i didn't  really know where i was going or what i would find when i got here. i'm in a room with patched walls and exposed brick. outside two girls are tending to their greenhouse. i met a film-maker, sat in the house he bought for $8,000 and drank a smoothie. i finally know what sulfur dioxide smells like.

tomorrow i want to take pictures of

i hate when being a girl is a liability.

my last day of class is April 28. right now i feel as bad as my students. i just want it to be over. yesterday i had to bribe myself to grade their presentations. the bribe involved potato chips while grading and wine once i had graded enough. i suspect i will have the same trouble tonight. and that class i am TAing? those kids are driving me up ( Read more... )

so it looks like i will be staying with the mayer of braddock (and whoever the "us" is that he said i could stay with) for a few days in june.

i feel so excited and proud of myself right now. it's like i'm planning my own research trip/residency. and i'm not going to a cabin in the woods or any of those weird places that writers go for "time to ( Read more... )

i've been reading about steel mills all day. there aren't any mills left in pittsburgh. they tore them all down. there's twelve smokestacks left by the tacky "waterfront," and somewhere there's one abandoned mill, abandoned and patrolled by guards. if i get arrested you'll know what happened. i went looking for a steel mill ( Read more... )