where's Buffy?

I was at my mom's house today and we couldn't find the cat. We were worried she slipped outside and wandered away, which wouldn't be such a big deal but there's a fox in the area that likes to eat cats. We searched everywhere. She must have a hiding place somewhere in the house because she often disappears like that and she hasn't been eaten by a fox yet. Anyway, we finally did find her hiding spot, and I have to say it is a pretty clever little spot.

She's in this closet somewhere. Can you guess where?

There she is! In that green bucket thing underneath all the coats. Sneaky little bugger.

why I do what I do.

I just got done reading about 60 ten page term papers. It nearly killed me. Here are just a few of my favorite lines.

"The remnants of the buildings seem to resemble Roman architecture, the very culture that Americans had been emulating so effeminately"

"Labels and classifications are used where without culture and society every man would be living as he pleased content to him and not labeled by any besides that which he may reflect on interpersonally."

"He was involved in a lot of huge political things including the Declaration of Independence"

Ben Franklin "knew that if a person was in a wet t-shirt on a hot day they would stay cooler than being in just a dry t-shirt".

a few things

First, I was walking to campus today and the kid in front of me had some envelopes precariously tucked in to his back pocket just waiting to fall. "Great," I thought, "I have to keep up with him now in case they fall out so that I can get his attention without running to give them back to him." So I quickened my pace and stayed a good safe couple of feet away. The envelopes slipped more and more until only a small part of the corner of one remained in the pocket and the rest was flopping. Any second now, I thought. I was fixed on this envelope. Just before the fatal moment the guy reached back and grabbed them. "Oh thank God." I said. My visible relief probably would have been pretty funny if anyone happened to be watching me fixated on this guy's butt. It was a pretty intense moment.

Second, the power went out today in class. That's always funny.

Thirdly, I went to talk to a film professor who is usually pretty mean to me. She thinks my whole zombie thing is a joke and scoffs at me when I talk to her about it and about how I want to incorporate zombie films into my paper on cinematic transcendence. But today was different. Today she was extremely nice to me. She complimented me on my writing, on my knowledge of zombie films, on my teaching skills (since I gave a presentation in class last week that she apparently thought was wonderful) and when I left she said something about what a hoot I am and how she's happy she got to know me. It was a relief because i was in no mood this morning for derision.

Fourthly, Wendell Berry is coming to Salt Lake to speak and to do a reading!!! I've been thinking a lot about the book of his that I read, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, a book which pretty much changed my life, and meaning to look at it again. I am so excited. I hope I get to meet him. :D