October 30, 2007

I’ve been reading some good stuff lately (Namely, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which I humbly submit should be read by everyone) and I’ve seen some great movies (Volver and Delicatessen come to mind). I took Brubeck to the park on Sunday, and he was quite the naughty little boy. I think he needs more walks than he’s getting. For that matter, I need more walks than I’m getting. I haven’t been to the gym in a good while, mainly because I’m having some occasional cramping that doesn’t really make exercise sound like a great idea. Hopefully this will calm down soon.

We’re also planning our Spain trip, and for the most part we have all of our accommodations booked. In Madrid, we’re staying at a really cool hostel called Colors; in Cordoba, we’re staying at the Hospederia Duque San Martin (we decided to stay only one night in Cordoba and extend our stay in Seville, so now we’re staying at Hostal el Reposo de Bagdad.) in Seville, the Hostal Catedral; and in Granada, the Oasis. I’m really pumped about all of these places, especially given the prices (Colors was a bit pricey, but not astronomically so). It’s going to be a heck of a trip, and I’m so excited about all the things we’ll see, hear, smell, and taste.

I looove my neighborhood October 26, 2007

On my way home from work yesterday, a car from a side street pulled out in front of me very slooooooowly. I hate that shit, because I was forced to slow down really quickly. It was a gigantic geriatric-looking Cadillac, so I assumed it was some old Grandma on her way to the beauty parlor or Gramps on the way to the VFW. Not so. It was a guy of about 19. Whatever, maybe he was given the car, or maybe that’s just his thing. Then I saw the license plate. In Alabama, we have what’s called a “Helping Schools” plate that is about $15 more than a normal license plate, and that money allegedly goes to help schools. It’s usually a favorite of the soccer moms, but maybe this guy has a soft spot for education. Then I read the plate….

GNGSTR

I nearly shot my coffee out of my nose. Not quite, pal. Better luck next time.

Infotainment at its lowest October 24, 2007

Don’t watch this video if you have high blood pressure. Just don’t.

I can’t believe that people are talking this way in 2007. Or ever, really. Please forgive me for not cooing over your little drooling, screaming, diaper change-needing bundle of joy you’re showing off like a new car. I mean, it’s so admirable that you’ve just further contributed to the planet’s overpopulation. Way to freaking go! Please, let me interrupt my life’s work to give you a solid high five. What you’ve done is far more important, and it proves that you’re just so much sweeter than I am. I’ll overlook the fact that you nearly mauled me in your Yukon on the way in this morning.

Rather than say anymore, I’ll just post what I e-mailed to the Today Show.

I am utterly appalled at the segment from this morning’s show describing women who care about their careers (or don’t care about the trappings of stereotypical womanhood) to be “fembots.” I delayed marriage until I was in a place emotionally and intellectually to commit myself to another person in an adult relationship based on equality and mutual respect. We have contemplated not having any children at all, but that doesn’t make me “emotionally unavailable.” I don’t dislike children, but I certainly believe that we have a choice as to whether or not we want any of our own. I value my career because I believe that the work I will do will be a far larger contribution to society than would having cupcakes with my friends or contributing to the planet’s overpopulation. This does not make me socially inept, aloof, or emotionally stunted. I have a wonderful relationship with my family, friends, and colleagues, although I do not relate to people in a typically feminine way. Until today, I had no idea that this was a “problem.”

NBC is allegedly a reputable news organization, and it’s rather sad when you take your sociological data from a women’s magazine editor, particularly one of the scores of women’s magazines that thrives on the survival of traditional (and unhealthy) roles for women. We have long since discovered that these roles are not what women need or want in their lives, and all choices women make for their lives should be respected, or at the very least, not castigated by empty-headed armchair anthropologists. While I am not a regular reader of fashion magazines, I can confidently say that Marie Claire will not make its way into my literary repertoire. Not now, not ever.

You really can do better than that. In the future, I hope that you attempt to do so.

October 22, 2007

So…Scott and I are very seriously contemplating a trip to Spain over the holidays. We had a discussion a few weeks ago in which I said something along the lines of “You may have traveled all over the place, but I think you forget that I really haven’t been anywhere.” I didn’t mean to offend him, but I think it struck a chord with him, and he suddenly began researching potential trips for us to take. We found some really cheap flights to Spain and we think we can get a place to stay for around $50/night. If we stayed 8-10 days, we could make it happen, financially. We would have to cut back on our spending from now until about April or May, but I think we can wing that. This morning I told him that we need to make our final decision by Oct. 27th, simply because we can’t keep waffling, and he will need to renew his passport in order for us to go (mine’s good for another 6 years).

