It's all about me! 12:52 pm
A year ago my Andy and I were on a plane to Australia to elope, today we’re 2 days shy of celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary and the happiness continues! We’ve moved to the cutest Wisconsin town, we closed on our 1st home a couple days ago, and the writing/researching/teaching is flourishing!
It's all about me! 11:26 pm
Yesterday I received my first shipment from drugstore.com. While the locals in Wisconsin probably think the weather lately has been hot & humid, it’s been “perfectly perfect in every way” for me. Considering I grew up in NOLA and lived in Tampa for the past 5 years, 86-degree weather is nothing to me! We haven’t even run our air conditioner b/c it cools off so nicely at night.
With that said, I’ve noticed that due to the lack of humidity, I’m needing to moisturize a lot more. I still have my wonderful Nivea Nourishing Care Lotion that I bought in Australia last summer, but my face has been longing for something new. I happened to see Brooke Shields mention that she can’t live without Weleda’s Skinfood, so I went online to search for it.
All the time I was packing for our move I remembered Clancy’s “use what you have” post from last summer, and I do think that with this new whole body cream, I won’t have the need for any other lotions.
While on drugstore.com too I made sure to add Booth’s Green Apple Micro Dermabrasion Scrub to my shopping cart. A friend let me try it in April and I’ve been looking for it at local Walgreen’s ever since. I never was able to, so buying it online was my only option. Again, it works so well, I plan to use it til the tube runs dry.
Maybe I’ve been watching too much of the Style Network, but I want to stick to this decluttered bathroom and streamlined beauty supply cabinet when we move into our house next month!
It's all about me! 8:13 pm
This summer is flying by and I can’t believe it! Here’s a quick time line of events:
In late May, we visited our new hometown of Menomonie, Wisconsin, and checked out several houses. Put in an offer, but was rejected.
In early June, I visited friends in Orlando and was extremely disappointed with the Sex and The City movie!
In mid June, I returned to Daytona for my 2nd year of scoring thousands of AP English Language exams. I had a wonderful roommate and learned a lot once again about holistic grading. Meanwhile, hubby’s parents were checking out an apt for us.
Literally the day I returned from Daytona we called moving companies and, long story short, we realized it would be easier and cheaper to move before the 4th of July than after.
We packed day and night for 7 days straight.
Hubby left Tampa with the car on the 26th and I flew up with the cat on the 30th.
We’ve been here only a week and already have another offer on the same house as before. This time I think we’re going to get it, so watch this space for news and pics tomorrow!
Sorry for the staccato post, but I just got the internet installed today and there’s tons to catch up on! Big hugs and even bigger apologies to those in FL we didn’t get to say goodbye to, but I’ll be back in the fall for my dissertation defense…
It's all about me! and Dissertation 10:16 pm
Since 4Cs I have had nothing but days filled with writing, stressing, going to the gym, and editing existing pages. My blogging has suffered, but I think, dear readers, you understand why.
It’s starting to hit me now that I’ve landed a great job and will be moving in a little over 2 months, but there is so much to accomplish before then. I’m also trying to spend a lot of time in the sun while I can. On Friday we went to the beach at Fort DeSoto Park and today we biked 14 miles at Flatwoods Park. I know we’ll be getting to Wisconsin during the summer, but it’s kinda like I’m trying to stock up on the sunshine to prepare for the long winter I will have to endure next year. 
In other news, I cannot wait for a new computer and a new blog platform. Since I’ve been following lots of social media professionals on Twitter I’m seeing really cool layouts and all I’ve got is some packaged template [on a very old version of Word Press] that I can’t figure out how to manipulate.
Off to bed for now. Will likely blog more tomorrow since I’ll be getting much needed feedback on my diss chapters and may need to figure out my ideas and/or timeline til defense.
It's all about me! 5:22 pm
It’s that time of year again when the department gives out its Graduate Awards. I couldn’t be more honored! Now that I’m dissertating and have a job lined up, it kinda feels like senior year for me, and this tops it off quite nicely.
