Thanksgiving

This year, I'm thankful for:

-David's family, who hosted Thanksgiving here today and invited my family
-My family, including my mom and P&T,who were here; my talented and beautiful siblings, who were here only in spirit; and my dad, who's in Indiana with his parents
-My SIX living grandparents
-Living within easy driving distance of both of our families
-My wonky, charming house and mushroom-filled yard
-My sweet kittens, even Pobbes, who destroyed another (silk, a gift transported from India) scarf this week
-Scarves, Capilene longies, and SmartWool socks
-My two online classes and the technology that lets me teach remotely
-My phone, on which I'm tapping this
-My few, but tenacious, readers here

Happy Thanksgiving!

Conciliatory

Undergrads love to begin their essays with dictionary definitions--if I'm lucky (read: never) they'll be from the OED or Merriam-Webster. Usually they're from dictionary.com. Sigh.

In any case, the word "conciliatory"--a word I used in last night's post, actually--has been in my head all day. I just looked it up, and in the spirit of the papers I've been grading already today (and still should be), here is Merriam-Webster's definition:

Definition of CONCILIATE*

transitive verb

1 : to gain (as goodwill) by pleasing acts

2 : to make compatible : reconcile

3 : appease

intransitive verb

: to become friendly or agreeable

The thing is, most of my friends are pretty liberal. The ones I've hung out with most over the past decade or so, the ones I met after college and in graduate school, tend to be really liberal. I get most of my news from NPR and Time Magazine, and consider it balanced not least because I do hear conservative opinions with which I disagree; my most liberal friends find those media outlets far too right-leaning.

In any case, because of the circles in which I move, I don't meet a lot of Romney supporters. Academics are a liberal bunch, and Minneapolis is a liberal city.*** Hood River is, too. Plus, I think I'm also still in a demographic young enough to favor Obama for his own relatively youthful persona and ideas. The few Romney supporters I do know tend to be friends from high school or even earlier.

There are a handful of them on Facebook, though: nine professed "like"rs of Romney/Ryan, and a few more who run Republican. I've been thinking a lot about them today, partly because, although FB has been surprisingly rather silent on topics political (after a brief outpouring of joy last night), I have seen a few posts of sadness, disappointment, and, yes, some bitterness. There were premature cries that Obama had lost the popular vote--and an identification with how Gore supporters must have felt in 2000.

In embarrassing truth, I didn't vote in that election; I was out of state and hadn't filed for an absentee ballot. I also bought into the sentiment around me that there wasn't even a substantive difference between the two candidates, though the subsequent debacle of the election, with the failure of our voting system on global display as a Floridian court handed W. the victory, appalled and horrified me.

I may have had this sticker on my car

But I do remember how it felt in 2004 to have Bush actually, legitimately, elected, by popular and electoral vote. I couldn't believe that after seeing the mess he'd made at home and abroad over the past four years (and listening to this This American Life episode!), Americans would vote to retain him. I believed then, as I do now, that there were nefarious things at play, not least the manipulation into a constant state of fear.

When he won, I was crushed. I was enraged. I was in a state of disbelief. No one had loved Kerry or anything, but we were ABBA voters--Anyone But Bush Again. Anyone. That election was to have been a referendum on Bush's failed policies, a chance to regain some face in the world--to begin to erase the embarrassment so eloquently summarized by "freedom fries."

I thought Bush was ruining our country. I still believe he did it a dire disservice, mostly by entering unnecessary and unaffordable wars--not just one (largely supported by the international community), but an ill-advised, if not illicit, unrelated attack premised on false evidence.

So I think I can identify a little bit with the friends who thought this election was their chance to oust a President they believed was leading the country down a path to ruin. By the end of his two terms, I think most people agreed that Bush had been an epic failure. It remains to be seen how people judge Obama at the end of his second. Obviously I think he's by far the better option to continue digging us out of the mess Bush left behind. But the truth takes its time to emerge, and whatever happens, right now a lot of the country is feeling sad and angry.

How, then, to conciliate? I began, and erased, many FB statuses last night. I wanted to celebrate, but I didn't want to gloat or provoke. I went on a "liking" spree of friends' euphoric posts, but couldn't bring myself to post my own, although I'd posted several politically-themed links over the past several weeks and wasn't exactly in the closet about supporting Obama. I settled on a quote from Jon Stewart's live coverage: "Perhaps the fever has broken." 

