Guten tag!

Greetings from germany!
Here I am, after 2 very long days of travel and an equally long (but much more enjoyable) day of academics. Amazing that I arrived here at the hotel yesterday at 5PM, jumped in the shower, changed and dashed off to the opening talk and reception. After spending only a few hours with some of these people, I feel like I have known some of them for years, and have made some good friends (aided, I'm sure, in my case by jet-lag induced delirium!). And how cool (in myvery geeky way) to met a group of people who are all as interested in the same things as I am (if not even moreso). I sincerely wish that it was a longer occasion since most of the group are leaving tomorrow after the final talk (I'm staying until SaturdayAM with only two others). But the cool thing about academia is that even though you don't see these friends very often, you will see them again eventually at another conference or some such event. Still, I'm sad that I'll 'lose' my friends so soon, though I'm quite excited about the second part of the trip.

Blogging and email are made more difficult here by the strange german keyboard, which has relocated just enough letters and punctuation marks to really screw up what tenuous typing skills I had managed to acquire over the last few years.

My paper isn't up until tomorrow (first thing). So far everyone had done a good job, and I've reallty enjoyed the discussions (though I really hit an intellectual wall in the afternoon--thanks to the 9hr time change!). I'm glad I'm first tomorrow though because even for those who had much less jet-lag, there was a level of fatigue that set in as the day wore on. In AM, hopefully everyone will be fresh and ready to go. I read over the paper again before dinner, and though I was horrified by a couple fatigue inuced stylistic infelicities (AKA typos), I think I raise some interesting points, and I'm looking forward to this first non-peer/colleague feedback on my project. There are some problems with the paper that I recognized after hearing one of the other discussions today (I confused the artist who produced the dust jacket design with the artist that did the frontispiece--had it backwards, which I need to correct) but that's easy enough to correct.

cross your fingers for me!

bon voyage

So in a few hours, I am on my way halfway around the world. How ridiculous is it that i have to spend some 15 hours in transit to get to a place I'll only be for 3 days (germany)--thank god I'm not turning around and coming right back. I'm nervous (but I always get really nervous before i fly), I've overpacked, and I already miss my little gray cats horribly (and they know sommething is up because the big backpack is out of the closet, and that only happens when mom leaves for long stretches).

Anyway, I need to unpack and repack and see if I can eliminate a few items from my wardrobe . . . always end up wearing the same three things anyway . . . so what's they use in carrying around so much other stuff, except that it is hard to predict weather over there . . . ugh.

Will try to post from the road, but I fear it will be sporadic, so please don't abandon skylarkin' just yet. In the meanwhile, everyone have a great few weeks, and I'll be typin' to ya! (PS--Jazz and anyone else reading who may be taking the bar: GOOD LUCK!)
Cheers!

A Case In Point

Last week, there was a debate on another blog that I like a lot: Gina’s Rant Spot. The issue was dating and relationships and the communication gap between the sexes where men think that women are all holding out for adonises (Jasmine, this may not apply to you ;) ), and women consequently are all unapproachable. My point was that plenty of men just don’t approach and use that as a convenient excuse. Let me be clear, however, about something, which is this: not any approach will do. Play it casual, don’t put too much pressure on the encounter. If you just want to have a conversation, that’s cool. It may lead to more, it may not, but if that’s what we’re talking about, I have no problem with you approaching me and saying “Hey, what’s up?” or whatever. If you have some other convoluted schemata or if you want way more than that from the get go, I’m put off immediately. Hence the case in point.

Yesterday, instead of coffee bean, I went to Starbucks—was meeting a friend for dinner, so I went in to Westwood early and was planning on reading some of the papers I have to get through before I head for point European next week. The Starbucks I chose was one quite close to campus, so a lot of students hang out there. I get my iced tea (on a hot day like yesterday, their passion fruit tea is TO DIE FOR, but the way).

It was hot yesterday—really hot. East coast humid, sticky hot. So in an effort to trick myself into feeling cool (and so that I wouldn’t wear clothes I am planning on packing!), I wore a dress—it was blue. Blue to me says, cool. Anyway, guess I was kinda dressed up, but that’s not the point, though it is relevant, I guess.

