In Other News

J. actually made it to Virginia this time around (he asked not to be routed through Philly, as we're convinced that place is jinxed!). My intuition, which I trust very little anymore, is murmuring that they're going to offer him this job. Other, more concrete signs are pointing in that direction as well. These folks have been REALLY, REALLY complimentary and overwhelmingly enthusiastic (almost to what felt like the point of gushing at times) in all their dealings with him. The faculty member who was showing him around yesterday was obviously working hard to *sell* this place to J. and he kept saying things like, "If you decide to take this job..." J. is almost wondering if there are even any other candidates for this position at all, if this is just one of those formality interviews where they just want to make sure he doesn't have two heads or something. Or, if there was another candidate (who surely has interviewed by now), that candidate did have two heads.

As to the place itself. Well. Here's what J. told me his impressions were:

1) It looks exactly like western Pennsylvania. Trees. Lots of them. Small hills.
2) There's not much there besides the school(s).
3) Tt is very very very remote and isolated. VERY.
4) Every tenth descriptive word out of J.'s mouth was *hillbilly*

That sort of isolation scares me. a LOT. If I'm that alone and isolated here, I can't imagine what it would be like to live in a place where there literally were very few people. When I was younger in my college and post-college days (and yes, when I fancied myself a hippie - shut up! ;-)), I romanticized the notion of living the country life. In the middle of nowhere. In a pretty place. But as I've gotten older, I realize that that is definitely not something I'd much like the reality of. Sequoia, much as I loved it, taught me that it's not much fun being two hours from anything. Even when I lived in Brookdale, CA (population 1063), Santa Cruz wasn't very far away. And I know that I wasn't in love with the idea of everyone knowing everyone, as was the case there.

I don't mind living a bit out there, but I need to have *civilization* very nearby. That is NOT going to happen in VA. But, we aren't really going to have much of a choice, I think. Besides, this would be a good career move for J., a good stepping stone to something else. Better than a community college position would be.
Especially now that we talked to our friend B. the other day, whose thoughts about Lancaster, CA were: "It's pretty much Bakersfield. Only slightly less crappy." I've been to Bakersfield :-(

I am curious now to hear more about something L. said the other day: I've always had a very idyllic impression of Virginia.

Care to elaborate? See, me, I've always had a really, well, to use J.'s word, hillybilly impression of Virginia...

The Rafter Has Lost It's Tom!

I guess I missed this email from the Chatham campus security on 3/19 (emphasis mine):

"We have had reports that our large male campus turkey has been attacking students and staff (he’s the one with the blue head). Unfortunately, this is turkey mating season and he has become very protective of his territory. We are going to have him relocated at the earliest possible time (hopefully this weekend). In the meantime, please try to avoid him and try not to antagonize him. Usually shouting or firmly hitting him with something will chase him. Also, don’t hesitate to call security if you are afraid to pass. They will run off this feisty feathered criminal for you.

The good news is we finally probably have the name for our coffee shop – The Wild Turkey Café."

How sad. It sounds like he was head of a pretty big group (called a "rafter," in case you were curious about the post title; though you can call it a "flock" too I guess, but that's not nearly as interesting). I wonder to where he's been *relocated*? I also wonder if turkey relocation efforts are about as useless and ineffective as, say, black bear relocation efforts?

Of Place and Words

I just ran across this anthology of Ohio writers that looks really interesting. Looks like it's a collection of place-based writing, by several people whose other work I admire a great deal (I didn't realize some of them were from ohio originally - I associate them with other places). I'll definitely have to pick this one up. Might make a good gift for other Ohio folks too.

J. and Z. also gave me this brand new book about the redwoods that I'm looking forward to reading. Some reader reviews have suggested that Preston focuses too little on environmental issues and too much on the "adventure" aspect of some of the people he profiles, but it still looks really intriguing. Ihen, I shall have to, as J. says, "Get my Appalachia on" in terms of reading about the area to which we'll be moving.

Oh! and thanks again to L. for sending me those excerpts from that John Daniel book. I'm going to use the "Among Animals" chapter in the nature writing class this summer! I'm having a terrible time planning the nature & environmental writing syllabus. There is just too much to potentially read. Too much that all feels utterly significant to include. It's a real struggle to choose what to leave out. I want to include everything!

