Carbon Copy

A Lesson in Patience

Remember how I wasn't too impressed by the fall foliage this year? Well, apparently, I just had to be patient. It really turned out quite lovely. Here are some pictures from campus this morning.

Haunted Lafayette

I was going to go on the Tour of Terror tonight, but it was sold out. Serves me right for not getting tickets in advance. The sad thing is, there's no next year.

Sometimes When You're Getting Ready in the Morning, You Feel Like This:

Pumpkin Party Pictures

Jenn knows how to throw a party. Well, I guess it was more of a gathering, but still it was quite the shindig. We carved pumpkins, roasted seeds, fried donuts, dined on pumpkin pie, and, of course, took pictures.

Cross Another Off The List...

I feel an enormous sense of accomplishment today because I finally completed several things on my "to do" list that have been sitting there for... well, for quite some time. Today, I...

• Finally ordered new contacts (I'm on my last pair)
• Made an appointment with the doctor
• Got the oil changed in my car (embarrassingly, it's been almost a year)

Hmm... it seemed like I had done a lot more before I listed them out. This is one time a list has failed me. (Okay, there were a couple more things that I just didn't feel like broadcasting on the Internet.)

I think I'll sleep pretty well tonight.

Scrabble Club

Last night I drove to Indianapolis for Scrabble Club. I listened to this song several times on the way back home. It's a current favorite

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - You Are What You Love.

Rainy Days

My feet are all wet from rainy sidewalks. Shoes are supposed to protect you from that, but these didn't.

I have mixed feelings about class today. On the one hand, I felt like I really taught something. I was articulate and good at making connections to what they were saying with what I wanted to teach. I taught both ideas and technical matters. On the other hand, they all sat there sleepy-eyed and apathetic. It doesn't do any good to teach if they don't want to learn. I'm feeling discouraged about my class. Just feeling discouraged in general, I think.

And the Internet is no good for that. Do you know how much stuff is out there? I went to Border's today to use my educator discount (at least teaching is good for something), but they didn't have anything by James Figurine. I have been listening to 55566688833 over and over again, and I wanted to hear more. So I looked into ordering it off Amazon. There's so much good music out there. I can never keep up. And same thing with books. I can never read all the books I want to read. Discouragment. I really hope it's just the rain.

New York City (ch. 7)

Tanker had to leave around 3:30 am on Sat/Sun, so I had Sunday morning all to myself. I had planned on going to the Met and wandering around solemnly, but it didn't end up that way. Instead, I took the subway up to Central Park and just wandered around (somewhat solemnly) there. But before I could get started, I had to get breakfast, which consisted of a pretzel and a Diet Pepsi from a vendor outside the Museum of Natural History. I made a friend there, a woman with no teeth whom I could barely understand. I finally realized she was asking me to buy her a pretzel. I didn't know what to say. It was that awkward moment when you don't know where to rest your eyes. I got a dollar back as change, so I handed it to her. She said thank you and started petting my head telling me how pretty I am and how shiny my hair was. It was a little creepy, but I have to admit, it still felt kind of nice. She even followed me over to the crosswalk. I thought the light was never going to change.

After I got into Central Park, I ran into traffic. Foot traffic. Some sort of marathon was going on, so I had to dash through the crowds.

I started trekking through the park. My initial plan actually was just to take a quick walk through it and come out near the Met so I would still have enough time to at least see some of my favorite pieces. However, I found so much to see in Central Park that I had to adapt my plans. I'm flexible like that. Here I am very excited about being in Central Park:

I got to see this adorable cottage and reflect upon rustic decor:

(By the way, I was trying to finish up the film from Tanker's disposable camera, so these pictures are kinda grainy and blah.)

And I found Belvedere Castle and the Shakespeare Garden. I ambled along this verdant path.

And I walked near Turtle Pond. Apparently, there are no sports allowed near Turtle Pond, which I find quite refreshing. There should be more places with signs like this:

I like that daydreaming is encouraged. Finally, some validation for my life choices.

