mo(u)rewalking

The mourning doves, yes a pair of them, that I found yesterday were available for viewing this morning. First within a small tree, not the same small tree, but another small tree, apparently small trees are their choice location, and then upon a disc shaped fixture atop a light post.

I had no camera. So there is no picture. But if you wouldn’t mind pausing to conjure, within your mind, the image of two mourning doves atop a light fixture in the morning, you’ll get the idea. It was perhaps the most beautiful thing that I have seen in awhile. And you?

birdwalking

I travel with my eyes on the sky and in the trees. A disjointed ambler approaching my destination with sights set upon a mourning dove in a small tree. A birdwalker with headphones and a confused expression, constantly looking up and over and somewhere other than where I am heading, trusting the strength of my memory and peripheral vision to ensure a safe arrival.

gotta love that vitamin c.

Thankfully, I woke up feeling much better this morning.

I’ve been listening to the Killers album Hot Fuss all day. It has been a good day.

things to learn

1. How to fish.
2. How to make a wiki.
3. How to drive in Indiana (at least enough to pass the test and get my license since I am now illegal after my Maine license expired on my birthday).
4. How to not be cold in Indiana where it isn’t really cold.
5. How to find an affordable apartment in San Francisco.
6. How to not get mad at the broken coffee maker.
7. How to remember to take the trash out every week.
8. How to respect the intelligence of my students while simultaneously recognizing the fact that I know things that they don’t. Basically how to teach without feeling like I might come across as a know-it-all jerk.
9. How to train a basset hound to stay off of the furniture (and have enough willpower to not be inconsistent even when it’s cold and I would like to take a nap with a real-live-cozy-cuddly animal).
10. How to remember to bring my phone with me.

just in time

So I’m getting sick, or I already am sick, or some horrific amalgamation of the two. Just in time for the start of school, after a really great break, I get sick. I don’t like this little taste of reality. I’m none too pleased with this achey-no-good feeling.

minus the minus factor

You know, it’s really not a bad life. I’m about to turn 28 tomorrow and I constantly find myself thinking about all of my future plans and hopes and dreams and goals and aspirations and all of the necessary and practical steps it will take to get me there and, you know, I think that’s kind of a little bit foolish.

I’m doing really quite okay (minus, of course, the Indiana factor).

Vicky just called to let me know she got into grad school and I’m about to finish school myself much quicker than I can even really anticipate. We’ve got two terribly time-consuming, but totally lovable, hound dogs. I’m not THAT much in debt. No credit cards at least.

My friends are the most amazing people on earth (Tom Selleck told me so). My best friend from high school keeps sending me hilarious emails and it’s always as if it has never been as long as it has since the last time we spoke. My best friend from always is probably the most awe-inspiring character I know and she can identify trees. Even Indiana brings some pretty fancy folks together to make me enjoy girls’ nights much more than I ever thought possible.

My girlfriend is my girlfriend and I could never have wished for better (almost 4 years?). Vicky says we can’t have babies, but I’m thinking that if we could rig up some sort of contraption merging her good looks and healthy psyche with my clever wit, they would be really great kids. We could be the HaskGankellnons.

America’s Next Top Model sucks this “cycle” (I mean, come on, Nnenna? Nonna Competitionna) but thankfully, out of evil comes much good…we’re going to cancel that god-awful cable (maybe).

Yesterday, I walked home from school with opera glasses and a bird book. I mean really, how could life be better?

rusty gender

Spring break brings library books that are not about libraries. Just started Surya Monro’s Gender Politics and, of course, am thinking, “Why don’t I study cool stuff like this all the time?” I’m hoping to get through the introduction by the time school starts up again. My theory-starved brain is eager but rusty.

time out

It is finally here. Spring Break. I have never been so excited for a Spring Break in all of my academic days. So far during this glorious break I have watched too much college basketball, slept in until almost ten o’clock (twice), gone out to lunch, made a spectacular dinner, gone jogging, taken a road trip to the most depressing town on earth, played trivial pursuit with my lady and a bottle of red wine, read the Sunday New York Times without one single ounce of guilt, and added 51 Queen songs to my iTunes library. And it has only been 36 hours. Can it get any better than this?

code obsession

I spent between six and eight hours on the PLG web site yesterday successfully getting it to look the way I want (layout-wise) by using CSS positioning and strict XHTML. I then spent about two hours while lying in bed trying to sleep thinking about it some more and planning new things to try… I think that I am sufficiently obsessed.

I think that coding is dangerous for my analytical and obsessive nature. This is probably only the beginning.

If you hang it, they will come!

After a few long weeks of waiting and moving and shifting and worrying and doubting….the birds have arrived!!! and they are eating…