I VOTED.

It was pretty emotional! I felt so...American! There were hundreds of people voting, and it was efficient and organized and just plain EXCITING. I choked up a bit. After I voted (ps. A family friend is running for state attorney general! It was funny to see his name on the ballot. I love him dearly, but I didn't vote for him.) and put my ballot in the box, an elderly man shook my hand and said "Best of luck to you. Congratulations on your accomplishment." Dramatic? Perhaps. But I think that he understands what a privilege it is to cast a ballot and participate in (a version of) democracy. It felt pretty cool.















Plus, then when I was running back to work (I did this on my lunch break - I ran there and back), the streets were cordoned off and cops were directing traffic. Why? Because the circus is in town! There were elephants marching up E. 9th Street! It's the best of both worlds - India and the US!















This is me and my friend Hubert who works at the Rock Hall! Behind us on the left is Rock the Vote - complete with Bow Wow!

Busy Bee

OK, so work has been completely NUTS lately. I've pulled a few 12-hour days at the Rock Hall in preparation for a teachers professional development workshop that we had on NEOEA Day (NorthEast Ohio Education Association). But it went well. Hard work paid off, and I actually got praise for a job well done. Who woulda thunk? It was fun, too, and I met some interesting teachers.

I'm not necessarily happy yet, but I'm less unhappy. Being busy helps. I cleaned the house today, ran errands yesterday after a hard run. I leave on Friday for Connecticut for the SEM conference and I really can't wait WAIT to see everyone. I just need my peeps.

Nik is coming up for my birthday (hopefully) and (well, our birthdays) I'm trying to plan fun, Cleveland-y stuff. Apparently it often snows around that time of year (late November) so we might even be able to squeeze in some sledding or some such nonsense. But then again, if global warming keeps, well, warming, we might be tanning on Lake Erie. You never know.

This election has me TENSE TENSE TENSE. Just as I believe vehemently that women have a right to choice and that I will never change my name if/when I get married and that air is partially composed of oxygen, I also feel that Sarah Palin is a bad, bad person who should not be in any office at all, let alone in the VP office. I can't shake it. Icky. Aaaarrrggghhhhh!!!! I think I'm going to vote early to save myself the undue heart attack.
















This is the coffee shop where I have been going lately to work on the diss.

Unhappy?

My counselor suggested today that I might be unhappy. I didn't think I was unhappy, exactly, just not that happy. Cleveland has yet to grow on me, and it probably won't at the rate that I spend thinking about the dissertation and feeling guilty when I'm not working on it. So not too much exploring has gone on. Running is about the only thing that keeps me sane these days. I don't think I'm unhappy, I just think I'm not content. I'm antsy (what else is new?) but it's kinda going to a new level. I'm super antsy, and anxious. What drew me to this exciting field that involves work that will never be finished? Oh yeah, the glamor. And the riches. Intellectual riches, that is. Work is crazy busy and then I get home and...I stare at the computer. Former professor and kind of friend John Hartigan had some words of wisdom when I ran into him at ACL Fest a few weeks ago: "It doesn't have to be award-winning. It just has to not suck completely. Who reads the dissesrtation? Six people: you and your committee. No one gives a shit, so get it done. Do it and call it a day. It just has to be passable, not genius. Worry about the genius for the book." I'd like to latch onto these words and take them with me every time I hit the computer, but the stupid perfectionism gets in the way. Plus I just miss Austin and everyone in it: friends, boyfriend, brother, the FAL, Barton Springs, the trail...I feel antsy here like I'm just waiting to go home. Boo.















The plus side is that my sanity (aka running) took me to the Cuyahoga National Park where I ran a half marathon on Sunday in 2'3" under arches of autumn leaves and next to babbling brooks and all that naturey stuff that is good for the soul. And the soles. Nice and cushy. It was a great race and made me feel really, really good.

Slash! Richie Sambora! Billy Gibbons!

Ok, so this is shameless self-promotion and "dude! I work at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum!" Les Paul is our 2008 American Music Master and...we're getting some badass guitarists to celebrate his life (he's 93!) and legacy. Check out Cleveland.com for one of the press releases! Kinda fun. Sometimes I forget I work here. And then my office mate is shooting the bull with Slash. Whoa. Should be fun! And then I turn 30 just a few days later! :)

I have a half-marathon on Sunday and I am really excited. It's the Towpath Marathon/ Half-Marathon and it's the only marathon run in a national park. The weather is supposed to be lower 70s and sunny all weekend, so it should be a perfect run. I did my last long run (just 11 miles...not as long as training for a marathon!) on Monday and although I was tired, it was good and I felt good. I'm ready for my first race in Cleveland.