As I’m in line, I see a friend from the English Dept., so I put my stuff down on an open table and then go talk to her for a few minutes before settling down to work. I read for probably about an hour or 90 minutes and then I notice this napkin on my table. I was pretty sure it hadn’t been there when I sat down. I know I didn’t get any napkins. And I had been sitting there the whole time, so I have no idea when it got deposited on the table.

I go back to my work.
Eventually, my cup, which I had been refilling from a huge bottle of water I had brought with me once I finished my tea, started to sweat, so I picked up the napkin to put it under the drippy cup. As I am in the process of doing this, I notice that there is something written inside the napkin:

“You’re cute,” it said, “but are you 40% post-consumer?”

Hmmm. Smart, funny . . . but oh so elementary school, and where the Hell did it come from? I look around and see this 19 yr old employee looking at me. Great. The coffee guy has a crush on me—hey wait, free refill? Probably not. Besides, I’d have noticed a Starbucks guy walking pas the table with one of those uniforms on. Back to work.

Another hour passes and suddenly this guy that I had noticed when I first arrived because of his bad Hawaiian print shirt speedwalks past me from behind and as he passes he throws another napkin on my table. It’s obvious this time:

“DID YOU READ THE FIRST NAPKIN????”

Now, at this point I felt irritated, harassed, and embarrassed. What am I supposed to say now? “Uh, yeah, I read it.” Then what? I felt like I was back in 2nd grade on the playground passing notes. Why didn’t this guy just say something? Why the cryptic napkin notes? Would that work for anyone? All I know is that I was kinda turned off before I knew who it was from. It was like I had my own personal geeky stalker, except that he wouldn’t actually say anything or even look up and make eye contact. Weird.

No thank you.
I couldn’t stay there very long after that. I wanted to keep reading, but I didn’t want to risk getting another napkin on the table, so I pretended like I got a phone call and left.

If the same exact guy had just found a way to say something normal, like "what did you order? It looks good" or "Do you know what time it is?" or even "Man, it's HOT today. . ." I'd have at least responded by saying "Passion Fruit Iced Tea, you should try it some time--it's really good!" or "It's whatever o'clock." or "Yeah, it's like being on the east coast, it's so humid." And if I wanted to, I'd have just kept on going (with the conversation), or I'd have answered his question and gone back to what I was doing. I don;t know if he thought he was being clever or cute, or if he was just socially retarded (he looked like an engineer, so this is a possibility, and I say that with an engineer in my family!). . .

Cutesy, flirty gimmicks tend to mot work for me unless i'm already dating the guy. maybe I'm just too cynical, but I feel like those tricks are commpletely hollow when spent on complte strangers. It's more about the guy wanting to be seen and see himself as the kind of guy who can pick up random girls in Starbucks, and not at all about the girl herself. Of course, if Matt Damon or my latest crush, started dropping napkins on my table at starbucks, I'd swoon, even if the napkin had a piece of chewed gum in it, so perhaps it is all relative and I'm completely, impossibly unapproachable after all. Now if someone would just pass that on to napkin boy and the email guy from this weekend, we'd be in business . . .

Who wants to Marry a Millionaire?

So yesterday, despite the fact that I had only 2 appointments all day (that's a SLOW day, and Thursday won't be that way--it's already booked solid) Anyway . . . despite the fact that I baasically had nothing to do, yesterday was an awesome day at work. Here's why:

One of my coworkers (in another dept.) has a student who wants to change her internship. this is not usually allowed because students need to spend a certain amount of time in the workplace over the course of several weeks. That doesn't mean that if someone is having a horrible time that we make them stay there, but rather that unless there is something legitimately wrong, we don't let them just change horses midstream.

So one of my coworker's students wants to leave what sounds like a perfectly good PR internship to work at "The Millionaire's Club." What is the Millionaire's club, you ask? Ahh . . . this is what I spent my morning finding out. The Millionaire's Club is a matchmaking service, for, you guessed it, millionaires. Men in select cities can pay anywhere from $10-30K (that's per year!) to join, and for this fee, they get fixed up with women who have passed an apparently rigorous screening process. The women don't pay anything to join (surprise, surprise!) but they have to first submit professional photographs (no "glamour shots," whatever that means) and fill out an application which asks questions like

"Would you date a man 10-15 years older that you?"
"What are your measurements: hips? waist? bust? (please include cup size)
"Have you had a restraining order filed against you? If so, for what?"
"Have you had alcohol or substance abuse problems? If so, which?"
"Would you date a man you is shorter than you?"
"Which is more important, looks or money?"

etc. etc. etc. According to one article, the turn down 80% of women who apply.

