30 posts tagged “personal”
I am alive people, I just have no time to blog. It is amazing how time consuming a dissertation, a job search, and preparing to teach my first truly independent class are. You really have no idea until you try it. Come on! Get that Ph.D. and blog about it.
Last week, I attended a political science conference in our nation's capital. As conferences go, this one was long and boring. Nothing unusual there. However, this one was different because I spent time doing placement interviews with several schools with lines for next year (in non-academic speak, that means they have a position open). The interviews ranged from blah to very good. Hopefully, this bodes well for my future employmet prospects. I also got to see a lot of my friends from Iowa who I have not seen in several months. I also spent a lot of time seeing the sights. I saw Marine One fly over twice, ferrying the president to Air Force One. Dang camera was too slow (or too smart for its own good) to take a good picture of it. I've added some pictures to flickr.
Sam and I spent the weekend before our first wedding anniversay in Glacier National Park. We drove up to the top of Logan Pass on the Going-to-the-Sun Highway. The pass is still under a lot of snow and the popular trail to Hidden Lake was no exception. We braved the snow for about a half mile or so, but eventually turned back. Here are some photos from our adventure:
I went to a Kerry rally in Cedar Rapids on Thursday. Since Kerry was recovering from a cold that was threatening his voice, Edwards substituted for him. He was great. He made fun of Dick Cheney a lot, which while not difficult was smart since no one likes Cheney, even many Republicans. The "opening act" was Carole King, who John Kerry apparently promised to bring back to Iowa at some point. Edwards pointed out that Kerry kept his promise. Trust me, if adding the line "Come on Cedar Rapids, do the Locomotion" to the song "Locomotion" was what Kerry meant by bringing King back, he could have broken that one. I'd have still voted for him. Which I did. So should you.
Although I have since washed my hand, I just had to tell everyone that I touched John Edwards too. Isn't he dreamy? Cedar Rapids has five seasons, and one is probably just to bask in his warm glow. He was working the crowd and he even lunged a little to clasp my hand. If I'd been smaller I could have gotten closer to get a real handshake, but I got a cool sign out of it. It says "Iowa is Kerry Country." Actually, it's Edwards country, but whose splitting hairs. Not John Edwards, that who. He has great hair. No split ends like Dick Cheney (see I told you it was easy).
Yesterday, I got my absentee ballot in the mail. I filled it out and returned it to the auditor's office. Although it already had postage on it, I just didn't trust the post office to deliver it (it's the county's sixty cents, not mine). Besides thinking that the large number of absentee votes are going to cost the county serious cash (just $9000 for return postage. I don't know what it cost to mail them out), I thought it was odd that my envelope had been opened and then resealed with a sticker with the auditor's seal on it. Inside the envelope, I found a letter explaining why the outer envelope had been reopened (emphasis mine):
Notice to absentee voter:
Your outer envelope was sealed by mistake before all the contents were inserted. In order to make certain that your ballot was delivered to you at the earliest possible time, this envelope was reopened by election workers and taped shut before leaving the Johnson County Elections office. This letter is to assure you that the resealed envelope should not be of concern as long as this letter of explanation was found within.
Please follow the enclosed instructions completely. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Tom Slockett
Johnson Country Auditor & Commissioner of Elections
Now, how was I supposed to know that the reopening of the outer envelope should be something to worry about if the letter wasn't in the envelope since the letter told me that its absence was a bad thing? Maybe it isn't the post office I should have been worried about.
Sam has left the great state of Iowa. However, before she left she had one thing she had to do. Since she has never seen Field of Dreams, she decided that that one thing was to go through a corn maze. Sine she is also a fan of Willie Nelson, we took a trip this weekend to Bloomsbury Farm, "Eastern Iowa's largest agritainment facility."
Sam and I took about two hours to get through the maze. It was fun, but it was dusty and the corn leaves a rash if it touches your skin. Now we can say we've been through a corn maze, but once was probably enough.
The actual story behind the maze is very "Iowa." The Cedar Rapids Gazette has a nice write-up. The short version is that after the initial design of the maze, the farm was hit by a tornado. Since they were busy rebuilding, they struggled to get the maze planted in time. They also had to make sure the corn didn't peak too soon. Nothing worse then the corn being ready too soon in a maze.
Man, if I had a dollar for every-time I was stressed out the last few weeks I'd be rich enough to pay someone to do all my stuff so I wouldn't be stressed out. School started this week so I'm once again balancing the teacher & student parts of my life. I've got a conference paper past-due to the panel chair and discussant, and I'm trying to finish the first draft of the paper I was "working on" this summer. To top it all off my wife is leaving. She got a cushy job at the University of Montana. So she is moving to Missoula and I'm stuck in Iowa. She hasn't reached a decision on whether to take a cat or two, but I could get stuck with both cats or no cats. That would suck. She'll probably take the digital camera anyway, so cat blogging will be seriously interrupted.
In order to minimize the time that Sam has to cavort with the people of the Garden City, I am trying to write a dissertation prospectus ahead of schedule. My advisor is leaving at the end of the year, which complicates things since I have to find a new chair (before I even know what I'm doing). Oh well. Enjoy this onus cat picture: What?
Today was the first day of school (my 21st such day), so here is my obligatory first day of school photo. Sam had left for a pancake breakfast, so my only option was to take the photo myself. I think it turned out pretty good. It is going to be a busy semester or a lot of reasons. I plan on taking a break tomorrow from my work to tell you all about all sorts of stuff that is going to be happening in the next few months. I'll give you a hint: It involves returning to Montana. Now I must go. Sam is waiting in the bedroom with a cat.
