I SEEM TO BE DOING A LOT OF SHOUTING IN THIS POST
HUCK’S FINGER IS SO MUCH BETTER. Yes, I’m shouting, because HURRAY.
Whew.
Our attempt to bust the world record for Most Appointments in a Single Summer continues on track: so far this week: dentist (me), audiologist (WB), orthodontist (WB), haircut (me). Two more eye doctor appts next week but at least they’re at the same time. After that things should slow down a little, if by “slow down” you mean “continue at breakneck speed only in a different lane.” Because HOLY CATS IT’S ONLY TWO WEEKS TO COMIC-CON.
HOW CAN THIS BE POSSIBLE??
My list of things to get done before Comic-Con is ten miles long. Oh, July, you rapscallion, you. Every year you attempt to break me. Last year I went to Colorado and back TWICE in the three weeks before SDCC and I STILL found time to paint my toenails before the con. You think 4,000 medical/dental appointments are going to best me?
(July chortles, rubs hands together gleefully, whispers Just wait until you see what I’ve got in store for you next week, Wiley.)
ANYHOO. (She says, whistling past the graveyard.) How’s your week been? Read any good books? I gulped down Julie Schumacher’s Dear Committee Members, an epistolary novel about an overworked writing professor in a deteriorating English Department at a second-tier college. Nothing cures a beleaguered feeling like reading about someone who’s even more so. This was excellent waiting-room entertainment. The story unfolds entirely through the prof’s letters, most of which are letters of recommendation for students and colleagues, and all of which reveal a great deal more about the letter-writer than the typical LOR. Having a number of friends in English departments similarly strapped and stripped of funds, I enjoyed the book’s pointed, funny, occasionally poignant skewering of the current state of academia and was engaged by Prof. Fitger’s crusty, dogged, oversharing, impertinent personality.
Penny says:
I just love the word rapscallion. Well played 🙂
On July 10, 2014 at 2:47 am
Ellie says:
Didn’t ComicCon used to be in May? (So I thought maybe you guys weren’t going anymore.) Yay that there will be Comic Con posts afterall!! 🙂
Really really glad to hear his finger continues to heal. Woot Huzzah.
That book isn’t published yet, right?
On July 10, 2014 at 5:27 am
jep says:
I will look for Dear Committee Members…love epistolary novels.
On July 10, 2014 at 5:49 am
Susanne Barrett says:
Some day.
Yes, some day I will go to Comic Con rather than reading everyone’s Facebook updates and Tweets.
Some day.
And I’m adding Dear Committee Members to my Goodreads list…especially as I have a letter of recommendation to write today for a student attending PLNU, my alma mater and former employer where I taught writing and ancient/medieval lit as an adjunct when my daughter was little (I attended my interview with the Dean of Arts and Sciences with him dandling my daughter, now 22, on his knee; she was three months old.). Thanks for the rec!!
Have a productive July!! And I look forward to your posts on Comic Con so that I can live vicariously through you while I stay home, teaching my fan fiction class for Brave Writer. 🙂 (But no pressure….)
Warmly,
Susanne
(in deadly hot Pine Valley…which makes Santee look like a Cool Zone)
On July 10, 2014 at 10:49 am
tanita says:
Ooh – epistolary novels AND English Departments???? I’m ON it. LOVE that the cover has a porcupine. Oh, the feels. I know those feels…
YAY for Huckleberry Boy’s finger. Infection’s scary on such a small hand.
On July 10, 2014 at 11:43 am
Karen Edmisten says:
You had me at epistolary novel.
And totally had me at Huck’s finger is better. Huzzah!
On July 17, 2014 at 6:11 pm