Well, it’s been 65 plus and sunny all week, but I’m not holding my breath that it will last, with our luck there will be more snow before summer begins.  In the interim, it is getting really hot here, Matt says it’ll get close to 80 today and based on my walk to campus this morning I believe him.  The snow and rain storms of last week have helped a lot here, the grass is finally turning green and the trees are just starting to flower.  Being here in spring makes me appreciate how pretty flowers really are in Oregon in the Spring – as we have NONE here.  I miss daffodils soooo much!  I’ve seen tulips and hyacinth in beds tended by the school but no daffodils.  Oh well, hopefully the flowers Matt and I planted will start to come up once we can let them outside in May.

Speaking of our little gardening endeavor, everything is still alive for the most part but I think further growth is stunted until they can be outside.  Mostly things are short and only a little leafy, except for the peas and beans which are a couple feet tall and twisting themselves around everything they can reach.  I can’t wait to see what everything does when it all gets outside!  We found a free bbq on the street yesterday and are looking for an outdoor table so we can really hang out out there when the weather is nice.  I am really excited for spring and summer and being in the backyard, even if the dogs do bark far too much for anyones comfort out there.

3-4 weeks left in the term, I’ve got a few papers and a couple presentations and am a bit scared of how much work this will be in not much time, but I’m excited the write about The Robber Bride and Buffy, so I’m hoping that will make the papers go a little faster than normal.  I really hope that both turn out well because I feel like I should submit them to something for publication or conference if I can, everyone is so big on pushing that here.  I’d love to present the Buffy paper at conference, that would be incredibly fun and not nearly as intimidating.

My new job is fantastic!  I’m really liking the people and enjoying being busy doing something non-academic but productive for a few hours a week.  My boss and everyone else I’ve met have been really nice and it’s a very low-key office which is great in comparison to some other places I’ve worked.  Matt has walked across the courtyard to  come by and visit a few times which is a lot of fun.  I’m really grateful to finally have found something and to be enjoying it so much.  I might not be a very important part of the weather research and science, but I deliver mail and errands like nobodies business.  🙂

Matt and I will be back in Oregon in July.  Starting from about the 6th and I’ll be there until the 21st.  I hope to see many of you then!

okay, until next time,

yours,

alaina

Well, I should be reading Power/Knowledge, or Truth & Power, or Truth & Knowledge or something like that from the ancient Foucault reader I’ve lugged all this way, but my tooth hurts and as I am still a student I’m gonna go ahead and embrace the excuse to avoid my homework.  I had my permanent crown put in this morning and it hurt so much that I not only cried, but I also screamed and prayed and begged Matt to talk to me about random crap to distract me for the 15 minutes it took the painkillers to kick in.  Why do dentists say “it’ll be a little sensitive” or “it’ll only hurt a little” when they really mean that you’ll be in anguish for days?  Why do they lie, it doesn’t make them anymore likable.  Or maybe it doesn’t hurt this much for most people and I’m just a giant baby about my teeth.  That is entirely possible.  But at least now I’m supposedly all fixed up.  Thank goodness!

What other news…  Valentines Day was really neat, it was probably even more expensive than going out to eat somewhere fancy but we had a lot of fun cooking and I kind of loved watching the green beans inbob around in the terrifying FryDaddy that we borrowed.  I also love being able to say that I’ve made Cinnamon-Chocolate and Strawberry Napoleans.  Yeah, that’s right.  I feel so domestically awesome.  However our kitchen looks like the victim of a home invasion or minor natural disaster still, even though we’ve been working on it.  Guess that kills the domestic awesomeness prize, huh?

I’m apply for a job as a data technician at an oil & gas pipeline company and have actually spoken to a real live person about my application.  I consider this an excellent sign and I’m crossing fingers, toes, legs, arms and eyes in hopes of getting the job.  It sounds like a great opportunity to work for a really great company.  So, if you pray, pray for me getting it, if you dont mind.  And, if you dont pray, wish me luck and cross your fingers (I wont ask you to cross the rest) for me.  I really want a job, and especially this one.  I know they say your shouldn’t take it personally if you can’t find a decent job in this economic climate, but I’m tired of not working.

