Jess and I are in new environs. We moved a total of two blocks (away from campus, so my bike ride is a little longer) to the spacious (I am being facetious) Copper Star apartments. We will not have to pay rent this first month, we'll get our $80 gas deposit back, $700 deposit for our old place, and our old landlords are giving us $400 for the washer and dryer that I bought last year. It was convenient to have those, but I still have to pay off the friggin' things. The Sears charge card has a 23% APR, which I had a 6-month leave on, so I'll want to get that paid off soon.

I have to do my final projects for three classes. One, an (at least) ten page paper about Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and travel/tourism issues. When I said I wanted the paper to be conference-presentation-formatted, I had to say I didn't know for which conference. But now I know which conference--there's an interdisciplinary conference in Atanta, GA, next spring. That's a long way, but the department does offer us some travel funds, and I may actually go, because hypothetically by then my friend Tim and his now-fiance will be living 150 miles from Atlanta, in Savannah. He's going to an art college as a grad student. Anyway, this is much more planning that I usually do, but it would be sweet to go from the American Southwest to the American South.

And then I have to prepare my course plan (syllabus, justification, etc.) for my Teaching of Literature class. That's due May 13. My course will be "American Literature of/and Religion." The tough part will be actually working up a reason to put certain readings in there. Why teach this? I've read it and it's cool. Not enough.

And then the final thing is my longer paper for Annette Kolodny. Luckily, she thinks I'm an idiot already. I'll be putting the least amount of effort into this paper. It's about justifying the teaching of a certain text. Mine will probably be a long tract on pedagogy. Unfortunately, I won't be able to express how I'd really teach the text (which may end up being Lincoln's Second Inaugural), because the whole point of the class seemed to be Annette Kolodny's attempt to indoctrinate her grad students to go out and save America from the forces of the Right wing, with the weapons of teaching context, the long view of history, and the peculiarity of American religion and culture.

And, I have to finish grading the student papers for ENGL102-66. I'm debating how seriously to take this grading.