Thursday Whining

Ok, it doesn't have the same ring to it as the famous weekly event over at Phantom's place (where I won for style again this week! woohoo!), but I needed to whine, so I will do it here.

Having been in England, where the food is not quite as spicy as it is over here, I worried about American food making me sick when I got home. It hasn't so far, but I've discovered another problem now that I'm home:

My alcohol tolerance has dropped significantly.

Over in Oxford I drank like a champ, at all hours of the day, with food (including sketchy kebab) or without. Most of the time I was fine, with the one exception being that really hot week in May when we had the graduate dinner on Thursday (free sherry and wine for all) and the guest dinner/Cinco de Mayo party (free drinks for committee members on duty) on Friday. I had a headache after that, but other than that I usually have no problem.

Now I can't have more than one drink without feeling terribly sick. For two nights in a row, I just had one drink, and I felt like I was gonna die. What's up with that? And it's not like I'm drinking anything bad - one night it was vodka with Fresca, the other night it was a Pimm's and lemonade.

I need to get back in shape if I want to make it through our weekly trashage events in the Fall...;)

Kait at Catz: Mommyblogger?

Now that I'm off for the summer, my Flickr page won't be filling up with quite so many photos of black tie dinners and pub outings. Instead, you will find an alarming number of photos of my Adorable Younger Siblings. I swoon over them like most people swoon over their kids, so be prepared. (Remember, my youngest siblings are 13 and 14 years younger than I am, so in many ways I'm like another parent to them.)

Not much to report here. Family BBQs, dissertation proposal work, job hunting. Nothing exciting. In the meantime, why not mosey on over to my Flickr and swoon over my Adorable Younger Siblings?

Much love,
Me

PS: FORZA AZZURRI!!!!!

I have made my mark on St. Catherine's College - Part Deux

Well, after I received these prestigious awards, I didn't think I could possibly receive any greater honor while at Oxford. It turns out I was wrong: I just found out last night that I have been chosen as one of the 50 People LEAST Worth Knowing in Oxford. Check out my listing under number 23: "Killing Fish and Bigamy."

I am so proud to be included on a list of such great prestige.

Résumé question

This is a post aimed at my American following, as y'all do it differently across the pond.

If I am invited to present at a seminar/workshop (like a one time thing), where does it go on my résumé/vita? I have a section for academic and university service - would it go there? The seminar presentations I have given/am giving are about using chat rooms and instant messaging in teaching.

I'd like to know what y'all think. Much love,
Me

Back on the other side: bullets of random crap

• So I'm back in the USA. And it's weird as hell.
• The flight home was long. The entertainment system didn't work for half the trip, so I tried to sleep/read/not think about the fact that I've been breathing processed air for hours upon end.
• When I arrived, it was HOT here. I swear I lost weight by sweating (carrying heavy luggage didn't help!) yesterday.
• My laptop was stolen. It was while we were loading all my stuff into the car. My parents took over while I went to the bathroom, and neither one remembers seeing a laptop. The New Jersey police have not been extremely productive in helping me out. *%&#$*%&#*%&!#*$&#!!! They want me to MAIL IN a frickin' form to report the lost laptop. And when I ask if anything has been reported, they're like, "Umm, nope." No desire to help me. Almost a whole year's worth of work was on there, including my teaching materials from the Winter. Thank God I have hard copies, or they're on Blackboard or in my email in some spots, but I don't have everything. Oh, and all of the photos I took are gone too. (Thank God for FlickrPro in that case, although there are a few that I didn't get to upload). This kind of dampened the homecoming spirit, to put it lightly.
• Side note: I had been wanting a new laptop for a long time, as my current (former?) laptop is heavy as hell and the battery only lasts two hours. So maybe this is an omen. I'd kinda like a Tablet PC. For a fleeing moment I considered a Mac, but I don't think I could make the transition.
• Sign at Heathrow in the toilets: WARNING: WATER IS VERY HOT. RISK OF SCOLDING. Hee!
• When I sat down at the computer kiosks in Heathrow, I tried to visit Phantom Scribbler's blog to see who won the Wednesday Whining Prizes for the week. Their Internet server blocked her blog from me, saying it could not be shown because of its High Porn Content. I'm not making this up!
• Damn, do I miss Oxford, and England in general. I miss the people above all else.