Made Up Mailbag
A loyal and completely fictitious reader writes to ask "Most Housebloggers seem to do their work on the weekends. What is it that you two do for a living to be able to work on revivalizing all day every day?"
Well, reader-in-my-mind, that is a good question. I am a mathematician who is starting a job as an Assistant Professor at the liberal arts college here in town, which is the reason why we picked up and left Metropolis for Smallville in the first place. K, on the other hand, is a marketing and communications specialist with over twelve years of communications experience -- experience which, incidentally, your nonprofit organization could use and you should hire her asap. We still have several weeks left before the academic year gets started, which is why I have the time to do work on the house, as I am completely neglecting the research I should be doing in order to be more secure in the tenure process. K. has been enjoying the unemployed lifestyle, and will do so until somebody hires her, but she has had to spend the last few days working hard finishing up some things from her last job and shmoozing to try to get a new one, leaving me to do some revivalizing on my own.
I have been continuing work on the foyer, stripping wallpaper and patching things up with plaster.
It was a long sweaty dirty day, helped by the slight break in the heatwave and by lots of podcasts of On The Media and The Revolution Starts Now on the ipod. And by dinner time I had stripped all the wallpaper in the foyer and stairs, and done most of the plastering. Tomorrow the plan is that K will rejoin me and we will get the room ready for painting.
Incidentally, like many Gen Xers one of the earliest traumatically sad scene I remember watching in the movies was the scene towards the end of E.T. where Elliott and ET were being examined by all the doctors and they were basically stuck in the quarantine chambers with all of the plastic sheets everywhere. Well, the work the past couple of days consistently reminds me of that scene. The seals aren't airtight, but to go from the room I am in to the rest of the house involves navigating lots of plastic and makes me feel like poor E.T. Now where are my damn Reeces Pieces?
posted by D. @ 9:00 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
OK. Forget everything i ever said about reading blogs being a waste of time, that it's a way of staying distant, and not intimate, with other people. You guys are great writers, make me feel i'm with you there (except for the smells, can't quite conjure those) and I'm totally enjoying this. Keep all of us posted, and make way for the uhaul bringing all of the stuff you don't need to smallville (foot massagers, wood cutting boards and maybe some hydrangas, etc.) and hopefully some stuff you do need (dining table, chairs, grandfather clocks, etc.) Love and energy to you both. Mom
You should be totally relieved that noone has invented the Smell-o-Blog, because really that stuff coming out of the refrigerator pan was totally nasty. :)
Oh- I love that your Mom is reading your blog. I have a hard time getting my family to read let alone post.
And, I so remember that E.T. thing. For me, the most traumatic scene was when they found him in the river bed-eeek!
You should be totally relieved that noone has invented the Smell-o-Blog
Ohhh gross! A scratch and sniff blog! Hey everybody scratch the picture of my feet and sniff them after todays home renovation exploits! Yuk, yukkety-yuk!
Let's add the sounds with the smell-o-blog. Then we can fall asleep listening to other people work!
The foyer is looking good - I like the light!
Enjoy your time before classes. That run to tenure is a nasty thing. I got out before it became relevant and now also work at home which allows me some flexibility as well.
Jocelyn -- my mom posts on my blog. :) She also lives here with us. But I agree, it is hard to get folks in real life to visit the blog.
Amanda
I'm a college prof too. An anthropologist. I know how it is facing the syllabus prep. I used to feel that the coming of the term was like watching a tsunami approaching! So which small liberal arts college are you at -- or don't you want to say?
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