Joseph Bentley Teaching Fellowship: Taylor Joy Mitchell
Estelle J. Zbar Award for Teaching & Academic Excellence in English: Patrick McGowan
Harry S. Newman Award for Academic Promise: Ginna Wilkerson
Dorothy Newman Linton Award for Academic Promise: Bob Batchelor
Irving H. Rubin and Mollie M. Rubin Award for Outstanding Graduate Student: Ann Basso
Alice Hearne Scholarship for Outstanding Doctoral Candidate: Daisy Pignetti
Jack B. Moore Memorial Scholarship: Taylor Joy Mitchell
Irving Deer Memorial Scholarship: Patrick McGowan
John Iorio Award for Outstanding Graduate Student: Cameron Hunt-Logan
Alma Bryant Award for Outstanding Graduate Student: Daisy Pignetti
The Awards Ceremony will be held in a few weeks, so I’ll post pics then. If I get a nice chunk of change from my tax returns, I may even provide video. FYI: Thanks to IJustine’s SXSW coverage, my latest tech-object of desire is this FlipVideo.
It's all about me! 10:35 pm
I think I’m a much nicer person than this Chronicle Careers essay describes; still, it is accurate in many ways, namely the organizing and my academic future in rhetoric and composition
Virgo: (August 22-September 23) You are probably a disagreeable person who likes to find minor things wrong with other people’s work or ideas, while not having any ideas of your own. You don’t like people, and they don’t like you, either, but that’s OK because you are better than they are, obviously. You are drawn to organizing, labeling, and categorizing. You are obsessively clean and fastidious about diet, and you have a cold, precise way of talking. You frequently wear the same clothes, with only minor color variations. You always get the job done in an impersonal, antiseptic way. Your academic future may include accounting, moral philosophy, rhetoric and composition, and physics. Otherwise, you should consider a career as a laboratory technician, sanitation worker, computer-support staffer, or textbook editor.
It's all about me! and Teaching and NOLA 8:24 pm
Speaking of commercials, I just saw one laden with Katrina images, streets flooded, etc. spliced with images of a Hummer driving through the deep water. The final tagline: Visit HummerHelps.com. Upon doing so, I was directed to the main Hummer page, then to a menu of links “to learn more about what you can do with your truck,” some of which include stories of owners pursuing heroic efforts with their vehicles. The Katrina narrative begins as follows:
Some might argue Mike Morris’ search-and-rescue vehicle of choice, a Hummer H1, is a fuel-sucking monster. But Morris isn’t making any apologies for himself and a small battalion of other H1 (and H2 and H3) owners who spent nearly two weeks serving as early responders after Hurricane Katrina.
“You don’t ask the ambulance that pulls up at your home what its fuel economy is,'’ said Morris, of South Bend, Indiana, as he motored the debris-littered streets of New Orleans. The group, dubbed HOPE (Hummer Owners Prepared for Emergencies), performed a variety of volunteer work following Katrina…
OK–I’m not sure how I feel about this and, while the narrative begins to offer some support, the actual commercial’s visuals cast the Hummer as the superhero, not the individual heroes driving them. Also, this is but one story, so how are we to really assess the vehicle as a do-gooder, when the miles per gallon facts and environmental concerns are much more publicized and persuasive? Not to mention the vehicle’s reputation as a status symbol…
It’s been a long day and I need to think about this more thoroughly, but since I already planned to design a writing project around the visual rhetoric of Katrina, this commercial has moved to the top of my list!
It's all about me! 7:33 pm
Flew up to Chicago today with intentions to drive over to my husband’s family home in Minnesota. All I can say is snow, wind, snow, a lame white Mustang Convertible as our rental car!!!!!, snow, snow, wind, snow.
We may have been able to push on, but here we are, halfway there, in a hotel in the Wisconsin Dells with free wifi and a Domino’s Pizza. Oh and local tv ads for cheese stores and officialbrettfavre.com even though the Bears kicked their ass today!
