order that. Marcia said she wished it had a different name.

So, in the future, this is how she'll order a Sex on the Beach:

I'd like you to mix together Malibu, orange juice, pineapple, maraschino cherries, and anything else that is in a Sex on the Beach, please.