field notes from the vault.

once upon a time, in a land far, far away, called richmond, virginia, my sister ab and i used to be in near constant contact, either via email, or sometimes phone(i had not crossed over to the dark side of text messages yet). ab used to work in a biology lab with a bunch of losers that she and her friend jason gave code names to, like "the duck" or "squirrel head" (who i once met when we ran into her at the movie theatre in ashland. the nickname was totally appropriate). anyhow, at that point ab had a lot of extra time at work to contemplate how much she loathed her job, and my job was at night most of the time, so our schedules were pretty condusive to our exchanging weird emails all day long. it was kind of our thing. when we were little and lived in the same house, we used to write notes to each other impersonating famous people and leave them on each others beds. morrissey, the johns from they might be giants, dj tommy knappy from WDRE, spiro t. agnew. that sort of thing.

anyhow, i can't really explain how i stumbled across this gem of an email exchange today, but the point is, i did. and i just had to post it, for posterity. as far as i can remember, this took place the day after a particularly long night of drinking in the middle of the week(which was also something we used to do a lot more of back then). important things to note: hunter thompson was still alive and writing a column for espn at this time, and in the midst of these emails ab composes one of the greatest hangover analogies of all time. watch for it.

xo, lb.



spelling errors and all that shit are as-is

lolan27@yahoo.com wrote:

HOLY CRAP! i totally fell asleep. that was number 2 on my to-do list today, but i didn't suspect it would have such a staggering impact on my email-you-guys-all-day plan. christ. i suck. ok, so i'm back on it. expect an email every two minutes or so. first up... dija hear that the ricky williams has to pay the dolphins back like 8 million....and guess what. he's studying HOLISTIC MEDICINE out in california. this is the storyline of the century, yo. they should have a television show about it, like "what is ricky williams up to this week?".

on episode two, ricky williams can study to become a midwife. on episode three, an organic farmer. the possibilities are ENDLESS. just like with our t-shirts. btw, the mailman hasn't brought me any fuzzy iron-on letters. what gives?

see you in two,
hola hovito



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aball7350@comcast.net wrote:

yes, i believe there's massage therapy thrown in there too... and your idea is superb. He needs his own show if anyone does. I think my brain has officially shut down for the day. I don't actually know what i'm saying, things are just kind of finding their way out of my brain against all odds... like little children trapped in a well. i wish I could fall asleep. sleepy time. oh, and i don't think you'll be getting any fuzzy letters today. Although I did start thinking that we should start a little business action... what do you think??


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lolan27@yahoo.com wrote:

first of all, i hope you are replying to everyone when you send me these messages. chrissy is an intregal part of this email barrage, and she should be getting just as much email as everyone else.

second of all, i'm going to conveniently forget that you have not arranged to have fuzzy iron-on letters arrive at my house today. i know you are having a rough one. but those letters better show up eventually. YES. WE SHOULD GO INTO BUSINESS. WE WILL BE RICH.

third of all, that sentance you wrote, about things finding their way out of your brain against all odds, like little children trapped in a well, is perhaps the most brilliant sentance, analogy, what have you EVER WRITTEN. it's getting it's own page on the quote blog. just you wait.

fourth(ly?)(im tired of writing "of all") i finally got most of the way through the dish disaster in my sink, and i have realized that we have quite a bit of your plates, cups and such. i have also realized that i should hold these items for ransom until i get my magnetic fields cd that sarah borrowed back, as i know what can happen in those instances. so, i'm holding your shit for ransom. consider yourself served.

fifthly, i have discovered that the body shop's coconut body butter smells EXACTLY like the barbie dream kitchen that i had as a poor misguided lass back in the burbs of strong island. you can take a few minutes to have a good laugh at my expense, regarding my playing with barbies, or being a loser, but just let me remind you, the lameness of my youthful existence is not in question. so there. as for the scent, it is perhaps the most amazing smell i have ever had the pleasure of inhaling in all my years. when i hit it rich with our t-shirts, i am going to buy a lifetime supply of the body shop's coconut body butter.

