I love stealing surveys from Lisa. I think I've stolen this one a few years in a row.
Year-End Survey
1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before? I went to Greece. And I went to Dollywood.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Kind of. I think I resolved to go to the gym about 4 days a week and/or for at least 5 hours a week. And I did that, up until I majorly sprained my ankle in August. I returned in September (though not to my favorite step class). Then, with the two classes at two schools, the dis, the job applications, etc. I kind of stopped for most of October and November. But I've started right back up again in December.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Oh my god! Yes! This is my first "friend" birth. My friend Emily from Ithaca gave birth to a beautiful baby boy last Friday. His name is Collin. And my cousin Carolyn also gave birth to her first -- a boy named Cavan. A lot of C's and a lot of Irishness going around.
4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes, my beautiful Great Aunt Dorothy passed away just after Thanksgiving. Although, of course, it is sad, she was ready to go. She was a lovely woman, and I think of her every day.
6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? J-O-B. Not adjunct.
7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? I guess July 14. Mike and I celebrated five years of marriage. :^)
8. What was your biggest success? I managed to get a dissertation chapter done, an 80 page one, no less during a semester when I was absolutely overloaded with work.
9. What was your biggest failure? I was turned down for a directing job at Yale after getting very close. I don't know if it was a failure, but it hit me pretty hard.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? That sprained ankle kept me out of step class until just this week. And I still felt it!
11. What was the best thing you bought? Something I didn't expect to buy -- my new MacBook. It's the cheapest one, but the best for me because it's small and delightful.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My cousin Scott and his wife Dena have twins. And they are just the two most delightful girls ever. So I'm going to give them the medal of honor here for being fantastic parents.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Some of my students plagiarized at Baruch, and I had a hard time dealing with that. It was depressing, appalling, and time-consuming.
14. Where did most of your money go? Mortgage. Roof. Rest of Car. MacBook.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Greece. We haven't been on vacation in 5 years!!!!
16. What song will always remind you of 2007? Either Gimme More or Stronger.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you a.happier or sadder? I think happier. I'm happier when I'm busy and last year I was on fellowship and not that busy. But I did have the play to look forward to, so perhaps I'm sadder. Either way, there isn't much of a difference b. thinner or fatter? About the same. I tend to be thinner over the spring and summer and slightly pudgier in the winter months. c. richer or poorer? poorer, I guess. No more Cornell money for me to spend.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? I was pretty damn busy. Still, I'd like to have more of the dis done. But wouldn't everybody?
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Maybe watched a bit less of ABC shows online.
20. How will you be spending Christmas? I actually don't know what we'll be doing on Christmas yet.
21. Did you fall in love in 2007? Always!
22. What was your favorite TV program? Lost. I can feel the anticipation beginning to pump through my veins like heroin.
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Not personally that I can think of.
24. What was the best book you read? Joe Roach. It.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery? Amy Winehouse.
26. What did you want and get? a job teaching writing at Fordham.
27. What did you want and not get? Yale.
28. What was your favorite film of this year? No Country for Old Men
29. What did you do on your birthday? Unfortunately, nothing much. I spent time with Mike mostly. I wanted to have a party. But I think that will have to wait for the larger done with the PhD thing...let's hope that happens.
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If people close to me had to struggle less with life's difficulties.
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007? More professorial than ever. But not the funky kind. The tweed kind.
32. What kept you sane? Mike.
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Justin Timberlake. I'm not attracted to him. But I fancy him.
34. What political issue stirred you the most? The primary elections. They are fascinating!
35. Who did you miss? Everybody. People from Cornell. People from MA. Everybody.
36. Who was the best new person you met? Shoot. I don't know. I've met a lot of great people. But no one that I have become close to friend-wise.
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007. Use more quizzes.
38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. It's Britney, bitch.

Survey Says...

A. Accent: Most of the time, I speak "standard American." But every once in awhile, the Boston accent slips back in. Just Thursday my office mate was meeting with one of her students. And this student said "cah" and "pahty." I knew immediately that he was from a suburb of South Boston. And he was...Milton.

B. Book: I'm about to start "Blonde Ambition." It's a book about Anna Nicole. And it's for my dissertation!

C. Chore I Hate: cleaning the oven. I want a self-clean oven.

D. Dad's Name: Daniel Fitzgerald Shea

E. Essential Electronic: I'm pretty damn happy with my new MacBook.

F. Favorite Meal: ice cream and cookies. Or breakfast. I clearly don't know how to answer this question.

G. Gold or Silver: silver

H. Hometown: Quincy, MA or currently Yorktown Heights, NY

I. Insomnia: Only apparently when I am worried that I will miss my train and not make it to my class to teach. Or, the first week of school...always.