Apparently, the woman who runs this organization (she called our office yesterday trying to convince us to let the intern switch) screens all the men and women personally, and she tells the men some pretty hard truths. She has been known to recommend personal trainers and exercise plans, teeth-whitening, plastic surgery (!), and a complete wardrobe overhaul (and for a mere $800, she'll take them shopping herself!). These men get matched up with various women, and the odds are pretty stacked in their favor. Even the speed-dating events (which go on for 5 hours and cost $3000) have 10 men and 50 women.

But lest you think any millionaire can pay the dues and start dating golddiggers, apparently the men have to undergo a pretty tough screening process too. They don't have to provide tax returns or anything, but the service evalautes their home(s) and their car(s), and their friends and relatives are interviewed as well. Only 150 men can belong at any given time, and according to a few articles, there is quite the wait list.

I don't know, I think I'd make a pretty good trophy wife--I'm educated, I'm reasonably attractive--granted, my hair is dirty blonde, not platinum, and I haven't had plastic surgery or anything . . . but a millionaire could do worse, and I'd be able to just read and write my little heart out and not worry about the job market or other such nonsense.

But since I tend to prefer guys who are my own age or within about a five year window, and I tend to prefer guys who are at least as tall as I am (5' 6) and in reasonably good shape, I should probably stick with my tivo. But if you want to check it out (and you really should, if only for the entertainment of it all), click the link for the Millionaire's Club.

in case you care

another meme:
What I was doing 10 years ago:

I was 22, and it was 1995 . . . let’s see, it was summer, so I wasn’t taking classes, but I was in State College. I was dating my college boyfriend, reading a lot of F. Scott Fitzgerald for my undergrad thesis, living upstairs from my favorite bar ever (Zeno’s, located directly above the center of the earth) . . . and enjoying being young and living in a college town with lots of young people, cool bands, and cheap food and drink specials.

What I was doing 5 years ago:

I was two years into the ph.d. and just about to have my heart broken by the on-off boyfriend mentioned below. I was teaching the first of many SAT classes and starting to prepare for my first round of qualifying exams.

What I was doing 1 year ago:

I was a couple weeks into a new job on campus, I was getting ready for a trip east for a wedding, and trying to get my head around the fact that my baby brother would be getting married in the fall. Not an easy thing to digest since I wasn't even dating anyone at the time.

What I was doing yesterday:

Office hours until the afternoon, and it was really, really slow, so I did a lot of surfing on the internet. I’ll blog about my favorite discovery later. Then I came home and began to revise my paper for the final time before sending off to the conference organizer. I finally sent it off—though technically, that happened very early today instead of yesterday . . .

5 snacks I enjoy:

Doritos
Hard pretzels
Frozen blueberries
Microwave popcorn
Pink lady apples

5 songs I know all the words to—don;’t like this category, so I’m updating to my five favorite karaoke songs:

it’s too late (carole king)
torn (Natalie imbrulia)
have you ever seen the rain (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
getting jiggy wit it (will Smith)
and my favorite:
Sweet Child o’ Mine (Guns and Roses)

5 Things I would do with $100 million:

buy a convertible (bmw z4, black)
buy a house (no more rent, no more landlord, and no more noisy neighbors)
save the whales
have a 3 day party and
hire all my favorite bands to play

5 locations I would like to run away to:

vegas
carmel
Philadelphia
London
cabo

5 bad habits I have:

sarcasm
dirty looks
biting my nails
procrastinating on the internet
giving in to mood swings

5 things I like doing:

procrastinating on the internet
walking/running with my ipod
rollerblading at the beach
reading detective novels
watching tv

5 things I would never wear:

5 inch platforms
anything chartreuse
unflattering jeans
pasties
gold lame

5 TV shows I like (only 5?! But there are so many!):

Veronica Mars
ALIAS
the 4400
the Dead Zone
Homicide
Grey’s Anatomy
Crossing Jordan
Big Brother
the OC-trash, but good music
LOST
the Law and Order Franchise
the CSI franchise

5 Biggest joys of the moment:

Winston
Owen (my 2 cats)
Tivo
Fresca
The fact that my advisor liked my paper

5 Favorite toys:

tivo 1
tivo 2
ipod
ibook
? don’t think I have other toys at the moment, but I think having two tivos should get me bonus points here . . .

alas . . .

One of the things that I hate most in the world is poor phone etiquette. By this, I don't mean talkining on the phone at inappropriate times (like in the movies) or having your cell go off during a quiet time (again, the movies is a good example). These things annoy me, but they don't piss me off nearly as much as the following:
a) telling someone that you'll call them and not following through
b) failure to return a call when someone leaves a message which says explictly, "please call me back."
c) screening calls in an effort to avoid potentially awkward conversations

My ex was notorious for all of these kinds of behavior, and it was both the most obnoxious and most painful of his regular behaviors. I say regular to distinguish these from his cheating, which was both far more obnoxious and painful, but happened irregularly (as far as I know).

But my ex is not the only one guilty of bad phone behavior. There are scores of people in my life who practice these habits on an annoying regular basis. Take, for example, my friend D. It was his birthday over the weekend, so on Monday, i called him, both to wish him a happy birthday and to see if he wanted to get together for happy hour at one of the local watering holes (this, after a conversation a few days earlier along the lines of, "hey, we should check out the happy hour at XBar again sometime soon). In no way was this to be construed as anything more than friends, but has he called me back? Of course not. It's as if I have been stricken with leprosy and no one has bothered to tell me.

What is the problem? How difficult is it to phone back, or if that's too hard, to send a quick email? Either my friend is an innconsiderate clod and I've somehow failed to notice before now (possible), I've done something to offend (unlikely since we almost never see each other), or he's doing something that he thinks I'll disapprove of like dating one of his students or former students (sadly, also possible, and if I'm betting, my money's on this one).

On a completely unrelated note, got word back from advisor regarding upcoming conference paper, and he think's it's good. My advisor is rather stingy with the praise, so for him to say "It's shaped up nicely and you should feel confident sending it out" roughly translates to "You are the most brilliant student I've ever had! It rocks!" Well, perhaps I exaggerate a little bit, but it's high praise indeed. Have started to get other papers for the conference, and while I've printed them out, am refraining from reading them though, because I'm kind of afraid that if I read them before sending my own out, it will send me into a downlward spiral of a neurotic inferiority complex . . . and who needs that, really?

But in 12 days, I'll be on my way . . . and in 5 the paper has to be fine-tuned to death and out of my hands either way. I'm aiming to send it off before then. And yet "July," despite the fact that it's almost half over, still seems like a mere speck on the horizon.

And finally, my Coffee Bean sighting of the day:
Henry Simmons
(Det. Baldwin Jones from NYPD Blue)

Perkins, I'll miss you . . .

So according to several sources, our terrific President (yeah, sorry to my conservative friends, I'm being sarcastic. I can't help it. It's a sickness) has proposed not only cutting the federal contribution to the Perkins Loan program, but elimiating the program altogether.

Now in case you aren't aware, Perkins Loans are one source of financial aid to help fund undergraduate ($4000/year) and graduate ($6000/year) education. They have a low interest rate (usually around 5%) and are paid to students directly from the school.

Eliminating programs like the Perkins Loan is just another way of reinscribing, or dare I say it, reinforcing, the class structure in the United States. It's one thing when a student opts to go to an expensive private college like Harvard or Stanford or Williams or Smith or the like . . . It's another thing when you apply to a state school and still can't afford to cover costs. In-state tuition and fees for UCLA are almost $7100/yr, but that's on the cheap side as far as state schools are concerned. Michigan costs $8200 for 1st or 2nd year students, $9200 for juniors and seniors. Note, none of these figures include room and board--we're talking tuition only. The cost doubles, when you factor in the dormitories.