It's all about me! and sdp2007 10:56 pm
NOTE: I’m pretty sure that blogging will be at a minimum this semester too, so if you’re looking for links to what I’m reading, check del.icio.us.
And repeated praises to the 2007 SDP experience–without my fellow Internet and Society contacts to bounce ideas off of via gtalk or Facebook, I think I’d be forever locked in my library carrel! It’s funny, but I think I appreciate that time more and more every day. While I never want to set foot in White Hall dorms again, I’m eager for whatever follow-up conference travel we organize, either at Harvard or Oxford!
It's all about me! 10:45 pm
I’ve been trying to remain focused and positive this semester, but it has been difficult, mainly because I’m teaching three classes, trying to write the dissertation, and organizing/composing/submitting materials for the job search. I’ve never had such a hectic Fall, and I wonder, what could I have done to be better prepared? Should I have looked into fellowships? Should I have gone to Princeton like this NYTimes article suggests? 
I remain driven though because I am so ready to get out of Tampa. I’ll try not to offend its natives, but I’m sick of the traffic, the crowds, and the lack of true hospitality or basic friendliness, especially at my apartment complex. It may be because I attend a commuter school and the size of the city is massive in comparison to other places I’ve lived, but I’d rather stay home and order in than deal with anyone. Even when Andy and I decided to elope and had to find a catsitter, we couldn’t count on any of our friends here to commit to stopping by or taking her, either because of it being the summertime and they were taking trips too or because of the driving distance it would require.
All is not negative though. A recent drive to the USF St. Pete campus proved that a long drive is sometimes worth it! I’ll forever be indebted to TC and his class for letting me practice, quite extemporaneously, my job talk. It refueled my passion for my dissertation and made me aware of various directions my look at the post-Katrina blogosphere can go even after I graduate.
After Thanksgiving I think things will calm down and I know my Spring teaching schedule is going to be much easier, so I just need to relax and take it e-e-zay…sigh MIKA
It's all about me! 9:12 am
Cross-posted in Facebook:
Even though I have no real understanding as to why this phenomenon is so popular, I couldn’t resist sharing my Sweetness’s mugshot with the rest of the world.
P.S. I made it here.
It's all about me! 2:46 pm
It's all about me! 8:51 pm
Tried adding this to previous post but couldn’t. Sarah and me summer 2004.
It's all about me! 7:32 pm
Our civil ceremony on the beach [Palm Cove, Australia] was about a half hour, including the photo-taking, so instead of dealing out cash for someone to sing one song, we opted for the boombox so we could make a mix!
These three, all by Sam Cooke, were played before the ceremony:
Sugar Dumpling
You Belong To Me
You Send Me
The next six blared in celebration:
Love Today by MIKA
I Only Want to Be With You by Dusty Springfield
Renee by Panorama Jazz Band
Mardi Gras In New Orleans by Harry Connick, Jr.
Oh, My Nola by Harry Connick, Jr.
Sheik of Araby by Harry Connick, Jr.
It's all about me! 7:16 pm
Something borrowed: the fabric that lined the inside of my dress was leftover from the batch used for the petticoats of the Broadway cast of Mary Poppins [it helps to have a fabulous dress designer in NYC!]
Something blue: my garter [basically the only “traditional” thing I had to have!]
Something old: my engagement ring [originally my godmother’s]
Something new: my wedding ring [a band that matches Andy’s exactly]
It's all about me! 10:20 pm
It’s up on Flickr, folks!
Here’s are 2 of my favorites:
and
I know I still need to share the details, but I’m so jet-lagged all I can say is eloping is the way to go!!!!
It's all about me! 4:40 am
Hi everyone!
Haven’t had time to blog as I’ve been on my trip to Australia to elope then honeymoon!
Pictures on flickr to come but right now I’ve got to get to dinner!