J. Job Title: Graduate Student (to be altered soon, I hope!)

K. Kids: I don't know if I'm ready. But supposedly, you're never ready.

L. Living Arrangements: A house in Westchester County, NY. A house that needs fixing up. A house with a good amount of land and garden. A lot of upkeep. A house that would look great with a dog in it.

M. Mom's Birthplace: Boston, MA

N. Number of Apples Eaten in Last Week: Hmmm. None.

O. Overnight Hospital Stays: I don't know. My Mom had me at 5a.m. or somewhere around then. I don't know if I stayed the next night or not. I would say, probably. I've had a couple late night/early morning emergency room visits since then. Nothing serious.

P. Pets: No dog...yet. No bunny...yet.

Q. Question I Ask Myself a Lot: Will I ever have a job?

R. Religious Affiliation: Ethnically Catholic. In practice, I have my own sort of practice. I was raised Unitarian, but attended a Jewish nursery school. In college, I studied with a Korean Shaman. I'm considering attending the non-denominational church down the street someday.

S. Siblings: Andrew and Chris. And my sibling-in-law, Lys.

T. Time I Wake Up: I like to wake up after 7a.m. That's what my body wants. But this semester, I had to wake up at 5:30 a.m. That isn't what my body wants.

U. Unusual Talent or Skill: I am fairly adept with my feet.

V. Vegetable I Refuse to Eat: I am interested in Lisa's response. Although I don't eat raw tomatoes, I do eat tomato sauce and cooked tomatoes.

W. Worst Habit: Picking my nails.

X. X-rays: Teeth, Chest (every five years), ankle, pelvis; shit, I've had a fair amount of these.

Y. Yummy Food I Make: I think I'm about to make my first batch of Chocolate Mint Marvel cookies. I have to say that I made these for the first time last year, and they immediately raised my status as a baker to the level of exquisite. Otherwise, I make a pretty impressive chocolate chip cookie. BAM!

Z. Zodiac Sign: Virgo. So pure.

Our oven is no longer broken. Or at least...it is no longer broken in the sense that I meant before. Actually, it never was broken in that sense. A very frozen pizza led us astray.

Our oven is broken.

So much for waiting until we redo the kitchen to get appliances. It looks like we'll be purchasing a new stove shortly. Otherwise, I won't be baking any cookies this Christmas season. And oh! How I need to back cookies to recover from my semester. But I hope that if we do get a new stove, it doesn't get a rash from the fridge and the dishwasher -- both rusting. The fridge is proudly covered in baby pictures and drawings by Becky's 1st grade class of last year. Underneath is the fridge's shame -- many rust stains scratchng the surface of the fridge. And did you know? Inside the fridge, at the bottom back, there is a freezer. You may be thinking huh? But just imagine. There's a place inside our fridge that freezes things. We put the seltzer there. It's best to keep everything else away. As for our dishwasher, it cleans things really well after you clean them thoroughly in the sink.

So you can see my dilemma. But when the oven doesn't function. Well, hey. You fucking need an oven at Christmas.

I was mistaken. This is a picture of Dusty. The other picture is of Amy and her former rabbit named Tattletail.

It's snowing here right now, but it's supposed to start raining. I just hope that it rains in time for me to drive to Fordham safely.

In my last post, I neglected to mention the nightmare of almost losing 20 pages of my dissertation when the hard drive on the Dell laptop crashed. But thankfully, I managed to pull that sucker off between blue screens. And now I have a brand new MacBook, which is just the most delightful thing ever. I remember with the Dell, I would have to turn on the laptop, go into the kitchen, boil water for my eggs, and by the time the water was boiling, the Dell would probably be started up. But the MacBook starts instantly. Oh there are so many wonderful aspects of it. I just can't name them all.

There isn't much in terms of other news. I'm still working all the time. But I am almost done with this chapter. And that means I'm officially almost done with my dissertation. And that's really good. Really really good.

I'm yearning for Thanksgiving Break. I can't wait to stuff myself with turkey, lasagna (what I'm making for the vegetarians in the family), mashed potatoes, peas, squash, pumpkin bread, and everything else. Delish! I also really want to have this dissertation chapter done. You know the one I've been talking about all semester? That one? Yeah, I still need to finish it. And I'm going to. It may take another bag of gummy worms. But it will get done this week. And then I can return to normal life -- going to the gym, cleaning, etc. The job applications have slowed down too. I think I have three left for this semester. And then the next big deadline will probably be February 1st. So after Dec. 15 or so I can have that moment where I take in a big old breath -- where I don't have to worry about teaching (or commuting!) for at least a few weeks. In the meantime, however, it's the normal commute. And so on that commute I think about turkeys. And especially Amy Sedaris' fabulous dress and turkey. In these I find solace.

