Since Spring Break

Later on the same day that I published my last post, Jamie and I received some terrible news - that Jamie's cousin was killed. It is the first time some one so close to me unexpectedly died. It feels weird talking about such a personal thing in such a public way, but I think it's important for people who know us to know about. When we were visiting Georgia, it was really hard to talk about it and I'm sorry that I wasn't able to share more with everyone who we saw during the trip. Being terribly upset every day of your vacation sucks, so I tried to think and talk about it as little as I could. But I know some of you want to know details, so here are some links for you to follow to get the story:

First of all, here is a good way to get to know Kate - her blog where she kept up with family and friends while working as a Peace Corp volunteer in Benin, a French speaking country on the coast of Africa: http://beinginbenin.blogspot.com/ She was a wonderful writer. You should scroll down to the entry titled "Noises" first.

Here is the news story that Fox Atlanta did. It is a very sweet story. You can see the video also. Emilie took the footage of Kate teaching when she visited her last year. (for any non-techies, just click on the purple "Here" at the beginning of the paragraph).

Here is a wonderful blog story about Kate with excerpts from her blog and lots of lovely comments, some from her friends and family and other people who knew her. Plus it has a beautiful photo of her.

Here is a shorter blog that has lots of comments from people who knew Kate.

Here is the blog post on the official Peace Corp blog.

These posts don't cover the details of the event. We know that Kate died quietly in her sleep. She was sleeping on the porch of her house. There is an individual in custody.

I think I am ready to talk about it now. If anyone wants to know anything else or talk about it more, please call me. Thanks for letting me be silent about it for so long.

(By the way, the time is wrong for this post. It is 5 pm. I am not blogging at work. I am enjoying a cup of coffee at Cafe Deim and their web connection has been extremely wonky the whole time.)

I'm sitting at jiffy lube prepping the car for the 17 hour drive down to Georgia. Spring break is next week. We'll be leaving Ames on Friday. We can't stop to see the Davises in Kentucky for this trip - we want to be back in Ames on Thursday so that Jamie can prepare for school the next week. (We'll plan a special trip to see you guys when summer vacation starts). Summer is going to he hellish. The shop is moving, I have two workshops that I will hopefully be able to attend on the east coast, plus Jamie is going to want to visit Macon a couple of times, probably. I'll be teaching a couple of classes. It will be busy, but busy is much better than slow.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone! Hello, Steve and Ashli's basement! Hopefully we'll get up to see Gordon and Helen. I have Chirstmas presents for everyone.

We had spring for about three days - it was up in the 60's, I think! Sunshiny, pleasent. Now it is 20 degrees (it was 15 when I left for work this morning).

And my car is ready, so Yay!! See you guys soon!
-Heather

Catching Up with Jamie

School is a lot more fun this semester than last semester. Last semester I was teaching a comp class that was a little bereft of interest for me. It was a straightforward process-oriented comp class, which I don't particularly dig (I prefer a more reading oriented, politicized approach), and I didn't like the course materials. This semester is waaay cooler, and I feel like I'm back in the saddle again. I like my students a lot.

As a student, I'm doing more theory stuff, which is why I'm here in the first place. I'm trying to figure out what my niche in the department will be. I want to do something related to rhetoric of science (which can end up being philosophy of science or sociology of science sometimes which is part of why its appealing..."rhetoric" should be a big box if you ask me), but I want to make what I do real cultural studiesy. Rhetoric of science people talk about how science is in fact, rhetorical activity...argument, judgment, consensus, deliberation, NOT "proof." We're not saying science does not have some kind of real relationship to the world, but we ARE saying that it is a cultural production that differs from other cultural productions in degree, not in kind. I pretty much buy into some of the more extreme social constructivist arguments, but with a liberal dose of pragmatism.

I'm kinda interested in figuring out how to do research about how scientific tropes bleed out into the real world and develop their own life. Think about the sort of "magical thinking" way that we discuss genetics or psychology or nutrition. If I had MY druthers, I'd be doing "weirdo studies" and talking about stuff like Evangelical Christian sex websites. (I wrote a paper about that last semester that I plan to try to revise and publish at some point. I barely have time for meals right now though.) I'm interested in faux science stuff like intelligent design, but that's been done to death, so I'm not devoting as little thought to that as possible. It's probably better for my health anyway. We've got a job candidate who is writing a dissertation (I think) about creation science museums. I hope we hire her so she can tell me about it.

