Borders Blogging

Oh, how I miss the Internets! We arrived at my grandma's house on Friday morning and have been having a lovely time so far. Eating too much, not sleeping enough, but it's great to see everyone. My mom and her husband drove down yesterday and today, H and I are "on our own" because D and my mom went to see "Wicked" and my grandma was taken to Tea. It's been 11 years since I spent Christmas with my extended family (anyone outside of D & H), so it's great to be here. It's also great to be in warm, sunny weather. It's the 70s here today! And sunny! And gorgeous! 

Of course, there are also some annoyances that have cropped up since we left home. We spent Thursday night in an airport hotel in neighboring state, due to the early flight time. It was fine, except that the room stayed 75 degrees all night- even after we turned the heat off! And D was up coughing, so I was also up. And we ate some questionable Thai food that night, too. Our flight was on-time and not too bumpy or anything, so that was wonderful. Why does LAX have no restrooms? I mean, WTF? It's a huge airport and I only saw ONE ladies room between our gate and the baggage claim. I had to walk a LONG distance to the restroom nearest the baggage claim, then wait 15 minutes because there were only THREE STALLS! I don't know what they are thinking that place.

When we picked up our rental car, we went to the midsize section of the lot and they had a Toyota Prius! We were very excited to rent a hybrid, since we drive one at home. However, our car at home is a Honda Civic and we had to ask how to start the Prius- it's very unconventional that way. It's been fun to drive so far, although it BEEPS when in reverse- very irritating.

Last night there was car parked at my grandma's neighbor's house that had it's alarm (or something) go off every hour from 4:00AM on. It does this beep-beep-beeeep-beeep for about a minute, then shuts off, but it's EVERY HOUR! I woke up at 4:00, then 5:00 (and got up). Has anyone heard of this? Why would it go off at a regular interval like that? 

So, today we went looking for places to eat and our first stop had to be a T-Mobile HotSpot, since we don't know any ethnic food in our area. On the way there, we were this||close to being in a wreck. Some gimongous SUV cut us off in the right lane to make a turn and I slammed on the brakes as hard as I could. I think they still just grazed the car, because there is a mark on the front bumper that I hadn't noticed before. I was so shaken by the whole thing that I felt nauseous at first. I still can't believe that we didn't actually crash into them. So, we went to lunch at a chain restaurant, because we couldn't find any Indian* or Thai in the vicinity. Now, we're relaxing at Borders and I'm taking advantage of the month-long T-Mobile subscription I bought. It's sooo terrible not having internet access at my grandma's house. I can't even look up restaurants or anything!

Anyway- I hope you are all having a nice break and have a wonderful Christmas (if you celebrate it). 

*There were lots of South Indian places, which I love, but my stubborn, stubborn husband only wants Indian if he can eat lamb or goat.

Public Service Announcement

Blogging, blog-reading, and scrabulous-playing will be light until January 1st. I am heading out west for a 10-day family holiday extravaganza, the likes of which I have not experienced since 1996 (when I was single and childless!) My grandma does not have internet at her house, so I will be checking email and other quick things via excruciating cell phone dial-up or in wireless hotspots. I hope you all have a great Christmas (if you celebrate it) and a happy new year! And if you live in SoCal and would like to have a blogger meet-up, post a comment and/or send an email!

Cheers!

Women, family, & academia

I am feeling compelled to revisit a topic that I have written about before.  But first, let me share some recent blog-reading I've done. I recently sent an (unpublished) response to Rate Your Students regarding this post. Go read it....

Here is my response:

I'm sure you will get plenty of responses to the Sour Leprechaun, but I couldn't resist putting in my own two cents. He has tried to counter most of the typical arguments to his point, but as I read his post, I thought about some of the other similar posts that have told us all to 'quit our whining' because we have the best jobs in the universe. Most of the time, I agree- I love my job and wouldn't want to do anything else (well, most days). However, he has lost sight of the point of this blog- it a place to vent about our students, since they get to vent about us all over the web (MySpace, Facebook, the site that shall rename nameless). Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't recall reading any 'quit your whining' posts that were written by women. They seem to come from tenured, male (I would guess white) faculty, who are never called 'Mrs. Smith' by their students or had their credentials challenged because they are foreign or have dark skin. I would also suspect that the 'quit your whining' crowd are married to women who are not academics. Maybe these white, male faculty have never felt discriminated against by the administration (or department chair) because of their gender or race, but they should consider that there are others who have more crap to deal with because they are not white men.

