Bloomington

Gizmo continues to amaze me. Just when I think he’s having a bad week, and then I worry it may be his last week, I raelize he’s just fucking with me. He knows what’s going on. And he wants to make damn sure I know he knows.

I’ve been traveling a lot in the last few weeks, and when I finally got home, Gizmo wouldn’t let me out of his sight. That wasn’t new. But he started keeping me awake at night. Or rather, once I’d woken up in the middle of the night to turn over, he wouldn’t let me get back to sleep. He kept reaching his paw out (while sleeping on the pillow next to me) and touching my head, my eyeball, my mouth, my chin, whatever, with his paw. Over and over again. Head, eyeball mouth, and then pulling my chin, literally trying to move my head.I thought he wanted my pillow, so I moved. (Cuz I’d rather sleep on the other side than be kept awake by my cat, not because I think he deserves my pillow!)

When we first got Gizmo, he used to do that, but slightly differently. I would be sitting next to him and he would reach out and put his paw on my leg and just leave it there. I got the impression he was trying to say, “Mine,” just like my then-two-year-old nieces would do with something they wanted, finger poised on the toy. I belonged to Gizmo, apparently. We all know that’s come true.

But the pawing this time was different; it was repetitive and purposeful. But I didn’t know what it was about until after I was home a few days and realized I had been petting Gizmo constantly at night before bed. He sits in my lap on the couch while we watch TV and I was petting him for like two hours straight. Then we went to bed. And when I woke up in the middle of the night, he was petting ME. He was worried I would leave again, I guess. Or he wanted to make sure I knew he was there, which was the same reason I was petting him. And it’s stopped now that I’ve been home for a week. So I guess we’re all OK.

Then I wake up this morning, and he follows his morning routine just like I do.

• Me = my pill, water, pee, get Gizmo’s pill, give pill, give treat, start coffee, clean litter box, refill cat food, do dishes, get newspaper, pour coffee, walk into spare room to read/compute.
• Gizmo = wake up, sit on edge of bed, wait for pill, take pill, eat treat, wait on bed, curl up on bed, wake up, walk out bedroom door, stand in dining room, meow loudly, walk to entrance of spare room, wait, meow more, follow me into spare room, jump on sofa, be petted, curl up to sleep.

For the past few mornings, however, Gizmo’s routine has changed slightly. Instead of walking to the entrance of the spare room, he walks right next to the heat register in the floor of the living room, behind a bookcase that is like a column separating the liv/din rooms, and meows from there. It’s weird for two reasons: He’s never paid attention to the heat registers before. Yesterday the heat was blowing and he ignored it, but he usually doesn’t like stuff blowing on him. I chalked it up to being an unexpectedly cold morning and maybe Gizmo was finally showing signs of his age (wanting to cuddle up to the heat).

But this morning, he was in the same spot, no heat, and meowing. When I came around the corner, he was facing the bookcase, which basically meant he was facing the wall. Then I realized, there is a gap between the bookcase and the wall and he was looking between them, with a direct line of sight into the kitchen, where I walk out every morning, with coffee cup in hand, ready to go into the spare room. He knew my routine well enough and adjusted his so that he could better see me coming. (Really, I think he wanted to ensure his wait time, and time his meows if I were not walking fast enough.)

So Gizmo’s learned two new tricks this week. He’s a good cat. :)

Over the last week, I visited San Francisco (this time for the CCCC conference) for the second time in two months. Also for the second time in two months, I rode Amtrak to get there and back. Taking two long-distance trips on the train so close together was, at first, a glorious idea. People always ask if I’m afraid to fly since I choose to take the train. I’ve come to not like flying - not hate it, not afraid of it - mostly I’m just annoyed by its inconvenience and delays. I know that sounds ridiculous to folks who only count the travel time of flying vs. what they assume to be the travel time of trains (since those people never take trains). And, sure, while it may take a little over 2 days to get from Normal, IL to San Francisco, CA by train while flying should, theoretically, take about 6 hours, I am here to say that whatever good-flight karma I used to have has gone down the toilet with the so-near-bankruptcy airlines.