Speaking of fundamentalism, I wanna see this movie:

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/70562-right-america-feeling-wronged-some-voices-from-the-campaign-trail/

People should read more selectively.



Let's see, what else...

Politics...I'm amused by the Republican whining about "pork" in the stimulus package. IT'S ALL PORK. That's the PURPOSE of a Kensyan economic stimulus. TO PUT MONEY INTO THE ECONOMY. There's plenty of things one could object to about the stimulus package, but make an argument that at least demonstrates a passing understanding of the purpose of the damn thing. I mean really. And no, nothing in there is going to permanently fix the economy. But THAT'S ALSO THE POINT. It's a temporary boost to stop the downward spiral. If it WERE filled with permanent economic changes it would be the socialist plan that Republicans say it is.

They've drifted waaay off into la la land lately. It's actually fun and amusing to watch, instead of just scary. At least they aren't out torturing child solders anymore. (I'm looking at you Rumsfeild.) Yes we can.

It's odd that our conservative party is so disgusting and incompetent that even someone who has a lot of respect for several different branches of conservatism (I read Andrew Sullivan religiously) hasn't agreed with anything they've done during his whole life. Of course, I'm deeply invested in Marxism too, so whatever. Libertarian Marxists of the world, UNITE! I need more coffee.

Seriously though, the more I read Marx, the more staggering he is. He was waaay ahead of the curve. Don't confuse him for his silly followers. I mean, you shouldn't blame Jesus for Pat Robertson. I got to re-read a little Nietzsche recently also, and he's also still awesome. Those two guys are among my favs, and I haven't had a chance to read them in a while.

While I'm typing, I'm listening to Satyricon's new record. Trv Norwegian Black Metal forever! Actually, Satyricon's not particularly trv, but they are awesome. God I love Scandinavians and their foolishness.(You see, them silly Scandinavian kids insist on spelling "true" as "trv" because it looks archaic and more "pure." If an act is really underground and uncompromising, they get to be described as "cvlt." You think I'm making this up don't you? Can anybody make up stuff about black metal to make it sound sillier than it is? But damn it's fun to listen to.) I'm listening to this basically because Metalocalypse got me craving metal. I'm not saying Americans aren't as good at metal as Europeans....well, yes. Yes I am saying that.

That's enough. There's where my brains are at today.

Yay.

Sorry it's been soooooo long catching up. I'll give you the low down:
- we're really into grapefruit right now. Texas is where they come from up here.
- I'm getting an application to Penland together. Maybe I'll be able to attend as a studio assistant!!
- The ClayFiber show was a huge success. We had 300 people at the opening. It was like being back in Macon for one of our shows; running to the back to grab more chips and hummus, opening wine bottles, taking out the trash after.
- I start teaching a kids wheel-throwing class next week - yay!
- I also start teaching an adult tea pot class - yay!
- Jamie is having fun in school.
- we found a weird new show to watch in the same brand as Brak, ATHF and Frisky Dingo. It's called Metalocalypse and it is really really violent and nihilistic plus silly and stoopid. (Mother and Daddy, if you're reading this, don't watch this show. It's not for you.) It's about a death metal band and has a lot of real death metal in the show. Steve, check it out.

I avoided talking about the snow for once! (spring is almost here; the birds are chirping, the squirrels have de-hibernated!)

I'm outie-5000

Even more snow. Do you see a theme developing?

Today we had huge snowflakes. We got 6 more inches total. I bought some tall boots with my birthday money. I can kick through huge drifts of snow with them. This weather is still really fun to us unless we have to walk long distances. At noon today the temperature was 0 degrees. During the night it's been as low as minus 4. This weather, I've learned, is strait from the arctic. I believe it.

Freezing stories: Yesterday the boiler went out in the building at work and everyone who didn't have a space heater went home; also a window in a bathroom fell open overnight and the toilet water froze. While Jamie carried a cup of water from his office to the house, about a 20 minute walk, little ice crystals had started forming. There is a constant freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw on the windshield while I run errands in the car - the snow melts on the warm windshield while I am driving with the defrost on but freezes into hard, bonded ice bits when I leave. I'm amazed at how quickly the conversion happens.

Jamie and I are getting excited about our Christmas trip next week. He is finishing a paper tonight and when that is done he will be done with school. I'm trying to finish up Christmas presents and get them in the mail. For each of you who are reading this, See you soon!!!

More Snow!

It started snowing yesterday at noon and it hasn't stopped yet. It's coming down so lightly. Last night it seemed like the whole state was covered in a giant slushy. I wanted to squirt cherry syrup all over the ground and slurp it up. Jamie and I went for a long midnight walk over to the ISU cross training course. It is one of our favorite places to walk. The course goes through a pastoral wooded space; it's hilly and there are bridges, and pleasant little alcoves with benches. There were no footprints at all except little bunny tracks crisscrossing the path. We had a snowball fight and we tried to build a snowman but we'd left our gloves at home so we didn't stick to it for very long. The sky was thick with snow and reflected light. There was almost no space for the snow to fall. It was like the snow cloud was a mile deep and resting right on the ground; resting right on us and on Ames. It was so bright that I felt like I was watching a night scene from one of those old westerns back when they shot during the day and just put a gray filter over the camera lens. We almost cast shadows. The bug repellent streetlights filled the sky and the ground with a yellow-pink glow. It felt dreamlike. The word I kept repeating to myself was "ethereal."

Today I got ready for work, was right on time, not a minute to lose, and walked out of the house to see our car under two inches of snow. Luckily it hadn't frozen yet so it was easy to sweep off with a broom but I was late to work anyway. (When I got to work I found out that I hadn't even been on the schedule today so it all turned out all right.) Jamie shoveled the snow off of our sidewalk. Tonight I went out to Lowe's and bought a larger snow shovel and an ice scraper. The roads were a mess. All of us drivers were going 25-30mph, skidding at every red light and spinning our wheels at every green one. There were no mishaps and everyone seems very patient and understanding. I see the salt trucks going around now.
-Heather
PS: I'm thinking of subtitling this blog; "It's really really cold up here."

SNOW!!!

Guess what everybody? The first real snowfall is here! It's so fluffy and crunchy and white! It snowed for the better part of the day today and accumulated to a full inch. It snowed once two weeks ago but the ground was too warm for the snow to stick. I sat in the house eating soup watching the snow fall in the wind at about a 45 degree angle. Today I had things to do! So Jamie and I got to drive around in the weather, slipping a little when we took each corner. Everyone went about 25 miles per hour so we were all very save despite the many opportunities of dings and fender benders. The wind was not harsh this time so it was fun to be outside surrounded by fluffy precipitation. Some of the snowflakes were as large as a nickle! One fell into my ear.



It's been a long time since I posted and a lot of great stuff has happened so I'll briefly try to fill you in. The last post was about installing a show in the Octagon Gallery. Since then I've been offered and have accepted an additional job as the Octagon's Ceramics Studio Manager. The studio is in the basement where the Octagon holds year round clay classes. It pays very little but the experience is invaluable and on top of that, I get my own huge studio space! I'm also teaching a teapot workshop in the Spring! CASA had its annual Fall open house last weekend (I have moved from a Shared Clay space to a semi-private studio space; I'm keeping my space there because it is such a resource of experience and talent), and this weekend I was hosted by a downtown business during ArtWalk (businesses let artists display work in their store for the afternoon). I unloaded a kiln for the event this morning:


and here is my table at ArtWalk:

(And I actually have sold a few pieces at these events! Yay!)

So that's what's been happening. I'm starting to feel at home at the Octagon and at CASA, and we've been getting together with Jamie's co-workers every couple of weeks. I will always be an outsider in Iowa because I drawwwl and say things like "Ya'll," "fixin' to" and "it's a quarter-to" instead of "it's a quarter-till," but it's starting to feel like we can make it up here - for a few years, anyway.

-Heather