I did end up at the Met, kind of. I walked by it, and I saw one of my favorite parts of it - the steps. I love that people congregate on the steps. I'd like to spend a whole afternoon on them sometime. When I was 19, I went on a little daytrip to New York for an Art History class at Smith. I remember leaving the Met and sitting down on the steps to try and have a poetic moment. I even pulled out either Sylvia Plath or TS Eliot (two of the books I, for some reason, toted in my backpack all day) to read and feel melancholy. Some family sat down on the steps right next to me to take pictures. They were so close that I think I was even in the pictures. Then they debated where to go for lunch and finally decided on fried chicken. My poetic moment was pretty much ruined, but I think I like what happened better.

I walked along 5th Avenue for a bit, checking out the prints and miscellany before heading back into the park. I was hoping to find that big fountain and steps that you always see in movies. I never did find it. But I saw some kids playing baseball.

And some vikings?

After 2.5 days of pretty much non-stop walking (and bad shoes), I was exhausted.

New York City (ch. 6)

Saturday night agenda: The New Pornographers at newspace. I don't really feel like writing up a review. Suffice it to say, I am now a huge fan. I always liked them before but they weren't a favorite. After seeing them in concert, I've had Twin Cinema in my cd player pretty much nonstop. The sad thing is, I totally forgot till after they had played all my favorite songs that I have the capability of recording them playing and not just taking pictures. And it was kind of a short set, but you can't beat second row seats!

And once again, you can see a video on YouTube

New York City (ch. 5)

I've always wanted to go to the Museum of Natural History, but I can't figure out why. I'm not sure what about it caught my interest because, generally speaking, it's not really my thing. So these types of museums get put at the bottom of the list in preference to art museums. But since Tanker had already been to the Met on Friday morning before I got in town, we took the opportunity to visit the Museum of Natural History.

It has a very impressive interior:

Here's a little sampling of all the different kinds of stuff that I saw. I loved all the paintings and models for the exhibits.

That last one totally reminded me of the cover for a book I read in one of my folklore classes, The Potter's Art

Of course one of the things you have to see at the MNH is dinosaur bones.

The coolest thing about this one (which I have subsequently called longasauras because I can't remember its real name) is the tail. It pretty much went the full length of the room.

One of my favorite exhibits was about space. However, they lost no time in removing Pluto from the model of the universe. Sad.

Sometimes I felt like maybe the exhibits were a little too detailed. I don't know if I needed to see the flies on this one.

Finally we come to the underseas exhibit. It was pretty much my favorite.

Tanker and I split up for the museum so we could each see what we wanted to and create our own soundtrack by listening to mp3 devices. I listened to the New Pornographers (in anticipation of the concert that night) and the Polyphonic Spree (because they capture the wonder of it all pretty well, I think.) We said we'd meet back up at 3 in the lobby. I was done by 2 o'clock. I told you. Natural History isn't really my thing. So I sat down next to some dinosaur bones and rested my head in my hands with my eyes closed. I was like this for quite some time when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up, expecting to see Tanker, but a kindly old man greeted me instead and asked me how I was doing. I was startled of course, and I can't remember the whole of our conversation, but he asked me where I was from. I said Utah, and then he told me he was from Indiana. I was like, no way! I go to Purdue! And he got all excited and started telling me the roads I would take to get to his house. He was there to pick up his daughter who just graduated from NYU. She came over later and Joe (that's his name) introduced us. We made small talk (the girl was obviously embarrassed by her dad) and then they turned to leave. Joe half-turned back and said, "Wait, what religion are you?" I answered that I am Mormon, and he said, "Just checking. I figured you would be, but I know not everyone there is." He walked back through the lobby again later. I was still waiting, so he called out my name and said hi. I know it's silly, but it totally made my day.

When Tanker finally showed up, I found out that I had been too hasty in my museum observation and had completely missed the exhibit that I was most hoping to see: the gems. Even though Tanker had just come from there, I made him show me where they were. It's no wonder I missed it. It's completely hidden down a narrow stairway in the basement. Oh well, at least I got to see a glimpse of the world's largest cubic zirconia.

New York City (ch. 4)

Slowly moving along...

Saturday morning we were amazingly up and ready to go at a decent hour. Catherine had told us the best place to get brunch in New York City was the Red Eye. She also told us it didn't open until noon, so we thought we'd meander over via 5th Avenue and some shopping hot spots (which we quickly came to realize we couldn't afford). But we did come across Rockefeller Center.

I told Tanker we should go ice skating. This was his reaction:

As you can probably guess, we didn't go ice skating. So... do they have ice skating there year-round? Because doesn't it seem like the first weekend in October is a little too early to start ice skating?

