Oh May, Oh My.

Yes, I am still alive.

I am just so supernaturally productive that I can easily find a couple months go by without having a passing second with which to blog. You know how it is.

(Yeah, right.)

The semester ended, my gradebook closed (although, believe it or not, I am still meeting with students to 'discuss'--i.e., listen to them tell me why they innately deserve an 'A'--their grades), and I have embarked on what must needs be The Most Productive Summer In History. Check back in at the end of August--I should have two more chapter drafts, a conference paper, and a revised first chapter completed. When you check back in and discover that none of these things has actually come to fruition, please don't remind me of this post.

A quick hit-list from my couple months of blog silence:

-If you haven't seen "I'm Not There" yet, blow off your work/school/childrearing responsibilties for a couple of hours and get thee to a Blockbuster. While there's a distinct possibility that this movie only makes so much sense to me because I've been reading and teaching and writing about waaaay too much James Joyce lately, I still think it's utterly astounding.

-This blog is now being written by an offical member (by baptism) of the Presbyterian church. I took the plunge (or liberal sprinkling) a couple of Sundays ago and am now much holier than I have ever been before. I think you can legitimately expect to receive heavenly benefits just for reading this blog from here on out.

-Mark your calendars! The AP English Literature exam reading in Louisville, Kentucky is coming up in just a few weeks, and once again I will be blogging daily with an updated list of the stupidest, most ridiculous and hilarious things the (supposedly) best and brightest American high school students write in their essays. It's a more-or-less complete violation of the confidentiality agreement I sign as a reader, but some things are just too funny to be kept to oneself. And even in Louisville there is only so much bourbon to erase the pain of seven eight hour days of bad essay reading.

-In a stunning example of my own stupidity and ridiculousness, I have signed up to run the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. again this year. I am still trying to figure out why...maybe I'll know at the end of another 26.2 miles. Or maybe I'll just be too tired to wonder anymore.

-I bought orange shoes. They are awesome.