You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2008.
Once again, Dennis Kucinich succeeds in telling it like it is. Notice the slight looks of surprise as the delegates slowly start tuning in to his ballsy speech. This is so Jimmy Stewart!
Dear,
Good day and Compliments,
I mean, I get emails like this at least 3-4 times a week. Most of the time they go straight to my junk mail, but every so often one of them slips through the radar. And because the subject heading usually says something like “Hi. I miss you!”, I read them. I’m half tempted to call the number below and see where it takes me. Or maybe not. One thing I’ve noticed about these people, in addition to their being obviously foreign, is that they often assume a slightly lascivious tone. This, you could say, is symptomatic of their broken English, which is why we get such lovelies like: “something touched me to contact you.” But still, W-T-F?
It gives me a great pleassure to write you as I am browsing the internet when I came across your email contact and something touched me to contact you ,I will be very happy to be in communication with you if you will have the desire with me so that we can get to know each other and see what future holds for us.I will be very happy if you can write me through me back for me to tell you more about my self and give you my picture for us to know eachother better.
You can also call me on my cell phone at +2348025804779
I will be looking forward to hear from you.
Yours sincerely,
Blessing Chukwukelu
For the past ten days I’ve been working as a Faculty Advisor for summer orientation. This means talking to a bunch of anxious (and super young-looking!) first-years about things like graduation requirements, course loads and placement tests, and answering questions like “who are the cool professors?”, “are these classrooms too far apart?” and, of course, “can I skip 101?” For the most part the job has been sweet. There’s no prep and I do enjoy the tangible rewards that advising, unlike my research, affords. In the past week I’ve received several “Thank you so much, you have been incredibly helpful to me.” And that feels good. Plus I’m getting paid to do almost nothing.
There were, however, conversations like this one that really, um, made we want to scream: “WHY ARE YOU HERE?!” Have a look-see:
Student: So, I need one more class. But I don’t know what to take.
Me: What interests you?
Student: I dunno.
Me: OK. Have you imagined what general area your major might be in?
Student: No.
Me: Hmm…OK. Well why don’t you take a class that satisfies your GUR requirements? Like, a social science or a humanities class.
Student: I’ll take a social science.
Me: OK, what about this Psychology class? It’s an intro class.
Student: Is it hard?
Me: Well, it’s for students who have never taken a Psych. class before, so the material will be introductory level. It won’t be very challenging in that way. Just keep up with the reading and be sure to attend lectures for quiz and exam notes.
Student: I don’t want a class that requires a lot of reading.
Me: Um…OK…what about a math class?
Student: I hear math has a lot of homework. I don’t want a class with a lot of homework my first quarter.
Intervening Advisor (who saw me squirm): Do you like movies?
Student: Yeah. I like movies.
IA: Theater 201. It’s Introduction to Cinema. You watch films each week and discuss them. It’s really fun. And you do learn a lot. I took it when I was a freshman and loved it.
Student: Cool.
Student from across the aisle: But the films are old! In black and white! And a lot have subtitles. They’re so boring!
Student: Ouch (he really said that!). Are there other film classes?
IA: No, this is the only Introductory class. To get into the other film classes you first have to take this one.
Student: What about like an art class?
Me: Well there’s an Art History class open.
Student: Art History. Art History. Where you can make things?
Me: Well, no. This is where you study about the history of different art forms. Or periods.
Student: Well I like art but I don’t like sitting around and talking about it. I don’t want classes where you sit around and talk about things.
Oy. Thank gawd I had to go right after he said that.
I am slowly getting more used to our new house, which we shall now refer to as “little cutie” (previous owner’s name for it). For some reason the size is mattering less and less. In fact, it’s somewhat convenient when it comes to cleaning and heating the place, the latter of which we had to do yesterday despite it being mid-August! I have to say the large dry basement really helps with storage. And just knowing it’s there helps. Guess I’m 100% white-bread American: I need to have more square feet, even if it’s only in my head sometimes.
Our first home improvement project is to give Little Cutie a kitchen a face-lift. We plan to install some new appliances, a new Corian countertop with integral sink design, and last but not least refinish the existing cabinets (ourselves). Can I just say the price of new cabinets are hellishly insane? New Corian countertops are also pricey, but I’m willing to splurge there: so long laminate! Plus, Mr. G is confident that the original cabinets are still in very good shape. Yes, they do seem solid in that “older house” sort of way. Let’s face it, I’m somewhat of a princess, so I like things new, shiny, clean, and just so.
First step in this long process will be to install our new gas range, which arrives Saturday. We went with a stainless steel imitation, not because it’s cheaper (which it really isn’t) but because the handy-dandy salesman at Lowe’s said that the mock-stainless is fingerprint resistant. We’re also getting the microwave companion piece that Mr. G will install himself just above the range. This will free up significant counter space. Feng shui here we come (joking).
On an entirely unrelated note, it dawned on me I haven’t posted any pics of Bump lately, so here are some I took in July. Bump was busy “reading” a picture book when I took these, and I think my incessant “look at mommy” pleas confused him a bit — he didn’t know what to do. And when all else fails, reach for Mom I suppose.
(Click on the pictures to behold the full extent of his cuteness).
Well, actually, the bank owns it, but you know what I mean. The cute two-bedroom Craftsman bungalow that gets “oohs and aahs” from passers-by is all ours. Home sweet fucking home. Unfortunately, I relate to this house as one might relate to a lukewarm relationship: definitely not something for the long term, but it’ll do for now. Until something better comes along. Cruel, but oh. So. True.
Escrow closed yesterday. Mr. G. and I haven’t had time to celebrate, unless you count the champagne we popped last night. I still don’t know how I feel about this. Here’s why: the house is small. We could’ve purchased much more house, but we wanted to live closer to the action, in a historic neighborhood (where Craftsmans and Victorians dominate), and in the “blue” parts of town. That is, we wanted to be closer to the water and further from the “red state” suburbs. Problem is, most Crunchyville residents want to live in these cute, tree-lined neighborhoods (they have sidewalks! parks! and coffee-houses!) so you get less house for your buck. Period. We chose this house because it was listed 10K below market value — seller had to get the hell out of dodge a.s.a.p. When our loan almost fell through, she even agreed to kick in 6K towards closing costs *and* replaced the old oil-furnace with a new energy-efficient gas one. Ah, the thrill of instant equity.
Any advice for a family of three living in an 800sf home?
Before you crap your pants, remember that we have a dry, partially finished, relatively bright basement of about 700sf, which is where we plan to expand. Mr. G . is going to enlarge the three windows so they’re “egress” windows, which means we could list this as a three-bedroom house when we sell. And we want to finish the rest of the basement so we can, well, live in it. Right now, having the basement helps keep the upstairs clutter-free, so it hasn’t been too bad. But it sure isn’t the 1500sf rental we grew somewhat used to this year. Then again, we’re not paying that much more per month to live here and we aren’t “throwing our money away.” Not all of it, anyway (5.1% interest rate). So I suppose if you consider the fact that we’re not financially strapped and we have the basement for storage and for an eventual expansion, then we’re sitting pretty. Plus we’re in a neighborhood where it is geographically impossible to increase inventory, so the supply:demand ratio will generally work in our favor (as soon as we pull out of this nightmare housing situation, of course).
While the house might be small, and we’re certainly feeling a little crowded, nothing beats the feeling of having it all to ourselves. Amazing how that works.
G
