The start of a long week
10.09.2006The last few days I've been trying to catch up. After finishing my dissertation, I took a day to relax, coast, and celebrate. Then it suddenly realized that the weekend was ending, that I still didn't have my defense presentation ready, that I had an exam to write, and make preparations for my trip back to Kalamazoo. Plus all the daily/weekly duties of teaching. Yikes.
In the meantime, I was keeping up w/ the Bolivia news. Two rival groups of miners got into an armed confrontation, which Evo's government failed to prevent, left a dozen dead. I realize he's not personally to blame for what crazies do on their own time. But accusing both sides of the conflict of being his potential enemies seems ridiculous. Does he think the strategy of his political opponents is to kill each other. Yes, that'll show him! Let's kill each other. Oh, Evo's gonna be so embarrassed by that!
Today La Paz is shut down by a transit strike because the city's mayor (Juan Del Granado) wants to renovate the downtown area to avoid bottlenecks. Yes, I know it's crazy to want to rationalize the street patterns. So now there's a major transit strike in the Andean capital.
Oh, and North Korea has a nuclear weapon. I guess all that diplomacy & negotiation didn't pay off. Let's hope being patient & diplomat works out differently in the Iranian case. We'd hate for them to pursue the exact same strategy under the exact same institutional constraints. Right?
Otherwise, life in Carlisle is settling down. Except for driving. K8 & I failed — twice — to find a restaurant using the Pennsylvania highway system. Which, btw, is an absolute mess. This is not an "explorer-friendly" area. Not at all. You must know exactly where you are going & how to get there. You'd think you could just drive along the highway & find an interesting restaurant. But you are wrong. The highways around Harrisburg are a black hole from which you only escape if you're incredibly lucky.
On Saturday, we drove an hour towards Lancaster. Then an hour back towards Carlisle. Only to end up eating (a very late) lunch at Market Cross. Which is on our block. Sad, isn't it?
But after this week, I should be caught back up. And then I head off to Dulles for a flight to Chicago to catch an Amtrak to Kalamazoo. At least two days in Kalamazoo, w/ familiar places & faces is just what I need.
Oh, but the highlight of the week: Battlestar Galactica is back, baby! And the two-hour season three premier did not disappoint.
Posted by Miguel at 01:09 PM
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Say hi to Kalamazoo and all the familiar places and faces there!
Posted by: Melli at October 10, 2006 03:06 AM
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