I have a lot to do this weekend, and I will do it: grading papers, thank-you notes (geez, those are late), prepping for the next unit in the classes I teach, and preparing for Tuesday's class(es). Last night went pretty well, but I have discovered that I am sort of a cornfed Iowan. Around the time that I started working with hogs, I started to have sort of a liberal-elite unconscious valorization of physical labor. It is probably partly due to the fact that I liked working with the baby pigs, with my downloaded MP3s blaring in my ears, my thoughts flying around in a very pleasurable way as I did intense work with my hands. So, I started to think that physical work is "real" work and mental work (like being a graduate student and teaching two classes) is not real work. After all, at the end of the day, you're really not exhausted. So it's not "real." Anyway, I had a discussion last night with one of my fellow incoming lit. grad students about this and now I know my "prejudice" is there. Maybe I should read some John Steinbeck to feel better.
The party: it was good (does that really mean anything?). Anyhow, it's hard for me to make judgments about these things because it has not fully set in A) how I got here B) whether I should be here, and C) what I think of here. This is not my reality yet. I like things this way, doing what I do as a graduate student, having Tuesdays and Thursdays where I don't really do too much until the evening, and then MWF I do all of my stuff earlier in the day. So I get to lift weights and play basketball and go swimming and they're paying me for this. I'm still trying to place myself.
Well. Jess is a good woman. I like seeing how our marriage is doing by reading her blog. Input, feedback, accountability: good to have issues like this in writing.