It's all about me! 9:26 am
Out of all the summer blockbusters, I have to say that Ratatouille is the best. I wasn’t all that eager to see the film based on its trailer, but the movie as a whole is so clever and funny, I could see it again and again! I especially like Peter O’Toole’s character, the Grim Eater. But then again, I like Peter O’Toole in anything!
Also, I’ve finally joined the rest of humanity in reading the Harry Potter series. I’m only on Book 5, which I want to finish before seeing the movie this weekend, so don’t reveal anything to me. Having read the first four then watched the movies for all of them, I now see why so many people love these books so much. The writing is fantastic and the characters are so well-developed for each year at Hogwarts. JK Rowling has set a standard and young authors out there will have to keep it up once the 7th book comes out because readers deserve such quality writing.
And as someone interested in trauma theory, the 4th book is so applicable to the concept of bearing witness and the recurring pain that goes along with it, I may have to sneak some of that into my dissertation! I know Andy read a journal article on this topic, so I will have to find it and quote it here so you don’t think I’m crazy.
It's all about me! 9:11 am
Since I don’t have much to blog about this hot and lazy [though secretly productive] summer, I thought I might share a quick post about my new dedication to pilates. My favorite group fitness teacher took the summer off to begin her graduate studies, so I had to find something to replace the cardio-dance workouts. A ball workout, pilates, and a class called “ab attack” have become my regular routine and I love them all! I never weigh myself so I don’t know if I am losing weight, but I feel leaner and stronger and that’s much more important!
I knew that as a former ballet dancer I should like pilates, but the first time I took it a couple years ago, the room was very crowded and I couldn’t see the instructor. Now I go early in the morning, twice a week, and it’s wonderful. It hurts my legs like crazy when I’m doing it, but I miss it on the days when I’m not working out.
I leave for my 2 weeks at Harvard this Sunday and by the looks of the schedule so far, I may have my evenings free to hit the Dance Complex and try out their pilates and other stretch classes!
It's all about me! 6:17 pm
It's all about me! 9:52 am
Sorry for the lack of blog posts. I flew to NOLA for a funeral then was wifi-less for days til now. I know I’ve only been out of town for a couple days, but I have this weird feeling over me that without the Internet or constantly checking my email that I’m missing a deadline or forgetting to pay a bill. 
On the less anxious side of things, I just checked on my USF account and I’m officially a “doctoral candidate” who signs up for dissertation hours!!!
This Monday begins my writing and exercising schedule. I need to prepare for Oxford/Harvard! Check out the list of tutors we’ll be working with here.
It's all about me! 3:03 pm
I just watched the best movie, Confetti! Think Waiting for Guffmann meets the BBC with the plot being a contest for most original wedding.
It’s hilarious and very much a stress reliever for someone like me who is dreading any type of wedding planning. More on this later, if I ever call a church and set a date.
Ugh–no wonder people elope!
Anyway, here we are our results from the movie site’s Wedding O-Matic quiz. Apparently, our theme should be “nerds of a feather.” Big surprise!
It's all about me! 4:55 pm
After waiting to hear since March, I just found out I didn’t get the job in NOLA. I did make it to their list of top 4 candidates, but was not brought in for an on-campus interview. No worries…I’m very much OK with their decision because after figuring out my committee last week, I realized that I’m looking forward to a year of focused dissertation writing–and I think we all know I might not be very focused if I were living back in NOLA, working a new job, teaching, and planning a wedding!
I still have a ton to do and a very full summer, but now that I know where we’ll will be living, I feel much less frenzied than I have the past few weeks!
It's all about me! 3:52 pm
It's all about me! 12:06 pm
I am pleased to inform you that your Phd Examination Committee has voted your examination a grade of “PASS.” Congratulations on your achievment! The successful completion of this portion of your doctoral degree is, indeed, a significant accomplishment. Below are some comments from your committee:
“The committee for Daisy Pignetti’s exam is pleased to award a passing grade. The committee is in agreement that many of the answers, particularly on the long questions, were excellent, illustrating the breadth of her knowledge and the ability to relate her synthesis of academic theories to her personal life.”