This morning I changed my profile picture from the "I Voted" sticker I'd had up since submitting my ballot by mail, replacing it with a picture of me grinning hugely as I hold my tiny new niece, whose eyes are wild and mouth agape as she seems to throw a miniature gang sign. I figured it was just absurd enough to pass my personal only-me-in-my-profile-pic rule, and might--as I think of it in light of the earlier definition--be a pleasing act to gain me some goodwill.

Because I've been feeling kind of like a bad guy! I haven't been nearly as strident as some of my friends, in fora virtual or otherwise. But I did (and, okay, do; I'm still working on that) think Romney supporters were making the wrong, wrong, wrong choice. I was terribly relieved that Obama was re-elected. I'm proud to be an American, and want to celebrate! But it hurts to be on the losing side, especially when you believe passionately, as it seems so many of us did.

So, friend who posted about the impending destruction of all small business (though he appears to have subsequently removed it), I'm sorry. Friend who requested time and space to "lick our wounds," I'm sorry. I know how it feels to believe the apocalypse is upon you.

I can only hope that the fever has broken. I hope that Washington will be able to actually get necessary work done. I hope that we can all still be friends. Really.

*Apparently "in the top 10% of lookups"** at their website
**Firefox's spellchecker doesn't accept "lookups" as a valid word
***The day after the Vice-Presidential debate, a little old lady struck up a conversation with me in line at the post office, in a thick accent criticizing the arrogant young Ryan and his rude behavior. When I asked where she was originally from, she told me she was from Poland--and as a young teenager had smuggled explosives across enemy lines during the Soviet occupation!

Late

It's odd to me that when I'm the only one in the house, it takes me longer to get to bed. You'd think that with fewer distractions, I'd be in bed earlier, but it never seems to work that way.

Tonight I went to dinner and a movie* with a friend, and then we yakked for close to an hour while we were parked at the curb outside my house. Then I needed to finish hemming the skirt I made this weekend(!) and want to wear tomorrow, and that took quite a while.

Tomorrow evening I teach, but I also need to run several errands before I leave town early Wednesday. That flight is at 6 a.m., which doesn't give me much time at all between when I get home from teaching and when I leave for the airport the next morning. Since I plan to spend as much of that time as possible sleeping, I have a very full day ahead of me tomorrow.

So! Off to bed.

*I may say which one later

Final

Tomorrow, I teach my last class at the for-profit institution that will remain nameless.

I look forward to having my Fridays back!

Ideas

Sometimes, I come up with ideas for my survey class that I'm pretty proud of. I like the project where I have the students team up and design a logo for an assigned period we've studied. I like the ones where they research an assigned topic and then give a creative presentation to the class. I like playing Jeopardy! with review questions (although this works much better with a smaller class than with 60!).

But today, I struck what may be pedagogical gold: instead of showing a 30-minute supplemental video in class,  I let them go early and made watching the video on their own time (it's on YouTube) optional for extra credit. Granted, the ones who want the points will be e-mailing me their responses, so it's a bit more work for me. But I got to leave almost an hour earlier than usual! And since I have such a long drive home, I may have been even happier about it than my students were (and they were plenty happy).

On my drive home, the moon was huge and pumpkin-colored, with dark wisps of cloud fluttering across it in a way that made it look quintessentially Halloweenesque. Growing up in the Northwest, I remember being baffled by descriptions of the moon as red or even orange; the most I ever saw it was yellowish, or maybe slightly peachy. But in the Midwest, we definitely have that full-on harvest moon thing going. What about you Northwesters? Do you ever see the moon as orange or red, or am I just imagining a geographically paler moon from my youth?

Profit

So this fall I've been teaching an Art Appreciation class at a for-profit college. I feel very conflicted about this, because I really think their model is despicable. Ideals about what one can accomplish, what knowledge one can impart and creativity one can inspire fade fairly quickly in an environment where half one's students are functionally illiterate. What's worse is that this college is happily taking their money (federal student loans most, if not all, of it) without any apparent consideration of whether the students can read, speak English, or consider the implications of the debt they'll be incurring--even if they can miraculously get a degree and a job out of the deal.

And I'm complicit in the system! I can tell myself that at least I'm offering them quality instruction--but much of the time, even when I'm dumbing it way down, I don't know how much they're actually getting. I have all sorts of lofty ideas about teaching students how to see, but as I said, those tend to fade quickly.

Anyway, I was just going to mention how I had to teach today instead of yesterday because of the holiday--information I only learned, from my students, LAST Friday. So today we got one hour into class before we got kicked out, by the class that regularly meets there on Saturdays--surprise! Two of my students also had to leave their own Saturday class early to come to mine.

