I’ve been running around so much I’ve worn holes in my socks. Life has still been coming at me fast and furious but, I do believe that I can take a wee bit of a breather and get caught up on the important daily activities that I’ve been neglecting… like blogging… and laundry… and well, I was going to add dissertating, but ugh, like I want to call that an important daily activity. Blogging is oh so much more important!
Anyway, so now that I get to celebrate two whole weeks without getting on an airplane or having to meet some hoity toity person who wants me to talk smart stuff, I’ve got so much to share here. Not that y’all don’t want me to talk smart stuff, just smart FUN stuff, right? As in fabric and yarn and goofy stories rather than books and books and oh yeah, more books. Bah, no books for a bit!
So, to start mending my blog deserter ways, much like I was mending my socks last night… get it? Yeah, I know, you’ve all missed my dorky humor, right? Just say you do so I don’t have to continue the mending metaphor any further… And yes, I really did spend my Friday night mending socks. Dontcha wanna come visit and hang out? I’m really fun, promise.
First things first, Christina tagged me for the 7 things meme. Hmm, since you know I how I spend my Friday nights, what other knowledge do you really need? Yeah, I really am that boring so I thought I’d give you 7 things inspired by some of the wacky things that have happened to me in the past few months of woopy do work.
1. At a recent conference, I presented a paper that used curry as a central image for the type of exoticist consumption that I study in my diss. (Basically, it’s a study of why English consumers in the 19th century bought foreign goods which were distinctly foreign, like shopping at the local Pier 1 for things which look like they’ve come from your recent vacation to Bali.) That night, we decided it was appropriate to go to a Thai restaurant and have curry while sitting on the floor at low tables in a room decorated with tiki lamps and murals of huts on the beach. While my mind (and my neighbor) was telling me to do a postcolonialist reading of our experience, my tummy was telling me that this was really yummy food and I kinda liked my first time sitting on the floor for dinner.
2. Although I study the “exotic,” I’ve never been anywhere “exotic.” Ah, grad student budgets. We can buy books about other places but only dream of plane tickets there. My foreign travels are limited to a few trips to Mexico and the good ol’ semester abroad experience of train and hostel hopping around Europe. Oh, and Canada. Does Canada count as foreign travel when you regularly just hop across the border to get Chinese food? When, if ever, I become a real grown up with one of those regular salary things and without those pesky student loan things, I want to visit either South Africa or India.
3. I often consider myself travel cursed so perhaps you want to think twice about volunteering to join me on my world explorations. It’s remarkably odd when I get to and from my destination without a delayed or cancelled flight, lost luggage or some really horrific experience… like having a dirty diaper dropped on my head. Yup, it happened on a flight. Yup, it was as gross as it sounds. My only recent kerfuffles have been a cancelled flight out of Atlanta which prompted an overnight stay without any luggage and a road trip on a borderline flat tire which had to be constantly checked in the snow and slush while wearing a suit and heels. I considered myself lucky when I only had to air it up once. Despite all this, I love to travel and am generally up for a trip at a moment’s notice.
4. I went to San Francisco to visit dear friends and had my make-up done at a Bare Essentials store. I’m considering switching to mineral make-up although I’m still not convinced. Anyone use it and have recommendations?
5. My first make-up session was at a Merle Norman store. My mother and grandmother took me to get my first make-up lesson and my ears pierced for a birthday present although I don’t remember the year, maybe when I was 10 or so. I remember being horrified when the b*tchy old woman sniped at me for not really knowing how to put on the lotion. I also remember being terrified of her plastic fake nails as I just knew she was going to poke my eye out with those talons. Maybe this is why I’ve always been a bit intimidated by Sephora stores, like the scary girls who tend to work there will come out and get me for not really knowing what to do with all the potions and gimcracks on the shelves. Despite all this, I enjoy make-up and wear it daily, something I recently realized isn’t the norm in my chosen profession.
