As the Meme(s) Turn(s)

New Year's post... late, but wev!

First, One Word (from Reverb10 that I never finished, but I liked this one, so I'm doing it again, tweaked current; here's my entry for last year):

December 1 One Word.
Encapsulate the year 2011 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2012 for you?
(Author: Gwen Bell)





My word for 2010 was upheaval. The word I wanted for 2011 was resolution.

I think, in retrospect, that 2011 was both upheaval and resolution. I mourned my dad (still do), lost my second grandmother, quit my job and moved a few states away for grad school. School was what I expected and then some; I'm missing my friends that I moved away from (but more or less managing to keep in touch) and struggling a bit to find my place here (and trying to be patient). Divorce negotiations remain unresolved (but we're getting closer). So less upheaval than 2010, and significant resolution in 2011... and it's not all doom and gloom. I'm making new friends, I spend a lot of time thinking about stuff (I forgot I liked theory as much as I do. Geek runs deep, apparently!). Learning a lot about myself. Loving where I live. Connecting with family.

So the word I'd like for 2012? Balance.


New Year's Meme (Questions lifted from Flavia, Squadrato, and Belle):

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
Got involved (i.e. not just a paying member) of a national archaeology society
Organized a conference session
Made a commitment to engage with other disciplines, met some folks in related fields and committed to presenting archaeology at a history conference
Started doctoral studies
Won a prize in a baking competition



2. Did you keep your 2011 resolutions, and will you make more this year?
Resolutions for 2011 (and 2010): Speak up; Speak out; Do things that scare me; Get out of my head and into the world.

Kept? In general, yes. Still challenging, so keeping the same list for 2012, but adding 2 goals: more physical activity and eating at least two things each day that grew in the ground (friuts/veg).


3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Colleagues having babies and expecting all over the place.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My paternal grandmother. I would really like to not attend a funeral in 2012.

5. What countries did you visit?
Great White North.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
A fucking finished book, already.

7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Quitting my job, packing up all my shit, moving South of the Mason Dixon Line, starting over, and surviving my first semester of doctoral studies (it was touchy there for a bit).

8. What was your biggest failure?
Not really a failure, frustrating: a continued inability/reluctance to let go of a particular circumstance.


9. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Random normal stuff. Several trips to a chiropractor got me moving without pain in the summer; some steriods got me to not look like some deformed monster after a bad allergic reaction.

10. What was the best thing you bought?
My own bed.

11. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State and Elizabeth Warren running for MA Senate (almost wish I'd gone to school up there so I could vote for her...)

12. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Congress. Pretty much the lot of them, but most especially the Party of No.

13. Where did most of your money go?
Moving, furnishing, and schooling.

14. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?
Happier. Don't know about thinner/fatter, but less fit for sure. Grad student.

15. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Dancing.

16. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Not leaving my house.

17. Did you fall in love in 2011?
No.

18. What was the best new book you read?
Margaret Atwood's "In Other Worlds." I didn't read many new books this year (lots of older stuff, tons of school stuff...). I love Atwood's essays, so enjoyed it a lot.

19. What was your favorite film of the year?
Hrm. Really haven't seen movies this year. Hated the new Muppet Movie though.

20. What kept you sane?
Friends. Dancing. Sleeping. Eating right (better).


21. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
I'm stronger than I thought I was. A little anxiety is normal. I need to trust myself more.

Recent Acquisitions

Some of the new books (not school related) that I've recently added to my library increasingly teetering pile of books (I've started reading one of them...a girl can dream):

