Barack Obama Rally in Eugene

For some reason this hasn't been publicized at all, but I got an email from the campaign site, so I'm spreading the wealth.

Friends, Oregonians, countryfolk, lend me your ears: Barack Obama is coming to town.
When? On Friday, March 21, of course. Happy spring Equinox, the king hath cometh.
Where: University of Oregon's McArthur Court. (From Highway 99 South, get on Patterson Street and take a left down 18th. Drive until you see a massive, cheering throng of progressive-looking people. Then struggle to find decent parking.)
Doors open at 7:00 PM. The Barack Obama show starts at 9 and y'all better be there to show your support.
I sure will.

Free Rice.

If you haven't yet, you should check out www.freerice.com and play its quick registration-less vocabulary game to donate free rice to the United Nations. It's a cool project and I've seen it a lot in the schools where I've been working. Beat my score of 44! Muahaha!

The itinerary.

So.
I'm heading to Colorado in about a week for Andy's family's reunion, which is bound to be inescapably social and thoroughly overwhelming, to be frank. Andy's mom has no less than six siblings, all of whom will be there with their spouses and kids. Furthermore, I have good reason to believe that Andy's Grandma Helen, the formidably bright matriarch of them all, secretly has it out for me--so if I don't return, you'll know whose back yard I've been buried in. (You can find it in Grand Junction, Colorado.)

When I return I'm set to teach my freshmen and sophomores at least four different novels in the course of ten weeks, which is a total cosmic joke, because I've only read two of the four that I'm supposedly teaching, and that was way back in... 9th grade, when I was an absolute and unabashed ignoramus. Oh GOD. I shall scramble more madly than I have ever scrambled before, for certain. I evidently don't know shit about high school reading content (thank you, degree focus in English Renaissance Literature). But, if I can somehow keep the kids from catching on to this, I might make it through June.
If they do recognize I have no idea what I'm doing, I'll threaten them with lessons in iambic pentameter or make them sniff licorice-scented Mr. Sketch markers. Something--anything--to ensure my survival.

On a totally different note, what ever happened to the next Narnia movie, might I ask? Was filming delayed due to puberty-onset voice-cracking crises?

Today's special.

Ramen for lunch, followed by a cheap can of beer and a massive cup of coffee.

It must be dead week.

The best part of having www.scotsman.com as my permanent homepage...

... is looking at the bottom of each article to find readers' furious spats about current events, often written in raging Scots dialect.

Example of a spat between an English respondent and a Scottish respondent, found in the forum at the bottom of an article about how a BBC documentary has basterdized and trivialized Scottish history:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CROSSED GEORGE (an English respondent)
11/03/2008 02:38:43

True, the [article] headline is a joke, and this newspaper inflames the rubbish these people spout, see the reaction I get when I defend my constantly criticised country. Scottish like to dish it out, but hate it when they get it back

Wisnaeme,wisnae there (a Scottish respondent)
11/03/2008 03:54:22

Awa an chase yer dragon, George.

Gie's peace.

9 items for the 9th of March.

1. Etsy is one of the best things that's happened to me in a while. Since I finally overcame my embarrassing phobia of all things be-needled and got my ears pierced (like a big girl!) in November, I've been buying earrings on Etsy, where they're often affordable and really unique. If you're into the idea of traipsing around in vintage 1960s lucite hoops, see Leetie's shop. Lucite lovelies for yer ears, 8 bucks a pop.
2. Today Andy is bringing home his 30 gallon aquarium, and we are going to start ourselves a splendid covert fishery right here in the hovel. Aquariums aren't technically allowed in our apartment, but I have to do something to appease my continuing craving for a dog. (I still think about poor lil' Perkins every week. I am ready to be a devoted dogmother.)
3. I have glasses now. I am supposed to wear them more often than I do, but frankly, I can't fight or flirt very well in glasses, so it doesn't happen all that often. They are quite spectacular though. This time around, I got bolder dark brown frames with white interiors... they are super 1960s mod. They make me look like a beatnik cartoon character--which is the best I can hope for with glasses on.
4. This spring I'm supposed to teach Romeo and Juliet and To Kill a Mockingbird to the freshmen, and something unknown to the sophomores. On top of that, I'm going to be an assistant teacher in the yearbook class, which should be a real throwback to my mostly-terrible PHS days. I'm only committing to it because it gets me out of the task of becoming assistant track coach, which (lazy as I've become) I feel really unqualified to do at this point.
5. Apparently M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel (the girl from the movie Elf) have produced a new record together... it's supposed to hit shelves on the 18th. Might be a good one to sing along with in the car.
6. Andy got a job fishing in Alaska this summer, so he'll be gone for about a month--a month during which I will have to strongly resist the urge to adopt a furry companion with a wagging tail. Andy'll be fishing in Bristol Bay, which I think is northeast of Homer, where my aunt and uncle live. I'm not sure he'll be able to call me from where he's fishing, so it might be a lonely and sucky start to the summer.
7. Never wanted to admit it before, but jalapeno tofu pate is actually fantastic.
8. I saw an abandoned Ugg boot in the middle of an intersection yesterday, and privately celebrated as I drove by. One lost Ugg= one less doofy-looking girl strutting around in the streets like some sort of perverse Esquimo caricature. Hooray.
9. And hooray for Obama's success in Wyoming. He might not have much experience, but at least he's not basing his campaign on fear-mongering, which is what I feel Clinton has resorted to lately.

The evidence.

You ask, I deliver.


More pictures are available at Flickr. Unfortunately we didn't get any of us actually in class, but you get the idea.
I have to say, the whole experience actually was really quite mortifying.

Yodelayheehoo indeed.

As promised, yesterday Project German Yodeler commenced quite spectacularly in the horrendously boring and funeral-like teaching methods class I've been taking all term. Shay and I wore full regalia to the lecture: improvised (but quite convincing) liederhosen, bright red and bright green Peter Pannish hats, ridiculous loafers, old man suspenders, puffy-sleeved blouses, and sweater vests, topped off with beribboned pigtails. All that we were missing were wienerschnitzels and flagons of beer, and it wasn't for lack of trying; I looked all over for the campus hotdog vendor, but he was nowhere to be found. It would have been so classic to bring a big greasy sausage to class and eat it conspicuously amidst 60 bemused classmates... but no.

Anyway, our dramatic presence was met with a mixture of admiration, awe, and/or undisguised disgust from our classmates. Some people were really into the costumes, asking to try on our hats and snapping our suspenders approvingly; some asked us to dance a jig (to which Shay of course obliged). Others gave us the stink eye and demanded to know what was going on. Ultimately, I think we've been blacklisted by about 50% of the people in our program now, and we've decided that this entire escapade was probably a great way to weed out those without a sense of humor. At least the professor took it all much more smoothly than I had anticipated--she simply ignored the hats and drilled us with questions about the reading. Fairly humane, really, in light of the fact that we were still wearing our hats an' all.

During break, Shay and I strumpeted down 13th street, drawing many a curious look.
Hail the conquering heroes.

[I will upload pictures as soon as I get them onto Andy's computer.]