However, it's clear that this school has much more significant problems than their poor scheduling and communication. As I said, the whole model is broken. I do love my students, but I'll be glad to be done.

Tuesdays

Tuesdays, I teach in Mankato.

I usually spend the first eight hours of the day prepping for class--occasionally less if it's material I'm especially comfortable with. (The class I'm teaching is Survey I, cave paintings to cathedrals, so I usually need a significant refresher. Also, I'm sort of obsessive about my PowerPoints.)

Then I drive 82 miles, which takes a little less than two hours, depending on traffic.

Then I teach for three hours. Tonight I had it somewhat easier because I showed a 50 minute film, but I'd had to prepare an earlier quiz to go along with it, so all I really saved was my voice.

Finally, after questions from students and packing up, I drive home.

Tuesdays are long.

NABLOPOMO!

It's November again (what? already?), and so, as is my habit at this time of year, I'm once again attempting 30 posts in 30 days with National Blog Posting Month. I must admit I'm off to a less than stellar start, writing this post at 11pm after a long evening of teaching (though maybe I can get some credit for doing so on my new Touchpad, from bed?), but hopefully future posts will be a bit more thoughtful and substantive.

As usual, I invite all of you blogging Alert Readers (if I have any left!) to join me in this endeavor. AnGloPhOne (auto-corrected; 'can't figure out how to change it back) is much more fun with friends. Here's to an inspiring November!

Grading

Uh-hmmmmmmm.

I spent all day grading exams and am about halfway done. The first half always takes longer than the second half, but I still write too many comments and generally take too long on all of them. I comfort myself with the fact that for their third and final exam, since we're not even returning them, I won't have to write any comments. And, really, by that point I pretty much know which students are going to fall into which grade brackets--so I'll only have to skim the exams for my overachievers, at least. Unfortunately, I also know I'll take too long on those, since I always picture my B and C students studying and trying really hard in a last-ditch effort for the final... but then they score as their usual B and C selves. There are rarely surprises.

I am also slightly comforted by the fact that after I returned their first exams, one of my students actually thanked me, in section that day, in front of the rest of the class, for the notes I'd written, and said they'd been helpful. That never happens, and it was really validating. In fact, did I already blog about that here? I know I thought about it, because it was such a rare flash of encouragement.
I don't enjoy grading under any circumstances, but I will say it's more enjoyable to grade papers and tests for which one has designed the assignment. Grading another professor's assignments, by his or her standards, is always a challenge. One more reason I'm ready to be done with this degree.

Blahg

Oh, NaBloPoMo, how tiresome you begin to seem, barely more than halfway through the month! I am not at all sure I'm cut out for daily blogging.

I submitted my fellowship application yesterday, and today my students took their second exams, so a tall pile of blue books awaits me.

What I really need to do is draft another chapter so I have something to present to dissertation workshop in a mere three weeks.

That's about all I've got today.

10-10-10

Obviously, I have been a blogging failure of late, of which my mom specifically called yesterday to remind me (hi Mom!).

I've been distracted by any number of wonderful things, about which I'll hopefully post--probably when I'm sufficiently interested in avoiding non-wonderful things, such as the piles of midterm exams my students are taking on Tuesday.

In the meantime: Marathon! I ran my fourth Twin Cities Marathon last Sunday. I did the first 17 miles with my very speedy running buddy, who was doing her first ever marathon, before I couldn't keep up. I ended up finishing in 4:37, which I just realized (thanks to the wonder of the Internet) is actually my second fastest marathon time. Speedy finished about half an hour before me, which is sort of heartbreaking, but she's so amazing I can't be bitter.

I think this is the link to the album of pictures I posted on FaceBook.

Europa

Guys!

We're leaving in, like, eight minutes for Europe. I'm not sure I've actually mentioned the trip here; I've failed to mention quite a lot of things.

In any case, I've been adjured by relatives to post updates and pictures from our travels, and we're taking David's little lappy, so I will try!

The itinerary is: Frankfurt (by way of a 10-hour layover in Reykjavik), Roma, Firenze, Venezia, Vienna (but only because the overnight train to Linz was booked), Linz. Linz is where I'll be attending the art festival that is the research portion of this trip. I get back Monday night before I have to teach on Tuesday.

And we're off!

Mrph

Internets, I am Unhappy. This is rather ridiculous, as it is finally (theoretically) spring, I live in a wonderful city, I am surrounded by loving friends and family, I have the opportunity to travel, and I do have funding for next year.

