Acceptance

Well, I thought it was about time to report on some less depressing news. I heard back from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and they accepted me. There is a cloud to this silver lining because they didn't offer any financial assistance, but this is a huge deal for me. I've been told that this school ranges anywhere from the top 25 to the top 10 in the nation for English. So, though it may be prohibitively expensive, we're planning on packing up and moving to Colorado. It's taken some getting used to, and a few chats with some professors, but I'm getting excited, still scared yes, but excited.
Heidi and I are trying to figure all the details out, but I think that she is also beginning to look forward to this. I think the biggest issue that both of us are facing is that we like our adventures to take place between the covers of a book. They're much safer that way than to actually try to work through them in reality. We're happy with a slightly changing status quo, and this trip is much more than that. I know one person that will be in Boulder when we move there. We've never been to the area and know basically nothing about it.
Excitement, adventure, pah. [We] crave not these things. --Yoda
Excitment, adventure, danger . . . lurking . . . around every . . . corner--AAAAHH!! ---Flounder

16 Blocks

This last saturday, I dug through my change to see if I could swing a movie ticket. I've heard enough about 16 Blocks that I wanted to give it a shot. Turns out it was worth the effort. Mos Def and Bruce Willis both did excellent work as a petty crook trying to testify and a washed out cop, respectively. Seeing Willis with a belly that lops over his belt, trudging up the steps, worn and tired set the stage for an action/cop thriller where the characters look as if they could have actually been drawn from the rank and file of New York's finest.
It's a tad frustrating that they never explain exactly what Def's character is testifying about. They admit fairly early on, and in the previews that it involves some unpleasant activity by some of the police. Willis has to decide whether or not he wants to side with the cops or with the nobody criminal who dosen't even get his suit in time for his court appearance.
This is an excellent film, in my opinion, with a satisfying and realistic conclusion. There aren't any of those flash-bang explosions, and angels don't come down from the sky to sing hallelujias. Good people suffer some, and you can bet that bad people don't get the full penalty we may think they deserve, but this film is worth the price of admission.

Rejection

I have suffered a minor setback in my grand plan. I heard back from BYU, one of the schools to which I submitted for a masters degree. They said they weren't interested in me at this time, they had many fine applicants, we're trying to be polite while telling you that we didn't think all the time and effort you put into your application was worth enough for us to include you, etc. I grant you that the Y is a fairly prestigious school, and I set my sights pretty high, but it was a bit of a blow to find out that not everyone thinks I'm as great as I do.
I still have yet to hear back from the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Utah. We shall see how the wind blows.

Professional Dad

This weekend I was part of a panel discussion at BYU regarding perr tutoring. The panel seemed to go well, but the whole experience reiterated an issue I expect I'll be juggling the rest of my life. Trying to have a professional life and a family at the same time can get complicated and frustrating.
Allow me to expound. The head of the writing center that sponsored our trip made allowances for my family to go up with us. We used school vehicles, and they seemed to be okay with it. The problem came up when we got there. Because my wife wasn't cleared to drive a school vehicle, she had to basically stay wherever I drove her. So, she ended up at the conference, wandering the halls with two children under the age of five. I missed winning one of the door prizes because I had gone out to tell my wife where I was going to be and what I was going to be doing. The people in charge wouldn't let one of the other tutors claim the prize for me. I ended up missing out on the secodn round of panel discussions because I chose to drive my family to the mall so that they had something to do and a place to eat.
I discovered that it's nigh impossible for someone who doesn't have kids to understand the difficulty that they add to logistics. I also discovered that my wife doesn't like having nothing to do, especially when she has two kids to do it with (granted that's not a major revelation, but it still became more abundantly clear this weekend). I also realized that, as generous as your supervisor may be in giving you the opportunity to bring your family, you really need to make sure that there is place for your family there.
I think the thing that got to me was that I wasn't able to really do anything to my satisfaction. I was trying to ensure that my family was taken care of while trying to juggle the logistics of taking care of the other panel members.
In any case, it brings up new issues that I need to address as I go through life.

Apparently, I was an Elf Once

This would radically alter my belief system, if I thought it was true.
A short time ago, I taught a class for one of the professors here in the English deparment. We discussed The Hobbit, and had a pretty good time. Today, the professor told me that one of his students, the new-age, faith healer type, told him that I was an elf in a previous life.
If I believed in reincarnation, and if I believed that elves did in fact exist, I could think of nothing I would want to have been, or be, more than an elf. However, unfortunately, I'm stuck in a more humdrum belief system that disallows reincarnation. As much as I'd like to believe otherwise, I also have placed the reality of elves firmly in the realm of fiction. What a shame. If I could have been a little more openminded, I would have really had quite a past.
But, I guess it could have been worse. The professor was told that he was one the element of fire. Which begs the question, if he was once fire, how did he spin out into a position where he could be a human? How does the element of fire die? Or was he simply the burst of flame from the head of a match?
In any case, it gave my day a bit of surreal twist.