I find solace in general in Amy Sedaris. Mostly this has to do with her living with her bunny. As you know, I love bunnies, and would have on right now if it weren't for my other love of dogs. I want to get a dog and bunny at the same time so that they like each other. And we're just not ready for a dog yet. So now I'm going on and on. I'll leave you with a picture of Amy and her bunny.

1. First Name: Megan
2. Were you named after anyone? Kind of. Megan is taken from Margaret, and Margaret was my Nana's name.
3. When did you last cry? Not this past week, but the week before.
4. Do you like your handwriting? Yeah. My cursive is super-secretary, though it will never live up to the secretaries' cursive in Tennessee.
5. What is your favourite lunchmeat? Bologna. But I don't eat it anymore.
6. If you were another person would you be friends with you? I might be too shy for myself. But I think we'd get along.
7. Do you have a journal? This is my journal.
8. Do you still have your tonsils? Yes.
9. Would you bungee jump? No.
10. What is your favourite cereal? Lucky Charms. Not that I really eat them. But I use to eat them in college when my metabolism rocked. It no longer rocks; it sinks.
11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? No.
12. Do you think you are strong? For awhile I was strong. Then my dissertation chapter took over my gym life.
13. What is your favourite ice-cream flavour? Coffee
14. Shoe size? 7 and 1/2
15. Red or pink? red is the color of blood
16. What is the least favourite thing about yourself? my current metabolism
17. Who do you miss most? Who don't I miss?
18. Do you want everyone to send this back to you? This is a blog.
19. What colour pants, shirt and shoes are you wearing? dark blue jeans, green & black, and no shoes -- I'm in bed and I'm supposed to be writing my dissertation.
20. Last thing you ate? Milk Duds (dissertation fodder)
21. What are you listening to right now? Radiohead Kid A
22. If you were a crayon what colour would you be? Some light yellow. I self-identify as blond.
23. Favourite smell? leaves on the ground in fall
24. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? Barbara
25. The first thing you notice about people you are attracted to? I like dark men.
26. Do you like who you stole this off? Yes!
27. Favourite drink? Cape Cod
28. Favourite sport? skiing
29. Eye colour? hazel
30. Hat size? small
31. Do you wear contacts? negative
32. Favourite food? ice cream!
33. Scary movies or happy endings? scary movies -- especially bad one's
34. If you could live anywhere in the world where would that be? Ireland? France? London? Somewhere where my currency would actually be going up.
35. Summer or winter? winter
36. Hugs or kisses? yes. I hug everybody. Even people who don't want to be hugged.
37. Favourite dessert? cookies
38. Who is most likely to respond? ?
39. Least likely to respond? ?
40. What books are you currently reading? I'm teaching the Poisonwood Bible, so I'm reading that.
41. What's on your mouse pad? don't have one.
42. What did you watch on TV last night? I watched a little of Grey's Anatomy online
43. Favourite sounds? the ocean, the wind (as long as I don't have to feel it), skis on snow
44. Rolling Stones or Beatles? Beatles.
45. The furthest you have been from home? Greece
46. What's your special talent? picking my nails
47. Where were you born? Boston, MA
48. Who sent this to you? no one. I stole it from Lisa's blog.

Well needless to say, I am quite happy with the Red Sox and with the arrival of one of my favorite holidays. Actually, I enjoy all holidays, but the fact that the three best one's are today, a month from today, and two months from today (xmas, not new year's), brings great joy to my heart. Halloween is also kind of a hump day for me. Yes, it occurs on a Wednesday, but it means that I've completely two months of classes, and that there is really only one month of classes left. So it's almost party time.

Tonight I shall celebrate the wicked holiday by wearing halloween socks, eating chocolate, and writing my dissertation. All of these activities are quite enjoyable. They are much more enjoyable than the activities I was involved in last week -- finding three different cases of plagiarism in one of my courses.

Plagiarism really pisses me off because its a waste of my time. It's a waste of my time to read a paper and comment on it -- then discover halfway through that it is plagiarized. It's a waste of my time to read up on school policies. It's a waste of my time to go through everyone else's paper searching for it on google. And damnit, it's a waste of my time to fill out the paperwork. The only thing that's useful from it is that I have learned that I might have to restructure my assignments to avoid reading plagiarized papers. But that's really a waste of my time too because it means I have to restructure papers. All this wasted time meant that I didn't see one game of the World Series. Though I did listen to the final inning. I'm glad for the Sox obviously! I think if they hadn't won I would have been a bit more miserable about the whole thing last week. So thanks.