At the moment, however, I am feeling a bit blue. For one thing, I didn't get the fellowship I wanted for next year, which means I will be TA-ing next year. After a multiple-year streak of having all three of our nominees for this fellowship funded, this year they only gave us one. Boo.

Relatedly, I hate Facebook. I don't want to hear anyone's good news.

Also, it has been raining here FOREVER.

When I tried to wrest myself out of this gloom by looking at pictures of Santa Fe, where I spent last weekend and where the weather was actually beautiful and I had interesting adventures, I discovered that for some reason all the photos my camera had captured were the size of postage stamps. Sigh.

Anyway, through the magic of Picasa, I turned them into a collage for you (click for a larger view):
Here is a collage of the (again, unexpectedly tiny) adventures that ensued a few weeks ago when we discovered four tiny squirrels in the front yard:
And finally, here are itsy pictures of earlier this spring (when, pleasantly enough, the sun did shine), including flowers on the university campus and visits to Hidden Falls, the State Capitol, and Hidden Beach:
In other happy news, this has been the week of weeknight dinner parties, with one on Monday to celebrate a friend's successful dissertation defense and endoctoring, and one last night to make potato pizza for a friend and her friend, to whom she had repeatedly raved about this particular dish. Last night's was a pretty predictable affair, but Monday's was absolutely lavish. We started with lemon pasta with herbs and shaved parmesan on a bed of garden-fresh arugula; followed that with an unbelievably good salad of watermelon, goat cheese, olive oil, flaked sea salt and a dash of freshly grated pepper; and enjoyed a main course of salmon with asparagus pesto (though I forwent the fish and had my pesto with pasta) before concluding with a strawberry angel food cake from a local bakery.

Ahhhh, I feel somewhat better.

In other good news, I have finally, FINALLY! almost nailed down the dates for my Montreal research trip. And it's supposed to stop raining tomorrow, maybe. The TA preference sheet for next semester just arrived, and if I get my first choice (fingers crossed hard), I'll be okay. Cold weather makes me want to cook, so maybe I'll put together some lentil soup and cornbread before going to hear Lorna Simpson talk. And Paul and Ter are coming out weekend after next! Thrilling!

600

For real, guys. This is my real 600th post. Yay!

This morning I was sitting around in my pajamas, drinking coffee and thinking I didn't have anything scheduled for today other than the fellows' luncheon at noon, when I realized that as today was November 11, I had a presentation to give in the freshman seminar I sit in on, directly following the luncheon. A presentation that hadn't even crossed my mind since I'd written some notes and a tentative outline a week ago. A presentation that was supposed to be 30-45 minutes long!

I moaned a couple of oh noes,* dashed for the shower, and there calmed myself with the reassurances that it was really more of a facilitation of discussion than a lecture, that it was over material I knew well, and that I could just grab a couple of slides from PowerPoints I'd already presented.

Anyway, it ended up being fine, and I had a really interesting discussion with the freshmen about what it means to be a human and an individual, about science and our understanding of life, and even about some art. I'm still not sure how intelligible or coherent I was, but, yeah, the students had some great comments, and the two professors and my fellow sitting-in grad student told me it had gone well.

The moral of that story is that I really need to make sure I write everything on my Google calendar. That way, even if I forget about it, David will see it and remind me.

*I always remind myself of this weatherman when I do that (see 0:46', in particular--and don't see it at all if you're particularly profanity-averse!).

Firsts

A few firsts for today, in order of occurrence:

• Running to and around both lakes and back with A, during which we averaged a spectacular* 8:30 pace over 9.43 miles!
• Noticing that Band-Aid now embosses their boxes with braille
  
• Watching Doubt at the Riverview (pretty good, very well-acted, and definitely thought- and conversation-provoking)
• Carrying half a dozen local organic eggs (safely) home from the co-op on my bike, three in each jacket pocket

Not a first: being so exhausted after a morning long run that I vaguely hurt all over and sort of want to cry, not from pain or emotion, but from tiredness.

I still have six finals to grade. Back to it.

*This is relative, of course, but for me that pace is definitely spectacular.

Revisited

This past week has been a little nuts.

Wednesday, I gave a two-hour lecture on Picasso to the prints class for which I've been TAing this semester. (My friends at school said, "What do you know about Picasso?" The answer is, before prepping this lecture, basically nothing--especially about his prints. Now, after a whole lot of reading and PowerPointing, I know a little bit.)

Monday, I had to submit material to the dissertation workshop that met today, so I wrote a draft of my Portland presentation.