For instance, three weeks ago I had to travel to Pittsburgh on a quick business trip, and I didn’t think I’d have time to take the train, so I flew. But someone else booked my trip and I ended up flying through Atlanta. This trip would have taken about 9 hours to drive, about 10 hours on Amtrak, and about 3 hours air-time to fly. But once you add in arriving at the airport early (which you don’t have to do for the train - arrive 5 minutes before the train gets there and step on board), layovers, mechanical delays, squeezing into a seat next to some sweaty person, sitting on the tarmac, and the drive from the airport to whereever in town you’re going (whereas Amtrak stations are always located in prime, downtown areas, close by to wherever it is I am usually going), the flight doesn’t take 3 hours anymore; it’s actually closer to 7 or 8. And that’s if you don’t get delayed, which I did coming home from Pittsburgh. A paid-for, inconveniently-layovered-in-ATL-which-always-has-weather-issues flight (the train hardly *ever* stops because of weather), which cost me an extra $100 for a hotel room when I had to stay the night, and a mid-afternoon flight out the next day, arriving home more than 12 hours after I was supposed to is not what I’d call a convenient way to travel. Plus, you’re always at the mercy of the airlines.

As I sat in the Pittsburgh airport (using their free wireless, which was nice), I checked the Amtrak schedule. I knew I was going to be delayed but had already paid $60 for a cab out there. I could have stayed in town, hung out with friends that night, crashed on their couch, and/or caught the midnight train back to Chicago for $100. And I would have been home four hours before my flight ever arrived.

The train is a humane way to travel. It’s green; it’s not that much more expensive than flying (to get a sleeper, when meals are included); it’s pleasant; it’s scenic; you know when you board that you’re going to get where you’re going to (which isn’t  the case anymore with air travel). Plus you get to meet tons of people. On this trip, while I didn’t get all their names, I met Debby and Dave Adare (sp?), and they gave me lots of good tips on Columbus, OH, where Dave walks the Short North beat. (And now I have a police ally should I ever get arrested having too much fun in Cbus! ;) There was the retired German literature professor who pegged me for being on a short leash with my cat, but encouraged me to apply for a Fulbright in Romania anyways. And many many others. It is just as the NYTimes article that my colleague, Shamira, sent me last week about trains.

Every so often, someone would look at a watch and feign complaint. But really, it was half-hearted; on a long-distance train, it seems, the fluid movement across space induces a surrender to the natural unfolding of time.

but this is really why I travel by train:

And so, as early as New Jersey, I realized something that would only feel remarkable a few days later, in the Nevada desert: it’s still possible to travel 3,585 miles across the United States without being the target of billboards, golden arches or absurdly large twine balls. The rails offer a view onto Unbranded America — the land as it was.

I’m not really what this NY TImes article called a “foamer” - someone who salivates to see a locomotive - although my friends might call me that anyways. But I have to think I’ve gotten something right about the train when this NY Times article and a whole episode of “Big Bang Theory” - in the same week - feature Amtrak trains. I just watched this episode when I got home last night and I couldn’t stop laughing. In case you didn’t see it, but want to know what I look like when I’m talking about trains, watch the expression on Sheldon’s (the tall one in the blue shirt) face near the end of this opening clip. It’s even funnier to me that they’re taking the Coastal Starlight to a conference in San Francisco. lol. Although this clip isn’t the one where Sheldon is wooing his travel companions with talk of the Starlight’s famous Parlor Car, it’s another good representation of how I must come across to my non-train friends. (God, I hope I am not that obnoxious!)

