BING AGAIN!

So I guess I let January come and go. Ah, well. So it goes.

It's Goundhog Day. The all-day marathon of the Bill Murray classic is on TV, snow has finally fallen and stuck in the Illinois Valley, and I'm here in our chilly sunroom while everyone else takes an early afternoon siesta.

So what's going on, you ask. Well, a lot. This has been a weird month. Last month was the four year anniversary of our family moving to Tonica. I've been teaching at IVCC eight consecutive semesters now, and yet, during these first few weeks of the semester, it seems like this is my first time .... doing anything. At all. Like walking or speaking or feeding myself. Seriously. I don't know exactly what's been going on, but I have been forgetting things, neglecting details, overlooking important stuff, and just generally drifting from mistake to mistake for the last couple of weeks. I don't want to get into the super embarrassing details, but suffice it to say, I think my American Lit class this term collectively thinks I'm the Andre-The-Giant of stupidity. It's not good.

I'm having a hard time keeping days straight, remembering which classes are in which rooms, remembering meetings and appointments, etc. I've never been a type-A, chained-to-my-planner sort of guy at all. (I take that back. I was kind of like that for the last year or so of my mission. But it was a phase.) I've been known to forget a thing or two - I know I irritate Suzanne like an itchy tag in a new shirt sometimes when I forget stuff. But the extent and pervasiveness of this forgetfulness is kind of freaking me out. I actually bought a planner and started writing down every appointment, every assignment I give out, etc. and I cling to it, terrified I'm going to forget something again. Eeesh.

I actually took an Internet quiz that said it's possible I'm suffering from moderate adult ADD. This, of course, makes me think of that insurance commercial where the girl says, "That can't put anything on the Internet that isn't true." I don't know if it's ADD, a tumor, my 39th birthday, or just a remarkably long streak of bad luck crossed with a healthy dash of my natural carelessness.

I do know one thing on my mind that's been distracting me. I've been job hunting for the last couple of months, sending out applications, checking the Chronicle of Higher Education, etc. Last month, I had a phone interview with a college in Michigan and two weeks from yesterday, I'll have an all-day on-campus interview there. It's called Delta College and is right between Midland, Saginaw, and Bay City. That puts it about a hundred miles from Suzy's parents and siblings in the Detroit suburbs. The towns are bigger than anything we have near here, there are two wards in Midland alone, there are half a dozen different middle schools/high schools in the area, there's a Barnes and Noble nearby. In so many ways, it seems like it would be a huge step in the right direction for our family.

And I'm freaking out about it a little. Not just because I would really like this job, really like this opportunity to get me and my family at least one time-zone away from the Illinois Valley - but because I'm worried it won't happen. I mean, I think I stand a very good chance of getting it. I have all the right experience and education. I'm a good teacher, my colleagues like me, I have good references, etc. But the unknown, the possibility of not getting it, of getting our hopes up for nothing kind of distracts me from what's going on right here, right now. You know?

I feel like I'm verging into whiny, obsessive territory. So forget it. Let's talk about fun things.

I really like the CW's Arrow. It's an adaptation of the DC comic book hero Green Arrow. It's only very loosely based on the characters from the comics, and it suffers from the same malady that every CW show has - it doesn't matter the age, sex, occupation, race, or life experience of the character, every last one of them looks like an Abercrombie and Fitch model. Hardened cop? Model. Drug addict? Model. World weary ex-Marine? Model. Still, I don't care. It's fun escapism that doesn't make me just angry to watch. And that's hard to come by.

Last week's Downton Abbey? Seriously? I didn't need that kind of profound grief attack at ten o'clock on a Sunday. Jeeze almighty. This season has really been letting me down because so many of the characters are acting out of character -- arbitrary, unfounded decisions and statements have been flying all over the place and making me care a lot less about that show. But then Lady Sybil dies and I'm a mess. I'm still not a 100% cool with death scenes that are depicted in any kind of a real, emotionally relevant way. I can watch Arrow pin up bad guys like butterflies to styrofoam and I'm fine. But to see a character that has been well-written and well acted, a good decent character that you're emotionally invested in die -- I'm not ready for that kind of commitment yet.

The Office. Booooooo! You have officially crossed the line between just not being very funny any more and totally screwing up everything. Going out on a whimper is one thing. Going out on a "What the freak are you doing?!" is way worse. Stop now before we forget Michael Scott was ever even there.

I read Larry McMurtry's memoir Hollywood so you don't have to. It was on sale for a buck and I overpaid. He's worked in Hollywood for decades and you'd think he'd have all sorts of fun, juicy stories to tell. And you'd think a novelist and screenwriter would do a good job of telling them. Nope. Pretty thin, lame, and surprisingly short on interesting details of any kind. The whole book seems to be a first draft that an editor would return for major rewrites to a less established writer. Bleh.

I'm reading Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. I get why it's considered an early Modernist classic, but it's not a whole lot of fun.

I saw the Black Keys on Austin City Limits the other day. It was an old broadcast, but still super cool. On it, I discovered this song from one of their early EPs. I'm still amazed that one guy with a guitar and one guy with a basic drum kit can make this much cool noise. This song, rather than being a head-bobbing rocker, is more a slinky, "Hey baby, how you doin'?" kind of song and I dig it. I share it with you now so you too can have some cool neo garage blues in your life.