Yes We Can.

Last night I took a break from not-working and obsessively refreshing CNN.com and took my computer downstairs (I was at Josh's) to sit on the basement steps and watch this one more time:


I watched it, and it made me tear up a little - yes we can, yes we can, we must, we will. And then I came back upstairs and found Josh's roommates watching McCain give his concession speech. I teared up several times during Obama's speech. Today is a good day. We won an election, and we're winning back this country.

I've been supporting Obama for four years, ever since he spoke at the DNC in 2004, but I never really believed we were going to pull this off. Up until the last minute I felt sure young voters wouldn't turn out or the GOP would pull some dirty trick. But we won. We won.

I'm so proud.

A visit from the Second Philosopher (Part II)

Wow, I got all caught up in the drama of my Big Decision back there and completely forgot the rest of my story. By the way, since I have no internet at home, I'm in a Christian coffeehouse that's having a Reggae Night, and there are some fratboys a few feet away from me talking about abortion and how Obama is never going to be president, Americans are going to come to their senses any second now, so to counteract all that I have Steve Earle coming out of my headphones really loud. (No lectures please.)

Anyway, Penelope Maddy and I discussed my future and so that's all taken care of, I'm probably moving to New York. Then she gave her talk, which was really good. Since I'd read the paper it was based on and I'm knee-deep in her new book, I was able to follow the whole thing, which made me super happy. I'd prepared a few questions beforehand and when it came time for the q-and-a I raised my hand, but before I was called on a visiting professor (a super big shot guy) asked my question! And then before I was able to recover one of the other grad students asked my backup question!! I was so upset and couldn't think of a third question, so I didn't get to ask anything. Major drag.

After the talk we went to the fanciest restaurant in Bloomington, Tallent, for dinner. I was especially glad to have had a chance to talk to Maddy one-on-one beforehand, because the dinner was attended by some of the biggest personalities in the department and it was hard to get a word in. I had roasted beet salad with goat cheese and rabbit served on a bed of something absolutely delicious. The thing about this restaurant is that the menu basically lists each ingredient in the dish, and they're all things I've never heard of: walleye, bagna cauda, harissa, ham praline. (What do you suppose ham praline is?)

I had an espresso after dinner (which wasn't very nice and had no crema (as Jeffery Steingarten says, espresso without crema is not espresso) because in addition to being Penelope Maddy Day, yesterday was also Halloween and I had festivities to attend. (I'd been so focused on Maddy's visit I'd honestly forgotten about Halloween and kept being surprised to see people dressed in kilts and John McCain masks - a costume that made my beau rather annoyed.) I went home, put on my pretty new shoes and a dress, and went with Joshua to a square dance at the home of one of the members of the Fatted Calf String Band. We only stayed for one dance, which was not very good - basically all I got to do was be swung, which made me really dizzy, especially since Josh always likes to throw in a twirl after we promenade, for flair and because on this occasion I was wearing a twirly skirt. After that we went to Susan's for a little bit of her party - I brought gingerbread made with Laurie Colwin's recipe, which was a big hit as usual. It was not really as much party as I would have liked but it had been a very long day.

Today was Free Soup Day at the Farmers' Market, which is awesome - restaurants give free samples and recipes of their soups featuring local ingredients. We went pretty late and most places were out, but I got to taste three soups, which is not bad, and I got a recipe for a butternut squash soup that I might try.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to volunteer for Obama, which hopefully I'll actually do. There were tons of volunteers out today, which is good. Home stretch!

By the way, today I was looking at some of my old Action Girl comics and thought to myself: "Wonder what Sarah Dyer is up to these days?" Turns out she's cooking, crafting, raising a kid, and writing a very enjoyable (to me) blog.

A visit from the Second Philosopher

Yesterday was Penelope Maddy's colloquium talk, which I'd been looking forward to for ages because I find her work very interesting (though I don't think I'll ever be a Second Philosopher myself), but also because she teaches at UC Irvine, where I'm planning to apply. I signed up to attend the dinner afterwards, but Josh had the good idea of asking her to have coffee, as well, and happily she agreed.