toodles,
warren g. (harding, the dumbest president)


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aball7350@comcast.net wrote:

what if we make the t-shirts smell like the barbie dream kitchen?!?!?!? maybe it'll have a hypnotic effect on people and they will want to buy more shirts and their friends will want to buy shirts too. why do i get the feeling that i'm actually channeling nibbles' plans for total world domination right now?? scary...

most things you say in your emails today i am imagining you saying while throwing your head back and doing the woo ha ha haaaa laugh. And if you don't understand what i'm talking about lean your head back and sound it out. oh, and use your most deep sinister voice possible.

are you nibbles?? i want to come home.


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lolan27@yahoo.com wrote:

you are spot on with the throwing my head back and laughing thing. are you in my house? how did you know that? nibbles? where are u?

i am absolutely positive that if we make our t-shirts smell like the barbie dream kitchen that we will edge out bill gates as the richest person(s) in the universe. we can't lose, i'm telling you, this smell makes me want to curl up in a little ball and roll around smelling myself and giggling for THE REST OF TIME. my lord, it's brilliant.

if you are still stuck at work, i recommend getting your ass over to espn and reading the sports guys intern finalist profiles...it's insane. and also, read this, the hunter s. thompson plan for the best sport ever. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=thompson/050216&num=1

you can thank me later.

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aball7350@comcast.net wrote:


since you have failed to respond to my most recent email, i must assume that your head has exploded from the ingenious idea of giving your boss a shirt entitled "the BOH is my daddy". or perhaps you've asphixiated yourself on barbie dreamhouse cream. either way. the chain is broken. the wrath of nebekinezzer or whatever his name is shalt be incurred.

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lolan27@yahoo.com wrote:

yeah, i slacke-d the fuck off again. i think i may have permanently injured my brain with all the tylenol flu, yo. it's like, not working.

if we were to give jared a tee that read "the BOH is my daddy" that smelled like the barbie dreamhouse, i think it would render the rest of my life extemperaneous, as i would have already achieved all anyone could hope to achieve before shuffling off this mortal coil.

i gots to go get kels. i may have to come and get some t.p. we are at a critical low over here. talk to you soon.

I heart Bill Callahan

I really do. He is totally awesome. Kels and I saw him play once at Alley Katz in RVA. It was spectacular. In a very low-key Bill Callahan way, of course.

Too Many Birds

i need you.

dear blog readers,

cw and i are trying to put together a mix of summer-esque songs for the cd-trade-club thing we are in with some friends. i am feeling particularly fried in the memory dept. in fact, if it doesn't have something to do with something i had to read this semester and had to write a paper on, i probably don't know it (all other parts of my brain are trying to come up with a strategy to get my fantasy baseball team out of the dungeon of suckitude they are currently in). so i am calling on you, my friends and faithful readers, to give me a suggestion or two. halp!

note: these songs don't have to be summer themed, they just have to sound like they might sound cool at a bbq. but summer themed is fine too.

here is what i have thus far(cw is doing one half, so i actually am not far from finished)
"hard to handle" by otis redding
"song for sunshine" by belle and sebastian
"you really got a hold on me" by she and him
"don't you evah" -spoon
"if i ever feel better" -phoenix

your suggestions are truly appreciated. x to the o.

What a week!

so today i rushed from the english dept. awards ceremony to the english 210 class that i have been team-teaching this semester, only to find that my students had thrown me a surprise party in honor of our wedding! i was floored- seriously, these students are so amazing, and they have made my first semester of teaching a wonderful experience. i really did not expect this! i can't believe how thoughtful and sweet this is. and also on the part of my co-teacher phil and my advisor and professor barbara.

i have been so overwhelmed in the past week with amazingness... i can barely get my head around all of it! i love my husband! and my adorable students! and my job! you have to check out all the stuff they did for me. it's too much!

so very much goin' on...

