20 March 2007

Green space (with stack of books)



I'm sitting here in a panic realizing that I will be hosting several thesis defenses in my office, and it is a complete wreck. Students used to make fun of me for having such an empty office. Not any more! There are stacks upon stacks, stacks under chairs, leaves everywhere from the plants, papers jammed in everywhere, and pens scattered all over the desk.

Why am I here on a sunny day during spring break? Why am I on the verge of ripping my contacts out of my eyes and throwing my laptop out the window? Because it's admissions season, of course. Now I know why I took those 18th century fiction classes in grad school. I must've known that I would have to jam massive amounts of text into my brain in very little time.

At least it's sunny, and I got a good parking space. I really ought to pick out poems for tomorrow's reading, but I might just see how the spirit moves me.

PS--My book stack includes The Cinnamon Peeler, Lunch Poems, Barthelme's 60 Stories, Atwood's The Edible Woman, Intaglio, The Darker Fall, and a few others. I love the randomness of clutter sometimes.

4 comments:

marybid said...

PS--Lest you think that 8 pm is the sunny mid-day in Akron, I must confess to republishing this post from earlier today, since it ended up in the wrong place.

My eyes feel much better now, thank you.

Oliver de la Paz said...

Just let all the applicants in, Mary B. ;-)

You'll get to your break faster that way.

Adam Deutsch said...

Does the program offer additional funding if one of the applicants can actually put the books onto shelves? Or build additional office furniture out of the stacks?!

Jeff Newberry said...

On my desk right now:

Harry Crews' A Feast of Snakes, Hugh Kenner's A Homemade World: American Writers of the Modernist Era, David Bottoms' Waltzing Through the Endtimes, Miles Davis' complete Plugged Nickel recordings and a gigantic Merriam Webster's dictionary.

I won't mention the John Grisham book that my wife put on the desk, nor will I mention the stack of PlayStation games on the bottom shelf.

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