• Baker, Jean H (2011) Margaret Sanger: A Life of Passion. Hill and Wang, New York. I heard the author interviewed on NPR not long ago about Sanger -- advocate for access to birth control and reproductive rights. I appreciated that in her interview, Baker didn't shy away from difficult issues like eugenics and didn't make Sanger out to be a complete saint. Complicated people are way more interesting. Can't wait to read this one.
• Bernstein, Peter L (2005) Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation. WW Norton, New York. I am beside-myself fascinated with the Burned-Over District of Western New York. One of the common themes in everything I read is the Erie Canal, so I figured I'd read up on it. I hope there is a lot of human story in this telling, though I do have a bit of an industrial-engineering-feat geek side so even if it's a straight "look at this amazing thing we built here is how we did it" I won't be bored.
• Harris, Sharon M (2009) Dr. Mary Walker: An American Radical. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey. From the back cover: "The nation's first female army surgeon, a pants-wearing divorcee, and the only woman ever to receive a Medal of Honor, Mary Walker was a plucky character ada courageous reformer." Disliking the use of "plucky" there (seriously, would you describe a man as "plucky"?)... but looking forward to reading this. Also, there's a photo of her on the front cover in a jacket and tie. Who doesn't like a woman in a jacket and tie... yeah, well, I do. So there.
• Rath, Richard Cullen (2003) How Early America Sounded. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York. I don't like sterile house museums; they feel so fake. I think that's ultimately what provoked my interest in sensory history/archaeology ... thinking about how the past smelled, tasted, sounded -- not just what it looked like.
• White, Richard (2011) Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America. WW Norton, New York. White is the guy who came up with the concept of "the middle ground" in history -- that place where Europeans and Native Americans interacted. I first heard about it in a blog post by historian Jonathan Rees, who wrote that he'd never be able to look at a railroad the same way again. That, coupled with my slight infrastucture-geek-side, and how could I resist? The thing is enormous, though... just over 650 pages.
• Weisberg, Barbara (2004) Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism. HarperCollins, New York. I did mention a fascination with the Burned-Over District, didn't I? In 1848, the same year as the first Women's Rights Convention (and not far away) the Fox sisters began to hear spirit rappings. They soon were able to use them to communicate with the dead. The social factors surrounding all of this -- and why them, and why then -- are fascinating. Really interesting for me though, are the connections between the story of Spiritualism and other major movements in the area -- connections based on people. Amy Post, well known for her abolitionist and suffrage work, was also a supporter of the Fox sisters, sitting with them on stage in support (and for protection); Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Tribune, was a supporter; according to the author, a sceance by the Fox sisters was held around the very table that the Declaration of Sentiments was written on.  I'm part way through this book; it's a relativey quick (and very interesting) read. Lots of footnotes for information about the Fox sisters, but I've found it lacking in footnotes about other events and people surrounding them.

RBOC: November Edition

I'm in holy-shit-where-did-November-go-end-of-semester-full-hunker-writing-writing-writing. Survival, and even successful survival, of my first semester of doctoral studies seems likely! I'll let you know in a few weeks once I've dug myself out (and been graded)...

Some random bullets of crap:

• Back in August 2009 (omg two years ago; I've so completely lost track of time) I posted a post on time-to-Google-Scholar and reported that posting papers to Selected Works was the fastest at one month. That time span has shrunk: I posted a paper to Selected Works on October 25-ish after a conference, and by October 31 it was listed on Google Scholar.
• I found a link via Canada-Supporting Women in Geography (lots of good stuff not limited to geographers or women) to DiRT (Digital Research Tools Wiki). Tons of tools to help you work; worth at least a few minutes of your time!
• Speaking of tools and time, I apparently lose vast amounts of time screwing around on the Internets... checking mail, scrolling Facebook. It only takes a few seconds each time, but very inefficient (and the risk of a Complete Sidetrack). I found a little tool called Freedom that disconnects me from the Internet for a set period of time (from a few minutes to a few hours). You *can* bypass it before the time is up, but that requires restarting the computer, which is too much trouble. Result: I can be really quite productive when I'm not screwing around. There are some 'net jonesing issues for me while it's off, which brings up a whole 'nother set of issues... I'm finding that using Freedom means that I quickly check the 'net in-between sessions (often to get info I needed while I was writing... and to check FB...) but am eager to get back into what I was working on.
• What I wear when I'm writing: sloppy and comfortable. What I wear when I'm writing in public: less sloppy and slighty less comfortable. Teaching clothes: tidy and not terribly comfortable. I like the scarf-as-swiss-army-knife, but can't quite figure out how to incorporate one into my wardrobe. Douglas Adams is more my style, but I'm also not sure how I can incorporate a towel into my everyday wear-in-public outfit without looking like I'm carrying a blankie...
• I keep setting off the smoke alarm in my apartment by cooking. The threshold seems to be setting the oven at anything over 350. Unfortunately, there are lots of noms that require higher temperatures. :(

Radio Silence

I've been very quiet here lately.

Part of it has been just being busy (middle of my first term as a grad student), being sick (two freaking weeks, back to back, two different reasons), not going anywhere to take pictures (a cop out; I could take pix anywhere, I just haven't), and part of it is professional blogging-under-my-real-name elsewhere (professional as in real life archaeology stuff, not as in getting paid for it stuff!).

Most of it, though, is that I'm in transition, and figuring out who this new me is, what voice this new me has, how pseudonymous this new me is (or is likely to be), and what this new me has to share that won't a) blow my pseudonymous cover or b) if said cover gets blown/revealed/whatever, won't be a liability. Nothing here I think *would* be a liability, but I did poof a post yesterday because it felt too personal.

There's a lot of negotiating at school, too -- who are all these people, these classmates and professors? Who can I trust? Whose opinions and readings of things seem grounded and helpful? Who do I want to study with? Who will be helpful when I go to them in the weeds? How the hell am I going to get everything done? What things are more important than others, and I can therefore spend less effort on them?

I need to stop fretting so much and trust what I know, but it's a lot to process. And that's what I've been doing by not writing here... processing. As things settle, I'll be back.

In the mean time, I know what to wear for an interview!

Poof.

Poofed.