To say I've been "busy" lately would be to understate quite a bit, especially considering the fact that on top of all of my scheduled and extracurricular busyness, I have also been busy getting married to the man of my dreams. Which, without question, is the best thing I have ever done in my entire life. Sorry to be totally cheese-ball, but CW has been bouncing around the office telling the chicks in there that he wishes he could marry me every day, so I wanted to elicit the same nausea from my blog readers(all three of you)!

There you go!

In terms of all the other stuff going on, it is essentially the normal end-of-semester mania(compounded by the fact that I took an extra course this semester), along with some extra responsibilities that I took on, apparently just to make life interesting. One of these was yesterday's Graduate Student Symposium at CCNY, where I signed on to host a table to showcase the history of the Language and Literacy program, along with some graduate-level work from students such as yours truly. Although I was slightly worried that the presentation was going to be muy weak, son, it actually turned out pretty damn fabulous.

The Symposium itself was pretty great, too, as there were presenters from all walks of graduate life. For instance, Arien Muzacz, a grad student in the Pscyh/Mental Health dept gave a presentation on "Queer Aging" that was really thought provoking. Another Psych MA student, Sharon Herman, gave a talk on Bilinugalism, and specifically how it relates to identity, personality, and emotion. There was a lot of cool science stuff too, which flew right over my head, such as the collaboration between the Bio dept and the Computer Science geeks, where they linked a database to a collection method for genetic information. It sounded totally brilliant, and at one point I realized that if my beloved CW were standing next to me, he could probably sum the whole thing up in one crystal-clear layman's sentence and make me go "oh! right!" but alas, I did not have the benefit of CW's incredible gift for synthesizing the intracies of a complicated scientific concept with the level of comprehension I have of such things.

My personal fave out of the presentations was one by an artist who graduated with an MFA in January, but who came back to present her thesis project. She showed a group of video shorts called RePROGRAM: episodes 1-10. The shorts depicted characters from "The Cosby Show" and "Good Times" interacting with members of the Black Panther Party about the social issues reflected in the Party's Ten Point Program. It was absolutely awesome. Her name is Shani Peters, and this is her blog:

re-cord


You can view RePROGRAM on the site, just scroll down to the bottom of the page. I hope I can go check out one of her gallery shows sometime soon. I really loved her work.

My runner-up favorite presentation was by Za Martohardjono, and it was an excerpt from a documentary called "Changing House" which she is currently producing as a MA student in the Media and Commuications dept at City. The documentary presents the story of Transy House, a brownstone in Brooklyn owned by a transgender lesbian couple, who have opened their home to homeless trans women since the early 1990's. The short piece of this work that we were able to view at the Symposium was extremely compelling, delving into the complex relationships that this communal, close-knit, family have engaged in over the past two decades. I can't wait to see the whole thing!

I don't know when it is going to be out in full, but I will get that info and post it.

It was a great night, and I am so happy that I was a part of it, even if it took a lot of juggling and maneuvering(and at least one or two nights of bleary-eyed typing like crazy on this here laptop). I feel like I have finally become a part of the academic community at City, and I am a little sad to be leaving, honestly... I am really looking forward to building an academic and professional life at St. John's, but I looked around last night and I realized that I really feel supported by the City community, definitely within the L&L program, and last night in the graduate program in general. I will miss it!

Tonight, I have the honor of being the invited guest of one of my former adult literacy students, as his work is being read at NYU. It is a part of their annual publishing party for their literacy review, in which they collect work from adult literacy students from various programs around NYC. I am so thrilled to have been asked! My student, Lyndall, is a really great person and someone I miss dearly now that I am no longer working at Aguliar. I am so happy that they chose his work! I hope he is as proud of himself as I am of him... I will try to snap some pictures and post tomorrow, or Friday... As I said, busy busy....