Where I’ve been

Jeez, I can’t believe it’s been 2 weeks since my last post. Last week at this time I was in Savannah for the SWS Winter Meeting. I was in Savannah for 5 days and with all the travel prep before that (doing laundry and packing at the last meeting) and then getting caught up on [...]

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a little less geekiness then last time…

It’s about time I blogged, and with a little less of the geekitude that was in my last post about writing.
I have a job interview today. No, not for a faculty job, but for a new job on campus. I’ve had the same administrative job for nearly 5 years. It’s paid the bills– tuition and [...]

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The way life should be (eventually)

After a long journey I’m finally here in Maine. Even though I love traveling and airports, yesterday tried my traveling patience. First my flight out of Madison left over an hour late–they told us the flight crew got in late and needed sleep. That was alright but that assured that I’d miss my connecting flight [...]

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radically crazy news

I’ve decided not to bring my macbook with me when I go to Maine next week for Christmas.
That means I will be traveling without a computer. For a whole week. For the first time since I first got a laptop (my old clamshell) in 1999. That may not seem newsworthy, but anyone who knows me [...]

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Las Vegas (3) (yes, I’m still here!)

The very long time it’s taken me to finish telling you about my trip to Vegas is the result of the fact I was sick as a dog this past week.
Nope, scratch that. I don’t like the phrase “sick as a dog.” Where does it come from anyway? And I definitely wouldn’t want any dog [...]

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Las Vegas (2)

Saturday evening I had the choice of either going back out to the strip again, or heading with out some local students for good Mediterranean food and to the older downtown Las Vegas. I quickly chose the latter. I had seriously had enough of the strip for the day.
After a wonderful dinner (the only down [...]

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Las Vegas (1)

Sorry for the long absence while I was in Las Vegas! The conference was insanely busy– more so than usual as I had executive meetings to go to– and there wasn’t even free Internet in our hotel room to take advantage of at night! So I’ve just spent the better part of the evening catching [...]

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scenes from New York City

First, let’s send a big blogosphere happy birthday wish to my brother!! Happy Birthday!!
Since there isn’t anything to blog about here in Madison, other than the rain and quickly rising creek waters, I’ll post some more pictures from New York.

The first thing I did after getting into the city was head to my favorite pub [...]

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anticipation

I just got off the phone with Linda in NY. My friends there are so excited for my visit this week. They stocked up their fridge with various kinds of dark beers just for me, and they just had a hot tub installed (not just for me… but the timing is perfect).
But the trip seems [...]

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on a mission

Now that I have my plans worked out for the rest of the summer, I feel settled. I know what’s coming up– work and fun. It has taken me a long time to realize that it is important to make plans for both.
Here’s my mission, pretty much in order:

In exactly 1 month I have 2 [...]

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Back in the U.S… i.e. “finnished”

So I am back in Madison. After an 18 hour trip back from Finland, a day of work I barely stayed awake for yesterday, and sleeping 12 hours last night, I finally feel a little more like myself again.
My trip back was longer than the way there, but it was also so much better. Let [...]

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Finland trip: pictures!

When I went to sleep last night it was snowing. My hostel is on the top floor of a building, and I could see the snow piling up on the roofs outside during the night.
Well somehow when I woke up this morning it was sunny. I left the hostel to find coffee and couldn’t find [...]

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Finland trip: Salmiakki Koskenkorva

My Finnish vocabulary is becoming quite extensive. I know 3 words now, in addition to the street names I recognize enough to find my way around. I know “kiitos” (thank you) so that even though I only speak English, I feel polite. And now I know a very important couple of words- “Salmiakki Koskenkorva.” I [...]

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Finland trip: from Fabianinkatu to Hietaniemi and back

I guess this is the second full day of my trip, but time is moving so oddly that it feels like I’ve been here for days. Let me catch you up a bit…
Yesterday I spent at the conference. My presentation went great– despite the fact I was getting so tired right before my presentation that [...]

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Finland trip: stranger in a strange land

Well, I’m here in Finland. I figure after sleeping 11 hours I should be alright to blog a bit, and hopefully coherent enough to present at the conference later.
Let’s back up to the flight and the long journey it took for me to get here, to this little hostel with free wireless…
I’ll call this part [...]