I'm crazy busy right now and Genevieve's friend's band is in town and staying at our place. They are so sweet! It's fun to play rock and roll hostess.

Things at work are nutty but great. Teaching is good but exhausting. So exhausting, in fact, that I will finish this post at a later date.

Braces & Sunshine

I had a scary, scary, SCARY trip to the dentist a few weeks ago. It was a shady dentist who is probably just a front for the Polish mafia. I should've walked right out the door after I walked in to the filthy office reeking of cigarette smoke and decorated with 1970s brown stuff (dog, carpet, wallpaper, ceiling), but I didn't. And I regret it. But today I went to a REAL dentist and it was heavenly (who knew you could use such an adjective for a dentist?) AND he took out my bottom retainer! That sucker has been lining up my bottom six teeth for 15 years now, and it feels so WEIRD to not have it, but I also like it and am excited to floss. (!)

And as for the sunshine bit in that title, well, there isn't any here in Cleveland. Just cold rain. Icky, cold rain. And I don't have a car. Boo. I am wet and cold. And this feeling is only magnified after being in Austin for four days where it is sunny and gorgeous. The trail, Central Mark-up, friends, boyfriend and...sunshine at Austin City Limits music festival. Just a lovely, non-Cleveland weekend full of yummy, yuppie, Austiny stuff. I even hit up the library and Napoleon (the one and only!) checked out a "Library Use Only" book to me for a week! But now I am where the sun don't shine, and it's almost as icky as the real place where the sun don't shine. Poor Cleveland. Good city, bad rep, not Austin.

Grown up

I don't usually feel very grown up. I just feel like an old kid. Like I'm still 12 or 17 or so. Even though I have a job, pay bills, blah blah, I just feel like a kid. But I just started feeling slightly more grown up, and even so, I still feel like a kid who's trying too hard. I met the Cleveland West Road Runners for a run on Saturday morning down at the GORGEOUS Rocky River Reservation. (Towering pines, enormous sycamores, ferns, deer...there are over 30 miles of trails in the Reservation and they are gorgeous!) After a nice eight mile run, I joined them for breakfast at a nearby coffee shop. Lawyers, engineers, teachers, salespeople, accountants, chemists, technicians...these are not ethnomusicologists or anthropologists or Latin Americanists. It's a first for me to be surrounded by so many normal people. (No offense to my delightfully abnormal cohorts whom I love dearly!) And it made me feel so grown-up! I know, I'm a dork who's about to turn 30, but whatever! I'm no grown-up! And I like grad school because I can feign perpetual youth and intellectual bravado. But the real world is kinda neat too, sometimes. I still want grad school back, and I still want to teach at a university, but for the time being, I think I'm having fun growing up.

Run the Trail

No, silly! Not the campaign trail! The running trail. At Rocky River Nature Center in the Rocky River Reservation. I went for my first trail run last night with my new running partner, Matt, who has taken me for runs all over Cleveland and has been very encouraging. He picked me up from work and drove us both far west to the reservation. We met up with the Cleveland West Road Runners and hit the trail running. Ha! (I know, I know. I'm lame!) I've never done this before, and I half expected to break a leg or ankle or arm or head, but no! I was triumphant over the treacherous paths! And actually, they weren't that treacherous, but they were beautiful. It was me, Matt, Heidi (a hardcore trail runner), Glen, and Jim. I'm definitely the youngest! But it was just a blast - almost 8 miles of gorgeous trees and creeks and hills. There was one hill in particular that was pretty traumatizing - it was basically vertical! And of course I had to surge up it in order to prove myself (only Matt and I actually ran up the whole thing) and I nearly lost a lung and I gained two giant lumps in my quads - huge muscle knots. But it was SO worth it! After the exhilarating run in 65 degree weather, we went to the Great Lakes Brewing Company for beer and pizza and I got to meet a bunch of the other CWRR crew. It felt just great - hanging out with people that have generally just one thing in common: running. They were sweet and funny and easy to get along with. None of them will be my new best friend, none of them will come to my house for dinner, but a beer after a long trail run will happen regularly. I just love it. It made me feel welcome and healthy and happy. Cleveland has been a struggle for me, and this alleved some of my pain! I can't wait WAIT for the next run!