And, now classes.  I was super stoked about my classes this term.  And, still am about one of them.  I’m really enjoying my critical theory class and the professor.  It’s like philosophy classes – but not always about the metaphysical.  But, as for the other two…  I tried to speak out in class 4 times yesterday and every single time someone spoke over me and I was ignored.  The first class, where it happened 3 times I figure it’s mostly my fault, I’m quiet and the rhet/comp students leading the class really only notice other loud rhet/comp students.  But in the second class I was actually half way into a question directed at the teach who was listening to me ask it (with eye-contact) when some guy in the class decides he has to interject his comment at that moment.  SERIOUSLY?  I know I’m not the loudest person, but I do speak at human decibels, so what does it say that I can be so completely disregarded 4 times in one day of classes???  I miss when raising your hand was an option that got you at least a word or two in edge wise (I’ve never written that expression before, I have no idea if I did it right) against pretentious MFA poet type boys who really think that the need to tell the teacher about their interest in the use of compassion in their own work! ! !  That’s not even relevant, you jerk!  And, just so you know, all those exclamation points are standing in for a whole lot of raging bitterness I’m restraining as this is on the open internet and I can’t bring myself to say all this the way I’d like to.

Alright, tirade finis.  I have class in 17 minutes and should wrap this up on a positive note.  I took my car through a car wash yesterday and think that has to be the most exciting automotive related chore ever.  It’s practically an adventure.  A loud and slightly intimidating one when those giant things come at your car, but it was a great deal of fun for $3.  I also get to go talk about my term paper tomorrow with a professor whose already told me it was good (so no worrying) after class and then only have to read one article for my mean rhet/comp class tomorrow.  I’m very excited, I think I’ll devote my spare time to watching my netflix and unloading the dishwasher.  hehe.

until next time,

yours,

alaina

Okay Mariko – This one is just for you.  🙂

For Form & Technique – Essay

THE SNOW LEOPARD
MATTHIESSEN

EARLY SPRING:WAKING TO WARMING WORLD
SIEDL

INTO THE WILD
KRAKAUER

HEAVEN’S COAST
DOTY

NEWJACK:GUARDING SING SING
CONOVER
(This was really interesting, but got kind of tiresome after page 200)
LYING:METAPHORICAL MEMOIR
SLATER
(This sounds awesome, she tackles the deceits of people who write ‘memoirs)
TRUCK:LOVE STORY
PERRY
(He meditates on love while fixing an old truck – I’m excited)

For New Somatic Criticism

POWER/KNOWLEDGE:SEL.INTERVIEWS..1972-77
FOUCAULT
(Foucault is like the only man of interest in grad school, I swear)

ETHICS
BADIOU

NIETZSCHE+PHILOSOPHY
DELEUZE

HOW TO READ NEITZSCHE
PEARSON
(I’m sort of reading idiots guides in graduate school)
HOW TO READ LACAN
ZIZEK

For Emotion, Culture & Rhetoric

COMPASSION: CULTURE+POLITICS OF EMOTION
BERLANT
POLITICS OF AESTHETICS
RANCIERE

AMERICAN COOL

STEARNS

(This sounds neat, but so far the class readings have sucked, so I’m kind of not looking forward to it anymore)

SPACE,TIME+PERVERSION
GROSZ
FRUITS OF SORROW
SPELMAN

FEELING POWER
BOLER
(Boring and majorly about Woman Power)
CULTURAL POLITICS OF EMOTIONS
AHMED

(Seriously DRY but an interesting theory)

Aah February…

New Classes having actual homework due, Valentine’s Day, Tax Season, FAFSA time, School Fees, and more snow.

Well, my taxes, FAFSA, and fees are done.  Valentine’s is planned and homework is being actively avoided, so go me!

Matt and I are doing up a fancy dinner at home for Valentine’s.  I’m very excited about the fancy meal, but not so much about the challenge of cooking a real meal.  We’re doing battered green beans with remoulade sauce from a southern cookbook, steak au poivre (which i’m pretty sure just means with peppercorns), and for dessert we’re doing some form of napolean filled with mousse.  Aren’t you proud of you Amy?

Then sunday I get to write papers and read about my professor travelling around the world to volcanos.  Yay!

that’s it for now,

yours,

alaina

I walked all the way to the bus stop today and then discovered that I had forgotten my bus pass, which means actually paying $2 to ride the ten blocks to campus, or however far it is, which sucks.  So, I got the money and decided, just in case the driver would be nice, to ask if i could get to campus today without it.  It’s my first day back on the bus for the new term and I was hoping he’d feel generous.  And, he was.  He not only let me on and was totally nice about it, but he also was feeling quippy!

