Oh, hello there.
Fancy seeing you ’round these parts.
There are excuses aplenty for the radio silence over here. Here’s the general gist (though I hope, with the summer, to be a bit more present):
1. While I’ve been pretty quiet here, I’ve been busy doing a ton of writing elsewhere. There are several “in press” things to update y’all about when they’re available soon. Likewise, I’ve still been occasionally blogging over at DMLcentral. Did you see Iron Man 3? Me too.
2. My first year at Colorado State has been an intense one. The adjustment to university labor has taken more of my time than I anticipated. I enjoy the work, but it is that–”work”–and so time previously spent blogging is now spent grading, office hour-ing (pretty sure that should be a verb since it’s a different mental space than other forms of work on campus), fretting over dwindling class time, and slowly finding allies interested in broadening campus diversity.
3. Did you know everyone I collaborate with that is not at CSU works in a different time zone? Yeah, ol’ Mountain Standard ain’t so hot with the West Coast/Central/East Coast folk… pretty much everybody. This year has also taught me I’m not so great at trying to do basic math (there was a month long period where I was consistently an hour or two early or late to meetings…). To see a bit of the work happening in my classes this semester, check out this resource from NWP’s Digital Is.
4. Oh, Ally and I bought a house. No biggie. Packing, moving, signing (and more signing) and painting and fence building and picture hanging and furniture shopping and house hunting and HOA-ing … that didn’t take any of my time during the months of January through now. (Olive appreciated the new tactical advantage of spotting dogs and rabbits and potential threats that are blocks away to bark at.)
5. Super secret writing project #1. I’ve invested a lot of time into this project. And currently topping 70,000 words, I’m not ready to share too many details yet. Stay tuned.
6. Super secret writing project #2. See #5 (except for the 70,000 words part… this one’s still got some incubating to do).
7. Not so secretive writing: I have a special edited journal issue out now (will link in a separate post) and a couple of other co-authored pieces trickling into press throughout the summer. Huzzah laboriously slow academic publishing schedule. Pretty sure much of this work has been in various stages of review & revision for the better part of a year and a half.
8. My colleague Cindy O’Donnell-Allen and I will be launching the third iteration of the Saving Our Stories project with local elementary school students. It’s going to be amazing and it will warrant summer reflection.
9. I have joined the advisory council for the Northside Aztlan Community Center.
10.
#SurvivorTheVoiceAmazingRaceMadMenBreakingBadSharkTankTVMakesMeFeelLikeAChumpButIWatchItAnyway
Bonus: And then there was that time I went bowling for the Department of Education. (Did I mention I’m really bad at bowling?) [The camera adds 10 pins… or something.]
Bowling PSA from Antero Garcia on Vimeo.