Maddy and I had met before when she gave the logic lecture my senior year at Smith, and she read some of my undergrad thesis and said very nice things about it. She's incredibly smart and really generous - reading the thesis of a total stranger is a mighty generous move, as is giving advice and time to someone with no claims on her at all. Maddy and I sat in the IMU Starbucks and discussed my future, and she had a lot of good things to say.

For one thing, she pointed out that grad school doesn't last all that long (she called it 'a blip'), so it's okay if the location is less than ideal. How long until I have my PhD - maybe five, six years at the outside. I can endure a little discomfort for five or six years if I have to.

She also disagreed with Joan, who said that I might make enemies if I apply to CUNY and then turn them down a second time. Maddy doesn't think I should worry about this, but she also thinks that CUNY is where I need to be. Apply to CUNY and Irvine, she suggested, and if I get into Irvine they'll fly me out to visit and if I love it I can go, but really I ought to be in New York. And in my heart I know she's probably right.

It's been suggested that I really just want to go to New York and CUNY isn't really the right place for me. This is backwards; CUNY is one of the best places in the world for what I want to do, and the thought of living in New York fills me with dread. But people have done much harder things than spend five years in New York on a shoestring. So now I am devoting a few minutes a day to positive visualization: I'm picturing myself running around Central Park, studying in the library, wandering through grocery stores in Chinatown, riding the subway. I'm thinking about how close I'll be to my family, and maybe Andrea will be in New York next year, and I'm sure TMBG will have the occasional free concert.

I'm looking at apartments. I'm thinking about budgets and jobs. I can do this.

(If they'll let me.)

Pumpkin carving and Quaker Meeting

Over the summer Josh and I gave a small dinner party for our friend Scott and his girlfriend Patty, who had just moved to Bloomington. They'd been saying for awhile that they'd love to have us over once they got a bit more settled, and then last night we finally got to go over to their place for a pumpkin carving party. Their house is gorgeous - I'm so envious of anyone who can make a space look homey. Patty's approach seems to involve a lot of textiles - they had fabric draped over their coffee table, quilts hanging on the walls, and blankets everywhere. Size also seems to help - they have a very large lamp and a huge comfy chair, which sort of fills the space. Also plants. I'll never be able to do that sort of thing myself. (Patty also decants everything into glass, like Holly Sturgis - their kitchen is full of Bell jars containing rice and lentils of various sorts and so on. I'm so envious!)

We had a very nice time carving pumpkins, chatting, and drinking hot cider. Socializing in couples always makes me feel so grown-up somehow, and Scott is one of my favorite colleagues (technically he's in HPS, like Josh, but his office is in our building and I always think of him as a philosopher) and Patty is very sweet and down-to-earth.

This morning I rode my bike three miles over hill and dale to the Bloomington Friends Meeting, which was very pleasant. I used to go to Quaker meeting regularly in Northampton, but the meetinghouse here is prohibitively far away; three miles isn't that far, I realize, but it's so hilly! I am afraid it's probably too much effort to go every week. This meeting has the children sit for the first 15 minutes, which is nice in theory, but these Quakers appear to be very much of the reproducing variety - for those 15 minutes a good 10% of the room seemed to be under 5. The traditional Quaker silent contemplation is, I find, not aided by half a dozen piping toddler voices. It's also hard for me to concentrate on anything when there are babies in my line of sight; all I can think about is babiesbabiesbabies. But then the babies were taken away and we had more the usual sort of thing, although even then these were the chattiest Quakers I've ever seen. Not five minutes went by without someone standing up and sharing. I am very pro-sharing in meeting, as a rule, but what with one thing and another I was unable to really get into a proper spiritual groove. Maybe next time.

Cozy

Sitting in my well-lit kitchen, working at the small, round table with the brown and yellow vintage tablecloth I got at a garage sale, reading The Foundations of Arithmetic and waiting for my oatmeal bread, which is making the apartment smell warmly of baking and molasses, to come out of the oven. When it does, I will have a slice with gingered butternut squash soup and a cup of Earl Grey. I am wearing my soft new beige sweater and brown corduroy pants. Outside my window, the sky is pink and purple over my neighbors' rooftops. This is a good way to spend an October evening.