We got to the Red Eye Grill around 10:40. We had kind of hoped that Catherine was wrong about the time it opened, but she wasn't. We decided we couldn't wait another hour and twenty minutes, so we went to the first place we saw that was open. That was a mistake. I can't remember the name of the restaurant. It seemed nice. It was expensive enough that it should've been nice. But it wasn't. In fact, it was really hot. Sometimes businesses overcompensate for a cold day by cranking up the heat, and I have to say that that is a mistake.

I couldn't decide what to get for lunch, but I figured you couldn't go wrong with a turkey sandwich. But when all you get is dry turkey on a dry bun for $14, you went wrong with a turkey sandwich. We swiped some spicey mustard from the table next to us, but it wasn't enough for me to salvage my meal. Tanker's hot pastrami was pretty good, though.

At least it was filling, but it left me thirsty. We stopped by a drugstore for some drinks and then made our way to Central Park for a stroll.

We came out of the park near the Museum of Natural History, which was perfect because that's exactly where we wanted to go. That experience coming up in the next installment of my New York City Adventure.

New York City (ch. 3)

After a stop at a drugstore for some bandaids (poor toes) and at a cafe for some falafel, we hopped back on the subway to get to Cedar Lake Dance Studios where Donald Antrim and Tobias Wolff were reading. I enjoy the subway in general, but most especially when it's empty.

We were late. It was the falafel. So we missed most of Donald Antrim, but that's ok because we were really there for Tobias Wolff. We found some seats off to the side and near the back. I didn't realize how tired I was until we actually sat down and all was silent and we had to listen. I couldn't really see. I have this problem where if I can't see, I can't pay attention. I'll be honest, this picture is pretty much all I got out of the reading.

Afterward we rushed over to Greenwich Village to see Charles D'Ambrosio and Sherman Alexie. (Actually now that I think about it, the subway picture was taken then.) We had it all planned to get off at the 23rd St. station and walk down two blocks to 21st. Unfortunately, the subway went right past the station... and past the 18th St. one. We had to get off at 14th. So we were late (this became a recurring theme with disastrous consequences later on). I had planned for us to meet up with Catherine at the event so we could all sit together, but because we were late, she had already been seated. We got there in the middle of Charlie's reading. Then Sherman Alexie came out. Tom had told me that Sherman Alexie would knock the socks off the new pornographers (see comments to entry entitled "what do..."). After about five minutes, I thought he was right (that was until, of course, I actually saw the new pornographers). Sherman Alexie was hilarious. He totally adopted the persona of his character while he read. But while Sherman Alexie gregariously stole the spotlight, Charles D'Ambrosio had a more understated humor. I just really enjoyed both of them. Afterwards, the New Yorker served us all chocolate brownie's in honor of Sherman's birthday. Mmm... We caught up with Catherine and chatted for a bit. She took us with her on the subway to Grand Central Station and we went out separate ways.

Grand Central Station is huge, by the way.

And beautiful.

We walked back to the hotel and stopped at the Irish pub across the street to get a drink. Apparently getting a drink made Tanker hungry because we also stopped for a shish kebab. I love that you can still get a shish kebab that late at night and it seems totally normal. I just love New York. That's all there is to it.

New York City (ch. 2)

It's not like we planned to visit Ground Zero. Actually, we just stumbled upon it because I saw this great church. I love old cemeteries. I wanted to explore it more, so we went inside, and it just happened to be a memorial for the events of September 11, 2001. Officially, it's called St. Paul's Chapel and it's beautiful.

The cemetery of the World Trade Center is close by.

For some reason, I really wanted to see Brooklyn Bridge. I have no idea why it had such a hold on me, but I insisted. I got a blister on the way there and back, but it was worth it. The blustery wind and the walking along the bridge really made me happy.

It's kind of a long walk up. Some people suggest walking all the way across, but we didn't have time for that. Tobias Wolff was expecting us. We just had time to be amazed by all the cords keeping us from falling into the harbor.

And looking back at the city.

I finally caught on to Tanker's penchant for making sour faces when I force him take a self-portrait with me, so this time I one-upped him. I can make a sour face, too, you know.

