I do more than watch televsion, I swear

But you wouldn't know it from my posting on here. There's some big stuff going on with the job, but I'm not sure how to blog about it without talking about specifics. Good stuff, though.

On the other hand, I am really impressed with the judging on Project Runway this season. :)

I'm going to bed now. My goal for tomorrow: finalize all my syllabi. I need to just stop tinkering with them and get on with it.

I think I broke my brain

I've been going to new faculty trainings for the last week and a half, interspersed between all the getting ready for the semester last minute stuff. My syllabi are all mostly done. I just need to sit down with a calendar and make sure I haven't scheduled exams and papers to all be due at the same time. I honestly feel like I may have broken my brain, though, with as much stuff as I have been doing. I couldn't remember what my name was when I answered the phone a few minutes ago.

So I'm relaxing and watching Top Chef. That contestant that my brother has nicknamed Ed Hardy is a jerk and needs to get eliminated. Quickly. My brother has also nicknamed most of the other contestants, but my favorite nickname is Winnie the Red because he looks so much like Winnie the Pooh.

Cooper is adapting well to daycare. The first day it took 20 minutes to convince him to let go of GeekBoy, but now we're to the point that though there are still a few tears some mornings. But he is making friends with some of the other kids, and is learning a lot of new stuff. When GeekBoy went to pick him up yesterday, Cooper walked out the front door, stopped and said, "Moon!" He repeated it a few times and GeekBoy was looking around to figure out what he was talking about. Cooper bent down, picked up a crescent shaped rock that looked like a moon, and said, "Moonrock!" He loves rocks. Now if I can just convince him to stop pulling the leaves off the houseplants to show them to me.

TVs Best Week Ever

Top Chef is back tonight! I thought Wolfgang Puck was hysterical as a judge. But seriously, whatever contestant it was that asked Jennifer Carroll if she was the pastry chef when she said she worked at 10 Arts by Eric Ripert needs to be smacked. Sexist much? She's the Chef de Cuisine! My bet is she makes it through to the final four.

And now I'm watching Top Chef Masters. I'm hoping Rick Bayless wins. I love his food.

And tomorrow it's Project Runway! Finally! And Project Runway All Stars is going to be the icing on the cake! I think that is enough exclamation points for one entry.

Forms of transportation I have used in the last nine days.

Car
Plane
Van
Ferry
Subway
Horse-drawn carriage
Shuttle
Speed boat
Tour boat
Bike
Metro train
Walking, walking and more walking
Running (to catch a connecting flight because the first one was late)
Boogie Board
Swimming

I'm sunburnt, bug bitten and have blisters on the bottoms of both my feet from all the walking. It was a great vacation. But right now, I'm glad to be able to sit on something that isn't moving.

Only God can see the intents and thoughts of your heart

which is why I totally agree with this video which I first saw over at Kate's:




And it is why I feel comfortable in saying to this officer: you didn't say Gates was a "banana-eating jungle monkey" just that he was acting like one. Well, I'm not saying you are a racist, I'm just saying you're acting like one.

When art imitates life

Sometimes it feels like this artist is reading my journal.

A room of one's own

With the start of my new faculty position next month, I will have an office of my own. I am very excited about this. An office! Of my own! With a door that shuts! But I've also been thinking a lot about the message I want my office to project. I'm going to be at a teaching university, so I expect (and I may be wrong about this) to have students in my office on a regular basis. The student body is overwhelmingly socially conservative. The faculty are not as socially conservative as the students on the whole, but as a religious university, the students and faculty are part of the same social system when it comes to reinforcing conservative gender roles. I will be only the second female faculty member in a large department. From my interactions with the other female faculty member, I know that I can expect male and female students alike to challenge the appropriateness of me being a professor as a married female with a young child.

As excited as I am about having an office, I expect to have to tread a fine line when it comes to making that space my own. I want to decorate it in a matter that reflects my somewhat eclectic loves and quirky personality, but that does so in a manner that doesn't undermine my desire to project a professional demeanor. This is just one more facet of my reexamination of the way I present myself professionally. I have been shopping for new clothes (actual skirts and stockings and stuff) because there is no more teaching in jeans and oxford shirts. I'm already battling with impostor syndrome on being hired into this position. I want a comfortable space that makes me feel like myself, but I'm not sure how I am going to do that and still be authoritative enough to defend myself against the challenges I know will come. Sisyphus and Historiann have been compiling lists of school supplies for new graduate students. I wish there was a list of school supplies for a new faculty member.