The Reading Journal of RMS

Last night, I suddenly got butterflies in my stomach about the whole impending labor/delivery/parenthood thing. And very excited about the prospect of meeting [untitled] soon.

A sign that labor is on the way? Or, more likely, a sign that there's no more football to distract me?

(The Steelers gave me several heart attacks last night, but did not send me into labor, alas.)

I can't believe it's the end of January, but I am looking forward to this weekend!

Tonight: FREE CHIMICHANGAS at happy hour! That's why the beer is so expensive. Mmmm, chimichangas.

Tomorrow: The farmer's market, THE BEACH, and Michigan-Notre Dame hockey on TV! (EDIT: And a Chinese New Year celebration! Whee! Yeah, I know it's late for that.)

Sunday: Working, and watching the Steelers in the Super Bowl! Woo-hoo!

Yay!

And that's about it here. Work is okay, we're all okay . . . that's about it.

I am quite delighted that my two beloved football teams -- Michigan and the Steelers -- both had come-from-behind victories this weekend!

We caught the end of the Steeler game at a bar, and near the end of regulation I was moaning about overtime, because I hate the NFL overtime system. A guy we'd been chatting with asked me what I thought about the college system, and I said that I liked it, but thought they should start at the 35-yard-line, instead of the 25. I could tell he was testing me, to see if I knew anything, and he seemed pretty surprised to find himself agreeing with me. (A few minutes later, him and a few others were really surprised to find out that I knew how many timeouts each time got at the beginning of OT. I was like, "Yeah, I've watched JUST A LITTLE BIT of football in my time.")

We missed the first half because we went to Rosh Hashanah services tonight. I'd never been, and I thought it was nice. Any sort of starting anew sounds good, right about now.

And finally, we watched Airplane! and Zero Hour! the other night, and I marveled at how the clothes in Airplane! look less ridiculous than the clothes in an old episode of 90210. I'm not sure if that says something about the cyclical nature of fashion, the difference between trendy clothes and basic clothes, or about my personal preferences. But there you have it.

And and, I'm over my cold! Lemon-ginger tea will cure anything, I think.

Things here are looking up. I spent way, way too many hours this weekend watching terrible football, but my weekend was otherwise relaxing and low-key. And work is going well -- I'm giving a short talk a week from today (eeek!), and it'll be a good dry run of the talk I'm giving at a bigger conference in two weeks.

I finally have data again, and I'm working on a series of papers that are really getting fleshed out. I need to bust my tail and get at least one of them submitted before I leave Ann Arbor (on December 17, HOLY FUCK LESS THAN FOUR WEEKS AWAY INSERT PANICKING HERE). But that's the paper related to the talk I'm giving, and it has a short author list, so there shouldn't be any big delays in pulling it all together.

I do panic a bit every time I think about how much prep work I still need to do for teaching in January. But one thing at a time. I can do this.

At least Thanksgiving is coming up, and I'm looking forward to hanging out with my family. It will be the first Thanksgiving the eeee! and I have spent apart, though, so that's a little strange.

This has been a strange semester, in general. This weekend I'm bringing dirty laundry home to my parents. (The laundry machine in my building is malfunctioning, and I'm too lazy and cheap to go to the laundromat.) And until this semester, I hadn't appreciated how great it was to have a dog, because it forced me to go outside everyday and see people and be part of a neighborhood. Sure, I've been out and about, but not with the adorable conversation-starter that is our dog. It's like I've regressed to being a first-year -- only interacting with astronomers, living alone, taking laundry to the parents, etc.

I am eating better and vacuuming more often than I was back then, so I suppose I've made some personal progress in the last six years. But what a weird way to find out.

Things here are going well. I'm not even going to bother listing the bad. (Well. I hope not. Provided nothing sets me off.)

1. The semester has started! I know I usually whine about this, and indeed I now have to fight for elevators, and I won't even bother going to Dominick's again until summertime. But it also means that lots of people are around -- including new postdocs and new grad students, which is exciting -- and there are lots of things going on.

2. Steelers! Yay!

3. I find myself identifying with and talking with the post-docs more than the young grad students. Maybe that's not all good, but I think it's a good sign that I'm comfortable talking about science with postdocs. After all, they will be my peers next year (aieee!).

4. Miss Manners was really awesome this week. I love it when rude people write in, convinced that they are right. Are they really that delusional? Or are those letters made up?

