DECEMBER PHOTOGRAPHICAL EXTRAVAGANZA

I forgot that I never got around to posting these pictures from my holidays in Seattle. The essential soundtrack is of course Jose Bold's "December City," available for free download here.

Snowy city.

Chang Laoshi and her husband Wang Junjie go sledding with the neighbors in my mother's south Seattle neighborhood.

Lunch at the Space Needle.

Chang and Wang build a 雪人 (snowman)

Jose Bold and I (plus Montana below) make merry in the snopocalypse.

Montana has this funny habit...

Ryan Dobosh at Easy Street Records, showing us all how it's done.

The Seattle Aquarium

Jose Bold performing with "Awesome"

Some materials from the archives that I dug out of storage: classic flyers from a house party at The Plant, a pictorial of his dog attack and subsequent recovery that Mark sent me from Australia, and some love notes exchanged by Ryan and Vanessa.

NYE at the Rendezvous, featuring Dave and Mark both wearing their groomsmen suits from Austin & Emily's wedding, and Dave and I enjoying our last moments of erotic entanglement before the heartbreaker went and got engaged.

New year, new look.

ARCHIE AND THE DOG DAYS OF WINTER

This is Archie, my advisor's miniature hairy dachsund. He comes to school every day with Rick and accompanies him to class. Trained to bark if alerted to any sleeping students, Archie spends most of the class time sitting in Rick's lap, sleeping in the corner (kicking and twitching as he dreams of chasing rabbits and squirrels), and occasionally making the rounds to see if anyone has any snacks. Archie isn't much for loyalty. The treasured pet of a prominent Economic Anthropologist, he is a classic pragmatist, interested in things only to the degree that they might be of utility to him. All the same, I've been making headway. I suspect this has much to do with my habit of buying Slim Jims in the grad student lounge before I teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays and presenting them to Archie as tribute. Not only have classes been going tremendously well but these days when I turn left at the second floor stairwell and Archie is hanging out in the hallway he immediately comes toward me and exposes his belly for scratching, whether I smell of jerky or not. My plan is to get him to sit in my lap before I graduate and it seems I'm on track thus far.

Some of you have inquired as to just when I will be finished with school and (gasp!) getting a real job. Unfortunately I have no idea. This semester I am taking my very last course and teaching a bunch of lively undergraduates everything I know about consumption in China. I'm planning to take my qualifying exams in the fall (summer will be devoted to preparation, which based on my colleagues' experience seems to involve reading 2-3 books/day for several months) which will give me a second Masters' degree and advance me to Ph.C. (Ph.D. candidacy), but right now my fate for next year is in the hands of several fund granting institutions.

The news so far is good. Of the four grants I've applied for I've made it to the second round for two (with no news yet on the others). I won't know the final decisions until April or possibly May. Waiting is no fun and I try not to let my mind wander into the unknown future or imagine the disappointment of rejection. Last Friday, after presenting a well-received conference paper on Chinese media coverage of the melamine-tainted milk scandal I received news of my rejection from a dissertation workshop I was really excited about. Self-flagellation and crises of faith ensued until my friends here talked some sense into me. My wise friend Sarah had the sage advise (passed on to her from an academic elder) that every time you get rejected for something you have to go out and buy yourself something nice - that way the bad news will be cushioned by triggering a hedonistic mission. I like this idea very much and figure that if I end up not getting any funding for my research next year I will at least end up with a bottle of expensive National Science Foundation Scotch, a pair of Social Science Research Council shoes, and some pretty Fulbright dresses.

Regardless of the grants, I've decided I will definitely be going back to China next year just to keep my Chinese in practice, make more connections, and learn more about the country and its people. That may very well mean getting a job, but I am prepared for such an eventuality. Graduate students work harder than just about anyone else I know so I imagine it would be a nice change of pace. This semester, with my light workload, I am less busy than I've been in years. I'm trying to figure out what to do with my sudden surfeit of free time, which is becoming easier now that the frost has finally broken and it is slowly warming up. Does anyone remember what I liked to do back in the days when I had a social life (aside, of course, from gin)?

Oh well, I'll figure it out soon enough. And even with free time I'll still be spending way too much time in the anthropology building, reading, making tea, and endlessly planning my lectures. Nice work if you can get it.