My student.

Just told me that I need to read his paper more slowly... because that way I would, you know, understand it better.

Are they getting more arrogant, or is it just me?

You know you've lived in Chicago too long....

When you're walking to the Walgreens and a man yells a proposition across the street to you for $95.

I mean, seriously.

Ashes and Ashes and Ashes

I'm starting to spend my evenings in the Regenstein.

I'm far more productive than ever before, but there is the caveat that I am now far far more lonely than ever before.

Yeah.

So I haven't updated in a loooong time

Because my life has been moving reeeeallly fast.

So. here's the rocket-update.

1) The boyfriend became the Fiancee in January
2) The Fiancee left me in the first week of April
3) I am suddenly single again after 8 years.

4) and I'm thinking of moving to Madison
5) and getting a Job in academic administration
6) and getting a pair of cats (Buttons and Snaps)
7) and having romances with new people.
8) While I finish writing my dissertation.
9) and then *possibly* going to medical school
10) although at the moment I still need to finish out the quarter and the 6? 7? jobs I am currently working.

So that's the update, the info, and the scoop - and it is also why I have been dramatically incognito for the past few months.


But.... I think that things are going to be OK.
Really.

"Yay!" she shouts, "and, Shit!"

Yeah,

So I think that I may have just thought up the perfect idea for my dissertation.

"Just when I think that I'm out.... They pull me back in!"

On being Broke.

I am so broke. Broke like surfing the web for places to donate plasma broke. Like thinking if there are any of my possessions I can sell to make money broke. Like, fuck, broke.

And yet, somehow, I have 4 jobs and am working like, a zillion hours a day.

This is FUCKED UP. This is fucking fucked up and I'm pissed.

In fact, I am angry. Really, really, really angry. And I don't know where my anger belongs. Is this my fault? Is it the university's fault?

I am angry at the university for treating us like crap, and I am angry at myself for putting up with this. If I had known what was in store I never would have signed on in the first place. I can't believe that I signed up for this! I'm done. I'm so fucking done with this bullshit. Do I want a career where I work endless hours for almost a living wage? Do I want a career where I won't have time to have a family, much less the means to support one?

rainbows, kittens, sunshine, and lollipops

No, really.

I'm currently in Florida in what appears to be THE COOLEST HOUSE ON THE PLANET. It seems to be full of the most kitsch per square inch (KSI) possible without the formation of a neutron star.

They have:

A working jukebox
An astonishing collection of vintage radios
And beer signs
Little cement dolphins that squirt water into the pool
an astonishing number of indigenous geckos
a sofa made out of the tail section of a '57 chevy
a stained glass lamp that looks like a peacock's tail
a signed Elvis poster
and a thousand other things that I haven't had time to gawk at yet.

See below for pool:



















So things are good. Although I have been unconscious for most of my time here. I had no idea how sleep deprived I was.

My boy noticed that every time I pick up a book to try and work on my dissertation, I fall asleep. Apparently my body is trying to tell me something.

Hugs to everyone and I will post soon!