6. I hate the smell of bananas. I think I’ve shared this before but it bears repeating. Hate ‘em, don’t want to be in the room with ‘em, can’t watch someone else eating one without feeling nauseas. Every boyfriend I’ve ever had has taken sick and twisted pleasure in calling me every time he ate a banana outside my presence. They all get the same response. “Better buy yourself a toothbrush and use it before you see me because you’re not getting so much as a handshake until you’re disinfected.”
7. Early last week I was feeling all gung-ho and ready to get back to reality after all this interview/travel nonsense, planning to start my week off by getting up early and even blogging some pictures of some recent crafty projects. But… I was instead rudely startled out of bed by the horrifying sounds of a car accident. Seems one of Buffalo’s finest residents "borrowed" a car, sped down our street until he hit a parked car, totaling his own car. He then tried to drive away but since his "borrowed" car wouldn't work and people were starting to come out to see what was going on, he jumped out and ran. The parked car he hit skidded 10-15 feet into my car, innocently just waiting to take me to the library or somewhere equally boring. The police searched the ‘hood for a few hours trying to find the jerk who, knowing my luck, was probably hiding out under my back porch or something.
Then to just add some spice to the story, we find out the “borrowed” car has already been impounded by the police so they’re not real confident anything will come of our insurance claims, so unconfident, it seems, that they goofed up the report numbers and I had to chase police reports down at multiple precincts until I was finally told that in my ‘hood, something like a hit and run accident is low priority unless it involved death. Then I discover that the tow truck that showed up was a little questionable and I may be out $250 just for the privilege of having to get a friend to take me to an even more delightful ‘hood to rescue my poor little dork-mobile which really only has a few scratches that you can’t even see under all the snow and salt and uck that covers everything in the B-lo for eight months out of the year anyway.
I tell ya, that’s what you get for being gung-ho and ready to get down to business.
Seriously, I complain a lot but life’s been pretty good, if hectic. I’ve had wonderful opportunities recently to see old friends and meet new ones and have managed to finish lots of work, both official and crafty. It feels great to be getting things back onto a regular track and I’m looking forward to blogging more in March. Thanks for reading and hopefully tomorrow I’ll have pics to share.
Anyway, so now that I get to celebrate two whole weeks without getting on an airplane or having to meet some hoity toity person who wants me to talk smart stuff, I’ve got so much to share here. Not that y’all don’t want me to talk smart stuff, just smart FUN stuff, right? As in fabric and yarn and goofy stories rather than books and books and oh yeah, more books. Bah, no books for a bit!
So, to start mending my blog deserter ways, much like I was mending my socks last night… get it? Yeah, I know, you’ve all missed my dorky humor, right? Just say you do so I don’t have to continue the mending metaphor any further… And yes, I really did spend my Friday night mending socks. Dontcha wanna come visit and hang out? I’m really fun, promise.
First things first, Christina tagged me for the 7 things meme. Hmm, since you know I how I spend my Friday nights, what other knowledge do you really need? Yeah, I really am that boring so I thought I’d give you 7 things inspired by some of the wacky things that have happened to me in the past few months of woopy do work.
1. At a recent conference, I presented a paper that used curry as a central image for the type of exoticist consumption that I study in my diss. (Basically, it’s a study of why English consumers in the 19th century bought foreign goods which were distinctly foreign, like shopping at the local Pier 1 for things which look like they’ve come from your recent vacation to Bali.) That night, we decided it was appropriate to go to a Thai restaurant and have curry while sitting on the floor at low tables in a room decorated with tiki lamps and murals of huts on the beach. While my mind (and my neighbor) was telling me to do a postcolonialist reading of our experience, my tummy was telling me that this was really yummy food and I kinda liked my first time sitting on the floor for dinner.
2. Although I study the “exotic,” I’ve never been anywhere “exotic.” Ah, grad student budgets. We can buy books about other places but only dream of plane tickets there. My foreign travels are limited to a few trips to Mexico and the good ol’ semester abroad experience of train and hostel hopping around Europe. Oh, and Canada. Does Canada count as foreign travel when you regularly just hop across the border to get Chinese food? When, if ever, I become a real grown up with one of those regular salary things and without those pesky student loan things, I want to visit either South Africa or India.