He made jokes to me, and the next guy who got on without his pass because he was new, and the next set of people.  He asked the first one on, “Did anyone order a bus?”  The idiot had headphones on and didn’t appreciate the joke, but I thought it was amusing.

When we pulled into the campus he announced on the loud speaker “Alright, ladies and gentlemen, we are now leaving warp speed and entering CSU airspace.”

And, lastly, when I pulled the cable to make my stop he grabbed the loud speaker and said, “Okay, who pulled that cable?  Whoever that was I’m afraid you’re going to have to exit the bus at the next stop.”

These might not seem that funny, but if you rode the bus every morning in the land of headphones, scowls, and/or ridiculously loud conversations about nothing anyone else ever needed to hear about, you would be able to fully appreciate the lovely break this was.

Best bus ride ever.

So, if the bizarre feet of snow weren’t enough, it is now officially winter in Tillamook.  I.E.  It’s flooding!  Supposedly the Wilson was going to crest at 19 feet and you have to take detours to get to the other side of town.  Woohoo…

Anyway, Becky and I are sitting at Main Street listening to the arcade machine noises (the techno version of The Simpson’s theme) and I’m finally getting to use internet of proper speeds that I’m borrowing from the Radio Shack down the way.  How sad is it when the Starbucks in this town doesn’t even have wifi?

And, now for the exciting part!  I’m typing on my new mini notebook!  It’s an Acer Aspire One, and it’s beautiful and so far very lovely to use.  I think it’s a pretty quick and powerful little thing too.  I’m a little irked it doesn’t come with office to stay, only a 60 day trial.  Grrrr.

Happy 2009!  I’m still in Tillamook for a couple weeks, Mom and I have big intentions for housework and improvements.  We might paint, we will clean out and I’m not sure what all else she has planned.

Okay, much else to do unfortunately and no idea how long this whole borrowed internet thing will last…

yours,

Alaina

So, Thanksgiving Break has finally begun.  I don’t think I’m capable of being more full of thanks.  I started the break right, with the world’s worst teenage girl movie with Shauna, Karyn and Emily, which was awesome.  The movie sucked a great deal but watching in a theater of people who couldn’t decided whether to laugh or cry was a lot more fun than I would have thought, despite the angry ushers trying to get people to stop holding seats.  We did Rockband afterwards so Matt could have his fix before Emily bailed on us for the rest of the break.  Yesterday we spent cleaning, seriously, the whole day.  This place hasn’t been so clean since it was made, because it sure as hell wasn’t this clean when we moved in.  The whole cleaning process confused and upset the dogs who took to following us around and looking perturbed, but it’ll be worth it when Mom isn’t horrified when she arrives tomorrow.  Which is the most exciting part, of course, Mom will get here tomorrow evening and then we’ll have grocery shopping to do and lots of tv watching to veg through and it’s going to be wonderful.  I’m so excited to see her.  We’ve got our turkey, and I’m going to try to make some of the Thanksgiving stuff early so it won’t be so ridiculous in our tiny kitchen on the day of, and matt and I are going to decorate our live mini tree as a table centerpiece and this Thanksgiving is going to be better than I expected when we came out here.  I’m completely excited.

On the other hand of course, I still have a twenty page paper to write, a 5-10 page paper to write and 8+ books to read for a 6+ page prospectus and annotated bibliography all ideally started before next Monday, so it’s not as lovely as I’d prefer.  They really love to pile it all on at the end, don’t they?  Oh well, I guess on that note I shouldn’t really be procrastinating.  Margaret Atwood scholarship and Judith Butler are impatiently awaiting me, and the angry looking face of Raymond Carver on his book is making me nervous, so I had best begin (or at least flip that Carver book over).

Happy Thanksgiving Break to all of you, whether or not you are experiencing any sort of actual break at this moment!

yours,

alaina

So, the contest winners announcements supposedly came and went and I haven’t heard anything so I’m assuming I did not win, but two of my photos were displayed as finalist and I get pretty framed and matted copies of them when they are taken out of the gallery, so either way I’m stoked.  I’ll attach them below for those of you who wanted to see them.