I’m excited because it means that we’re taking a trip to somewhere I’ve never been and somewhere we’ve never been together. This seems like too good of an opportunity to pass up.

ETA: WE’RE GOING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Dec 13-24)

October 20, 2007

When people ask me what I’ve been up to recently, I feel bad. Not because I’ve been up to bad things, or because I’m not up to anything, but because what I’m up to isn’t interesting to about 99.8% of the population (moral judgment, orthodoxy, and social engagement, oh my!), so I give some stock answer like, “Oh, school, travel, work…you know.” I’m not sure if it’s because I’m a newlywed or what, but I guess people think my life’s a hell of a lot more exciting than it actually is. Not that my life is bad. Not at all, in fact, but ‘exciting’ isn’t a word I’d use to describe it. I generally get up anywhere between 7 and 8 a.m., drink coffee, watch The Today Show, get a shower, get dressed, go into work for a few hours, come home, lounge around, cook and/or eat dinner, read or write, maybe go to the gym, come home, watch TV, go to bed. On the weekends, I have even less going on, unless we have plans or are out of town. I feel like I have just enough to do, and I’ve settled into a comfortable routine. The spring semester will be particularly nice since I’ll only have 2 classes instead of 3. One is a class on moral development and theory, and the other is a class on structural equation modeling. Thankfully, the latter isn’t being taught by my last stats instructor, who shouldn’t still have a job.

Every now and then we shake things up, like when we went to a show at Jupiter on Thursday night (Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes) and stayed out until 1:00. We saw them in New Orleans last year and thought they were great. I kid you not, there were fewer than 20 people at the Jupiter, and only 6 of us were there deliberately to see the band. I felt so bad for them, but they put on a hell of a show. Cowboy Mouth is coming to Tuscaloosa on November 1st, and Scott and I have free tickets (courtesy of JP) to go to that show as well. I can’t imagine how they’ll do in such a tiny space (the Legacy? Are you kidding?), but I’m still looking forward to the show.

I also have a “hook” on my research study and everything is falling into place quite nicely. I’m hoping I can get all my materials submitted in time to do it by the end of the semester. Basically, I’ll be measuring participants’ moral judgment development (their scores on the Defining Issues Test), dogmatism (using the Altemeyer DOG scale…tee hee), and social engagement (using a set of questions from a Harris poll on intentions and actions in social responsibility). OK, now picture a box divided into four (think Political Compass). The DOG scale will be on one axis, social engagement on the other. My theory centers around which quadrants have which moral judgment scores. Later on, when I use this same format for a larger scale study (more people and possibly more questions), I can also try to theorize political orientation and see which factors most strongly correlate. I’m hoping that, ultimately, my work will be a very small step towards understanding (and mitigating) the effects of being raised in a super-orthodox, repressive environment. From what I’ve read thus far, it can be just as bad as being neglected or abused in terms of its effects on development.

Loving the long weekend October 13, 2007

I really like the idea of Fall Break. I haven’t been to work since Wednesday, and I didn’t have class Wednesday night. I skipped my Wednesday afternoon class, telling the prof that I was under the weather with allergy trouble. I turned in my weekly reaction paper, so all is well.

Thursday I ran some errands and started working on the stuff for Scott’s birthday party (which was yesterday). I had some olives marinating since Tuesday (they were awesome), Scott made gazpacho, and I made the sangria. Friday, Scott took a day off from grading and we worked hard to get our house nice and clean and to start cooking. We finally removed our busted up screen door from the side of the house. I wish I had taken a picture to demonstrate how tacky this thing was, but in brief: the bottom panel was completely gone, the frame of the door was separating from the door in two places, the glass was perilously hanging in the frame, and we kept it constantly opened because it would get stuck in the door frame if we tried to open and close it. We had to remove the screws by hand (about 20 in all), but once we did, we took it down and leaned it against the house, out of sight. We’ll get a new one eventually, but I’m so glad to have that gone.

