Ending 2009

The snow is falling, and the year is ending. Today my car is at a shop having an automatic/electric car starter installed so that winter days in Big Rapids, with no garage for poor Bonnie Blue, won't be such a hassle. I hope it works properly, with no glitches in the system. We're supposed to pick up the car around noon.

Tomorrow we're heading up to Big Rapids so that a cable modem can be installed in my apartment. I'm not getting cable for the tv, just for the internet. After the guy in the apartment building changed the password, I can't use the internet anymore, for some reason. I'd prefer to be in control of my own life as much as possible, which is why I got the apartment and didn't stay at Betty's. I don't like the inconvenience of having to nag this guy when the internet goes out, and I certainly did not appreciate it when he answered the door in the nude that time.

I'll soon need to start prepping for the new semester. However, for the time being, I'm enjoying being deadline-free. I've been reading, but the novels I've read haven't been very good. People who write about Louisiana so often get it wrong. But this one author got so much wrong that I wanted to scream at her on practically every other page. Sailing with the krewes?!!! Excuse me. The Krewes are people who ride the Mardi Gras floats. They don't SAIL. Those are crews. And she apparently has no clue about comma use. I just hate it when people don't set off nouns of address with commas. My favorite bad example came from a student's writing. She was writing about a cook-out. One child called to another, "Let's eat Jimmy!" Of course what she meant was "Let's eat, Jimmy!" I couldn't help thinking, "And if Jimmy is not enough, then we'll barbecue Sue for dessert!"

What was most offensive, though, was that the main character in this novel was supposedly a psychologist working with schizophrenic people who turned out not to be ill but possessed by the river devils. Oh, geez. One of the reviewers called it Southern Gothic. Excuse me? I don't think this reviewer has ever had any experience with either mental illness OR Southern Gothic. You want Southern Gothic? Read Flannery O'Connor.

But enough about that. Instead of reading so much, I should be writing. Wait. I AM writing. Do blogs count? Adjunct Advocate is hiring bloggers for a whopping $30 weekly. Happily, I am no longer an adjunct, but I still care deeply about the issues. I just don't have time to work another job. During the semester, I don't have time to do anything extra.

I must confess, though, that I am growing more and more excited about the Intro to Women's Studies I'll be teaching soon. And less and less excited about the Advanced Comp for Pharmacy majors. Groan.