5. The eyebrow waxing didn't hurt nearly as much as I thought it would. It doesn't look all that different, although I suppose it is neater.

6. Work is going okay. And I think I broke the intrinsic float command in Fortran, which I'm oddly proud of.

7. Dude! I'm getting married a week from tomorrow! Aieee!

starfishchick gave me the letter D, and I'm finally posting about 10 things that begin with the letter D. If you want a letter, just leave a comment!

( D is for . . .  )

Skip Bayless has spent the last week whining about how boring the Super Bowl will be. Before that, he was whining about how boring the playoffs were after New England and Indianapolis both lost. But of all the annoying things he said in his most recent column, I was actually most indignant on behalf of the Seahawks. So I snapped, and sent him an email:

Of all your ridiculous statements in your 1/30/06 column about the Super Bowl, I'm most baffled by your statements about the unlikeliness of the Seahawks making it to the Super Bowl. Sure, the NFC West is a weak conference. But "if Vick hadn't regressed?" Michael Vick is one of the most overrated athletes in the NFL! "If the Giants, Redskins and Cowboys hadn't been forced to do battle twice in the East?" Last I checked, the Giants and the Redskins both made the playoffs, and lost. How are their playoff losses related to their tough regular-season schedules? Shouldn't that have made them tougher in the postseason? As it turned out, the playoffs showed that Eli Manning is overrated, the Redskins have no offense, and the Panthers are one-dimensional. The playoffs also showed that the Seahawks are by far the best team in the NFC.

As for your gripes about not seeing Brady or Peyton Manning in the playoffs -- hey, dynasties end eventually. Star quarterbacks choke on the pressure. Instead of bemoaning the lack of T.O. or Belichick in the Super Bowl, why not enjoy the possible beginning of a Seahawks dynasty, or the ascendancy of Ben Roethlisberger?

Whew! That felt good. And don't get me started on his treatment of the Steelers.¹

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¹Okay, since you ASKED, here goes. Sure, the Steelers had some "lucky bounces" against Denver. Roethlisberger threw two near-interceptions on the first drive, yes. But the reason they weren't interceptions wasn't just luck -- it was because the Steelers receivers kept their heads in the game and defended the defenders. (This is particularly clear on the second near-interception, in the end zone.) And yes, the infamous Tackle after the infamous Fumble against Indianapolis had some luck to it. But had Harper kept his head in the game, he would have run to the sideline and scored a touchdown. He didn't stay focused, but Roethlisberger did, and somehow managed to tackle him.

My point is that the Steelers have kept their heads in the game at all times, and have been able to make up for mistakes and bad officiating, unlike some other teams I could mention (Colts) (Patriots).

I got an email reminder about the bridal show I'm going to this weekend, and among other things it said:

Bring your fiance - he'll love the GROOM'S ROOM ! Sponsored by The Club at Key Center. He can enjoy $1 soft drinks and drafts and 25 cent wings while he watches his favorite football game and get a Free Engagement Photo as well.

I want to go to the Groom's Room! Dollar drafts (which I'm sure will just be Bud Light, but still)? Football? Hello!

The eeee! isn't actually coming, and my mom and I hope to be done with the bridal show before the football starts, but we figured we could slip in and pretend we're looking for him. They don't have to know he's not there!

This whole bridal show thing is starting to give me a headache. On the plus side, there will be cake samples.

I'm almost done with The Birth of Venus, by Sarah Dunant, but I might not even finish it. It's okay, but I only picked it up because The Plot Against America was too depressing to read during the holidays. I did finish The Christmas Mystery, by Jostein Gaarder, and I wasn't crazy about that, either. Like Sophie's World, it has a great, strong premise, interesting plot, but a total crap finish.

Such is my life right now. I'm stuck on finishing a paper, and there were some revisions I should have finished over break, but . . . I didn't. I didn't do a damn thing over break, except read astro-ph. I don't know if I'm feeling overwhelmed by what I have to do, but the worst of it is over -- I just have to expand my write-up of the project. It's not that hard, but I'm somehow paralyzed by it. I'm just sick of this project, and I want it to be OVER so I can work on my thesis project. Sigh. I can do this. This happens to me all the time, and I need to change that, and become a strong finisher.

And Michigan LOST in the Rose Bowl, by a last-minute field goal. Ugh.