Decisions, Decisions

I have no idea what books to use for my Craft of Nature & Environmental Writing course this summer. the big anthology I planned to use, S. is using now, which isn't that problematic, BUT another faculty member is using it in his lit class now as well. So there's a chance that some of those students who are enrolled in his course would take mine this summer and be stuck with the same main text. And that's no good.

I don't like any of the options. I'm probably stuck with the Norton Book of Nature Writing (those Norton anthologies give me bad undergraduate flashbacks I tell you...). It's comprehensive, but that's the issue. It's too comprehensive. The true "contemporary" nature writing section doesn't start till about 500 pages in, and that's the part I'd rather focus on in this course. I just don't know what to do.

I have ideas for *supplemental* readings, but what a huge amount of work, scanning them and getting them all online in Blackboard. Not to mention that I scribble up my own books like crazy (FYI: If such personal notes bother you, you might not ever want to borrow a book from me!), so I probably can't copy anything from most of my personal library. If I don't order books like, yesterday, the bookstore manager is going to kill me.

I did, last night, solicit some feedback from some current (and future) students in that class about my idea for a field trip to see pennsylvania's largest nursery colony of little brown bats at Canoe Creek State Park near Altoona (about 2 hours from Pittsburgh). I guess that single colony is up around 25,000 and there's several hundred endangered Indiana bats too. The students thought it sounded like a really fun idea, and I've been meaning to do this for the last seven years. I just discovered they have a batcam! .

Another animal-not-bat-related note: With the recent rains and the upcoming warm temperatures, I'm guessing this could be prime viewing weekend here for the yellow-spotted salamander mating. I was going to include a link, but oddly, there's not a single related link to this annual phenomena (if any local folks want directions, let me know. it's REALLY cool). Or maybe that's not so odd after all. I mean, they're just salamanders, right?

When I mentioned the possible bat field trip (which would probably mean an overnight, since it's so far from here), J. got all jealous and said: "I want to see the bats too!"

Feeling Rant-y

Watched the most profoundly stupid Nat'l Geo special on dolphin attacks the other night. I just don't get how people can be so stupid when it comes to dolphins, how anyone could think that it is a *safe* idea to go swimming around in the water with them. Because they can do tricks? Because they're so intelligent? Because they *appear* docile and gentle? Hello people: they are PREDATORS. Not cuddly, sweet, domesticated pets. Why are you surprised that they bite? That they can be aggressive? That they occasionally are provoked to attack? Duh. funny thing is that J. put the show on as background noise while I was grading midterms, not realizing I would become interested (and incensed!) and would be distracted from my work.

The World: Too Much with Us; Late and Soon

We have returned, obviously, from our annual excursion to the NJ Shore. This one was postponed so long that naturally the weather was just awful the entire time: cold and just POURING rain. We barely could see the ocean through all that mess, let alone don swimsuits (a blessing in disguise, for me at least, in this post-baby mess!) and venture into the ocean. We had one still-very-grey-and-misty-but-non-rainy day, and we all went for a long stroll on the boardwalk. I have decided that I am really a displaced Water Girl at heart. While I love the forests and mountains, LOVE them, something in the ocean really speaks to me (never mind that I am a terrible swimmer and mostly afraid). Water, the sound and sight, calms and soothes me in ways that are always surprising. I also love everything about beach architecture and culture. There is a sense of relaxation that I urgently want to make my own. I find more and more too that this sense of peace comes more from the Atlantic coast, not the Pacific. That, too, is surprising.

The Hope for Feathers

I thought it would be like in that movie I never saw but which yielded a ubiquitous catchphrase that most of the planet recognizes, Field of Dreams. I thought if I built it (er, rather, put it up), they would come. They = hummingbird(s). Turns out that there is only a single hummingbird species native to western Pennsylvania. It also turns out that not a one of them would like to visit my backyard.

I am reminded of sitting on H.'s balcony in midsummer, watching all those hummingbirds flitting about. Nope. Not going to get to see that here. How sad.

Two things that i suck at identifying and would like to be able to do a lot better: birds and trees.