You know you're back in Kansas when . . .

I just spent the past couple of days roadtripping from DC to Topeka, Kansas. David flew into Kansas today as we have his cousin's wedding this weekend. (He's only staying through the weekend but I drove because I'm going to stay a couple of weeks.) As we were driving around Topeka, we chuckled at a few sights that you could only see in this part of the country.

The first was a guy wearing a wife beater and driving a beat up Jeep down Wanamaker with the following sticker in his window:

Yes it's Calvin peeing on gun control. The best part? The car very clearly had an enormous crack caused by a gun shot on the front windshield.

The second is a little bit in a meaner spirit. Forgive me ahead of time! Outside of the Walgreens in Fleming Place there was a woman with the biggest droopy waist boobs I've ever seen. They were what David described as "knee-knockers." And the punch line? She had a t-shirt on that said "I need a hug."

I love Kansas sometimes.

My Dream Academic Conference

Instead of going to boring political science conferences, I wish I was going to this one instead:
SC3: Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses

Clearly I am in the wrong field.

Confirmation that people actually read this blog

I put a counter on the bottom of my page soon after I started blogging. Today that counter clicked past 1000 visits. I can't believe people are actually reading this. It makes me feel happy yet also a little exposed. I've posted 50 entries since I started in January, so that's an average of 20 views per entry. Wow!

Okay, granted half of those are probably me, but that's still 10 that aren't. I didn't even know I even had 10 friends that cared. I feel so loved.

I want to know who you all are reading my blog. So please add something in the comments section and let me know who you are. For those of you unfamiliar with posting comments on blogs, just click the word "comments" at the bottom of this post. Can't wait to hear from you all!

P.S. I just increased my count even more after edited this post twice and viewing it after each edit. W00t!

New Dollhouse trailer

This is just a quick post since I'm still in NYC. I'll post later about our adventures at the ICFF. I just wanted to post a link to the first (as far as I know) trailer for the new Joss Whedon show Dollhouse. As many of you know, I am an insane Joss Whedon fan. Now the man behind Buffy, Angel, and Firefly has a new show this upcoming season that has gotten all us Whedonites super-excited. Here's a summary of the show and here's where you can watch the trailer.

Happy Birthday to ME!

This is a totally gratuitous and meaningless post, but I just wanted to point out that today is my fifth 29th birthday - or in "regular" counting that's 33. I really don't feel that old. Ten years ago I would have thought I'd have a couple of kids and be a real college professor by now. Instead, I'm still working on my dissertation . . . but I do have a dog and just bought a house in the suburbs, so I'm getting there. In any case, here's to life leading you to places you didn't expect you'd go.

Anyone in the DC area can come out to Mate tonight from 6:30-10pm to help me celebrate. And buy me drinks, of course :)

David and I are heading to NYC this weekend. For my birthday I wanted to go to the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF). Maybe I'll take some cool pictures of the cutting edge design we see there and post them on my blog on Monday.

Why I Hate Political Science, part deux

One of my first posts when I starting blogging in January was about why I hate political science, the discipline I'm currently getting a Ph.D. in. My hatred goes beyond the typical graduate student phase where you dislike your dissertation for about a 6 month period before learning to love it again. (I'm told almost all grad students go through this.) My negative feelings for political science run strong and deep. As I've discussed previously, I am seriously thinking a disciplinary or even career change after my dissertation is done.

As proof for to you non-political science types, here's a link to an article from the most recent issue of the leading journal in my discipline, the American Political Science Review. Check out pages 9-10 in particular (Interesting side note - I worked as an editorial assistant at the APSR a couple years ago.) One needs an undergraduate degree in math to read this stuff, let alone produce an article like this.

I guess I should expect no less from a discipline that has to tack "science" on the end of its name in order to feel legitimate. It's like the penis envy of academia. Of course, I personally subscribe to broader definitions of science as "systematic knowledge" and "structured enquiry." But what do I know? I'm just a disgruntled graduate student.

Okay, Rant over for today.

The Lost Weekend

Okay, maybe the title of this post is a bit of an exaggeration - my drinking this weekend was no where near the level of the alcoholism portrayed in the famous Billy Wilder movie. However, I drank more on Saturday than I have drank in a long time and am still feeling the effects two days later. By one estimate I drank almost 3 bottles of wine by myself. I think it's going to be a full week until I can even look at a drink again.

Of course, it was entirely worth it. I spent all day and night Saturday with a group of amazing women, including my two sisters-in-law, Katie and Laura, and two of Katie's close friends. It was supposed to be a kind of reunion for the group that went to Katie's bachelorette weekend in New Orleans last fall. So we headed out to my in-laws' place in the the mountains and toured wineries in the area. That might sound calm and sedate, but when wine tasting is involved lots can happen. Check this blog entry from one of the women on the trip for more details. I warn you now - things got pretty silly.