I came to my office and there was a Ukrainian student waiting there for me. It is very hard to switch to Ukrainian all of a sudden. I was constantly lapsing into Spanish because, apparently, Spanish and Ukrainian are now located close to each other in my brain.

I want to invite the student to my house for some borscht because he shared that once he went 4 months without eating borscht and that was a very traumatic story to me.

We are holding a search for a Spanish instructor, i.e. a person who will teach 4 sections of Spanish 101 per semester. And gosh, it’s so depressing. We got a stack of applications from PhD candidates who are afraid they won’t find a real job on the miserable job market. They are all Peninsularists, by the way. Latin Americanists are doing better, for obvious reasons. Great people but their chances on the job market this year suck. 

This search is such a dumb idea anyway. Asking people to relocate for $30,000 and no guarantee of being rehired next year is insane. But what do we do if we literally don’t have anybody to teach these courses? Continue submitting me to this indignity? That won’t work because I have a full load of my literature courses. Plus, I’m preparing to co-teach a course in English with a colleague from Poli Sci. 

Russians are about to legalize violence against family members of any age.

Just in case you were wondering where all this is going.

Fitbit only recognizes as movement the kind when one’s arms swing around freely. When one carries a baby or pushes a pram, that isn’t movement. So you can imagine how it feels to be rocking a screaming teething baby for an hour and to get a message from Fitbit in the midst of the process saying “Time to move! Get up and exercise!”

At the same time, Klara loves it when I say the word Fitbit, so that’s great.

Just one more share from Facebook. True and on point.

A little harder but still important. I’m doing it. Are you?

Today’s action on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA/Obamacare), Medicare privatization, and defunding Planned Parenthood:
Paul Ryan has blocked his office phones and fax numbers, and is turning away people who show up to deliver petitions, so time to change tactics. Please mail post cards to his home address saying NO to defunding Planned Parenthood, NO to repealing the ACA, and NO to privatizing Medicare!
PAUL RYAN
700 ST. LAWRENCE AVE.
JANESVILLE, WI 53545
Please COPY AND PASTE this info. Let’s see what 67 million cards in the driveway looks like.
Real Americans Resist.
Copy and paste this to pass it on. This guy is a public servant. Denying access is reprehensible.

A suggestion from FB.

An EASY action item for today:
If you want to support Senator Warren’s request to audit President Trump’s finances for conflicts of interest, the woman who answered the phone at the Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office said the most effective way to be sure my support counted was to email two administrators, Katherine Siggerud and Timothy Minnelli.

You can send ONE email addressed to:
siggerudk@gao.gov, minnellit@gao.gov, congrel@gao.gov

Subject line: Re: Audit for President Trump’s financial concerns

Dear Ms. Siggerud and Mr. Minnelli,
I’m writing in support of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s request for an audit of President Trump’s finances, to prohibit conflicts of interest that would prevent him from carrying out the responsibilities of the office without corrupt influence.
Sincerely,

What seems very dumb today is everything I criticized about Bernie. I just saw a car with a Bernie sticker and imagined President Sanders, and that was hard-core. 

So I didn’t find the coat. Out of desperation- it’s gotten cold again! – I tried on my old pre-babies coat and. . . it fit. This is incredible because I haven’t worn it since 2012. I tried it on in November, and the flaps wouldn’t even remotely meet. There was a whole horizontal palm between them.

This is like Christmas all over again. 

Sometimes it’s nice to remember the young, crazy, partying version of me. I love my life but from time to time I do get nostalgic for who I was before I became the responsible, psychologically healthy, wife-and-mother type. It’s like the person I was back then died and I never got to mourn her.