The Hellish Handbasket

Here I am, skulking back to my blog after being outed as a closet optimist. I've had some interesting feedback on the whole sordid exp...

Yesterday I drove to the campus in Wilsonville for our quarterly in-service. Some time back one of the program directors thought it would be...

One of the consequences of embarking upon the journey toward an advanced degree is that some parts of life must inevitably receive less atte...

I've been sneezing off and on all day. It could be a reaction to the piles of dust and cat hair that continuously roil about the Love Sh...

For the past few hours I've been working on the introductory chapter of my dissertation proposal. This is the chapter that contains ob...

I just finished the weekly task of grading the work of my keyboarding students. They are required to type and print a variety of asinine doc...

There's a new noise to complain about at the Love Shack. It's a more or less continuous high-pitched whine, like a blow dryer or a d...

Today after my two morning classes, I dutifully joined an assembly of 40 or so faculty and staff in a two-hour safety session. I yawned my w...

I've been buried in my literature review almost every moment I haven't been working, sleeping, or attending a meeting. I forgot the ...

Does detoxification invite the unexpected? There's a question for you. I'm supposedly in detox mode, thanks to the shenanigans of my...

It's always an adventure when I visit the naturopath. What will he do to me this time, I wonder. Will he stick me full of needles? Will ...

Chi? I suppose I should write it as qi. Would you have a clue what I'm talking about? I don't, but apparently I need more houseplant...

I've known that I have obsessive compulsive tendencies for a long time. When I was in first grade, I looked down on classmates who ate c...

It's almost 11:00 p.m. I've spent much of the day grading student work. I haven't even been outside today. The cold winter sun c...

I'm circling my dissertation proposal like a fly buzzing a pile of... no, wait, I'm not going there again. Tired metaphor, too close...

My cat is sitting on my computer table, helping me write my dissertation proposal. Sometimes he sits with his back to me, wide butt flaring ...

There's nothing like stepping in dog poop to make you appreciate those easily overlooked moments when things are actually going pretty w...

At last I can move on to writing the dissertation proposal. Yay, I guess. Now that I have my marching orders from my dissertation chairperso...

Usually I write a post and then I choose some drawing to go with it. This time I'm doing it backward: I'm choosing the drawing and...

The theme for January is always the same: Do it differently than I did last year. Don't eat so much, eat better food, get more exercise,...