#10 Canterbury Road

My Summer Vacation, by Missy Small

It was remarkably refreshing to hear from you, Chelsey. Though I check your blog regularly (oh Excellent Writing One), I always feel a bit like I'm peeping. A blog entry at #10 Canterbury Road, however, makes me feel less intrusive. Besides, I had completely stopped checking this blog because I could not handle the chronic disappointment.

I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that I, in contrast to Chelsey and many others of you, get a kick out of boring things like homeownership and good old stability. For example, is it a bad sign that finally buying the bookshelves we've been looking at for months and completing our living room was the highlight of my weekend? Am I in desperate need of a backpacking trip to Europe, staying in youth hostels and taking 3 am trains, to rattle me?

I have to confess that backpacking was never my style, and that I drained whatever "3 am train" blood that was in me at Oxford, so I suppose I'm just stuck being a person who likes to be settled. Not adventurous, but good for me. Besides, I seem to get plenty of the early morning traveling as it is, since Jason and I can't seem to get enough of 6 am flights to and from Boise this year. Nor can I find any sort of common, complacent weekend to get bored over. Over a six week span that we are in the middle of I will either be in Idaho or have company to entertain. My grandmother passed away two weeks ago, which called for a quick flight out, and my brother, sister, and former roommate are all getting married--in Idaho--before summer sets. Awkward first year of marriage, I think, and a very expensive one. But good, all of it. Even the hard stuff.

(I am holding out for a calm and collect fall, though. It won't happen, I know, not during this crazy phase of our lives. But I can pretend.)

Jason and I talked long last night about "maintaining," and how we get through our long workdays and worthless weeknights, exhausted beyond reason, because "this is a phase," "we won't be doing this forever," and "for now we will just maintain." It's funny, though, how if you maintain too long without realizing it you accept the bare-bones, gaunt existence you're living as normal. We realized that our crazy phase has lasted two years, that Jason considers an 11-hour workday "an improvement." It is sort of scary. And requires major shaking up. But for this summer, I think we will just continue to maintain.

As for other things, my spare room in our little Arlington condo is ready and available for any of you. We even have a pool. (I was really only dating Jason for his swimming pool, wasn't I?) I intend to be able to candlelight, bridesmaid, and read a Shakespeare sonnet at a wedding with a little less pale white gleam than I had last summer. And I am in my upteenth phase where I cannot put down books. I recently reread old L.M. Montgomery books labeled "Missy Johnson" in my sixth grade hand and couldn't put them down. Again. Life is worth living just for things like that.

One thing I am NOT doing, however, is accomplishing anything at work, as is made obvious by this long-winded post. Should probably get back to that--only 45 minutes to go for today...

P.S. It was really weird to write "Missy Small" on that. Today I called myself Missy Johnson. How long does it take, really, to get used to this?

posted by Missy Small @ 6/26/2006 09:59:00 PM 1 comments

Summer days

I know some of you are still reading this blog, so I'm determined to give it a few last breaths before it does the thing my plants do.

Tonight I'm sitting in the dining room of my new house as Matt wrestles the dishes into the house's old dishwasher (which has no silverware tray, incidentally). That deal Mike and I had where I cooked and he did dishes—that's worked out well for me in the years hence. (Renaissance lit and history, not so much.)

I work as a copy editor for a health company. It's about as mundane as things go, but it pays the burgeoning mortgage and assorted bills. Matt works at a bank and does things with numbers (you know, those tricky little figures you had to study to get a liberal arts degree) and we have a cat. Actually, five cats as of last night's kitten explosion. I suppose it seems cute and domestic, to have all that and a house. And I suppose it is.

The truth is I don't like working behind a desk or being tied to a house. I miss the summers after Oxford where I worked as a rafting guide, moving between towns in nine- and three-month intervals, and I miss studying. Coming home at the end of the day, too exhausted to comprehend anything more intelligent than Harry Potter or Get Fuzzy, means my vocabulary is atrophying like my muscles and my brain.

I guess this is that thing they call real life. I'm not too sure I like it, but I'll give it a shot before throwing it all in the wind and heading off to Prague for TEFL certification and then to China or India or Uzbekafghansomewhereistan.

But I guess for now, I'm going to go sit on my front porch and hope to hear what the rest of you will be doing this summer, this year and onward.

posted by Anonymous @ 6/23/2006 04:14:00 AM 0 comments

Troubling news

I don't know what the exact implications might be, but this proposed change worries me:

Oxford University is to press ahead with controversial reforms of the way it is run, including plans to hand more power to business despite growing opposition among some dons.

In a white paper, the vice-chancellor, John Hood, confirmed that the council, which runs the university, would have a majority of outside members, including those with strong corporate interests, for the first time in Oxford's 800-year history. The move, part of a drive to modernise Oxford's governance, will be put before Congregation, the dons' ancient parliament, in the autumn.

Yesterday opponents outlined their objections in a pamphlet which set out "alternative, democratic reforms". Last year dons clashed with Dr Hood, warning that changes he was driving through could impinge on academic freedom.

The white paper made several concessions to dons, giving them more control over who is elected to the university's ruling council and setting out plans for the creation of a smaller academic board to oversee research and teaching.

Some dons remained unconvinced, arguing in the pamphlet, A Democratic Approach to Oxford's Future, that there could be reform of the university "without sweeping corporate reorganisation". One of its authors, Nicholas Bamforth, fellow of Queens College, said there was widespread opposition to Dr Hood's plans.

In today's Guardian, Dr Hood argues the proposals "are designed to allow Oxford to take greater advantage of outside expertise without compromising academic self-government, to encourage effective planning and action without sacrificing democratic control, and to meet contemporary challenges and expectations without diluting Oxford's own scholarly values and priorities."

posted by amcorrea @ 6/05/2006 08:15:00 PM 0 comments