tubular

just stumbled across native american tube. i thought it deserved a link. partially so i can find it later.

enjoy.

today marks the 2 year anniversary of the last real rez rendezvous. and about 6months until the next (hopefully). i'll be missing all my bilagaanas tonight.

cerdos y mantequilla

well, iowa showed up twice in my google alerts today.

first, ol duff dog made another obama tribute in butter

second, edwards apparently is advocating a national moratorium on the construction or expansion of concentrated animal feeding operations. you'd think that'd be enough to sway duffy, but i guess she's more multi dimensional than i give her credit for.

anyway, i was in ol ioway yesterday for a lovely family lunch at bennigans. it was good time talking with with cousin doug about guatemala, and i got to see the newest of my nieces once removed (sobrina mas o menos), and heard about the birth of my newest nephew once removed. i think i'm using that kinship term correctly. cousins' kids...who knows really. anyway, on the way back home we stopped for some refreshment, and i found myself some swiss valley chocolate milk. its my favorite dairy because that's where duff's milk goes. and i trust her product. she knows her milk.

el mismo

sorry to disappoint, but the scandalousness that was aaa will not be recounted further in the blog. i'd like to keep some level of composure here.

but i will recount my last several days. i spent them in the basement of batelle. in the cubes. no sunlight, no cell phone service. just computer screens, florescent light, and lots of anthronerdiness.

one of my strangely favorite memories of the dale was the weekend before finals, that first semester. the crew and i put on our thinking pants, headed to faner, and spent our weekend typing away. no, it wasn't the most pleasant of times, but it did produce a lively dodgeball-esque hissing cheer, and the appendix of alternative titles to my marxist eco-feminist archaeology paper (my favorite still being "Bones, Bitches, and Debitage: A Marxist Ecofeminist Interpretation of Khok Phanom Di") .

and in a very different way, this weekend served the same role in my life. the commeraderie was different, but still present. there were horseshoe mustache debates, and absinthe plans made. really, all that was missing was the thinking pants. but what this really all serves to say is that i feel my socialization is somewhat complete now. i belong (and perhaps am a citizen?). i am a part of the department, and really i probably should have just been spending more time in the cubes much earlier, but well, i guess maybe there was a part in me that wanted to remain the mysterious h.c. alas, the mystery is over, but i don't regret it for a moment.

aaa redux

apparently the r____ feels my original aaa blog is insufficient. so i will tell a little story about how my worlds collided.

on friday, i left gero's award ceremony thing, and went off in search of a water fountain to fill my water bottle. i assumed somewhere near a restroom would be a good bet. but the marriot is a confusing place. i wandered around in circles for a while, then asked a catering man where the restrooms were. he pointed to the nearest ones, and i followed his finger.

as i neared them, i saw a guy in a suit sitting on the floor. he looked familiar. it was the cope from md who had come to the pub anth conference. so i said hello, and we began talking. shortly afterwards, a man walked past and the two said hello. i asked who it was. cope said "no one you know." i said, "was that webster?" he said, "oh. yeah? how do you know him?"

i explained the c-town connection. webster came back, and the three of us began chatting, when c-town frank's best friend came along as well. knowing both webster and i we all began to talk. cope decided he needed coffee before his job interview, so the four of us walked to starbucks. when we got there, the lazy-eyed texan came around the corner. he also knows cope and webster from ut. so the five of us stood and talked, and soon the (h) gill came up as well. it was as if all parts of my life for the last 8 years had converged in a tiny space at starbucks. apparently, it really is the center of the universe.

the next day i saw bii jih bah's mom, who works for a department that interviewed cope. yet more connections...maybe its the rez that's the center of the universe.

desde amor a casarse

i've been reading methods articles all morning, which at first was making me a little rezed out, but at some point it struck me how similar fieldwork and relationships are. You start out a stranger, but attracted for some reason to this person or place. You may have a good amount of second hand information, but want to experience it and learn for yourself. slowly, you discover more and more about the "object" of affection or study, and are either turned off or further enamored. eventually, it is daily life. it is integrated. it is not me and you but we. you are part of your "field." and they have lifespans. sometimes the anthropologists leaves after a year. sometimes a lover leaves as well. and other times they stay. or return again and again. in any case, the mark love and fieldwork make on both "object" and "subject" are permanent. they change you.

well, enough sappiness for today. but i'll leave you with a picture of true love

anthropologos

well, aaa was like a who's who of nell's life since 1999. i'll relive some highlights.
*i finally saw harjant's full film. good stuff
*i doubly confirmed my loss of any sort of gaydar
*helen says she still tells people about my thesis
*bill irons has no f*ing clue who i am
*jj was worried i was mad at him, and as usual made me feel brilliant
*the crazy-eyed texan got a posh makeover
*the dumpling got me a free dinner
*the original nemesis is off to argentina soon
*bauer's about the same as usual.

but really what i learned is anthro is a small world and everyone knows everyone else. perhaps i should launch into an athro web. i'll try to stay out of the center of this one.

mujeres de futbol

this is how you know you're in too deep.

i have been trying vehemently but unsuccessfully to get a hold of a book through the consortium and inter library loan for about a week.

tonight i realized i have three chapters by the author in various edited volumes on my bookshelf.

which is, of course, relieving. but a little disconcerting.

(there will be a blog about aaa soon, i promise)