Tuesday, July 29, 2008

10 years, 7 moves!

This is a little off topic, but with the house closing today I've been doing a little thinking about the notion of "home" (can you guess the musical cue?)...  In particular, I started thinking about the number of different places I've lived--and the number of different places from/to which I've moved! For my last post from 72 Union, I want to turn back the clock: the moves of the past ten years.

#1: From Seduva to Bloomington, 1998 Leaving Lithuania after 1 1/2 years as an English teacher, and starting my Ph.D. program in Indiana. I moved from the bendrabutis across from the high school to a garage apartment walking distance from the university.  I hauled back my life from Europe and set up shop again in the Midwestern USA.  Loreta & I were married during the tenure at North Lincoln (yes, she sobbed seeing the sight of this place, and there were not tears of joy, I assure you).

#2: From North Lincoln to Orchard Glenn, 2000 Our lease ran out Summer 2000, and we had a fellowship in Lithuania after I passed exams.  The net result was some vagrancy (cat sitting!  Lois' basement!) that got us to a place on Bloomie's west side for a few months.  We managed to squirrel away some stuff at Loreta & Vit's until returning from LT.

#3: From Orchard Glenn to Vilnius, 2000 I think I had additional stuff stored in my departmental office (books and such), as we went for about nine months to live a charmed life walking distance from Old Town.  We may never live this rich again.  We lived pretty minimally, although the apartment we rented was furnished.  We blew out the Belorussian stove almost immediately, thus eating a lot of boiled stuff that year.

#4: From Vilnius to Bloomington, 2001 Back to Bloomie only weeks before 9/11--the culture shock was big enough before Sept. 11, thanks.  Two years on South Lincoln, blocks from Loreta's work, and an easy bike ride for me to school.  This place had some interesting storage nooks, which got the best of us soon enough.  I did follow-up research in LT in Summer 2002, and it was so hot that Loreta swore we were outta there once the lease was up .

#5: From South Lincoln to Steeplechase, 2003 Air conditioning!  A pool!  (After our car got dinged, and we raised hell) a garage!  The only way we could make this really work was with the aforementioned car, although we did our share of public transportation from South Sare Road as well.  We actually lived there longer than anywhere else, other than our parents' homes, come to think of it.

#6: From Bloomington to Bridgewater, 2006 Dissertation defended!  My brother and Loreta's sister get married (not to each other)!  First trip to LT in years!  A bona fide professorship!  2006 was awfully good to us.  This was a hair-raising move, though--we contracted with a truck to drive our stuff across the country, but first the truck had to be able to park.  I wonder how the new saplings and lawn are doing there at Steeplechase.  IU buddies helped us out the door, and IU buddies helped us unpack in Massachusetts.  Hoosier pride!

#7: From Bridgewater to Sandwich, 2008 So today we're signing papers on our new house, and tomorrow we're moving in.  This time around we're driving ourselves, although it's more than an in-town move.  And this time we've got BSC buddies pitching in, for which we're eternally grateful.  As I look around: bags and boxes.  And more boxes.  And chairs from Indiana that Loreta bought down the road--go figure.  

We're hoping it will be some time before I feel the need to write a "moving post."  Cue cheesy Motley Crue!


Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Summer "Vacation"

Well my friends, Summer I is in the books (more or less--a little editing left to do for the 220 short), and it's time to look forward to the next two months or so. Three major projects for the next two months... bear with me, and you'll get your Go-Go's payoff here in a minute....

1. The Book Proposal. A whole lot of sound and fury these past two years, but I really want to make this happen. My problem is that on top of the idea of turning the dissertation into a book, I have at least two other book ideas percolating at the same time. Typical! Ideas come exponentially, but the follow-through is linear. Still, to have a proposal out by Labor Day would be huge. It's time.

2. The Preps. No less than three new classes for the fall, including COMM 221 (Foundations of Communication Studies), COMM 290 (Videography) and COMM 399 (Popular Music, Communication & Culture). The Central Asian Cinema course for the spring is lurking in the background as well. A lot of new material to cover!

3. The Move. Looking to close on a house at the end of the month, so the third big project is packing up in Bridgewater and getting everything over to Sandwich in one piece. Anyone into hauling appliances around S.E. Massachusetts?

And as promised--cue Belinda!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Facebook (finally!)

Summer 2008--Dateline Bridgewater:

After two solid years of cajoling, NP finally got me to sign up for Facebook. Even though I teach aspects of new media in my theory course, I've been reticent to get into either MySpace or Facebook. It seemed to me like going to a club where all my students would hang out--"who's the creepy old guy?", y'know?

But ok--I'm in. And frankly I owe NP a thank-you for allowing me some pretty fast-moving reconnecting. To whit, here are a few of the folks I've reconnected with just this week:

DD went to another high school in Tucson, but we became friends through our church youth group ("Does Facebook have an OSLC page?" I find myself wondering). Actually, among DD's hijinks in HS was to dress up like a substitute teacher and pop up in the halls of RHS, just to say hey. Can you imagine this happening post-Columbine?....

SJ was in my "sister section" of my frosh dorm @ GAC. We were also in the alternative "CII" curriculum track together, which meant we got to go to a monastery in North Dakota, puzzle over Plato's Cave ad nauseam, and such. I just found out she's a newlywed!....

IE lived down the hall from me during my "semester abroad" @ UEA. The look is markedly different (a function of living in Sweden?), but the mischievous grin is absolutely the same. Does he still do the arm-flail when "Ride on Time" comes on?....

MFC & I were @ IU together those first years of CMCL, w/ offices in The Attic of what we subsequently learned was a literally diseased building. After getting her MA, she's been in China for eight years teaching EFL....And looking to go back to grad school for that come the fall (after the Olympics?)....

These were all folks that, for a time, were an integral part of my everyday life. At least at this early stage, it feels like Facebook is a reunion machine. As a professor, though, joining Facebook has allowed me to stumble on a philosophical / pedagogical question: Should professors and students be (Facebook) friends? I'd be curious to know your thoughts!