• 08:49 ::whispers:: Who is Billy Mays? Missed yesterday and not on computer right now. #
• 19:38 @anahcrow@diannefox I love watching you guys work. :) #
• 20:13 Dammit. I got on my computer to do something. WTF was it?! #

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• 10:03 Which@genashowalter novel should I read? Must be readily available in bookstore and stand alone. #

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I'm in Ann Arbor at a wedding. Well, the wedding was yesterday, but you know what I mean. We've had wedding festivities all weekend. Friday evening was the rehearsal dinner, Saturday evening the wedding, and this morning is a Sunday brunch. At the wedding, we pretty much stuck to ourselves, trying to control our children. But on Friday, we had a wonderful buffet at a private house on a lake and we got to use our cocktail party narratives. You know which ones I mean: where are you from (esp. since bride and groom currently live in San Francisco, lived in Ann Arbor, and the bride grew up in NC), what do you do, how do you know B&G? So I got to say a lot that the first words I heard the bride say were "No, no, Jeffrey, we don't eat sand!" to her 7mo and that we reconnected after she stalked me on my LJ for 6 months without telling me. And I got to give the "South Africa, NJ, MI, NC" spiel I always have to give about where I'm from. But my "what do you do?" narrative has changed significantly, and I didn't realize it.

It's easy to begin with, right? "I'm a college professor. I teach English." But then this crowd is educated enough to ask me what my specialty is, and that's changed. I now have to say, "Well, I was trained in the 18thC novel. My dissertation was on Romantic-era British women novelists, Jane Austen most specifically. I look mainly at how women novelists write their male characters. But now I'm working mostly on modern popular romance narratives." And "I've started a new academic organization with a journal" makes an appearance now and then, too. And the defense of the genre with numbers and money shows up a bit. And it's all pretty exciting.

But then there's also "I was in the National Guard for seven and a half years." And that one's a little difficult.

How often do your personal narratives change?

• 14:00 Lovely coffee with @diannefox. Love meeting romance tweeps all over the country like this. Good conversations, great people. #
• 14:52 Having dim sum at our favorite Chinese restaurant, Great Lakes Chinese in Ann Arbor. Yummy! #
• 18:31 twitpic.com/8m5ze - Me and my boys. #
• 18:34 twitpic.com/8m690 - All my boys. #

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• 23:57 Why does extreme pain sound so much like orgasm? Especially when you're trying to be quiet? #
• 00:09 For those wonderful concerned folk: In hotel bathroom. 20mo FINALLY asleep in room. Dropped book on toe, spine down. 2bCont... #
• 00:11 ...realized as I was hopping up n down trying 2b quiet DH wouldn't be able to tell if I was in pain or sneaking away for quickie w/o him. #
• 12:41 twitpic.com/8h4ai - Definitive proof that Ohio IS completely white bread. Even the hydrangeas are totally white. #

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• 10:19 Don't see why not. #
• 18:49 I'm busy for a couple of days and y'all kill off Michael Jackson AND Farrah Fawcett?! WTF people?! #
• 18:53 I'm stunned actually. DH is like Whatever, but I'm stunned. Not quite sure why but I am. #
• 22:14 South-east MI tweeps!! In A2 from tomorrow through maybe Wednesday. Would love to meet you! #
• 23:57 Why does extreme pain sound so much like orgasm? Especially when you're trying to be quiet? #

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• 20:14 twitpic.com/8btjz - Helping Granny water the roses. #

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• 19:41 My review of Evangeline Anderson's STR8TE BOYS: bit.ly/lg7tQ #
• 20:33 Mmm, Willow! Talk about guilty pleasures. #
• 21:01 Ooh, here's Madmartigan...mmmmm. #
• 22:16 Hey, look! @IASPR CafePress store! www.cafepress.com/IASPR/ Not all the slogans yet, but soon! Soon! #
• 22:17 "Willow, this is war, not agriculture!" Ah, love this movie. #

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• 10:24 At eye doctor, "ruling out" macular degeneration in left eye. Good times. Of course, if NOT mac.deg., then still have unresolved problem. #
• 10:42 So, no macular degeneration she could see. So why am I having these issues? Aargh. And now one eye dilated for next two hours. #
• 12:11 Eye doctors doing a big old shrug and "Who knows?!" Appt with specialist. Sigh. Good nothing obviously wrong, but still something wrong. #
• 16:22 Quickest way to get DH feeling better after a day of throwing up? Say "I really don't feel so good." Catch? Be telling the truth. #

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• 12:26 Both DH and I are not feeling well. I've got headache from contacts and he's generally yucky. :( Good thing no crazy Father's Day plans. #
• 14:05 Apparently Golden Corral is happening place to be for lunch on Father's Day?! Um, ew. Parking lot completely full. (I'm at Babies R Us.) #
• 14:06 New roof rack makes it soundd like a hurricane over 45mph. Sigh. #
• 18:09 Great. DH threw up and 9yo feels, to quote, "Blergh," and didn't eat dinner. I have headache, 20mo recovering from fever. Plague house. #
• 18:14 Then again, could be worse. Could have #swineflu like @EloisaJames' kids. Not that kind of plague house, I guess. #

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