Having people over is nice because it forces you to do what you should have already done anyways. Our house was in sore need of some straightening/cleaning up, and we both were having laundry issues, which have since been resolved. One of Scott’s presents from me was a closet full of wooden hangers. He’s mentioned in passing that he’s always wanted that, and so I made it happen for him. He was so excited. Yesterday morning we spent an hour cleaning out his closet and re-hanging all of his clothes on the new hangers. He donated a ton of stuff to a local emergency service (we’re talking over 30 shirts, nearly 10 pairs of pants, and about 8 sport coats and jackets) and I think it made him feel better to get rid of his “fat clothes.” It became real to him when he tried on old shirts and they swallowed him up. I think it made him happy to see how far he’s come in the past 3 years. Not only that, but it will help around tax time, since we’ve already donated quite a bit of stuff post-wedding.

The party itself was really nice. We had about 10 people over, and it was nice. Brubeck behaved himself, and our food was outstanding. The hard work paid off deliciously. We had tomato paella, gazpacho, queso de cabra, patatas bravas, Manchego cheese, marinated olives, and birthday cake. I got the cake from Publix, which initially felt like a cop out since I always make a cake for him, but it was so good that my guilt soon resolved itself.

Tonight we’re going to the Cowboy Mouth show in Birmingham at Workplay. Jono got us free tickets, and we’ll hang out with him before the show That poor man must be so tired from touring all over Creation, and his fiancée misses him something terrible. We got their wedding invite in the mail this week and it was just beautiful. Her parents are going to be putting on quite a wedding, and we’re so looking forward to being there. It will be our first wedding to attend since our own, and so it should be fun for us.

“Beat these drums like they oweme money!” October 8, 2007

Our trip to Baton Rouge was so what we needed. We took off fairly early (although not early enough, because Scott seems to have trouble getting ready for a trip unless I’m guiding him. Sigh.) and got to BR before noon. We dropped Brubeck off at their house and then went to lunch at a local Italian restaurant. We split a veggie muffaletta and it was the BEST freaking sandwich I’ve ever had. Fried eggplant, red peppers, olive salad, and provolone on muffaletta bread. So. So. Good.

Then we headed to the stadium w/ our friend Jules, her brother, Sarah, and Eric. Jules’ fiance is the new guitarist for Cowboy Mouth (He’s JP, for those of you who like Cowboy Mouth) and he had a special parking pass for us so that we got good parking. Boy, did that come in handy. LSU’s tailgating scene is incredible and their fans are crazy folks. Crazy. The show was great, and afterwards we popped into the tour bus, and  hung out w/ Fred LeBlanc. He’s a nice guy! Jono is getting us into their show in Bham for free, which should be fun. We then took J to come eat w/ us and get a shower before getting back to the bus for their next show in Denton, TX. He was completely exhausted because they played a show the night before and then had to be back up and at it by lunch time on Saturday. I can see where touring isn’t a lot of fun for bands.

Sunday was Sarah and Eric’s store opening party. Their store (a bridal shop) is so incredibly cute. I predict good things for them. We stayed until about 2 and then headed back home. We stopped off in Abita Springs to visit the brewpub. I got the most gigantic Greek salad I’ve ever seen and some sweet potato fries. So, so good. We got home after 9 and fell asleep by 10. We were exhausted, but glad that we got away for a weekend.

On tap for this week is getting my IRB stuff done, getting stuff together for Scott’s b’day party, and Fall Break! Ho- yeah!

October 5, 2007

This weekend is our trip to Baton Rouge. It should be a hell of a good time! I need to pack my bag and also make the fried olives I promised my friend Sarah. I’ve debated just not going to work today. Why, you ask?

I’m so glad that I did it (and that’s it’s over). The actual insertion process hurt, but it wasn’t intolerable at all. The worst part to me was afterwards. I have kind of a sensitive cervix, and messing around with it makes it angry. I started sweating like crazy and got really, really nauseated. Everyone said I turned white as a sheet, and so I laid back for a few minutes with some Sprite and a cold paper towel. Once I was able to sit up and stay up, I got dressed and all was well. I cramped a bit last night and stayed in bed most of the evening, but I was well enough to help out w/ dinner.

Today I’m feeling the mildest of cramps. I could go to work today, but I may skip for my own sanity.

(Wait, I have Xanax! I can tolerate anything.)

Yo soy scurrrrred October 3, 2007

I requested something to relax me a bit before getting the Mirena put in. I went to pick up my prescription this morning before work, and discovered that my gyn called in Xanax. Five of them. I’m hoping this isn’t a case of “they know something I don’t.”

I’m having a Xanax and 2 Advil for dessert tomorrow at lunch.