So we'll go back to the days when college is only available to the upper class. Might I be exaggerating, I suppose so, but if 4 years at the state college is going to run upwards of $60,000 (or more), for one child, how are regular people going to afford it? I mean those who fall into the ever-widening gap of "not poor enough for financial aid" and :not rich enough to pay for college."

Though I suppose it would solve the recruitment problem that the armed forces have been dealing with over the last several months . . .

Sunday Meme . . .

I'm having a hard time thinking of something to write about today . . . I'm still profoundly saddened by what's going on in London, though over here, at least in LA, it's like nothing happened. Maybe it's because it was on a smaller scale than 9/11 or maybe it's because it happened in another country on the other side of the world . . . But aside from a tribute on the tower records sign, you'd never know. and that troubles me more than anything else.



But in an attempt to think about something lighter, here's today's task:

(More than) 25 Bands I've seen (in as close to chronological as I can remember):

1) Bryan Adams (w/ the Hooters opening)
2) U2 (Joshua Tree tour, though I also saw the Zoo TV tour in college)
3) the Ocean Blue and Mighty Lemon Drops (I got grounded for this one because I disobeyed my parents and went when they expressed told me I wasn't allowed to go, but I was 16 and had my drivers license, so I lied and said my friend and I were going to the movies. I still don't know how they found out that I wasn't where I said I was. . .)
4) the Affordable Floors (a local Pittsburgh band that I absolutely loved when I was in high school--saw them a bunch of times in a bunch of places, including Graffiti, Point State Park, opening for another band at the Starlight Amphitheatre, and my high school auditorium)
5) Depeche Mode (Violator@ Starlight--one of my favorite memories is being there on a beautiful clear summer night and hearing them play, "Waiting for the Night" and Songs of Faith and Devotion@ Civic Arena)
6) Sinead O'Connor (this one was a real disappointment because she only played for like a half an hour and then left the stage saying that she didn't feel well. Oh well, the songs she did were amazing, and the Affordable Floors opened so it wasn't a total wash)
7) Lollapollooza--the one with Pearl Jam, Nietzer Ebb, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers--my favorite was Pearl Jam.
8) Toad the Wet Sprocket--Have seen them more times than I can count, but the first time was the Fear tour ("All I Want"), even saw them open up for Hootie and the Blowfish, and despite what you might think, that Hootie guy can really sing!
9) the Flaming Lips: back in the "She don't need jelly" days . . .
10) the Dirges--my favorite college band. I still miss you guys and those nights at the Brewery!
11) Buffalo Tom--another college band favorite--saw them at PSU, in DC, in New England, and even a couple times out in California.
12) the Jayhawks
13) Son Volt
14) Live
15) Tori Amos w/ Dog's Eye View
16) 10,000 Maniacs--great show at Hershey Park, but I also saw Natalie Merchant do a solo show at Eisnehower Auditorium at PSU--Innocence Mission opened for them . . .
17) Third Eye Blind--a complete disappointment, especially because it was my birthday. They SUCKED live, and meeting the singer afterwards was a total letdown too--he's an ass.
18) Our Lady Peace
19) Love Spit Love (originally there was a band caled "Love Circle Logic" in this slot, but I didn't want to have to renumber everything again!)--Richard Butler has a scary wing/arm-span
20) Whiskeytown (and hung out with Ryan Adams after the second show--took him to get coffee and cigarettes at the local uni-mart, and then got to see the tour bus and meet the rest of the band. RA has a serious case of ADD, either that or the man really is a genius in the "eccentric and no social skills but totally brilliant kinda way"--he had a really disquieting way of getting to the heart of the matter--and apparently, I hadn't had enough trouble in my life. He said to me that I needed to get into some trouble: "I don't mean that you should hold up a liquor store or anything, but you need some trouble." Disconcerting how a complete and utter stranger could tell that I'd lived such a completely sheltered life . . . but he was right.
21) Wilco--Jeff Tweedy had to cancel the second night of this tour ("Summerteeth") because his father-in-law passed away. Luckily, I had tickets for the first night
22) Golden Smog: this alt-country supergroup with members of Wilco, the Jayhawks, Soul Asylum, and Big Star . . . if you like wilco or son volt or that kind of music, you should check out their albums! They're terrific
23) Goo Goo Dolls (Buffalo Tom was opening)
24) Sparklehorse--my first show at the troubadour!
25) Glen Phillips--former frontman of Toad the Wet Sprocket
26) Rubyhorse
27) Pete Yorn--saw him three times, oncein the Tower Records parking lot
28) RADIOHEAD at the Hollywood Bowl. This was one of thhe best concerts I've ever seen! An amazing night, and despite the fact that I was way, way in the back (the Skybox, my friend termed it), it was amazing.
29) and then the concert that changed my life: Damien Rice and THE FRAMES. If you've read my blog at all, you know how important this show was to me. It was the first one that I went to by myself, and by was I nervous! But I loved the Frames so much that it didn't even matter . . . changed my life!
30) the Shins
31) Death Cab for Cutie (seen them twice)
32) Jesse Malin
33) the Killers
34) Keane
35) Snow Patrol
36) the Black Eyed Peas--I would have never gone to this one on my own, but they did a benefit for the Kerry campaign, so as a volunteer for the campaign, I got to go for free. Turns out, they were absolutely AMAZING live. I'd definitely see them again.
37) Joseph Arthur
38) Kaiser Chiefs (2x--and for the record, I have no idea what the big deal is with Morningwood--they suck, though if you like women who try to shake themselves out of their low-cut tops, then maybe you'd like them)
39) Bloc Party (2x) believe the hype!
40) Stars
41) Josh Rouse
42) the Frames (headlining this time!--with Mark Geary)
43) Kasabian
44) Glen Hansard (frontman for the Frames)
45) Crooked Fingers (new band from the former frontman from the Archers of Loaf)
46) doves
47) Spoon
48) Bell X1 (2x)