Before they make me run

Woke up at 5:15 yesterday and went to Indianapolis to run the half marathon. I'd been training for three months using Hal Higdon's training plan, so even though I had only ever run ten miles before, I was fairly confident that I could at least finish. My father suggested this plan, and I have great faith in structure; I truly believe that following instructions leads to success. And in this case it did.

The course was very pretty: the leaves are changing and we ran through some very posh neighborhoods full of McCain/Palin lawn signs and an agreeable park with a big blue lake. It was fairly flat, which was awesome because, having trained in hilly Bloomington, I was able to power up what few hills there were and pass a lot of people. In fact I spent most of the race passing people, which was fun - I started off in the 10 minute mile group and ended up running 8:44 miles, so the first four miles in particular were spent just passing everyone. Around six miles I started to worry that I had gone too quickly. I wasn't wearing a watch and, much to my dismay, there were no pacers at the mile markers, so I really had no clue how fast I was going. Once I hit seven miles everything was smooth sailing, and I spent the last mile and a half or so just letting it all out. I had an excellent iPod playlist - I crossed the finish line to "Reach for the Stars" by S-Club 7, which was fun - but for the most part I was so much in the zone I barely noticed anything. Except the pain in my knees and ankles, a little bit.

It's kind of sad, but Josh, who had driven me to Indy, didn't see me cross the finish line. Partially this was because I was merely a blur, but partially it was because neither of us expected me to come in under two hours. At 1:57, when I finished, he was still looking for a spot to watch from. (1:57, I might add, was merely my clock time; my official time, which started when I crossed the start, rather than when the gun went off, was 1:54). I was pretty tired and stiff afterwards, but after an afternoon of watching Scrubs, napping, and reading Frege, I was in good enough shape to attend my colleague Andrew's cowboy-themed hootenanny. It was a good party: the Werewolf was there, fresh from his new job at Ohio State, and as much of a sad sack as ever, and there was a small bonfire and some friendly, highly allergenic dogs, and some decent beer.

Today I woke up shortly before ten, then slept from about eleven to 3:30. I am honestly pretty appalled by this but I suppose a case could be made that I needed it. My next athletic goal will be to run a full marathon, which I suppose I'll start training for after I find out where I'm living next year. Part of this training will include another half marathon, and I'll be moving up to Higdon's intermediate training plan. I'd really like to try to get down to 8 minute miles - can the runners in the audience indicate whether this is possible?

Weekend

A pleasant weekend, largely spent in nesting-mode, which I enjoy although I sometimes miss the hard-partying days of yore. On Friday we went to see two guys in my department play at a Christian coffeehouse. They were doing selections from Phil's concept album based on The Great Divorce. Like so many things, it was much more religious than I would have liked, and although Phil is unquestionably talented I resented being made to think about hell on a Friday night. Cufflinks was more enthusiastic than I was; he compared the music favorably to Jars of Clay. This is my life now apparently - spending time with people who think "This sounds like Jars of Clay" is a compliment.

After the set we came back to my place and watched Goodbye, Lenin, which I'd been wanting to see for a long time. It was quite good, although I think it says a lot about Germany that they consider it a comedy. Of course, science has shown that Germans find everything funny, so perhaps that explains it.

To the market on Saturday where I purchased apples and a pumpkin (don't yet have any plans for it, though), and where I snapped these gentlemen engrossed in conversation:

On Sunday I ran ten miles, which was actually pretty okay although it was very hot (I cleverly decided to go out at 1, so it was the heat of the day and the sun was in my eyes half the time) and I had counted on the Rail Trail having water fountains, which it did not. I had long wanted to go there, but it's miles away. This of course made it perfect for yesterday's purposes. Now I'm in taper mode and on Saturday I will run the half marathon! I am pretty excited although I don't relish having to wake up at 5 to drive to Indy.

Today I don't have class so I'm baking bread and this afternoon I'm serving at the Community Kitchen. My apartment smells like sourdough rye. I'd better go check the timer.