Today, in addition to presenting at workshop, I also had to return the 65 3-5 page papers my students had turned in two weeks ago, but which I hadn't really touched before the past few days because I'd been preparing that Picasso lecture.

They take their final exams next Wednesday, and I'll have 65 of those to grade in a single week, because I'm flying to Portland the next Thursday.

But, before then, I have a week of relative relaxation to make up for last week's craziness. I thus have time to catch you up on last week, which in addition to crazy lecture prep, writing, and grading, involved a VISIT! From David!

Wednesday after I picked him up at the airport we went to the Mall of America, ended up having the picnic I'd packed on the seventh floor of the West parking garage (my favorite place in the MOA, returned to school for my lecture, and then ate with my neighbors at Pancho Villa. Thursday, we had even warmer and more gorgeous weather, so we took the bus downtown, wandered Nicollet Mall and the farmers' market, explored Mill Ruins park, and enjoyed an appetizer outside at Spoon River before meeting a friend at a theater downtown for the live broadcast of This American Life. Friday, we went for a run around the lakes, biked to the Walker sculpture garden and back, caught a film at the historic Riverview, and had a lovely dinner at Jasmine 26. Saturday, we met friends for brunch, ate tamales at the Midtown Global exchange and poked through the booths, took the Greenway to the river and discovered a trail I'd never noticed before that goes clear down to the water, and then attended a friend's birthday party. Sunday, David had to fly home, but we got brunch at the Bad Waitress and still managed to get him on his plane in time (if only barely!).

You'll notice (especially those of you who have had the tour!) that I definitely have my favorites when it comes to showing people around town. It's slightly different without a car; whereas I took Paul and Ter and Ellen, on their respective visits, to my favorite Indian restaurant in the suburbs, that wasn't on the itinerary this time around. However, we were able to bus and bike pretty much everywhere else with ease--and the carless tour does present a unique way to see the city!

I had to work slightly more than I would have liked to, but David was a good sport and even helped me assemble and format the slide list for the final exam. I didn't do any of my own writing or grade any papers, which sort of caught up with me after he left, but now I'm caught up and won't be deluged again until next Wednesday! That's plenty of time to revise the Portland paper and pack for that trip.

If you're interested in pix from the visit, David has posted the highlights here:

Wrong

Today I came across, for the first time, in an e-mail from the University president about our fairly dire funding situation, a word that made my skin crawl: planful. As in,

While it is clear that we will need to reduce the size of our workforce over the next two years, it is our goal to limit layoffs by continuing to take advantage of attrition, by reexamining the ways we work and being planful about filling vacant positions, by exploring other options including voluntary reduced-time appointments, and by improving service and efficiency.

Ewwwww.

Other things I am over:

• Winter (snow this morning)
• Staring at my computer, unable to write
• Finally writing something, only to end up
  
• Workshopping said paper and being told that I need to do a lot of
• Revising it before
• Giving a Dry Run presentation on it tomorrow

I'm also over grading essay exams, and submitting fellowship and grant proposals--but at least temporarily, I'm actually done with those! Woo! More time for "revising," which at the moment means staring at my computer and procrastiblogging. Sigh.

Week-ling

It's kind of hard to believe that today is only Tuesday.

The week of Thanksgiving always throws me off: Wednesday feels like Friday, Thursday feels like Saturday, etc. And since I was up late completing a fellowship application (which our department's awesome administrative assistant and I got collated, copied, signed, sealed, and--yes--delivered, to the Graduate College this afternoon); and since I had a student break down crying during my office hours, which is always a bit exhausting; and since it seems as though half of our department is in relational readjustment; and also because we went ahead and took an hour of happy after school; it feels like much later in the week.

In fact, this evening I haven't done any work, just cleaning. My mom taught me it's always better to return from a trip to a clean and orderly home (and the friend returning from Peru may swing by to pick up her plants while I'm gone, too, so I'd like things to be tidy). Thursday morning, between five and six (my friend said he'd call tomorrow to let me know whether it was going to be closer to five or to six) I'm heading to Chicago! Road trips make me excited in general, but ones around the holidays always feel especially festive. Plus, I get to see Ellen, and this time I don't have to take the bus. Which I did, two years ago, although for some reason I completely neglected to blog about it at all.

Hey! Last night I found out I was accepted to present at a conference in Milwaukee this February. I'm pretty excited about that; I've never been, and if I drive, I'm also hoping to get a look at Madison.