Ok, now I really must post the MLA San Fran video blogs and tips about taking Amtrak. Once I’ve done that, I think my train jones will be over for the time being. Still, I have to say, although I thought I was going to regret taking two long train trips in two months, after having read the NY Times article and watching the Big Bang Theory last night, I am ready and excited again for another trip. I’d better book the train for UC-Davis/C&W pretty soon!

cb

It’s been too long since I’ve posted depsite having a few things here and there to say. I just haven’t gotten around to blogging in a while. I’ve been working, instead, on my class blog and my tenure portfolio, which will surely be the CSS death of me (esp since I spent 6 hours tweaking the code the other day and I HATE HATE HATE the design now so will have to change it all again), but today I got about 5 hours worth of work done on it, which puts me that much closer to starting on my CCCCs presentation (ha!), all of which makes me happy.

So what did I do in 5 hours? Tagged and bagged, baby. OK, well, not quite. I started at the beginning, as Vezzini says. I opened the T&P application guidelines and started making notes about the print-centric language in it. But *everything* in it is print-centric, so I stopped (because I was screen-capturing my track changes and I didn’t want the video export to take 400 hours). Then I started tracking the redundancies between what the app asked for, what the school already wants me to list on my CV (which it also wants a copy of), and what the teaching portfolio requires, which another body on campus institutes but it has become standard as the “second binder” (out of three) in our college’s tenure application.

So, I was a redundancy sleuth for the second hour, figuring out by the end of the third what categories I could collapse, which I didn’t need, and which I thought were stupid. Heh. Somebody should study these teaching portfolios — they are glorious grand narratives of “everyone can be a great teacher by overcoming adversity!!” perhaps best represented by the section called “Reflection on Teaching Challenge.” Ha. I’ve had two outstanding teaching challenges in my career — so, oh, which to include? (cuz it can only be two pages long. Hrm. Maybe I’ll film it!! Just like some of my students did for their teaching philosophy statements last term.)

The biggest challenge today was to stop thinking print-centrically. The app(s) give a nice outline that’s easily cut-n-pasteable from my CV (having crafted my CV after the application language in the first place). But the point of my project is to reduce the redundancies and to present my work in the best medium possible, most of which is online, although certainly not all of it. Since I’ve decided to use a blogging platform — because it is easy and malleable and because others can possibly replicate (to the extent they are able) my objectives using their own portfolios — the rest of the three hours was spent adapting the revised, redundancy-free tenure application outline to a navigational system of pages, posts, categories, and tags in my blog. It was harder than I expected, and even so I’ve been *thinking* about doing this (more specifically HOW to do this) since last June. I think I’ve finally (depsite HATE HATE HATEing the current super-tweaked template, which I must change this week, however check out the original and see how much lovingness I put into it, still but changing it will definitely be //spoiler// screen-captured as part of my Cs presentation) found the right combination of language from the application, template, and widgets to do kinda what I want. And to be happy with it. (And thank god for friends who tell me the truth about bad designs… bk! ;)

So I’m blogging all of this in a space I don’t usually blog about academic work because I’ve decided that if I’m not blogging about whatever-it-is-I-do-that-isn’t-academic (mostly because I have reduced my life to inane FaceBook status updates lately), then I should be using this space to blog about something. Mostly so that my mother still knows I am alive and that Gizmo isn’t eating my eyeballs out. Too, I woke up this morning hot to read Jenny Edbauer Rice’s new article from the Dec. CCC. If you haven’t read it yet, you need to. Many of us have been thinking for years what she has succinctly written about in a well-read journal. My working for five hours today on the portfolio is just another example of the logomechanics she’s talking about. I took two pages of notes, but I’ll leave you with this one:

Again, however, acting as rhetorical mechanics means more than simply learning how to use software or equipment. The mechanics of rhetoric’s production involves imagination, improvisation, and enactment. Thus, while expanding availability of digital equipment corresponds with an increasing ease in using those resources, we must also keep the rhetorical aspect of mechanics in mind. (p. 378)

OK, now off to watch TV.

cb

ps: i have 47 videos from my last Amtrak trip to upload. Plus, an upcoming trip. Egod, i might have to create a new blog to do all that!