3. I often consider myself travel cursed so perhaps you want to think twice about volunteering to join me on my world explorations. It’s remarkably odd when I get to and from my destination without a delayed or cancelled flight, lost luggage or some really horrific experience… like having a dirty diaper dropped on my head. Yup, it happened on a flight. Yup, it was as gross as it sounds. My only recent kerfuffles have been a cancelled flight out of Atlanta which prompted an overnight stay without any luggage and a road trip on a borderline flat tire which had to be constantly checked in the snow and slush while wearing a suit and heels. I considered myself lucky when I only had to air it up once. Despite all this, I love to travel and am generally up for a trip at a moment’s notice.
4. I went to San Francisco to visit dear friends and had my make-up done at a Bare Essentials store. I’m considering switching to mineral make-up although I’m still not convinced. Anyone use it and have recommendations?
5. My first make-up session was at a Merle Norman store. My mother and grandmother took me to get my first make-up lesson and my ears pierced for a birthday present although I don’t remember the year, maybe when I was 10 or so. I remember being horrified when the b*tchy old woman sniped at me for not really knowing how to put on the lotion. I also remember being terrified of her plastic fake nails as I just knew she was going to poke my eye out with those talons. Maybe this is why I’ve always been a bit intimidated by Sephora stores, like the scary girls who tend to work there will come out and get me for not really knowing what to do with all the potions and gimcracks on the shelves. Despite all this, I enjoy make-up and wear it daily, something I recently realized isn’t the norm in my chosen profession.
6. I hate the smell of bananas. I think I’ve shared this before but it bears repeating. Hate ‘em, don’t want to be in the room with ‘em, can’t watch someone else eating one without feeling nauseas. Every boyfriend I’ve ever had has taken sick and twisted pleasure in calling me every time he ate a banana outside my presence. They all get the same response. “Better buy yourself a toothbrush and use it before you see me because you’re not getting so much as a handshake until you’re disinfected.”
7. Early last week I was feeling all gung-ho and ready to get back to reality after all this interview/travel nonsense, planning to start my week off by getting up early and even blogging some pictures of some recent crafty projects. But… I was instead rudely startled out of bed by the horrifying sounds of a car accident. Seems one of Buffalo’s finest residents "borrowed" a car, sped down our street until he hit a parked car, totaling his own car. He then tried to drive away but since his "borrowed" car wouldn't work and people were starting to come out to see what was going on, he jumped out and ran. The parked car he hit skidded 10-15 feet into my car, innocently just waiting to take me to the library or somewhere equally boring. The police searched the ‘hood for a few hours trying to find the jerk who, knowing my luck, was probably hiding out under my back porch or something.
Then to just add some spice to the story, we find out the “borrowed” car has already been impounded by the police so they’re not real confident anything will come of our insurance claims, so unconfident, it seems, that they goofed up the report numbers and I had to chase police reports down at multiple precincts until I was finally told that in my ‘hood, something like a hit and run accident is low priority unless it involved death. Then I discover that the tow truck that showed up was a little questionable and I may be out $250 just for the privilege of having to get a friend to take me to an even more delightful ‘hood to rescue my poor little dork-mobile which really only has a few scratches that you can’t even see under all the snow and salt and uck that covers everything in the B-lo for eight months out of the year anyway.
I tell ya, that’s what you get for being gung-ho and ready to get down to business.
Seriously, I complain a lot but life’s been pretty good, if hectic. I’ve had wonderful opportunities recently to see old friends and meet new ones and have managed to finish lots of work, both official and crafty. It feels great to be getting things back onto a regular track and I’m looking forward to blogging more in March. Thanks for reading and hopefully tomorrow I’ll have pics to share.
I'm supposed to tag 7 more people but I think this one has gone around. I'll have to get caught back up on my blog reading and see if I can hunt down 7 folks who haven't played yet.
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