The procurement of all things.

At the laundromat this evening, I had a sudden realization: 2008 was a year of major sports gear acquisition. Prior to K8, my only piece of "sports gear" (defined as apparel featuring the name or logo of any professional, minor league, or collegiate team) was a Michigan tee purchased at the Goodwill in Galesburg. This tee, which came with a hole already developing in one armpit, was used exclusively for exercise and/or bummery. I never wore it in public.

But this year, something miraculous happened: I started accumulating sports gear. A brief rundown of the acquisition:

1) Easter: Eric's mom sent me a care package, feat. candy (lots, assorted), a journal, and a Wisconsin Badgers tee. I wore the tee tentatively at first, feeling like a bit of a fraud, but eventually grew into it.

2) September: While in Madison for a wedding, E. and I stopped by the UW bookstore, where I purchased two tees, one that reads "Sconnie," the other featuring a cartoon of Bucky the Badger. The latter (which is, ironically, the better fitting of the two shirts) was $5.

3) November: Loitering in the activewear section of an unfamiliar TJMaxx, I found a Red Sox "baseball style" tee. Its cuteness (red sleeves, purposefully distressed logo, ruching at side seams) impressed me. And, it was only $7, so I bought it.

4) Xmas: E's sister got me a Wisconsin hoodie, to accompany my growing collection of t-shirts, and Eric got me a Brewers tee.

So there you go: Bam. Including the original Michigan tee (which is in a sorry state, but still used for exercise), I now have seven pieces of sports gear. I still don't have any caps, but I don't wear hats except when the weather demands it. Ditto pants, but sports pants seem much harder to come by than shirts. Will this sporty trend continue into 2009? I'm pretty sure it will. Goal: diversify teams.

One of my goals for '09 is to read at least 50 books. I'm not doing so well at meeting this goal - not yet - because for all of the new year, I've been reading the same book: The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction (2008). Which leads me to wonder, in a situation such as this (i.e., reading a certain number of books in a fixed amount of time), does an anthology count as one book, or several? If several, how many?
I'm guessing that one anthology = one book, but I felt like putting the question out there.

Also: this is hilarious.

Braving the elements from in here.

Yes, that's right: another storm anticipated tonight. I wasn't even aware of this impending "weather," as we Minnesotans like to say, until my mom called me (in the middle of the dinner I was at) and said, "Well, I know you don't watch the news, so I thought I'd tell you that there's going to be a massive snowstorm out East."

I was indignant! I do watch the news, though I didn't today. I read more news online, too (though many of you wouldn't believe it since I'm always only posting links from Yahoo, but that's because I have a Yahoo address I use only for online shopping/signing up for stuff, and I sometimes run into mildly interesting human interest stories en route to checking that acct. You know.). But, in the end, I was glad for the advance warning. Back from the dinner, I am in my slippers sipping cocoa and preparing to edit this cover letter.

This will probably sound dumb, given our country's current economic state, but I'm excited to be applying for jobs. My excitement owes largely to the facts that 1) I have five months until graduation, and so the real urgency of needing new employment hasn't set in; and 2) the job I'm applying for is pretty damned awesome, and it's in my dream city - which is very likely where I'll be living next year(!) I don't want to share too many details - nothing is finalized, after all - but I am getting psyched for post-graduation life.

Query: do any of you, reader friends, have job search/application tips you'd be willing to share? It is certainly true that I've never had a real job hunt. (For those who may be wondering, I went straight from undergrad to grad school, an assistantship lined up for me when I got here, so I didn't have to find employment on my own.) Indeed, it is strange, this job hunting.

It is time:

That's right: I am going to see Bride Wars tonight. Not without a modicum of shame, mind you, but not so much shame that I won't publicly divulge my activity. Something about women in wedding dresses beating on each other amuses me endlessly! Well, I hope there will be beating...or at least swatting. Girl fighting.

In other news: I am freaking out in my brain about my thesis. I realized - at about 4:45 this morning, inconveniently - that I have only 2.5 to 3 months to finish all my editing. Yikes. Fortunately, I won't be teaching after winter break, and fortunately too my spring course load won't be terrible. But still: who can blame me for seeking respite in Anne Hathaway movies?

For which I am grateful.

All of these good things happened today:

1) Eric made a successful (and delicious) frittata for breakfast. (Note: the frittata I tried to make a few days ago ended up as more of a "scrambler," due to the fact that I tried flipping it before the bottom had set. I would have preferred cooking the top in the broiler, but I have no ovenproof skillet. Yes. But, Eric's patience, coupled with my sub par flipping skills - a bit of the 'tata ended up on the counter - yielded an excellent second attempt.)

2) Second day of teaching went well, despite my being flustered for the first few minutes of class. (Copier mishap: don't ask.)

3) The campus bookstore was having a major after-Xmas clearance, so I got a book of short stories by Alice Munro AND a Laffy Taffy for $5. Holla!

4) My dermatologist concluded that the tiny bump on my neck is not, as previously thought, skin cancer.

5) Netflix arrived. Two discs of "How I Met Your Mother," season two. No work shall henceforth be done.

I am freaking out in my brain.

Though I did, several posts ago, poo-pooh NYResolutions, what I didn't realize is that I'd soon be fulfilling a sort of constant, un [or under-] stated resolution of mine: catching up on the last ten years' worth of movies. It is no secret that I am painfully, woefully - almost unbelievably - behind the times when it comes to movies. Case in point: Saturday, E and I went to Blockbuster, so anxious were we to begin season two of "How I Met Your Mother" that we could not wait for Netflix! Of course, season two was completely checked out, so we scooted to the comedy section. I casually remarked that I'd never seen "American Pie," and Eric stopped cold. A woman in the next aisle over stopped cold. I stopped cold.
"Are you serious?" He asked, though he knew I was.
"Well," I said, in a paltry gesture of self-defense, "I figured that I'd heard all the jokes from it, so why should I actually see it?" But, even I was not convinced by this lame explanation.
Mid-length story short, I finally watched "American Pie." And you know what? It wasn't bad. Yes, I'd heard the jokes before, integral to our pop-cultural fabric as they are, but the storyline was also kind of cute. AND, for the first time in a long, long time, I actually remembered high school: the gossip, the absolute horror at bodily malfunctions (of self, of others), my [admittedly brave] choice of asking a totally random dude to prom - and then going with him, and then not dancing the entire time. Prom: O.M.G. What an ordeal. I don't think I've ever seen so many girls crying in a public bathroom.

Also in fulfillment of this unstated yet critical resolution was my viewing of "Anchorman," which I also [surprisingly] enjoyed. What's going on, here? Why am I enjoying these movies which I would previously have sniffed at? There's been a major shift in my sense of humor. Scratch that: in my public sense of humor.

Right now, I am minorly freaking out in my brain. In approximately two hours, I'll be teaching my first winter creative writing course and I am terrified. What's new? you may think (those of you acquainted with my terror). And the answer is, not too much, except the intensity of said terror. Aaaaaaaaaah(!)

I am basking in the glory of my own small productiveness.

Some productive things I've done thus far in 2009:

1) Reinstated the use of a loofah (so much more effective at generating a lather than a plain ol' washcloth);
2) Sorted through my clothes/gathered clothes for donation/then donated them;
3) Paid all my billz;
4) Made a few lesson plans for my J-Term class (which starts Monday).

And tonight, I'm going to make a frittata for the first time. It does strike me as odd that I've never made one, considering 1) how much I like eggs(!) and 2) how much I like creating dinners from random stuffs in the fridge. There's a first time for everything, though; tonight, I will bask in the glory of my first (and hopefully awe-inspring) frittata.

Heh.