Then, today Mommy/Prof had a comment on this Chronicle First Person column. I commented over there that "I was at a lunch the other day, when a fellow academic woman noted that she didn't know any female academics with more than two kids."

I just wanted to bring all of these things together because there are some important themes, here.  As I'm sure all of the newer mom blogger-academics can attest- it is really hard having a baby on the tenure track. Now, I can't claim to know this in the same way that these women do, because my daughter was born during my PhD (a week after I defended my dissertation proposal). I had my own struggles with this timing, but I never had to go teach a class when she was a baby, or pump breastmilk in my office, or even put her daycare until she was almost two. I know that many academic fathers are much more involved with their kids than dads a generation ago, but I think that a greater burden still falls on the mothers- especially when they are infants and moms are still nursing.  I can sympathize with the man in the Chronicle column on some level- and he does sound very involved in his family life and taking care of his kids. However, like many male academics, I would bet that his wife still takes on the majority of domestic and childcare duties- and that is fine, if that is the arrangement that they have made as a family- I am NOT criticizing that situation. I just wanted to touch on the idea that women academics with children have different struggles than male academics with children.  Do any of you have experiences with this? Are there any dads that would beg to differ? I am in a dual-academic marriage and know how things are for us (and I am not suggesting they are bad, or anything, btw!), but I would be curious to hear other points of view- especially in view of these links I've posted above.  Have we really made strides in gender equality in academe? I would say "no", but would love to hear from others.

scientiae carnival

Something in the water? Everywhere?? updated

Wow- there are pregnant people everywhere! I know of at least three bloggers (I forget where I saw the third one- sorry!), two friends IRL, and one former student who are having babies in008! How exciting for everyone. I have no exciting news- certainly not of that magnitude- as I have been prisoner in my own house since yesterday morning (it seems the entire week). D has some cold/flu yucky thing and will be missing her third day this week tomorrow. It's an extra big bummer, because she is supposed to sing in a 2nd/3rd grade musical tomorrow night, and play in a piano recital this weekend (and she's been too sick to practice all week). I hope she is at least healthy enough for the birthday party on Saturday- poor little thing. 

In better news- I submitted grades for one class and am just awaiting a take-home exam from the other very small class. This means that I had time to wrap presents today, but I still haven't gotten the will the write Xmas cards. Not that I don't have research work to do, but I feel compelled to spend most of my time with D as she's camped out on the couch all day. Today we (she, mostly) watched about four episodes of "Arthur", two movies (including "Good Boy"), and two episodes of "How It's Made". I guess I did do quite a bit of administrative stuff related to a grant purchase, and organizing meetings for early NEXT semester (I am chairing a search committee for the first time), and finished that grading, but I feel like I've been on this couch ALL DAY. Oh yeah- I vacuumed, too. Oh, and H is in Supermax Grading Jail today- with Bose Noise Canceling Headphone on- it's like he isn't even in the house!

As I said, I have nothing too exciting report- but did you all get a load of that student who wanted to use my computer the other day? That was completely bizarre... 

eta: I just found out that my (much younger) sister is ALSO having a baby girl next May! Wow!

That's a new one.

As I arrived at my office for my EARLY exam this morning, there was a student (whom I do not know) loitering around in the hall. 

Student: "Can I use your computer for five minutes?" 

WTF? I get students asking use my stapler all the time (so I now keep it hidden in a drawer, telling I don't have one) which is bad enough, but my computer- OMG.

A silly meme for a lazy rainy Sunday in December

Your Christmas Stocking Will Be Filled With Little Wrapped Presents

You've made Santa a very happy fellow this year. Don't worry - what happens at the North Pole stays at the North Pole!