To quote Javier Rodriguez (Benicio del Toro's character in Traffic): "Everybody likes baseball."

And right now, Red Sox fans love it.

Thank you Red Sox!!!!!!!!! Now for the World Series!

I'm still hopeful. After all, I'm a Red Sox fan. And there is no team with a better history of come-backs. No team.

Manny fucking rules.

Mike and I went to the Colbert Report this week. It was a lot of fun. We went Tuesday, so the guest wasn't great. It was some guy who wrote a book on foreign policy and Israel. But we did get to see a real Stephen react to a video of him dressed up like a hippee smoking a pipe. Enjoyable. Actually, it was really good to see him interacting with employees, all of whom he clearly respected.

In other news, I've mostly been working on the dis, working on job materials, grading stuff, and teaching. I have Monday off from Fordham because they celebrate Columbus day. But otherwise, I'm back to the grind at Baruch on Tuesday. Next semester, I made a conscious decision not to teach at two different schools. In fact, I may not teach at all depending on what I get offered. Most of my teaching money gets eaten up in my commute into the city, so it doesn't really make sense to go out of my way to do something that sucks up my time when I'm trying to finish my dissertation.

I picked this up from Caitlin's blog. I have no idea if she reads mine. But only a select few of my friends who used to blog still blog. And I need to procrastinate (briefly).

Here is how it works: copy this list; leave in the bands you've seen perform live; delete the ones you haven't, and add new ones that you have seen until you reach 25. An asterisk means the previous person had it on their list. Two asterisks means the last two people who did this before you had that band on their list.
1. U2*
2. Weezer*
3. The Bad Plus
4. Medeski Martin and Wood
5. Good Charlotte
6. Justin Timberlake and Timbaland
7. Nine Inch Nails
8. David Bowie
9. Paul McCartney
10. Neil Young
11. Beck
12. Pavement
13. No Doubt
14. George Clinton and P-Funk
15. The Violent Femmes
16. Lys Guillorn
17. Superdrag
18. Nadasurf
19. Primus
20. The Stone Temple Pilots
21. Sting
22. The Pointer Sisters
23. Ween
24. Juliana Hatfield
25. Porno for Pyros

Obviously, I'm leaving out a lot. And I also don't remember a lot... I'm especially having trouble recalling who was at the WBCN River raves I went to and who played at Trinity while I was there. Still, I managed to get enough on there to remove "Barenaked Ladies" from the list. They opened at Trinity for someone else -- probably The Violent Femmes, so attendance was not optional.

Not much interesting going on here. I had the opportunity to go to a Yankees game today, but unfortunately, this is one of those weekends where on top of everything else I have to do I have 20 papers to grade. Additionally, I am starting a new unit on Othello this week in my class. I haven't taught Othello before, so let's just say it's crunch time for getting things done. And, of course, I still have ye 0ld dissertation and job application materials to work on on top of that. So, it's a real party here. Mike, however, is at the Yankees game. And what a beautiful day for a baseball game it is. Ok, so I'm jealous.

I really don't have much to say. But I saw this image on Comedy Central's webpage and thought, "this would go nicely with my new green blog."

What a game and what a shame we lost. I couldn't move from about 11:15 until the end of the game. It is too bad that Ortiz didn't come through, but I can't really blame him. He's come through so many times before. As long as we win the big one's, these little big one's make everything more exciting. It's too bad too that Manny couldn't come back for this weekend. But c'est la vie.

Other than that, I really didn't do much of anything that was "fun" this weekend. We did work on the house. Mike replaced the trim in the window of the downstairs bathroom and it looks sooooo much better. He also put in baseboard that I painted in the room we sheetrocked upstairs. It is really starting to look like a room again!

OK, so now for something not boring. I have tickets to Stephen Colbert. We're going on October 2, so watch for us. It's going to be fantastic for sure!!!

I am so...

30

I increasingly hear about SUPERcapitalism on NPR. This is the kind of capitalism we are in right now, where the super rich continue to get richer, but the middle class stays the same. It's a bit disturbing because it results in a culture based on debt and borrowing rather than saving. The difficulty is that, keeping the salaries of the middle class low, the superrich floods the market with their spending, thus creating a market where high prices work -- making the middle class borrow to buy what they think they need. The problem is...how do we get out of this mess? Or do we?

Other than worrying about the superrich, I have been, of course, worrying about my dissertation and the job market. I have this short window to get done what I need to get done. And unfortunately, it gets shorter as every day passes. On top of this, Mike has some sort of cold/flu...which I haven't caught...yet. I hope I don't get it as, clearly, now is not a good time to get sick.