New York City (ch. 1)

Just got back from NYC yesterday and rather then begin grading papers, I spent my afternoon uploading and prepping photos. That's how dedicated I am to this blog. As the chapter division in the title indicates, I'll be telling the story of this trip over the course of several entries.

I didn't get to New York until 1:30 pm on Friday. An hour later than expected due to a delay in Atlanta. I was feeling anxious as the plane taxied in to LaGuardia, though, because this was where the adventure really started. I had to contend with public transportation. I had gotten some good advice from friends and New Yorkers about how the system works, so I was prepared. Still, I just get nervous when I have to do something new all by myself. Oh sure, I could've taken the easy way (and probably the faster way) and taken a shuttle or a cab or something, but I somehow felt like I needed to prove myself by taking public transportation. Plus, I just liked the idea of doing it like a real New Yorker (a poor one, at least) and seeing a different part of the city.

It just so happened that the M60 was waiting right out the door when I walked outside. I had been told to have correct change ($2), but I didn't realize that meant change as in quarters. Luckily, there was a change machine nearby and I was able to quickly exchange my dollars for some coins and jump on the bus. We went through Harlem, and I eavesdropped on the conversations of those around me and made funny faces at the most solemn baby I've ever seen. She didn't crack one smile. I also had a friendly conversation with the bus driver who kindly showed me exactly where to catch the subway. I had some cell numbers stashed just in case I got lost, but I didn't. Everything went disappointingly smoothly. I easily found the hotel and a sleepy Tanker slumped over in a chair in the hotel lobby. Poor Tanker had been wandering the streets of the city all night with no place to stay. We quickly checked in and checked out our room. It was nice, but not as luxurious as I pictured. I never did get a picture of the room itself, but here's our view:

Initially I thought we would both need a nap, but there was too much city out there to explore. We got started right away. Before we hopped back on the subway, I took the obligatory picture of myself in Times Square.

We decided to head toward our first venue, which was down near Chelsea. We figured we'd scope it out and see what was around it. I felt like most of our trip was spent walking the streets or riding the subway, which was great. I loved seeing people live in the city just doing everyday things. It's just such a different lifestyle for me. I try to imagine what it would be like as a child to grow up there, and it's unfathomable. I'm a little jealous of people who live in cities. Someday I want to do it. Anyway, we easily found the right building because there was a poster outside. (This picture totally makes me think Lemony Snicket, by the way.)

After we found the venue, we decided to head towards City Hall in search of what Tanker promised was the best cheese steak sandwich I will ever have. We also decided to discreetly take pictures of each other unawares. You know, to give it that spontaneous feeling. So Tanker got a disposable camera (contents still waiting to be developed and may be - at my discretion - added later), but I just used my own. Here are some of the results of my sneakiness while we walked in search of sandwiches.

Here's a pretty fountain at the park:

We never did find that delicious sandwich, but we did find ground zero and the Brooklyn Bridge. But that's next time (which might be later tonight).

Wilco 2006!

So Purdue finally got something right when they booked Wilco to play one of the convocation events. This time, I even had a friend to go with.

The other difference was that my new camera has video with sound, so I recorded a couple of my favorite songs. You can watch "Forget the Flowers" on YouTube.

Apparently these are really big files, so I'm just going to post this one.

Office Hours

Last Wednesday I held extended office hours to help the kids with their research proposals. No one came in the morning, so I got to sit around for a couple hours and pretend to read. This is what my desk looks like:

Obviously I need to do some decorating. You know, bring in some impressive books to increase my credibility with the youngsters. Maybe some art postcards or pictures of me looking cool. Luckily, Brian left behind the Bob Dylan poster, so at least there's that.

I have to share my office with five other people. Most of them I don't see very often. Generally, it's just Spanke, Tom, and me. I'd like to say we have fascinating discussions on all sorts of intellectual sounding topics, but really we just watch crap on the Internet and distract each other from doing real work. That's what Tom was doing on Wednesday. Look back at my desk. See that big course packet? That's what I was supposed to be reading for my evening class, but nah, I just chatted for a couple hours with Tom (see below):

The evening session was much more productive. I bungled through three conferences.

Leaf-Peepers

Erica and I went in search of fall color on Sunday evening. Happy Hollow Park yielded some foliage, but nothing to compare with the Adirondacks or the Wasatch Mountains. We left a little disappointed. Still... we snapped a few shots.