There's good news and there's bad news.
Posted: January 11th, 2010, 10:08 am
OK, so I've been AWOL for about 2 months now...sorry about that. I hate to have just disappeared, but so it goes sometimes.
Anyway, with regard to this thread's title, the good news is the following: I passed comps officially on Dec. 4. For the following three weeks, I pretty much did nothing, save a burst of two or three days' activity when I got my syllabus all fleshed out and my course website up and running. Right after Christmas, I got back in the saddle and started writing lectures. I'm so excited about teaching I can barely sit straight. Among my several beloved professional pursuits, it is the one that most makes me feel like I'm doing what I was put on Earth to do. I also have a feeling that, since I just worked so hard to learn a whole bunch of stuff, I may as well keep working hard and use it. It's the first time in my life I can truly speak of professional fulfillment.
Lastly, as several of you have noticed on Facebook, I have taken up with a fun, sweet, beautiful woman. We've spent a ton of time doing things like playing Rummikub (no, seriously, Tilly...we really do play a bunch of Rummikub) on the couch while I cook for her, which sounds boring, but it's been balls cold here lately (kind of like everywhere else), and you can't just automatically do boring shit with anyone. She was cool enough to double date with a good friend of mine and his fiancee at Monster Jam this past Saturday. Hockey game this coming Thursday. It's funny how the company of a good woman gets you out doing the things you always bullshit about doing but never follow through on.
OK, now for the bad news...
She's a tar heel. Yeah. Born and raised in Bellwood, NC, a map dot with not even a traffic light, it's sort of a natural choice for her. But it still sucks.
That said, there is good in her. I've felt it. I can save her. I can turn her to the good side. I have to try.
While she and her mother root for the heels, her dad is a Duke fan, and her brother went to NC State. She also admitted to me on Saturday (as we watched the Duke game with pitchers before Monster Jam) that she could probably root for Duke as long as they're not playing carolina or Wake.
She's really sort of a soft tar heel...not rabid in any sense, doesn't see many of their games, has never been to a game. But as trivial as it all really is, it's something that does need to be addressed, and I've sort of made it known. I told her on Saturday that sports are the one thing most likely to make my show my (figurative) ass, and that I will never root for the heels under any circumstances whatsoever. I've also basically told her that if she chooses to root for the heels, then with regard to any Duke-carolina tilt, our best course of action is simply not to discuss it. She snuck in one snide comment on Saturday (albeit a particularly incendiary one, calling K "ratface"), and I didn't get ugly, but I did sort of firmly reply, "I'm serious. You really don't wanna start that." About 12 hours later, she agreed to be my gal, so I suppose I haven't freaked her out yet, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't about 5% worried that I really could do so at some point.
So anyway, that's the long and the short of it.
Anyway, with regard to this thread's title, the good news is the following: I passed comps officially on Dec. 4. For the following three weeks, I pretty much did nothing, save a burst of two or three days' activity when I got my syllabus all fleshed out and my course website up and running. Right after Christmas, I got back in the saddle and started writing lectures. I'm so excited about teaching I can barely sit straight. Among my several beloved professional pursuits, it is the one that most makes me feel like I'm doing what I was put on Earth to do. I also have a feeling that, since I just worked so hard to learn a whole bunch of stuff, I may as well keep working hard and use it. It's the first time in my life I can truly speak of professional fulfillment.
Lastly, as several of you have noticed on Facebook, I have taken up with a fun, sweet, beautiful woman. We've spent a ton of time doing things like playing Rummikub (no, seriously, Tilly...we really do play a bunch of Rummikub) on the couch while I cook for her, which sounds boring, but it's been balls cold here lately (kind of like everywhere else), and you can't just automatically do boring shit with anyone. She was cool enough to double date with a good friend of mine and his fiancee at Monster Jam this past Saturday. Hockey game this coming Thursday. It's funny how the company of a good woman gets you out doing the things you always bullshit about doing but never follow through on.
OK, now for the bad news...
She's a tar heel. Yeah. Born and raised in Bellwood, NC, a map dot with not even a traffic light, it's sort of a natural choice for her. But it still sucks.
That said, there is good in her. I've felt it. I can save her. I can turn her to the good side. I have to try.
While she and her mother root for the heels, her dad is a Duke fan, and her brother went to NC State. She also admitted to me on Saturday (as we watched the Duke game with pitchers before Monster Jam) that she could probably root for Duke as long as they're not playing carolina or Wake.
She's really sort of a soft tar heel...not rabid in any sense, doesn't see many of their games, has never been to a game. But as trivial as it all really is, it's something that does need to be addressed, and I've sort of made it known. I told her on Saturday that sports are the one thing most likely to make my show my (figurative) ass, and that I will never root for the heels under any circumstances whatsoever. I've also basically told her that if she chooses to root for the heels, then with regard to any Duke-carolina tilt, our best course of action is simply not to discuss it. She snuck in one snide comment on Saturday (albeit a particularly incendiary one, calling K "ratface"), and I didn't get ugly, but I did sort of firmly reply, "I'm serious. You really don't wanna start that." About 12 hours later, she agreed to be my gal, so I suppose I haven't freaked her out yet, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't about 5% worried that I really could do so at some point.
So anyway, that's the long and the short of it.
And the bad news, too. 
I 2nd that last comment Miles, good words Santa killer! ;)
