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Lots of various little things to report, but for now, I'll leave it at a brief list of what I've been up to this last week or so:

1. A visit to Emily Dickinson's house in Amherst, MA.

2. Several very nice pints at the Northampton Brewery.

3. A hectic re-entry into The City, which involved me, unfed, having to race from train to home to school to show the undergrads a video about bossa nova.

4. Shopping for our very low-key Thanksgiving, which involved a crazy trip to Whole Foods, during which I witnessed water pouring from the ceiling, a fire alarm, and people shouting at each other near the fish. I left without buying anything and had a much more civilized experience at Citarella (where I bought several lovely-looking rainbow trout for tomorrow, iconoclast that I am).

5. Witnessing Jenny make some lovely carrot soup, and giving myself a nasty blister making caramel sauce. Take it from me: when Joy of Cooking says "stand back," stand back!

Perhaps tomorrow I'll have something to report on two firsts: my first time cooking stuffed fish, and my first time making bread pudding (for which the caramel sauce is intended).

My Daemon!

Thanks to Lauren for pointing this site out. You guys can take a mini-questionnaire here to see if you agree with my daemon assignment (apologies to anyone who hasn't read the Philip Pullman books--and if you haven't, you SHOULD!)

Question of the Day

Why did writing biography get so popular in the 1980s?

Any ideas, y'all?

Whoa There, Nelly!

A rotten head cold has me down and dopey, so I decided to transform Wednesday night's left over bean burrito concoction into chili. And drastically underestimated the power of those little canned chipotle peppers in ancho sauce. But damn, if this stuff isn't good even so. My sinuses are certainly clearer than they were, even if the inside of my mouth feels destroyed!

Last night, Jenny made a gorgeous vegetable soup out of potato, sweet potato, carrot, and onion. That was perfect for my be-coldened state, too, as was spending this afternoon in bed. Unfortunately, the stack of undergrads' midterms remains mostly ungraded because of my extended nap, not to mention the new charms of Facebook....

Yep, the semester has hit its stride.

Addendum #2, from Jenny's Comment

Jenny's additions can't just stay buried in the comments, so here they are:

Five things I must add, darling:

1) The NYU party being broken up, cuz we're all a buncha derelicts;

2) Allen's belt buckle that opened all our beers (please, Santa, can I have one for Christmas??);

3) Me getting in a fight with the hotel bartender;

4) Cleen's nickname for the weekend: Dirty Schrey;

5) Many awesome intomollectual conversations in our hotel room, over pints stolen from the hotel bar.

Good times.

We also had fun brushing our teeth:


...and saw this BIZARRO poster advertising the "Chocolate Nutcracker" in Columbus in November:

Addendum

When I was writing that last post and made all those shout-outs, I momentarily forgot Bill's and Scott's papers, both of which were top-notch. I didn't manage to see Dan's or MBQ's, but I hear both were good. And I think that covers all my fellow students.

Back to Civilization

As y'all probably guessed, we did eventually make it to Columbus--our flight Thursday morning went without delays, though the aircraft we were on felt (and looked) fairly decrepit--as J said, like riding a big Chevy Nova through the sky. We arrived to hear how good the morning papers had been, and, as Nicol describes on her blog, that the hotel had given away our room with two double beds, so we had a king and a foldout for four of us. Oh, well--better roommates no one could wish for, and we had several fun room-picnics. In fact, J & I didn't eat any dinners inside a restaurant!

So--as for food (in case anyone gets stuck in downtown Columbus and needs to know): we actually did pretty well. Indian the first night from Indian Oven, which was a little overpriced but fresh and good, with lots of vegetarian options. The only problematic dish was Cleek's rice pudding. Then, Friday night, some acceptable but not exciting pizza from a place in the dead mall attached to the hotel. Saturday night Jenny & I had been planning to have a nice quiet dinner in an Italian restaurant called Due Amici, but inertia set in and we didn't get there in time, so we got takeaway sandwiches from Tip Top, a bar and restaurant with a delightful selection of vegetarian food. We returned there for lunch yesterday before our flight, and I got some spectacular corn chowder: nice and creamy, with all the usual ingredients, plus a kick of chipotle peppers. I almost got a second bowl. Their sweet potato fries were also very well-done: the oil was fresh, and clearly at the right temperature. I wish I'd known about Tip Top sooner--as well as Cafe Brioso, where several of us had sandwiches for lunch on Saturday.

So this SEM (Society for Ethnomusicology) can't compete with last year's in Honolulu for creature comforts, or even with Atlanta for all our trips to the Flying Biscuit, but I believe the meals I had in Columbus were more consistently edible and cheap than in previous years. Who knew?

From all this, you'd think I didn't do anything in Columbus but eat. Of course that's not true--I ran my mouth a great deal, and consumed a fair amount of beer. Saw some good papers--here's a shout-out to Jenny (doin' the good work and speaking out from American silence), Nicol (speaking out from Afrikaaner silence and setting some records straight), Allen (rockin' the new organology), Sean (CUNY piano sleuth extraordinaire), Ben (keeping it real in the 'hood), and Brett (never listening alone). I hope I'm not forgetting anyone!

SEM was (and always) is a great chance to make new friends and to deepen existing friendships. Particularly exciting was the chance to get to know some of the UVA people--it turns out we share more than several migrant faculty--and some of the Columbia crowd, some of whom are very cool. And it was great fun to hang out with several awesome prospective students--Cleek, of course (whose nametag initially read "CLEEN"!), Ben K., and Jeremiah.

And on top of all this, the Macy's in the dead mall was having a closing sale, and I got a new set of 300-count sheets for $15, a new dress, and a sweater.

So all in all, a successful weekend--but now I'm exhausted and have piles of work to do. Alas.