labor day in heartlandia

i spent the first long weekend here in heartlandia working hard to overcome my own predilections for introversion and inertia.

two colleagues (one a senior woman in my department and one a junior woman in english) met me after a yoga class one night and ruefully commented on the social scene in oxford. they are members of an imaginary club they call, "make oxford fun." i am fairly sure that they just talk about this post-practice and never act on it. so, this friday i decided to activate the organization and invited them to join me and a bunch of scholars who do cold war and post-soviet studies at a local german bar. i didn't quite know what i was getting myself into. i went along to the steinkeller, a bar that has at least three kinds of Hefeweiezen on tap. i was taken to the back room -- a room that is overwhelmed with a very large wooden table and about a half dozen or more white white bespectacled men and two white white women. very very slavic. for a fleeting fleeting moment, i thought this is who will "make oxford fun?" but undeterred, i joined them explaining that my romanian colleague invited me. it ended up being very good fun. eventually some other romance language speakers showed up (the aforementioned romanian, her husband a slavic scholar from philly, and another new colleague, a linguist who is from peru and her husband (an argentinian who just arrived from ireland). one man at the table was from wellington, new zealand -- i mistook his palllid complexion and thin dress shirt as an indicator of being from the east instead of the global south. at any rate, i quizzed him about flight of the conchords and eventually, i turned the conversation to college basketball so i could be on firmer ground. who knew that i would wind up at a table of international intellectuals in a basement bar on high street in oxford ohio? and who knew that it would be such fun. much more fun, i should report, than staying at home prone on the leather couches shuffling through evening news programs.

on saturday, i made it to the market early, where i came upon a gaggle of women who were deciding whose house i would buy and when i could run for city council. i ducked right out of that confab and confirmed plans with a new pal, rita, a four year old daughter of two historians. rita, her mom, and i went trundlng off to fairfield to a thrift store and a drive-by at a local lustron house that is in mint condition. many many years ago, i went along alone to a women's history conference in upstate new york. rita's mother was there and impressed me as being one of the women in american studies at that moment. she was finishing a ph.d. in the field and i would see her often on the conference circuit. she was one of those people who seemed always to be in the thick of it, organizing panels, introducing scholars to others, taking people out to lunch and on. she is smart and confident and seemed really cool. i couldn't believe that she invited me to go along with her to a thrift store over the weekend. it was like some weird material culture rite of passage. i just love her daughter too. when i arrived at their home, rita tattooed me with a ladybug and we chatted on our makeshift cell phones over hill and dale between hither and yon. (the cell phones were the sleeves to her booster seat).

btw, i am in need of a working landline. the roadrunner tech man installed the line, but the cordless phone that i have that sat in a box in my parents' basement for two + years is enervated and will not take a charge. i went along to ACE hardware to buy a new land line because they have roadside signs every 10 or so feet along the highway into town promising that they "have all my back to school needs." so far they have met all my consumer needs. but when i went along this weekend for the land line phone, i was informed that they do not carry phones. when i expressed my disappointment at being betrayed by the signs, the propreitor cupped his hand to his ear as though he were on a phone and explained, the kids use their cell phones. landlines are for old people. and then he hung up on me.

rita's mom told me to go to wal mart, but i have not crossed that threshold. btw: wal mart is the largest employer in the state of ohio. you read that right. very very very telling is it not.

earlier today i went to the swimming pool at hueston woods state park. i am not even going to type about the deeply problematic murals of indian rituals painted in the A-frame lodge. the pool was relaxing but very cold. i missed the chance to be in ocean city this summer. and i only spent one whole day at a swimming pool. by some (narrow) accountings, this may be the worst one of my life, if a summer is to be judged principally by time spent roasting on a pool deck with limited access to chlorine and to "saves" by life guards. i need to remedy this next summer for sure.