Should I buy a lemon tree?

Apparently they are happy as indoor plants. A lemon tree in the garret! How could one be depressed with a three-foot lemon tree in the house? I should mention I really really love lemons. I should also mention that I am in a wicked state of procrastination over a stack of papers I do not at all want to grade. I should also mention--should it not be obvious to all who are privy to the fact that I am entertaining the idea of buying a lemon tree--that the mad nesting of '08 continues, unabated and perhaps even invigorated by the finishing of the shelf project. I should also mention that the bottomless pit of desire to consume evidenced in posts of recent months has varied and complex reasons not the least of which is the pressure to produce and the ever closer and ever more pressing need to create and submit a record of such production. I could explain this by way of Karl Marx and Sofia Coppola, but I think I am going to save that for a class or a paper or both. In short, upcoming tenure bid + Medusa= insatiable lust for shoes and citrus-bearing potted plants.

Blogging the lost

I don't know who came up with the phrase, "blogging the lost." I think it may have been Dr. Crazy who coined the term, though I know Profgrrrrl sometimes posts about a lost item in the hopes that the magic of the interwebs will bring it back.

Anyway. Motivation? Yoo hoo! Need to finish and send a proposal over here. Need to do the revisions on that article. Will need to do revisions on that other article when report comes back next week. Syllabi might also be useful to my students this semester so finishing those up can happen any time now. Could even conceivably get a few vacay days in before the semester begins if I got all of this done quickly.

Work mojo? TCB impulses? Need to take care of b'ness now. Helllooooooo?

Because sometimes a girl has to shop . . .

In lieu of a post about summer work/writing strategies that has been brewing all week, I present you with the bargains from today's accidental shopping spree, which happened in lieu of actual work this afternoon. It truly was an accident. I was running a quick errand and there it was--a massive sale at one of my favorite shops. What was I to do?? So while I apparently cannot afford audio books, I can afford . . .

Raspberry satin Keds (a.k.a. my new ruby slippers)




Morphine Generation tank (the mirror design and memento mori sold me)


This cool shirt/dress made of very nice cotton that kind of looks like a lab coat but that is also kind of fabulous. I would not wear it alone like this (because, you know, I am not Beyonce or a stripper/pharmacist) but you get the idea of its possibilities. Apologies for the blurry pics and the very messy bedroom floor.



And this patent leather belt (toile shirt is an early summer purchase from Forever 21) . . .



It could have been much much worse. I had to bite my own hand in order to walk away from this pair of True religion jeans (40% off) and an adorable embroidered dress(60% off but still $91) that reminded me of these little cotton Mexican sundresses I wore as a kid. Grand total? Fifty buckaroos. Fitty.

My one birthday resolution

As some of you know, I make jokey resolutions on New Year's (because who can successfully resolve to do ANYTHING in the dead of winter and the middle of the academic year?!) and my year's serious resolutions around my birthday. No long lists this year. Rather, just this one:

I resolve to develop more productive sensible and productive work habits.

I had phenomenal work habits as an undergrad, but they went seriously south at some point during graduate school. I have still managed to get a phenomenal amount of work done, but I have to admit--to myself, to the world--that my habits are bad, nasty, abysmal. I procrastinate, I panic, I self-flagellate, I take to my bed, I take to the drink, I work in long crazy irregular no-sleeping no-showering spurts, I run away with rock-and-rollers, I talk myself up, I talk myself down . . . I do everything but devise a sensible work schedule and stick to it. No longer! If I can pull off the quit smoking birthday resolution of 2005 and the fitness resolution of 2006, I can do this!

So again, I resolve to develop more sensible and productive work habits.

I would love to hear your suggestions and stories, as well as any strategies that have worked for you. I hope to do a longer post about this at some point, once the resolution has been put into practice.

Done and not done

Progress?

Last week's list:

1. Plan summer class
2. Work on Major Project due to publisher tentatively in June:
   
1. Email several people I want to be involved to ask them to be involved, including AB, AE, LE, and KC.
2. Look over some guidelines and sample thingies
   
3. Decide on several important details regarding format and content
   
4. Email some other people
5. Compile
6. Write proposal
   
7. Cross fingers
8. Send
3. Clean out study by: filing this year's course materials, move boxes to basement, moving big photo project somewhere, setting up sewing machine, cleaning out files, and getting S. to come over for an estimate on finishing shelves.
4. Meet with TDC
   
5. Scary medical test Not such a big deal at all, turns out
6. Insane Workout Plan 19/20 days; 5 lbs. lost

Things done instead:

1. Wrote last-minute proposal for grant (Very good money. Keep your fingers crossed for me.)
2. Partially cleaned out second closet and gathered shoes to take to Salvation Army
3. Corresponded with directed-study student about project
3. Watched Grey Gardens three times. It is a little distressing how much I find myself identifying with Little Edie.
4. Watched Tape twice. I can't believe Linky didn't write this movie, as he is the master of what I call the "what?-what?!-what! conversation"--those conversations you find yourself in that are contradictory and confusing in terms of what is being said but that keep you talking because you ARE certain you do not like the weird power dynamics of the conversation. The dialogue of such a conversation intermittently lapses into this:

Person A: What?
Person B: What do you mean, what?
Person A: What are you talking about?
Person B: What?!
Person A: What!

Nearly the whole of Tape is a brilliant example of the what?-what?!-what! conversation. It's dead realistic in terms of how conversations go (a Linklater hallmark, to my mind).
5. Upgraded my sad, old, dying cell phone to this one. It was cheap with my free upgrade, but I am not sure I like it. I am, however, apparently a sucker for a promotion involving the seven deadly sins.
6. Sent flowers to my awesome niece for her 7th grade graduation
7. Talked to my eight-year-old nephew about the potential scariness vs. the potential coolness of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (It's very important to him that the potential coolness outweigh the potential scariness, and he will often send me to a movie ahead of him so that I may determine the scariness-coolness ratio.)
8. Read Falling Man
9. Fretted