I'm feeling green.

Today marked the end of the fellowship year. That means I had to leave my house by 6am to commute to the city to teach. Still, teaching was refreshing. It feels good to get out of the house and actually work away from the articles and dissertation. This afternoon, of course, I was back at it with the article. On the schedule for tonight: more article. Tomorrow: article and Fordham syllabus. Now that I think about it, I don't think I blogged about my two teaching jobs yet. Both of them are for teaching freshmen writing. The first (the one that started today) is at CUNY Baruch. The second is at Fordham in the Bronx. Thursday is my only crazy day. It's the day when I have to teach at both...which means kind of a pain in the ass commute. But Fordham doesn't start until next week, so I won't find out until then...

Did I mention I have a severely sprained ankle? Well, I do and it sucks.
This is a 4 Things Survey.
Four jobs I've had:
1. teacher
2. floating legal secretary
3. "the girl" (i.e. secretary at a marina)
4. mucker (shoveling horseshit...literally)
Four Movies I can watch over and over:
1. Gangs of New York
2. Dune
3. The Royal Tennenbaums
4. Kill Bill
Four places I've lived:
1.Quincy
2. Knoxville, TN
3. Lawrence, KS
4. Yorktown Heights ("The Heights"), NY
Four places I've vacationed:
1. Greece!
2. Ireland
3. Spain
4. England
Four of my favorite dishes:
1. pizza with spinach and chicken or turkey at The Tomato Head in Knoxville, TN
2. gnocchi with marinara at Zaza's in Ithaca, NY
3. pizza from New Haven. Did you know that New Haven has the best pizza in the world? It does. Even pizza from the Bronx can't beat it.
4. french toast I had at a restaurant in Hartford when I was in college -- I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was the best french toast I've ever had
Four sites I visit daily:
1. nytimes.com
2. cnn.com
3. redsox.com
4. boston.com
Four blogs I visit daily. I don't visit blogs daily. And I don't think I visit four blogs regularly.

So last week I went to a Justin Timberlake concert. Needless to say, it was fabulous. I do have a lot of respect for JT as a performer and as someone who hires other performers for their vocal and dancing talents as opposed to hiring them for the excellent plastic surgery jobs they have had done on their bodies. He did a group bow in the end and seemed like an all around generous guy and great performer. Indeed, he played several instruments at the gig and did some mixing with Timbaland. Who could ask for anything more?

I haven't written in awhile and thus I haven't told you about my trip to New Orleans. New Orleans is by far the best city to have a conference in. Sadly, because I went for a conference I did not get to see much outside the business section and french quarter. This means I didn't see any of the destruction -- something New Orleans residents say is a must-see. I guess, I'll have to go back. I'd like to think that by the time I go back it will be gone, but somehow I doubt it.

Anyway, while I was there, I rode a mechanical bull. It was spectacular. I got up the next day and had this bruise on my chest. And I thought, "Where did that come from?" And then I remembered, "Oh yes. I rode a mechanical bull last night." When I've told people I did this, they have asked if I fell off. Hell yes! I mean, does anyone ride a mechanical bull and not fall off? Please let me know if that is the case. Nonetheless, it was fun. And it's something to check off the list of life accomplishments.

Reading: Syllabii. I should be teaching freshmen writing at Baruch and Fordham Colleges this fall. I don't have sections yet, so I hesitate to say whether or not this is true.
Writing: An article.
Watching: I started watching some of the TNT shows online. I enjoy The Closer, like The Company, enjoy the parts of Saving Grace without Earl, and hate Heartland. Recently, Mike and I also finished the Sopranos last season. I guess since everyone hated the ending I didn't expect anything much. But for a show that didn't wrap-up en finale, it sure did too much wrapping up throughout the season. Except...whatever happened to Jennifer's son and ex? We also saw The Simpson Movie. I found "Spiderpig" most pleasing.
Blooming: I purchased a yellow rose plant today and it's next to the pink one's. I also bought some Astilbe to fill in the front. The Astilbe is done blooming, and the roses are forming buds. Right now I have a butterfly bush, monarda, pink and white phlox, some yellow daisies, black eyed susans, gayfeather, catmint, coneflower, one tiger lily, dahlia...I think that's it. The gladiolus bloomed when I was in New Orleans. Of course.
Sitting: My cousin's dog: "Hero." Hero is a female rat terrier. She is three years old and absolutely a delight to be with. Julie will be coming to get her tomorrow. But my week with the dog was fabulous. I'm returning her smelly and with overgrown nails.