Comparison essays

The final essay on my students' second midterm asked them to identify and then write about the images you see above, Manet's Dejeuner sur l'herbe and Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

WARNING: Generally, one should avoid reading student essays before trying to do any serious writing of one's own.

The native speaker who is not on track to pass the course:
"In both paintings we are both looking at the woman as being the major focus. They both just stare at you in a gaze which women of the time period really seldom did. Image on the left didn't get to appear in all studios due the fact the woman didn't car she was "naked" not "nude" the forest was not what was being captured backgrounds in both of these image really was to impotant. The mono Lisa on right thugh fully clothes still captured the viewers gaze. The lighting the image on left shows the shadowing of the womans body. Overall you get a feel that women in image on left doesn't have high authority but is just a woman from the streets with the artist trys to depict since he was from (?) streets personally. The Mono Lisa seems to be a women with restrant dignity fully clothed with the gaze that seems to follow you everywhere."

Another native speaker, whose essay is more representative, and includes more information, but is rather oddly phrased:
"The comparison I want to make between these two images is the subject of women. Mona Lisa has always been a famous portrait of a female, and Manet's subject of the naked female and fully dressed scholars have both been seen as controversial paintings. Mane's picnic scenery caused great uproar of women being no more than objects or showcase by them being nude and appearing to be no more than animals. The subject matter for this piece was not exactly what Manet was shooting for, because he was focusing on technique, which this piece is part of the beginning to Impressionism, but besides that his artwork reflected a negative context on women. On the flipside, Mona Lisa appeared long before Manet's painting and similar to Manet, Leonardo was putting focus on painting techniques as well of the use of sfumato (the hazy appearance), but the subject matter of the woman is a complete different connection. Mona Lisa does not appear with jewels or extensive elaborate anything. She shows no other than an average woman. The positive aspect of this piece of the woman, because she is able to gaze at her viewer and this was something very new and real for the time. The similarities between these pieces is the use of landscape as distance, creating a lighter background to bring the viewer backwards. Also the color choices are both part of a muted pallette. There are no bright reds or ranges. Finally, I want to note the difference of the Mona Lisa being very sculptural and Manet's piece has the essence of flatness like the canvas. This was part of his style creating a flatten image with dimension."

The non-native speaker that I kind of just want to hug for this gem:
"These two paintings have some similarities and also there are some differences between "Mona Liza" and "Lancheon on the grass". These two paintings were made at different time, i.e. different Art period and characteristics of that time influence the composition of the painting. First, you notice the nude model on the paintig on the left where Mona Liza has her dress on, almost all body is covered under it. The model from painting on the left look straight to us as Mona Liza does. However, they look differently on viewer, especially that model on the left. She is nude, and it does not seem like she is worried about, she is in compony of to mans but it also does not worry her. Her body is so realistic, and she is like wants to show as that this is not unmoral. She shows that she is beautiful and she does not want to hide it under any dresses, she wants to show her true beauty. L. Da Vinci shows the beauti of Mona Liza by not using any jewerly on her or any bright and fancy dresses. He shows her true beauty by elimenating all these details. He use Light and dazziness on his painting to show mona Liza's mystic view. Background of these two paintings are very different. "Lancheon on the grass" has very peacefull in very warm colors painted background where L. Da Vinci uses very mystic and unrealistic in cold colors back ground. There are more Realistis view of "Lancheon on the grass" than the wiew of "Mona Liza." It is like Leonardo Da Vinci wants to show mystic character of his woman where Monet opens his woman to the viewer and says "Look at her she is so beautiful why does she need to hide it under the dress"

Uninspired

Here I am again, in the very last minutes of the day, knocking out my daily blog post without much to say. I still have eleven museum projects to grade (not that I've been counting for the past 37 or anything), but they're easier now that I'm accompanying them with a decaf chai and freshly baked bread.

I made another batch of French onion soup this afternoon (I didn't get quite enough last time, as I had to share with the party!) to accompany another loaf of Leah's bread (yes! another one! I wanted to get it right, and it's so tasty!). Actually, it's so tasty that I've eaten pretty close to half the loaf already.

It seems to be slightly calming the weird evening jitters, a result possibly of the knowledge that I'll be up late grading these persistently awful papers, or more likely of the afternoon peppermint mocha I was tempted into by a 50% off coupon and the knowledge that I had lots to do. It made me rather excitable and loquacious during my dissertation workshop, but seems to have done the usual messing with my brain chemicals, as I feel vaguely chilly and twitchy. Mostly, I want to go to bed.

So! Back to the papers!