This isn't everything, but it's a pretty good recollection of my life in bands . . .
missing, are, I'm sure, lots of bands I went to see in college at this club called the Crowbar--amazingly, lots of pretty big name bands played they because Penn State is mid-way between Pittsburgh and Philly, Pittsburgh and NYC, Pittsburgh and DC

And on the horizon (despite my concert moratorium to save money for my trip), once more: THE FRAMES, (do you see a trend here?) this time with Josh Ritter.

Have a Good Week!
:)

Erin go Bragh!

So I'm going to Europe in--YIKES--three weeks! The first part (and the motivating factor) is a conference in Frankfurt Germany, where I'll get to discuss my work with other academics who study William Carlos Williams. Unlike many academic conferences where you just show up and read your paper to a captive audience (unless the conference is in a place like NYC in which case you read you paper to the other two people who are on your panel and the poor schmuck that is moderating--I've been both), this conference requires each participant to email their paper to the rest of the group about a week before so that we can all read each other's work before we get there. Guess what I'll be doing on the plane? But seriously, once we're there, we all get about 15 mintes to introduce our work and contextualize it, and then the group talks about it or asks questions for an hour, and then it's on the the next person. It should be really great--and hey--Germany!

But the second part of the trip is what I'm really excited about because after the conference, I'm off to Ireland for two weeks--Dublin, then a couple days in Galway City, and then up to Sligo for Yeats Summer School. I finalized my accomodations today (after dropping a chunk of change on travel guides at the bookstore today . . .)

But suddenly, it is occurring to me that
A) I'll be in Germany in three weeks (well, in exactly three weeks, I'll be somewhere over the atlantic ocean en route to germany, but . . .)
B) I need to get cracking and finish my chapter on Williams before I go so that I can start Yeats with a clean slate.
C) When I start Yeats, I'm starting the third of my three dissertation chapters--EEE!!!
D) When I get back from my 3 week trip--I will be eating Ramen Noodles for a good three months.

As an unrelated side-note, as I write this, a preview for "Willie Wonka" was just on. I had forgotten haw absolutely terrifying that movie was. Not only does Johnny Depp look downright FREAKY, but those OOmpah-Loompahs are scary! And I may have to start saying in my best London accent, "Daddy, EYE, Wahnt an Ooompah Loompah, and Eye wahnt it NOW!" (phonentically, of course!)