I'm sick again, I'm afraid. I was a little worried that that might happen, since I wasn't feeling terrific when I left town, and travelling is tiring. I managed to hang in there through most of the weekend, but I was feeling awful by the time I got home Monday. So I missed class Monday, and cancelled yesterday, and spent most of that time curled up under a blanket on the papasan, reading children's books (Tamora Pierce's First Test, Eva Ibbotson's Which Witch) and essays from Sex and Single Girls.
That was pretty cool, actually -- when I was in Seattle visiting Debby and John, she mentioned she had an essay in that book (under a pseudonym, so I'm not going to tell you which one), and I have an essay in that book, and we were both lamenting its non-arrival...and then I came home to find it on my doorstep. :-) It's a surprisingly good book. I'm not a huge fan of reading books of essays, even sex essays, but so far every essay I've read in this has been well-written, thought-provoking, and pretty well thought out. I know why, too -- it's because the editor, Lee Damsky, is just amazing. She did four hard revisions with me to get my essay, "Silence and the Word" to its best possible shape -- and it wasn't so bad to start out with. Debby reports a similar experience. If I'm ever a publisher looking for an editor, I'm going to track this woman down and hire her. So anyway, I'm enjoying the book, and I think you would too. It's going to take me a while to get through it, though -- it's thick!
I'm a little slow this morning; Kev called around 8 last night, and we ended up talking until 2. It didn't feel like six hours; it never does. This sort of long conversation is essential for me if I'm trying to maintain a long-distance relationship, but it does a) run up phone bills, which luckily he can afford to pay, and b) tend to leave you very tired or slow the next day. Ah well...small price to pay.
I know I had other things to tell you guys. *grumble* Well, later, I suppose. I'm going to go back to working -- I have a lot of reading to catch up on. But it's a nice day to be doing it; the tree outside my window is covered in yellow leaves; the rain is falling quietly outside. I'm going to make some more tea and then curl up in the papasan again and see if I can wrap my brain around some more post-colonial theory. Until later, munchkins.
3:00. Steadily churning through -- still a ways to go. I'm only about half a week behind on post-co at this point; about two more hours should catch me up. Maybe half an hour on fiction workshop stuff. I have some quizzes for my students, but I also am getting their group projects, so I think this is going to be grading weekend, and I'm not worrying about it 'til then. I'm going to spend about an hour running out to the grocery store, and about two hours watching Voyager, but I should still be able to be basically caught up on schoolwork after that.
Of course, I have other work. Chris Cobb and I have been having a long on-line conversation about Guy Gavriel Kay's work -- I was supposed to take time today to turn that into a semi-coherent form. It's due to SH by Monday, and the sooner I get the first draft done, the more time Chris and I will have to make the whole thing really sharp. I think that it'll take me about an hour, so I might be able to get that done today too. We'll see.
My desk and dining table and bedroom and kitchen all need cleaning. I'm spending most of my time in the living room because it's the only clean room in the house and the others distress me. *sigh*
I want to get started on reading Cinnamon Gardens by Shyam Selvadurai (and rereading his previous book); I'm hoping that I'll be able to get something cogent out of that that I can turn into my final paper for post-co, and possibly even into something publishable; there has been very little written about him in the Academy, and as a gay Sri Lankan author, he interests me.
I need to do up a book proposal for a collection of Asian speculative fiction. The publisher is interested in the collection, so now the job is to solidify it. I'll probably be asking for your help in coming up with names and titles shortly, but I need to do up a list of what I have first. That's not really due until the end of the year, but the sooner I get started, the better. It's itching at me.
By Monday, I need to have a story ready to turn in. That's Friday's assignment, I think -- take the laptop and the student papers and go to a cafe -- anytime I can't write, I must spend grading. Sometimes I can manage to be that disciplined, but not always.
I think I'm actually okay, as long as I don't get sicker again. Jenn is kindly coming to get me at 5:30 and run me to the store; I'm going to eat something nice and nourishing for dinner (not just hot dogs :-), but also something that doesn't require me to cook tonight. Or not cook much. Maybe I'll toss some ground meat into a readymade spaghetti sauce -- one of those 15-minute dinners that will end up feeding me for a few days. Hmm...a vegetable. Vegetables are good for you, right? But I'm not a huge fan of salad...what vegetable does one eat with spaghetti? (I'm pretty sure garlic bread isn't an actual vegetable)...
Okay, rambling because I don't want to face two more critical essays. But I can do it -- I'm tough. I'm gonna go have some cinnamon toast first, though. :-)