It's Been 7 Hours And Fifteen Days...

or something like that.

Hi! How are you? Good? Good. I'm... the same. Busy, but not really. Lazy, mostly. Distracted, usually.

So, hey there! I've been enjoying the last couple of guilt-free weeks before my semester began this past week. It's an amazing feeling, the freedom from guilt, one I haven't felt often in the last two and a half years of always having a paper to write, a chapter to read, a thought to think. Why did I think I wanted a doctorate, again??
Since I finished up the paper that I had to write for the Incomplete the semester before, and finished a fat scholarship application that I had been avoiding, I've actually been able to live like a normal person for a little while. No guilt every night that I wasn't doing school work. I have actually been able to read books! Books that had absolutely nothing to do with education or teaching or learning or social justice or achievement gaps or school improvement or ANYTHING!

Speaking of, I highly recommend Atonement (the book) if you haven't read it. I still haven't gone to see the movie, but I am now allowed, since I read it first. I also just finished reading another book that was pretty heavy - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. At another time I will write about how that book title is so freaking genius, and mostly because it reveals the ways in which my sister and I speak a language born of our shared childhood. Feel free to comment if that title rings a bell for you, too. Maybe your dad has the same dog-eared book of short stories that our daddy did.

What else? I've been enjoying New York, you know? Saw my friend's baby daddy from Austin (a musician) play a great show at the Rodeo Bar a couple of weeks ago, and found out from our waitress (who heard us talking about Texas beers) that we could purchase a Shiner Bock, off the menu, for $8 a bottle. Apparently they don't sell Shiner in NY state, so they go buy it somewhere and sell it under the table. Texan or no, I ain't buying no bottle of beer for $8. Puhleeze.

This Friday evening I dragged (not so much dragged since they both totally wanted to go) my roommate Bree and amiga Holly to the Kara Walker exhibit at the Whitney. I've read all about it, but of course waited til the second to last weekend before it closes. And Friday evenings are pay-what-you-wish, so of course the line wrapped around the block for all our cheap asses shivering outside. I don't have much to say about it, except that some of it was really rough to look at. I guess that's the point.

I spent last weekend upstate visiting My Former Charges. Their mom told me that one of my celebrity stalking targets (whose wife she is friends with) has just bought a house a few miles from them, and will be there for the spring. I will be visiting on weekends when play dates are scheduled, let me just say that right now.

Hey, maybe next time I'll share with you the obscene text message I got from Montauk Boy a couple of weeks ago. And did I mention he called and left a friendly message on New Year's Eve, as if we were old buddies who needed to catch up? Yeah, and then a week or two after that, I got a text that seemed to scream that SOMEBODY was up late by himself, with only a big screen plasma and pay-per-view porn. Geez. This and it's going on almost SIX MONTHS since he has confirmed I'm alive with any sort of response from me?? Please. I'd block his number if it wasn't such free entertainment. And we all know how much I love free entertainment.