Albums of the Year

2008 was a strange year for music. While a good year, ultimately it doesn't live up to the standard that 2007 set. For me, 2008 has been an "out with the old, in with the new" year for music: several bands and artists I have liked for a while (Death Cab, Jenny Lewis, Of Montreal) put out less-than-stellar albums, while most of the albums on my best-of list are by bands who are relatively new, or who I discovered recently. (Most of which I was turned onto by my friend James.)

So, with that out of the way, here is my list of Best Albums of 2008:

1. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
2. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
3. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
5. Deerhunter - Microcastle
6. Portishead - Third
7. Sun Kil Moon - April
8. The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
9. M83 - Saturdays = Youth
10. The Dodos - Visiter
11. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Lie Down in the Light
12. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
13. Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
14. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
15. The Walkmen - You & Me
16. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
17. Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak
18. She & Him - Volume One
19. The Black Keys - Attack & Release
20. Tilly & the Wall - o
21. Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
22. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
23. Nomo - Ghost Rock
24. Beck - Modern Guilt
25. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!

I'm working on putting together my 2008 mix cds. I'll post those when I have them finished. Until then, have a happy new year.

Dear Arkansas,

Do us a favor: if you're going to have a separate, lower speed limit for tractor trailers, have lanes just for them. We're sick of driving 55 in a 70 in the left lane as one truck spends half an hour trying to pass three others. It's not like you don't have room to do it, since there's miles of barren nothingness on either side of the interstate.

If that proves too costly, at least fix the potholes. Seriously. We've driven on some unpaved roads that are smoother than I-40 in West Memphis.

Sincerely,
Your neighbors.

... the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art.

To ring in the (almost) new year, I decided to go with a new title and new layout for my blog. The original title was meant only as a placeholder, and I never really liked it all that much in the first place. Too dramatic. And I grew terribly bored with the old layout, everything all brown and smooshed together. Let me know what you think of this -- I don't know if it's permanent or not.

Oh, and happy christmas evening.

According to the Roman Calendar

It's been a month today. I don't know if I've ever been so happy being single. There have been some rough patches, sure, but for the most part, I'm happy.

The Journey, part 2.

I'm in Beckley now, hanging out with Ixi. The drive today was less eventful than yesterday, even though there's a lot more to see in Tennessee than in Oklahoma or Arkansas. Unfortunately, I saw mostly orange road cones and tractor trailers and cars going 65 in the left lane. I swear, after having no road work at all yesterday and very little traffic, it seemed like once an hour one of the lanes was shut down today and there were so many trucks. But at least I made it safely. And ultimately, the drive wasn't too bad.

I had a scary moment about five or ten minutes after I got back on the interstate this morning: I saw a black dog run across the road about 100 yards ahead of me. It scared me, but I was thankful that there were no cars at that moment. Then right before I got to that spot, a beagle ran out of the median where the black dog had come, crossed the left lane and then froze in the right lane where I was driving. I barely had time to react. I swerved to the right onto the shoulder at 70 mph, and the car behind me swerved to the left into the other lane, which was luckily clear. I hope that little dog made it. I thought for sure I was going to hit it. Normally, I would have been pretty upset if I hit a dog (which I never have), but now that I have a dog, I would have been devastated.

The Journey, part 1.

After checking out the weather forecast, I decided to take a southern-route through Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia, instead of the northern-route through Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. I made it past Nashville before stopping for the night, so I should be in Beckley sometime tomorrow afternoon.

The drive so far has been good, though incredibly dull. Seriously, there’s nothing in Arkansas. It’s kind of like Oklahoma in that way. It didn’t help that it was a gray, overcast day; I don’t think I saw the sun once. But at least it didn’t rain much. And no wintry mixes.

Ixi has been incredibly good so far. It took her a few hours to settle down, but once she did, she slept most of the rest of the drive. Getting her in and out of the car was a challenge because she did not want to jump up or down. Now she’s staring and growling at her reflection in the full-length mirror in our room in the Comfort Inn in Lebanon, TN.

Other random musings from the day:

 Why is it that turnpikes are always the crappiest roads? If we have to pay tolls to drive on these roads, wouldn’t you think they’d be in at least decent condition? To get from Stillwater to Tulsa, I drove on the Cimarron Turnpike, which has to be one of the bumpiest stretches of highway west of the Mississippi. Then as soon as I exited onto OK-51, which has no tolls, the pavement became smooth and looked new. Then past Tulsa I took the Muskogee Turnpike, and literally as soon as it became a toll road, the pavement was all grooved and crappy. What does my $3.25 pay for?

 One of the tollbooth ladies was sweet and gave Ixi a treat.

 The woman working the counter at the hotel also gave Ixi a little bag of treats. This dog is making bank. And with the way my mother’s going to spoil her over the next two weeks, she’s going to come home morbidly obese. All the other dogs will laugh.

 I stopped for lunch at an Arby’s in Clarksville, Arkansas. The girl running the register was named Panther, according to her nametag. I wanted to say, “No shit? Your name’s really Panther?” but I figured she gets that several times a day.

 Somewhere in Arkansas, I saw a sign for Toad Suck Park. I wonder what the story is there. Really, how do you come up with that name? Was Frog Blow Park taken?

 James made me six data CDs of new music, so I had lots of good tunes to keep me company. Thanks James.

 High-speed wireless my ass. This is the. Slowest. Connection. Ev.er.

 I should have asked Panther if she has a sister named Puma.

More tomorrow from West-By-God.

Done!

I just submitted final grades, so now I am officially done for the semester. It's ridiculous how relieved I feel since I didn't realize I was stressed in the first place. Mentally, I've been done for more than a week. But now it's official, and I feel so free.

And then tomorrow I get to start the sixteen-hour, 1,000 mile drive home to Beckley. With a dog who has never been in a car for more than an hour. And it looks like the entire way home, I'll be driving through a "wintry mix," which is the dumbest term for weather patterns I've ever heard. Should be an adventure.

Milk

Tonight I went to Oklahoma City to attend a special advanced screening of Gus Van Sant's film Milk about the life of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician elected to public office. I believe the film starts this Friday. Go see it.

Usually, I'm a little turned off by biopics because of the lack of engaging narrative, but Milk not only has a strong narrative arch, it has the steady building level of conflict necessary for any successful plot. If you're familiar with the story of Milk's assassination (which I was going into it) you can feel it building to that moment. And if you aren't familiar with the story, have no fear -- I didn't reveal anything about the ending that isn't revealed in the opening scene of the movie, which shows actual news footage from after the murder.

The performances are poignant and Oscar-worthy. Sean Penn plays one of the greatest parts of his career, and he has played a lot of brilliant characters. Josh Brolin makes Dan White, Milk's conservative antagonist, both inherently sympathetic and frightening. Emile Hirsch and James Franco (who I've never liked in a movie until this one) both shine in their supporting roles as members of Milk's activist circle.

Van Sant's direction, which, as always, becomes somewhat overwrought, works well in the context of the film, though at times becomes a little distracting. And there are a few overly-sentimental moments, but I think Van Sant is making a conscious decision toward sentimentality because of the political ramifications of the film.

And ultimately, that's why you must see this film. While it will garner a lot of Oscar buzz (and should win numerous awards, including at least the nomination for Best Picture if not the award itself) the political implications of this story make it noteworthy, especially with the recent Proposition 8 debacle in California. Milk's story is a cornerstone of the gay rights movement, and in this era of ever-growing moral backlash toward homosexuals, this is an important and powerful film. See it as soon as you can. And if you want company, I will be glad to see it again.

Jack Frost can bite me

File this one under "what the?!"

Yesterday Stillwater had a high temperature of 71. Yes, that's right, 71 degrees Fahrenheit. Even late last night it dropped only to the 50s. Nice, right?

Imagine my consternation when I walked the dog this morning in the freezing flipping cold. At this moment, 12:21 pm CST, it is 30 degrees outside; with the wind chill, it feels like 17, and it is always windy here. The high for today is 32, and they're predicting around an inch of snowfall.

Snow I can deal with. But a temperature swing that drastic in a twenty-four hour span? I hate Oklahoma winters already.

Semester in Review

I can't believe it's been over four months since I posted on here. Sorry gang. I hope some of you will see that I've updated and start reading again, as I will try to start posting more frequently.

Well, my first semester as a Ph.D. student is almost over. I only have to finish grading these papers, these terrifying papers that just won't grade themselves, no matter how much I plead with them. I also have to put the finishing touches on an essay that's due Wednesday and that I've had done since last Thursday. And then just sit two exams on Wednesday and grade those finals. So the end is in sight. I thought this would be a good time to review the semester, both good and bad.

The Good
1. I got a dog. A fluffy white dog with floppy ears.

2. I made a lot of great friends. I haven't made so many close friends in such a short period of time since my freshman year at Shepherd.

3. My fiction workshop with Toni went really well. I got a great story out of it, one of the best stories I've ever written, I think. I really like Toni, and think she will be wonderful to work with over the next five years, and I feel good about the fact that she will most likely be my adviser.

4. My Critical Theory and Pedagogy course also went remarkably well. I learned a lot about teaching and it made me reflect on my own teaching methods, which I think is going a long way toward making me a better teacher. Dr. Brooks is also a great professor, and I hope to have classes with him in the future.

5. The classes I taught both went well, and I'm impressed with the caliber of students at OSU compared to the students I've had at the other three schools where I taught.

6. I passed my German exam with reading knowledge. Now I just have to pass the French exam sometime in the next few years, after I relearn French.

7. I became an Assistant Editor of Cimarron Review, our national literary journal.

8. I got a job as the Assistant Director of the Writing Center, starting in January. I'm pumped about this new job, and it fulfills some of my teaching obligations, so I won't have as many papers to grade in the future.


The Bad
1. I lost my girlfriend. A relationship I knew would never go anywhere and had really started a holding pattern. But still. Did it have to end with such animosity?

2. I learned that one of the amazing friends I thought I'd made was really a parasite. And a douche. Which I guess makes him a paradouche.


Overall, I'd say it was a good first semester. Even though Erika and Sleazy ruined a few weeks of it, the good far outweighs the bad. I'm looking forward to next semester. I'll be taking another fiction workshop, this time with Jon Billman, who is an amazing writer and a very nice guy, and Intro to Graduate Studies, which, from what I've heard, sounds like the hardest class we have to take here and one that, no matter how hard you work, you get no higher than a B. I'll be working in the Writing Center part time doing administrative work and then I'll be teaching one course of English 1213, our equivalent of 102, which is research based. Oh yeah, and I have to take my First Year Exam, which determines whether or not I get fully admitted into the program, in February.

Overall, I'm happy with my program, and I feel like this is where I should be at this point in my life. So what could I possibly complain about? Except this mountain of papers that still aren't grading themselves.

re:McCain

I have to hand it to him, John McCain is a likeable guy. I don't agree with him on every issue -- far from it -- but I've always liked him. He's like that really old, bumbling uncle who gives you butterscotch candies and tells you the same corny joke he's told you since you were five.

While he lacks the rhetorical vigor and flare of Barack Obama, he's very good at appealing to pathos, to the audience's emotions. McCain knows how to work the empathy angle, to make you believe he honestly cares about the "real" people he mentions in his speeches. Obama's better at appealing to logos, and it's when McCain tries to move into these appeals to logic that he loses me in contradictions and hypocrisy.

Now let's hop aboard the Double Talk Express.

First of all, did a candidate who has stated a goal to overturn Roe v. Wade just say he wants to appoint Supreme Court justices who will not "legislate from the bench"? How, exactly, do you plan to overturn a Supreme Court ruling without nominating justices who will do just that? Perhaps they're wrong, by Merriam-Webster defines legislate as "to make or enact laws." Appointing justices who will make and enact laws overturning laws you don't personally like sure seems like appointing ones who will legislate from the bench to me.

Second of all, he keeps trying to portray himself as the candidate who will free us from "paying $700 billion a year to countries who don't like us." Before T. Boone Pickens, a prominent oil man, came out and made this argument, you'd never find John "The Maverick" McCain making the same argument. But now that Americans are demanding it, McCain has jumped on the Big Green Bandwagon, ignoring his voting record and all those bills he voted against, most notably one titled, in a very straight-forward manner, "Reduction in Dependence in Foreign Oil". Hmmm. You want to reduce our dependence in foreign oil, yet you voted three years ago against a bill whose stated purpose was "To improve the energy security of the United States and reduce dependence on foreign oil imports by 40 percent by 2025"? Anyone got a pair of flip-flops I can smack together?

I also love how McCain and Palin and all those delegates with their "Drill Now" paraphanelia cling to this idea that increasing off-shore drilling will in any way lower gas prices now. Especially when one of McCain's senior advisors, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, admits offshore drilling will have “no immediate effect on supplies or prices” of gasoline in America. But it sure makes for a catchy bumper sticker.

And that's what we want, isn't it? Who cares if what he's telling you is right as long as it makes for a good sound bite.

Update re:Palin

Two words: not impressed.

After all the praise of her public speaking abilities, maybe I was expecting too much. After a week of rousing speeches by Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, Beau Biden, Mark Warner, and not to mention one of the best speeches I've ever heard by Barack Obama, arguably the greatest orator in recent times, maybe I was expecting too much. But I expected more than a bulleted list of non sequitors.

I mean, really, how does being a victim of torture qualify John McCain to be our next president? I missed the connection.

Sure she's good at personal jabs. Sure she'll be a good attack dog. But am I any more comfortable about the fact that, should the Republicans win this election, the only thing standing between her and the presidency is a 72 year old man with a history of cancer? Not really.

She's also good at skewing facts and delivering outright falsities, or at least that's what examining public records shows you. Like when she mentions McCain's support of alternative energy. Sure he's claiming to support the development of alternative energy sources now, but if you examine his voting record (which, like all voting records, is available from Project Vote Smart) you'll see McCain either voted against or didn't show up to vote on every bill aimed at financing alternative energy research, such as the “Reduction in Dependence on Foreign Oil” amendment, or the “Energy Policy Act of 2005," which he voted against not once but twice. You want to talk about Obama saying one thing about people when they're listening and another thing when they aren't? Then let's talk about claiming to support something when the public favors it while you have a long history of voting against it.

And while we're on the subject, it's convenient for Palin to talk about her opposition to the "Bridge to Nowhere," when in reality she supported the bridge during her 2006 campaign to become Alaska's governor. I'm just waiting for her to say "actually I did support the Bridge to Nowhere before I opposed it." Then will all the Republicans line up with their flip flops like they did in 2004?

Or how about her claim to be the great crusader again earmarks, when she fails to mention that, before she fought against earmarks, she fought for earmarks worth more than $27 million in federal funds for her hometown (of about 7,000 residents) as mayor and continued to use earmarks as governor of Alaska; many of these earmarks she supported and benefited from were criticized by McCain. Even as recently as this year, Palin argued that earmarking is a vital part of government, saying, "The federal budget, in its various manifestations, is incredibly important to us, and congressional earmarks are one aspect of this relationship." And let's not even get into her connection with lobbyists with ties to Jack Abramoff.

Straight talk? Hardly.

And then there's her claims about the Democrats. I love her claim that the only man in this election who has ever worked for change in congress is McCain, when McCain himself has claimed to have voted with Bush over 90% of the time. Or how she says Obama and Biden have no experience creating law. Uh, lady, it's called The Violence Against Women Act and it was authored by a certain senator from Delaware. But what can you expect from a woman who opposes equal pay for women and is running with a man who has repeatedly spoken out against equal pay?

And that claim that Obama has never authored a bill or law? Well, how about the Fair Pay Restoration Act, a bill Obama co-sponsored and McCain did not support? Or how about the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which Obama sponsored and was passed into law? Oh, right, she wouldn't want to mention that one since she's not a fan of honest leadership or open government, especially when it shows her ties to lobbyists and special interest groups.

While Palin isn't the best speaker I've heard at a convention rally (in fact, during one of the audience shots, I saw a woman who I'm pretty sure had either fallen asleep or died of boredom, or perhaps just finds comfort sitting with her head tilted back, her eyes closed, and her mouth hanging open) she sure is good at one thing: spin. This, like their opposition to women's rights, is one thing she shares with McCain.

And if I'm CNN, as soon as she starts accusing the media of being sexist because of their scrutiny of her, when in reality they're trying to figure out who the heck this woman is because no one had heard of her a week ago, that's the last time I show a shot of the cute youngest daughter holding and licking the baby.

Update re:dog

I dropped Ixi off at the vet this morning and picked her back up around 5:00 this evening. She's doing about as well as a 14-pound dog who just recovered from anaesthesia and is wearing a plastic lampshade around her neck can be expected to do. I don't know when we'll learn the results of the histopathology they're performing on the mass, but hopefully it's soon, and hopefully it's good news.

On an exciting note, we now have two more medications to give her. Yay! She loves medicine! (Note that I cannot remember the last time I ended two sentences in a row with exclamation points.) And she gets to wear the plastic lampshade for two weeks. Yay!

In other news, I'm still not prepared for my foreign language exam tomorrow. The good news is I can keep retaking it; I just need to have it finished before I complete my coursework and start my dissertation. Taking it tomorrow seems pointless, and I would be inclined to skip out if I hadn't already payed $30 to take the test. But, I tell myself, this will help me to prepare for the exam when I take it in the future.

See, I have to have "reading knowledge" of two foreign languages or "mastery" of one. The difference between reading knowledge and mastery? Time. The test consists of translating two 250-word passages into English with the use of a dictionary. (Simple, you say? Looking up words in a dictionary takes up a lot more time than you may expect.) For reading knowledge, I have to translate both passages in under three hours. For mastery, I have to do it in under an hour and a half. At this point, I know I'm not going to get mastery: I'm just not that fluent. I considered accepting reading knowledge and trying later to pass the French exam, but now I think it may be easier to practice for a while and improve my German vocabulary and retake the exam over the summer or next fall and shoot for mastery. Taking the test tomorrow seems pointless since I know that, even if I pass with reading knowledge, I'm going to take it again.

In related news, I love grad school. Not really. The first week was great, but now I'm quickly remembering why I disliked it the first time round. I'm sure it will get better once I start actually workshopping in my fiction writing class, but for now I'm tired of school. The long weekend only made me want to take a longer vacation. But that's how holidays always make us feel, isn't it? We only want a longer break.

Unless you're Frances. And then you're just a nerd.

Worries

I took the dog to the vet today to check out several things. For one, she has this sore beside her ear, a dime-sized lump, that she's been scratching at all weekend. She also has these bumps on her belly, and she's been obsessively licking and biting at her paws. The vet thinks she has allergies, and the discoloration around her mouth and on her paws is caused by her saliva. So he precribed benadryl.

More worrisome, the spots and dry skin on her belly are from a staph infection. He gave me some antibiotics to try to clear it up, and some antibiotic shampoo.

But the worst news is about the lump beside her ear. It's some sort of mass, and I have to take her in for surgery tomorrow to remove it and find out what it is. It could be from the allergies and stress, the vet said. Or, worse, it could be a cancerous tumor. They're going to remove it tomorrow and have it tested and let me know, and, as the vet said, "if it is cancer, we'll take it from there."

So now I'm upset and on the verge of tears because the dog we just got a week and a half ago may have cancer. And Erika comes home from work around 4:30, from her first day working since having her surgery, and she has to work an eight-hour shift, so she's going to be tired and depressed and in pain, and then I have to tell her the dog she's already fallen in love with may have cancer. I know she's not going to take it well. I know she's going to get hysterical, and I don't know how to face that.

Making things worse, I've just had to give the dog two pills, and she hates taking pills. I have to use one of those plastic syringe-looking things to shoot the pill down her throat, or else she'll just spit them up. She already wasn't happy with me for taking her to the vet, then I had to do that, and then I had to give her a bath with the shampoo the vet gave her. She didn't like that at all. As soon as she was done and dried off and I let her go, she ran to the end of the hall, hunkered down, and growled at me, baring her teeth. She's never been that way, and it scared me. And now she's acting super aggressive and running all over the apartment and barking and growling and knocking things around. She's never acted like this. She's always been so calm and sweet. I don't know if it's the bath or a reaction to one of the pills. The vet said the benadryl would knock her out; I'm afraid it has had the opposite reaction and she's wound up from it.

I'm already stressed out because I've been putting schoolwork off all weekend, and I have my foreign language exam on Thursday, and I haven't been able to practice as much as I should. And now, with all of this, I don't know if I'll be able to practice tonight. Shit. I'm a bit of a wreck right now.

A suggestion to John McCain

Dear Senator McCain,
During this fall's presidential campaign against Barack Obama, should you find yourself needing to replace your running mate, currently Sarah Palin, let me offer you a suggestion: my dog, Ixi. Absurd, you say? Let's compare their qualifications.

Both are women. This seems to be your primary motivation for choosing Palin, and Ixi is likely to appeal to Clinton supporters as much as the governor of ... ahem ... Alaska.

Your other primary qualification in this pick is that Palin is a Washington outsider from a remote state. Ixi has never been to Washington, and I would definitely consider Oklahoma a remote state. Maybe not as remote as ... ahem ... Alaska, but you know.

Ixi has as much experience in foreign policy and international relations as Palin. That is to say, none.

Palin has been the governor of ... ahem ... Alaska for less than two years. Ixi is more than two years old.

Palin has five children and has never considered aborting any of them, even the one with Down syndrome. Ixi has had several litters of puppies, and never considered aborting any of them. So she's likely had even more abortion-free babies than Palin, making her appeal to the conservative base of your party even more.

Palin is a former beauty pageant runner-up. Ixi is a very cute dog.

True, you may say that no one has ever heard of Ixi, but until yesterday, that was true of Palin too. Well, I guess the seven people who live in Alaska have heard of her, but Ixi has almost that many friends. So if you change your mind and realize that there were more more-qualified candidates that you passed over than there are people who know who Sarah Palin is, please have your people contact Ixi's people so we can get the vetting (ha! a pun!) process started.

Sincerely,
Joshua Cross

I'm a proud parent

Yeah, so ... we got a dog. Which you know if you've been reading Erika's blog because she's much better than I am about updating it frequently. (But she also has a little more free time on her hands. And by a little, I mean a lot.)

Ixi Grace, our new miniature schnauzer, is quite a character. She was very odd the first few days, but she's beginning to come out of her shell. The first day we had her (Saturday) she would not go outside. She's gotten much better now though, and runs out the door as soon as you open it. When I let her out of her crate at 6:45 this morning, she ran immediately to the door to go out.

The first day she was also really terrible on the leash and would thrash about if you put any tension on it at all. Since then she's gotten much better, and is actually walkable.

She still hates the stairs though. She freezes and occasionally trembles as you try to get her to go up or down the stairs, and unfortunately we live on the second floor. With a lot of patience, a lot of coaxing and rewarding, and a lot of time, she will now go up and down. She's not happy about it though.

Erika mentioned her strange eating habit of grabbing a few bites of food and walking into the next room to eat them. Last night I mixed a pouch of wet food with her dry food, and she hasn't done it since. Erika also mentioned that she completely ignores her toys, and she still does for the most part. But this morning after I walked her, she attacked her stuffed hedgehog and thrashed him about a few times. Erika says she also played with her ball this afternoon, but I missed it.

She's a sweet dog and docile. She has developed a real attachment to Erika and follows her from room to room throughout the apartment. When she sees Erika coming, she gets excited and as animated as we've seen her yet.

Tomorrow morning she goes to the vet, so we'll see how she does. She's such a well behaved girl that I'm not anticipating real problems, but she is terrified of almost anything new, so we'll see which competing side of her wins.

Oh yeah, and grad school is fun so far. More on that some other time. I've got a bit of a cold, and I need to take Ixi out again and put us both to bed.

Four-legged fuzzy lovin'

Meet my soon to be new dog:



Today Erika and I drove about an hour to Bristow, OK to visit a dog rescue that has recently received seven miniature schnauzers, the breed we were looking for. The breeder who had these sweet dogs willingly gave them up after finally realizing she could not keep them. If you're not aware, breeders usually severely mistreat their dogs, all except the adorable little puppies that they can sell for $1000 or more. These particular dogs had been kept outside in kennels and when they were finally given over to the rescue, they were covered in ticks and all of their fur was matted. Because ultimately it doesn't matter what state the parents are in; as long as they can have sex and plop out puppies, they're good to go.

We looked at a few of the schnauzers they had, and we chose this girl because she seemed the most docile and sweet and she was also the softest and prettiest, though they were all pretty. She's very timid and doesn't warm up to new people very well. But she also doesn't pee on everyone or bark much or run laps around the room. All of these are good things for apartment dwellers.

Speaking of getting peed on: the first dog we looked at, a male named Skeeter, was fine when I was playing with him. But then he cocked his leg up and marked Erika as his territory. They always say pets choose their owners, rather than the reverse, but if this was his strategy for claiming and marking an owner, it failed, because Erika immediately looked at the woman and said, "I think we'll take a female."

So now we're waiting for her (the dog, not Erika) to be taken to the vet to get tested and spayed, and then I'll go pick her up later in the week and we'll be pet owners. I'm so excited because I've wanted a dog for so long.

Now we need to think of what to call her. The breeder named her Sarah Grace, but since had a rebound fling with a Grace after breaking up with a Sarah, that's not going to fly. Since she was essentially neglected, she doesn't seem to know her name anyway, so it shouldn't be hard to rename her. If you can think of any, send them our way. Especially if you can think of any good German names since she is, after all, a German breed.

And, as a public service announcement, if you're thinking about getting a pet in the future, please go through adoption agencies rather than breeders who charge ridiculous fees and don't always treat their dogs well. (Some breeders are good, but others obviously are not.) We found her on petfinder.com. There are so many pets out there needing a good home. Okay, enough sappy bleeding heartedness for the evening.

Where the wind goes sweeping down the plain

Greetings from the Sooner-rather-than-later State. Sorry I've been dropping the ball on this whole updating thing, but it's been a pretty busy week and a half. It's been good though. Stillwater is great, and I've already made a nice circle of friends in my program.

But I've also found the thing that I most actively dislike about Oklahoma: beer. And if you know me, you know I'm a big fan of beer. Oklahoma is one of six states in the nation (the other five including many of our neighboring states) that only allow so-called low point beer sales. Basically, the only beer allowed to be sold cold, whether in bars, restaurants, or stores, can be no higher than 3.2% alcohol. The only beer with a higher percentage must be sold at room temperature in a liquor store. Also, wine can only be sold in liquor stores.

While 3.2% isn't much lower than most domestic beers, and many lawmakers claim there's little difference, trust me when I tell you there is. Instead of the deliciousness that is beer, you get vaguely beer-flavored water. And in order to get the intended effect, you have to drink more, meaning more empty calories and carbs, meaning that you get a lot of fatter drunks. The low point laws also limit the types of beer to be sold in the state, since only those companies willing to make special low point beer can be sold. So my choices are usually of the Bud, Coors, or Miller variety. And forget about imports or craft-brews.

I also haven't had much luck with buying beers themselves. Last Thursday, I bought a six-pack of a Missouri wheat beer called Boulevard, which is actually pretty good. The six-packs come in closed boxes like twelve-packs, so I didn't know anything was awry until I pulled out an almost empty bottle the next day. The bottle was completely sealed, but there was only about a finger of beer at the bottom of the bottle.

Then Sunday I bought a twelve-pack of MGD in bottles. Everything seemed normal until the next day when I got toward one of the back rows and discovered that one of the bottles was shattered. I'm almost positive we didn't break it since neither the box nor the fridge showed any evidence of spilled beer. I'm pretty sure it came that way.

So here is my request to you: come visit, and bring beer with you.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow

Today is my last full day in Shepherdstown. Tomorrow we load up and drive down to Beckley for two nights, and then on to Parkersburg Saturday for Seth and Rachel's wedding. And then Sunday we begin the long drive to the Sooner State, stopping somewhere in Missouri Sunday night and finishing the drive Monday morning.

I'm still having mixed feelings. It's definitely started to be sadder for me now that it's about to happen. I've been preparing for this move for months, but it has snuck up on me.

Last night I hung out with Jeremy, and we had a good time. It was the first time in quite a while that it was just the two of us sitting around talking. On my drive home from Harper's Ferry last night, I felt truly sad about what I'm leaving behind. But I'm still excited for what is to come, and I feel that this is the right thing for me.

I got my (very) tentative teaching schedule the other day, and I'm starting to get excited about starting school again. Grad school is a pain in the ass, but it is also a lot of fun. A lot of work, but a good community of people with common goals and interests.

Well, that's about all for now. The next post I make I will likely be in Oklahoma. Unless, of course, our cheap motel in Missouri has wireless internet.

Going away

You know what I hate? Moving and leaving friends behind. But you know what I don't hate? Going away parties. And we've had quite a few this week.

Friday night, Erika hosted a party at her old apartment. It was almost all her friends, so it was really her gig more than mine. We sat around in the back yard, cooked out, drank beer, played croquet, and had a good time in general. Stephanie and Melissa, who planned the whole thing, even decided to have a cowboy theme since we're going to Oklahoma.

Then last night, TC and Kevin had a cookout for us, and it was more my style, very laid back, people sitting around the back porch talking and eating good food. Many people I graduated with were there, like TC, Suzanne, and even Sarah Alouf, whom I hadn't seen in ages. A lot of the English faculty were also there, such as Alan and Betty. The highlight for me, however, was that Dr. Carter came, so I got to see him one last time before I left. My parents were even there because they came up yesterday to take the table and a few other things.

Speaking of furniture, Brandon and John picked up the couch today, so I've pretty much unloaded all of my furniture. I'm going home to an empty apartment later. Egads!

The sadness of moving hasn't quite hit me yet. More than anything, I'm excited to go and start my new life in my new home. But I think I don't fully realize the move is about to happen. I don't think I fully realize that in a few days (Thursday) we're going to drive out of town and not come back. That Sunday morning we're going to start the long drive, and Monday morning move into our new apartment in Stillwater, OK, where I will most likely live for the next five years.

Now that I put it like that. ...

Lalala

This is just a placeholder first post because I have nothing of real value to say at this point. Just pretend it's interesting, and there will be more here one day.