Fall 2008...AAHHHHhhhhhhh!!!!!

Howdy loyal readers. (All 3 of you.)


Life is really hectic. I am currently a full-time student and work part time for the University of Cincinnati. I am a secretary's secretary's secretary. It's cool. I get to learn a lot about the many amazing things that modern xerox machines are capable of. I honestly had no idea.


My main concern these days is tryin' to get into grad school. I have identified 9 that I want to apply to. Urban Sociology. I am truly amazed at how much shit there is to organize for all these applications. Each one requires: a personal statement and curriculum vitae (ideally tailored to that program), a 10-20 page writing sample, a completed application, 3 letters of reference, an application fee, GRE scores, transcripts from every college I ever went to (some want two), and then there are the many irregular forms. Some schools require recommenders to fill out a form that accompanies the letter of recommendation. Some require separate forms for students seeking fellowships (read: money to live on). The list goes on and on. All have different procedures, deadlines, etc. Thank God I have a crew of Professors here who will write me letters and one especially who is helping me make sense of all this.


I registered for the GRE today and I have been studying every chance I get. My greatest vulnerability is my math GRE score so I have to bone up. Unfortunately I take to numbers like cows take to deep sea fishing. I haven't had a real math class in ten years. So now I have to teach myself algebra - which comprises most of the math portion. If anyone ever reads this that wants to go to grad school - please make your life better and do all this the summer before your senior year!

I didn't do that because I was too caught up working on my house. Yet again my cultural upbringing interferes with my professional goals. My greatest ambition is supposed to be being a homeowner and I am supposed to be married and have kids and a nice job driving a truck or something now. That's the vision of stability and the Good Life I was raised with. And it don't have a damn thing to do with the overeducated, highly mobile, professional public intellectual life that I am working towards.


I am also working on my house, although admittedly not very much. I am blessed that our good friend and able carpenter Alex has seen fit to move in with us, live in our spare room, and work on the house in lieu of rent. He will have done more of the work on our current project - rebuilding the wraparound porch to pacify the city building inspector - than I will have by the end of that ordeal.

Here's a picture of the incredibly bootleg collection of random scrap wood (courtesy by garbage-pickin' dumpster divin' old man) that is supporting the considerable weight of my huge and heavy front porch.

We are rebuilding it because 1) it was about to fall over and possibly kill someone and 2) the city said I have to fix it or go to court. Oh the joys of homeownership. I am beginning to understand why most students rent.

And here's a nice picture of the really redneck blocking that is holding up the bootleg supports. In this picture you can see how we used the driver's side front wheel of my '65 Valiant as a brace for that whole side. Don't tell the Man.



And here is the recycled dump truck jack that is taking most of the weight of the mitered ridge board that is holding my porch roof together. This truck jack is supporting the whole corner of the wooden structure and a lot of the roof, which is overburdened with 3 layers of shingles. Ain't that cute?


That's about all I know folks. I am exhausted and I wont get a break until December.

Keep yer hammer cocked an' yer powder dry.