It wouldn’t surprise me if God were a cat. Or at least cat-like: Smart, both Old and New Testament depending on hir’s mood, and invisible unless wanted to be seen. Hmm. ;)

Despite the nasty, icy roads, I had to stop by Walgreens on my way home today. There were many reasons for the stop including needing to buy new 9-volt batteries for both fire alarms that started inconveniently beeping within 24 hours of each other, at 2am and 11pm respectively.

The first night — after a day of freakish 50-degree weather that prompted me to put away the lawn furniture and attempt to change the lightbulbs in the outdoor/front-porch ceiling fan*, only to discover that I didn’t have the right size replacement bulbs — ended with my nerves being shot from leaving the bulb sockets exposed in the dropping temperatures with accompanying snow, partnered with the lack of fire-alarm battery, which made me feel doubly exposed to unsafe sleeping conditions. I took my last fake Excedrin PM around 4am and slept through til 9. (The nerves = grading time and overdue projects.)

So, Walgreens’ shopping list:

• 9 volt battery
• candelabra bulbs
• excedrin PM
• stick-ups for the trash can, because they are unfindable anywhere else (mom suggested the dollar store, but that’s across town!), and
• lest, I forget, adding myself to the 90-day generic plan so I can renew my thyroid meds before MLA.

Monday I didn’t end up leaving the house (except for Chinese, whereupon I got frostbite from not wearing gloves in the wind chill). That night, the second fire alarm battery died. Shi-it. And there were all sorts of weird noises coming from the basement. (This started two weeks ago, when I thought there was a skunk in the basement. Thankfully no. And yesterday’s noise was just the rattle from the air-trap lid after I replaced the filter on Sunday.) But there was no Excedrin PM to lull my nerves, dang it. (Stupid grading. I will do final conferences next semester!)

Tuesday, after finishing grading (whew!!), I had a mtg at school, so I stopped at Walgreens on the way home.

• 9-volt = check.
• candelabra bulbs = check
• excedrin PM (generic, buy one get one free!) = check
• stick-ups = check.

All was swell, until I got to the pharmacy to upgrade to the 90-day supply program. I told the guy what I needed — “that 90-day thing” — and he understood what I meant. And then I added, “My cat’s already on it.”

Aside: While this addition may sound totally nonsensical, you might recall (although I can’t find the post now) that I put Gizmo on his own 90-day generic prescription-drug program when the last pharmacy tech at Walgreens offered it to me. He said, “Pets count” and I jumped on it, because paying $10 every 90 days is a helluva lot better than paying $50 a month! WTF, I said; Sign him up! And so Gizmo is now the proud owner of his own perscription drug card. And the guy said that I could add myself later on, if I needed to. (At the time, I hadn’t been diagnosed with the thyroid stuff.)

So here I was, adding myself to the Family Prescription Plan at Walgreens. The guy didn’t bat an eye.

Him: Cat’s last name?

Me: Ball.

//Typing….//

Him: Your first name?

Me: Cheryl… C..H… E..R…Y…L.

//Typing…//

Him: Your last name?

Me: <thinking: why would it be different than my cat’s?> Ball

Him: <confirming my address>

Me: Yes.

//Typing…. Pausing…. Typing….Pausing… <first hint of a laugh>//

Him: Um, Gizmo is listed as the head of household since you signed him up first. I put you down as Other under relationship. I had to choose Spouse, Child, or Other.

lol. So it’s officially come to that — Gizmo does run this ship. No doubt about that. I look forward to all the credit card applications he will no doubt start to receive.

In the meantime, I’ve installed the new fire alarm batteries and attempted to put the stick-up in the trash can, whereupon I learned that it doesn’t actually stick. Is it worth it to return a 99 cent item? Since I have to go back tomorrow to pick up my refill, maybe it won’t be that much trouble. ;) And, fwiw, the candleabra bulbs were worth the trip since the reason I finally decided to replace them after nearly a year of burn-out was my opening the front door, opaque with a glare from the hallway lamp I’d put on, to discover LoudTalker standing on my porch, waiting to give me a hug. Yay. He’s back.