What Will Be In Your Christmas Stocking?

(As seen here)

I had decided not to put up our tree this year, since we are going be gone over Christmas, so yesterday I bought a really cheap fake tabletop tree (it's SILVER) so that we could still put some ornaments out this year. I also put some lights on the railing of our front porch, but it looks pretty pathetic, because the two strings of 10-foot LED icicle lights didn't go as far as I though they would. Oh well- at least our stockings are up! (with our Asian elephant stocking hangers from Cost Plus- which I LOVE because they are so NOT Christmas). 

I have no grading to do until Tuesday when I give my only in-class exam, but I have lots of research work to do and two manuscripts to review before we leave town. I also need to do  laundry, but instead I am doing absolutely nothing. I haven't even showered, yet. It's dreary and rainy and all the snow from last week is melting(it's almost gone) Maybe, I better make some laundry progress, now that I think about it! What are you up to today? How's your weather and are you blaming it for any work you are not doing?

So true...

I am totally printing this out and hanging it outside of my office.

Happy 2nd Blog-Birthday to Me!

It's been two years since I started this blog! I had no idea what I was even going to do with it then, so it's amazing to me that I've kept it up this long. Of course, once I started meeting other bloggers and sharing my experiences with all of you, there was little chance of me giving it up. Almost 400 posts later, I'm still here in my little corner of the blogosphere. Two years ago, I was about to start my semester-long research leave and was worried about getting some more papers out before tenure review. I was feeling like I would never get a proposal funded (and I still wonder about ever getting an NSF grant!) Things have certainly improved since then, although I'm still worried about making research progress (but for different reasons, now!) Today, I don't have much to say otherwise. I just wanted to acknowledge my little milestone. Here's to another year!

Another Random Things Meme...

JustMe tagged me a few days ago for this and I am going to try to write something different than I've written in the past about myself:

1. I was a letter carrier (not the USPS kind) my last two years of high school (we spelled out the letters of the school name and marched in front of the band)
2. I never played on a sports team as a kid
3. I can't stand melon (even watermelon- yuck!)
4. I always say that I'm 5'6", but I'm actually a bit shorter than that (but over 5'5")
5. I am becoming addicted to Scrabulous on Facebook!
6. I don't like hot weather and would be happy to live somewhere it never went over 70 degrees (or below 40)
7. I can't watch torture scenes in movies

I am supposed to tag people, but I've seen this everywhere. If you haven't done it yet, consider yourself TAGGED! 

OK- that was a pretty boring list- you can read some juicier tidbits about me on some earlier incarnations of this meme here and here. I'm feeling lethargic and think I'll go watch a Lifetime movie or Antiques Roadshow and sleep early (unless I get caught up in Scrabulous!) I should wake up to a winter wonderland tomorrow...

I should be grading....

Or writing, judging by my word meter over there, but I am feeling incredibly lazy. I am currently at the point where I am wondering if I have PMS or the alternative, but only time will tell.  I did not do any real writing last month, which I am a bit embarrassed about, because what the hell have I been doing with my time? Playing Scrabulous? Watching TV? That is really not a productive way to spend my time. I like Chaser's idea of a monthly word count, so I think I will start back at zero for December and stick with the 2500 word goal- even though I will be out of town the last 11 days of the month (somewhere warm!). I am wondering what to do about web access then, too. My Grandma has no internet at her house, so I've usually resorted to excruciatingly slow dial-up through my cell phone. I am almost tempted to look into a short-term wireless broadband account from my carrier- do they do that, even? Anyway- writing. I still have the article that keeps getting abandoned, the proposal idea that I need to revise, and I also got an RFP for a new proposal due in February. So, I have plenty of writing of to do. Before I leave town on the 20th, I also need to finish up classes (not too much grading this time, at least), review two manuscripts, do some data analysis,  and work on those writing projects. Wow- I guess I have less than three weeks, then! And gift-buying to figure out, too!