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August 06, 2007

Sore Feet

The gym is closed this week for the yearly "fix everything before the students come back en masse" refurbishment. But I have to keep working out somehow, so I decided to walk everywhere. Unless I had heavy stuff to carry. Heavy stuff that apparently doesn't include a backpack stuffed with books, a laptop (a very light laptop, but still) and water bottles. With water in them, because the pipes near my office are really old and the water in this town sucks, so all of the departments have their own water dispensers. Only my office isn't anywhere near any of the three departments I'm currently working for.

So I'm walking.

A lot.

Yesterday I walked for roughly 2.25 miles to meet Dave for brunch. It took 90-ish minutes (45 each way). Not a big deal, really. I mean, that's easily what I would spend at the gym, were it open. But my time is limited, since I'm trying to get all of my classes planned and syllabi written before classes actually start in less than two weeks. Eeeeeeeeee!!!

Despite the time crunch, I've been wanting to do some reading for pleasure. Specifically, I've been wanting to read some more Shakespeare. I'm feeling the lack of it in my life right now. Just as a side note, for those of you who find Shakespeare threatening, a helpful hint: read it aloud. It makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE when you can hear it. It's meant to be spoken and heard, so read it out loud. It's what I do. (I also highly recommend reading papers and essays aloud as part of the proofing process. You can easily spot the awkward bits that way.)

But back to wanting to do some more reading.

I spent part of Saturday working with a student on a monologue from Antony and Cleopatra, and before I worked with her again, I wanted to be sure I was up on the story. (It's been a while since I read it and I didn't want to make suggestions to her that weren't going to work in context.) As I mentioned above, however, my time is pretty booked at this point. Especially with the walking I'm doing to get from place to place. "Hmmm," I thought to myself. "I need to do something while I walk. I wonder..."

Which is why, if you were driving down A Street in Moscow yesterday between 10:45 & 11:30am or 12:30 & 1:15pm, you probably saw me walking down the sidewalk reading a book. Out loud. One of the geekiest things I've ever done. I have no idea how I managed to not trip and fall even once.

But it sure made the trip go faster. And I got to Act 3, Scene 9 before I was home again.

Posted by sally at August 6, 2007 08:14 PM

Comments

I don't think I have ever walked and read aloud, but I used to walk and read all the time. 5-8th grades I had a mile walk home everyday, and I would guess close to half of them were done with a book in my hand. It was a feat that the neighbors would marvel at, but I found that as long as you kept the book edge lined up with the edge of where you wanted to stay on, you were fine.

I think that is a great story Sally.

Posted by: fire4hairlady [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 7, 2007 11:57 AM

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