Rotate the foodstuffs!

I have a new favorite topping combination at Hound Dog's.  Green olives, sauerkraut, and Cajun hot links on thin crust with spicy sauce (basically sliced andouille sausage).  Unfortunately, I do not foresee a good deal of this heartburn-deluxe pizza, because I may be the only person I know who would not only tolerate but adore this combination.

In other news, the quarter started.  I'm only taking the one class, a seminar in the 20C long poem with Brian McHale that is super-awesome while also being slightly frightful.  Currently reading for Thursday: Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red, a novel in verse.  I'm only about a third of the way in, but I can already recommend it.  It's a fast and completely engaging read.  I'm so in love.

Tried out for the Columbus Gay Men's Chorus after years of hemming and hawing over whether I should.  Helped in this by the fact that my boyfriend's in it; it's a bit of an incentive.  Had an amusing moment when Jarod reported that the director said to him "He's actually really good!"  Not really as insulting as it sounds; since it's an open chorus (auditions are for placement, not admission), the fact that I was tagging along with a significant other didn't really speak volumes about my abilities.  We're doing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in conjunction with the Columbus Children's Chorus, which is pretty awesome.  Show goes up the 20th and 21st of March; more on that later (and more on whether I got any sort of non-chorus role).

As you could surmise, things are going well with Jarod.  I'm very happy right now, even in the midst of this demon quarter that, for all I'm probably doing less work on a daily basis that last quarter, is still kicking my ass.  Although I did nearly die of sexual exhaustion over New Year's weekend, which would have been... awkward at best.

Currently teaching 110.02, which is the Literature-based section of First-Year Writing.  I like this group of students, I like my teaching slot (MW 3:30-5:18), and I'm glad to be working with literary texts -- it's fun.  Just recently got offered (and accepted) a section of 266, the undergrad poetry workshop, for spring quarter.  I'm over the moon about that, since I was in no way expecting to get to teach workshop a second time during my tenure here.  I have so many ideas for how to do better!

Turned in ~45 poems to Kathy at the end of Autumn Quarter.  She seems to be of the opinion that I've got length covered for my thesis, though I'm shooting for more like 60 poems.  We haven't actually talked about it yet, since she's swamped with other stuff, but I'm feeling more optimistic about my thesis and my writing in general than I have in a while.

Minstrelry's got a private gig coming up the first weekend in February, which is pretty exciting.  It sounds like it's going to be a really fun event.  My only regret is that a couple of fabliaux I discovered in my research -- "The Three Women Who Found A Penis" and "The Knight Who Could Make Cunts Talk" -- will not be appropriate to the occasion.

And... that's the round up, I guess.  Hopefully the next gap in communication will be shorter.

We-e-e-e-ell, it's been about two and a half months since I put up a substantive entry.  I don't even know how to give an update of everything that's going on.  I've been really busy for... oh, since school started.  Teaching is kicking my ass four ways from Sunday.  Not that it's too hard -- I think I'm doing a good job -- but it's just a lot of damn work.  I know the teachers on my flist are rolling their eyes and saying "Uh, yeah," but really: it surprised me.  I think it'll be better next quarter, since I won't be preparing lesson plans all the time, and I'll have some sort of idea what I'm doing.  Or I could be totally wrong, and it'll still be nuts.  Either way, that's part of the reason I've been gone so long (although I assure you, I've been reading, even when not posting).

My Student/Faculty Reading went well.  I got many compliments, and I felt like it was a very successful time.  I like performing.  I'm fascinated by the performance aspect of my profession, which I think many of my colleagues don't think about, or discount.  (Not to say they're bad for that; everybody has different interests.)  It was a great experience, and I'm glad that my family was there for it (Mom, Dad, my aunt, my sister and her husband, Kevin).  Poetry in general... I feel like my work is strong recently, and that's great.

The broader academic view... oy.  There's a good chance I'm going to be going back to school after I'm done with this degree.  I hate this.  I mean, I like to learn.  I really do.  But more grad school... man, I will have been in post-secondary school for nine years after I graduate with my MFA.  I'm burned out.  I don't know if I can handle three (or more) years after that.  And yet, it's REALLY hard to get the kind of job I want without a PhD.  So I don't know.  I'm looking at regular ol' academic PhDs and PhDs with creative dissertation, but I'm also keeping my eyes open for other ideas (university jobs that I might could end up with despite not having a PhD, prep school gigs, the dreaded adjunct positions, etc).

Er... that's about enough writing, I think.  Yep, yep.  Maybe we'll try to make a tradition of this.  And maybe I'll see some of you tomorrow night [I'll be singing! Songs!]: