the id, the ego, & the single misfiring brain cell

so here you go. a blog just for you.

It is presumably the third day of my "summer vacation," but as with everything else I do, it's never quite that simple.

First, and probably most importantly, I still haven't finished the paper I owe my visiting professor for my Sexuality and the Sacred pre-1660 Brit Lit class. We had our last class meeting last Thursday, and only after that did I have time to begin working on the paper I've had onerous reading loads before, but this one wins, hands down. Not only were the readings long, but almost all of them were in Middle English.

Most people don't know what is meant by "Middle English," exactly. They seem to think that this qualifies:

She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

This is a common mistake. But not only is that Modern English (like the King James Version bible), but it is downright understandable with no training.

Middle English is a little different. Lemme see if I can find a sample for you virgin eyes.... Ah yes.

Yeah. Now imagine having to read a book written in that every two to four days, and you get some idea of what my June was like. (The first person to properly identify the source of the ME lines, btw, gets a teensy bit of worship from me.)

So I began by rereading my source text and making notes. That was Friday. Saturday, I went online to research scholarly work that had been done on it (usually the best place to begin, as you can search very quickly and by the date the scholarship was done). Most of what I needed was on JSTOR (journal storage, a nonprofit database for full texts of scholarship over more than the last century in most disciplines), and JSTOR - for the first time in my memory - was down.

I didn't realize this right away. I thought I was having trouble with my virtual private network (VPN) to the school library databases. I tried a couple of different computers, then tried someone else's login information to another school with access to JSTOR, before I realized that the problem was with JSTOR.*

* This indicates a serious flaw in my troubleshooting process, I realize. All I needed to do was to attempt using another database or two through the school's system before I went to all that trouble. But like I said, I know JSTOR isn't perfect, but I've never known it to crash. Ever. So it didn't occur to me that their servers might be down....

So I wasted some precious time on that. Then, Sunday morning. I realized that I'll need some library books to flesh out my research, but...guess what? Sunday was a holiday, as some of you might have been aware. It seems that libraries respect this holiday sooooo much that they simply close for the whole day. And the whole day after. Silly holidays.

My paper was due Monday. Gaaaah. So I wrote to my prof and explained that I was in a bit of a pickle. I asked to take an incomplete so I'd have time to write my paper (I also told him what I am working on and what sort of progress I'd made on it). He gladly gave me the incomplete and told me I was doing fine and might be over-researching.

I think I always over-research, but that's the only way I know to know that I've brought in all the scholarship I needed to.

So here I am, Wednesday morning, and the paper isn't written yet, because something came up yesterday. Well...it came up over the holiday.

David, my baby brother, is in town with a crew of two and they are doing remodeling work down in Widefield. David has a chihuahua named Baby. Baby was a rescue dog and he's had her a little over a year. She apparently had eaten something she shouldn't on Friday, because she was bound up and miserable when I went to fetch them to take them to Becky's for dinner on Sunday. Baby hadn't drunk anything for a day or two, and wobbled around a few steps, if she moved at all. Her tail was permanently tucked. I told David I'd call my vet Monday to see if she was open for business if Baby hadn't improved.

She hadn't, so I drove to Widefield, picked her up, and took her to the vet. I spent the rest of the day making phone calls and checking on her and not much else. She was better by Tuesday morning, so I fetched her from the vet (yesterday afternoon). She still hadn't pooped or drunk anything, so I was still a bit worried. With David's permission, I brought her back here to watch her. She pooped when she got home (YES!!!), and she ate, and she was energetic. She drank water this morning. But she's still on "bed rest." (I challenge you to try to keep a chihuahua on "bed rest" once the dog no longer realizes it's sick.)

And so it was that I contacted Mary (another cousin, Becky's sister) who also lives in town. Mary had become a bit attached to Baby Sunday evening, so I figured she'd be good with watching her. Mary made a couple of calls, and between the cousins, arranged to watch Baby (and give her her meds) beginning this evening.

Because we're driving to Texas tomorrow. I'm going to my 25th high school reunion. Yes...I fully expect to have a ball. :D

But why is everything so complicated? And why doesn't Nacogdoches have more than one or two hotels that are worth any amount of money to stay in? The only two that got respectable reviews* are booked solid. Of course. So we're staying in Lufkin. I won't stay in a crappy hotel when I can drive another 20 miles and live in luxury (for the same price or slightly more).

* It's true that the older you get, the greater your basic comfort requirements. There was a time that I'd share a Motel 6 with six other people and when there weren't enough cots, one of us would take a blanket and sleep on the floor. Now, unless I have no other choice, I will not knowingly book a hotel known for dingy sheets/towels, thin walls, lumpy pillows/mattresses, uncontrolled vermin of any sort, stinky rooms (whether the stench is from smoke in a "converted" non-smoking room or "air fresheners" used in a failed attempt to disguise the the fact that carpets/curtains need to be replaced. Call me fastidious, but I like toilets the flush properly and don't get stuck, a well-tended swimming pool, and friendly/prompt service. Yeah. I'm a snob.

So today: I print out the online journal articles I've located since the last printing, visit the library and select some juicy titles that seem particularly relevant for my paper, deliver Baby to Mary (this evening), and attend a friend's graduation.

Oh. I left that out. I told you my life isn't simple.

Kerry, a friend and colleague from the English department at the Academy, is graduating today from the El Paso Country Sheriff's training program. Yep...she holds a PhD in linguistics from the University of Florida, but she's a bonafide sheriff as of today. Or deputy. I admit I don't know quite how it works. :) Anyhow...we're all proud of her, so I'm driving to the Broadmoor Hotel to join the festivities. And tomorrow morning, early, we're southbound to Texas.

Somewhere in there, I will write this paper. Then I can begin work on Air Command and Staff College by correspondence. Such is my life. There's always something, isn't there?

I have so much to do that at this rate, I will never die.

d