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Finland trip: pre-departure

I’m home briefly, but running off in a minute to do mountains of laundry and finish the readings for class tonight. I’ve spent the last couple days doing 10 million things, and I have a bunch more to go before I settle down on my flight tomorrow. The big things that still need to be [...]

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New Orleans 4: Plantation tour & live oak trees

Ever since going to Atlanta for a conference a few years ago, and never seeing more than a few blocks outside the hotel, I’ve tried to include some kind of adventure into every trip.
So while in New Orleans we decided to take a plantation tour– an organized tour that would drive us out of the [...]

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New Orleans 2: pictures = thousands of words

The conference organizers, and other New Orleaners were very insistant that we see what is left of their city. We got a recommendation for a local cab driver who would take us on a tour. Nikki was incredible. He showed us everything– the 9th Ward, the different places the levees breeched, the places where the [...]

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New Orleans 1: *breaking news*

I’ve been in New Orleans for 2 days now. Let me catch you up on how everything has been going.
But, first I’ll get the *breaking news* out of the way:
New Orleans isn’t nearly back on it’s feet yet.
Really, that would be the understatement of the century.
No, I am not surprised by this, given the complete [...]

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the glad girl

Work has been hectic and crazy for everyone since the beginning of the semester. So, today we decided to play the glad game– from Pollyanna, remember? In case you aren’t familiar with the glad game, the point is to think of something you are glad about, no matter how bad things are around you.
My officemate [...]

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welcome to Maine! [insert lobstah here]

I am blogging from Maine now. My sister was going to take me out to the beach (it is like 50 here) but she demanded that I blog before we left. So here you go.
My flights this morning were great. Because of my newly acquired Silver Elite status on Northwest, I was upgraded to first [...]

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raking up the miles

I wanted to be a professor before I really knew all that it entailed. I remember my first semester in grad school, a professor described being an academic as really the combination of 3 jobs– (1) teaching (2) research and (3) service to the academic community. That was really the first time I understood what [...]

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bridge over troubled waters

So I have oral surgery today. I am dreading it, because any time I have to hold my mouth open for a while means jaw pain afterwards. Fortunately I have no plans this weekend, so I can spend it on the couch with a heating pad wrapped around my head if I need to.
When I [...]

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Minnesota Musings (part 1)

I’m back in Madison from the weekend conference in Minneapolis. Tonight I visited M who is out of the hospital and in good spirits, and then did some grocery shopping at the (finally not as busy) Trader Joe’s. There is so much to blog about this past weekend, I don’t know where to begin!
So, this [...]

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marry a snake or a cock

Did that sufficiently grab your attention?
I am blogging from the chilly city Minneapolis, Minnesota. We made it here alright yesterday, despite a brief loss of the car keys somewhere around Black River Crossing.* And despite being unhappy about an absence in our group, we had a pleasant drive up through Wisconsin.
Part of our little group [...]

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potential

So I have been messing around a lot with my blog’s template. I can’t decide on a look, or on what picture to use at the top. What I have now is okay, but not exactly perfect. It is very trivial, but I can’t make up my mind about it.

This is the abandoned house I [...]

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a change of plans

I was supposed to fly home to Madison tonight. My sister dropped me off at the Boston airport after we spent a day gallivanting around Boston and Cambridge with my brother. I called her back 10 minutes later to tell her to turn around and pick me up.
See, my flight to Detroit was running about [...]

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dorm life

So I was never one for dorm life. I lived in a dorm for 2 years– my first year of college I had the randomly assigned roommate (a business major who pledged a sorority and complained that Tori Amos and Ani Difranco music scared her) and the community bathroom on an all female floor. The [...]

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Boston and 31,000+ jack-o-lanturns

Yesterday Maryann and I finished with the conference, and headed out of Syracuse back to Worcester. Although it actually stopped raining, we opted to get a head start back instead of exploring Syracuse.
The drive was great– I drove the whole way and loved it (I really do love driving). We stopped and took pictures of [...]

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east coast adventures

Greetings from Syracuse, NY. While upstate NY may not be exactly on the coast itself, it is close enough (and further enough away from Wisconsin) to count.
I flew into Boston Thursday morning– slept on the flight from to Detroit, and then wrote my presentation on the flight into Boston. My sister picked me up at [...]

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