I make front-page news

This morning I learned from a student that I made the front page of the local paper, the Tahlequah Daily Press, yesterday. That was the good news. The bad news is that the paper ran a large color photo of me with my eyes closed. The dubious news is that the article covered the Civil War Ladies Camp of Instruction at the Murrell Home, which is a daylong training session for women interested in historical reenactment.

So now it is official for anyone still undecided about the issue: I am a Geek. In my defense, I will say that I am teaching a Civil War class right now and I tried to get some students to come with me. The fact that the class began at 8 am on a Saturday morning likely was a deterrent. Also, I have about zero interest in battle reenactments -- I just think I might like to dress in period costume and hang out at the Murrell Home once in a while. And I learned a lot about 1860s undergarments. Did you know that women wore crotchless drawers?

The writer quoted me without asking permission or explaining that she was covering the event for the paper -- I thought she attended out of personal interest. But the Tahlequah Daily Press does not appear to have high journalistic standards. If you really want to have a look, the story, which is quite long, is available online.

Local color, part II

Noticed that a very nice fitness instructor with a Green Country accent sounds exactly like Holly Hunter in Raising Arizona when she leads post-workout stretches at my gym. I'm there early on MWF mornings lifting weights before my 9:00 class (who here didn't get the memo that I prefer to teach in the afternoon?). Stumbling down the stairs to the locker room, I hear "Turn to the riiiiiight!" and "Turn to the leeeft!" -- it is most reminiscent of the scene in which Hunter's police officer, Ed, takes mug shots of Nicolas Cage's character during the opening credits. Props to my parents for taking me to see Raising Arizona in the theater.

Had another Local Color moment at Morgan's bakery this week. While drooling over the cream horns, which I haven't seen since my last visit to an Italian bakery in Connecticut, I noticed that Morgan's sells doll cakes. These were a big deal decades ago: it's a Barbie stuck in the middle of a bowl-shaped cake, and the cake is decorated to look like the doll's dress. One of my mom's friends made one for me when I was little. I think I know what kind of cake I want for my next birthday.

Ballet

Got an e-mail that tickets are now on sale for the 2009-2010 season at the Sacramento Ballet, which was a huge part of my life in Davis. I will really miss the artistic directors and the dancers I got to know. Luckily I can continue using the ballet's performance of A Streetcar Named Desire in the courses I teach. I'm looking forward to checking out the Tulsa Ballet, which is a much bigger company, but it's a much farther drive than Sac was from Davis.

In other news, I have resumed studying ballet at a local studio. We meet twice a week, and I'm often the only student over 16. Dressing-room conversation consists of discussions about homecoming and questions like "What grade are you in?" Many of the girls are on pointe, and some of them are quite good. I have good classes and bad classes, when I'm leaping around like a frog on acid (as Stella put it), but I always get an A for effort. I miss my old teacher, Miss Cara.

Home

Here is our house. Malka loves to look out the window. Sometimes a neighborhood cat named Kitty comes to visit, which isn't her favorite, although if Kitty could talk he would tell Malka that he is not interested in usurping her position as Top Cat. And here is our bedroom. There are still boxes in other rooms -- photos coming when we get more organized. Just got the word that the new couch will be delivered tomorrow. Hooray!

Rain, rain go away

Warm and raining is my new least favorite weather. It's even more uncomfortable at certain times of the month. Before moving out here I went into the gym on one of Davis' super-hot (100+ degrees), dry days. The AC was blasting and it was silent. I said to a woman on the stationary bike, "This must be what heaven is like." Now I'm in weather purgatory. Just got a call from E that our roof is leaking.

Please enter your password

I go to step aerobics at the Cherokee recreation center on Thursday mornings, and today I heard the weirdest song ever. It was like a hip-hop chicken going to the bank in space. There were these clucking techno beats, and a robotic voice repeated "Please enter your password. Your password has been accepted" for about five minutes. I couldn't stop laughing. A big lady who comes to class thought the voice was saying, "Please enter your pants length." This made me laugh even harder. It was totally bizarre.

Life in the Quah

The Southside Drive-In. See Frito pie on the menu? E at the swimmin' hole.

A cashier at Whole Food in Tulsa told me that locals refer to Tahlequah as "the Quah," but I haven't heard anyone say this. But perhaps no one uses the term around me because I am so obviously from out of town? My students informed me on Monday that I have an accent. I don't know what that means -- although New Englanders have distinctive ways of pronouncing certain words (e.g. "aunt" is not "ant"), I don't think there is a Connecticut accent. It's not as though I sound like a Kennedy: "Pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd." Similarly, Californians have certain verbal tics ("hella" and "hecka" with a liberal sprinkling of "like"), but there isn't a recognizable Sacramento Valley accent. Instead, what students perceive as my "accent" seems to be the absence of an Oklahoma twang. With that in mind, here are some photos of local color.