Blogging About Blogging

KJ asked for more hints about who I am, which made me think about how anonymous I want this to be. Obviously, I am happy to have her know who I am, but I remember when a friend of mine started posting a journal on line, years ago. It was a blog, I suspect before we really used the word blogging, and of course, her students found the damn thing. And then popscholar’s students found her blog. I want neither my students, nor my teachers, able to find this. I will need a suitable nickname for my advisor (he has one, but he knows what it is, you see, and while I doubt he googles himself with his nom de guerre, you never know…) So hopefully, I will manage to keep this sufficiently unfindable.

Actually, in a fit of totally stupid, I googled my former lover, the man I call an ex-fiance, though he probably calls me an ex-girlfriend, in maybe October. The first hit on my search was a blog belonging to a person of the same name. I read for about 10 minutes and ended up in tears. Not because I found out things about my ex’s life that I did not want to know, but because after reading several pages of the blog, I COULD NOT TELL if it was him. Which probably means that it wasn’t. But the thing could have been written by any fairly geeky guy. As much as I want to remain veiled, as it were, it seems silly to be so veiled that I am totally impossible to identify. And so, KJ, if you do not mind, I am simply going to see how long it takes for you to figure out who I am. You can email your guesses to krizmic and see how long it takes for you to be sure! (Of course, the fact that she is my contact point should really be all the hint you need!)

I promise to stop with the blogging about blogging already. Though I have to say that one of my favorite genres to read is writers on writing.

I am done with course work and got back, a couple of days ago now, from a jaunt to the Philadelphia area, to watch my cousin graduate from the other Quaker school in suburban Philly. I also visited an old friend, hung out with my college roommate (tierraperfecta, for the LJ crowd), and went to my alma mater before heading to New Jersey to visit elemmire7 for a few days. It was fun, but now I am back and in a whirlwind of getting ready to leave for the summer, which means preparing my place for my summer tenants. I have never had to half pack up an apartment before. I am leaving my art on the walls, but what about my framed photos? Do I take those off the table?

I will be spending 2 weeks traveling around Japan and 1 month in a Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. Otherwise, I will spend bits of time in my beloved Cambridge, Mass on either end. I am sad, because I wanted more time in New England, but my summer plans are very exciting! I will see Japan with my friend YA serving as guide and translator. We will stay with her parents, her grandparents, and maybe in a guest house belonging to her undergraduate university. Recently, I took her for a walk in a cemetery, so that she could see what Americans do with their dead, so I think she has a sense of the “real-life” that I want to see, but she is also planning to take me to Hiroshima and looking into staying a night on Mount Fuji. The guesthouse would be in Kyoto. Never having imagined that I would visit Japan, I don’t have clear ideas of what I want to do, but YA and I are talking and planning. As she pointed out, after grad school, she will move back, so this is not my only chance, but still.

I am kind of nervous about the monastery. I am starting to get ready. The need my measurements for my 2 tailored uniforms and they stipulated that I must wear all white underwear (and socks, I think). I went on a bra buying spree at Marshalls, and a friend actually mailed me all her white bras, so I should be set, but it is kind of odd to have even my underwear stipulated. More on the projected monastery experience in the next blog…