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Language Log

Monday, Aug. 06, 2007 - 7:56 a.m.

My ghastly annoying student from last fall has friended me on facebook. At least, I think it's him-- whoever it is has done the thing where they take an English first name. So I actually have no idea-- he has a last name shared by at least 7 others in those classes. But I looked, and his only other friend so far was another ghastly annoying student, so I think it's him.

This actually makes me feel better since I had seen him several times last semester and he never saw me, if you know what I mean. I just thought, awww, that B+ didn't get you sent home after all. How sad. And I kind of hated him. But now! He remembers me. I wonder if he thinks I'm going to be teaching his remedial English again this fall.

Anyway. Broke the news about my departure from academia to my mom last night. It came up naturally, which was a relief. She asked if I would be teaching this fall, I said no, she asked if I would be working on my dissertation (I think she asked this mainly to demonstrate that she is On Top Of Things), and I said, uh, well. But she took it very well. "I always told you you should be in art", she said. She sounded kind of happy. I hope someday I can be a good mother in this way: to take your kid's choices and let them make them and not feel the need to sway them. Whether you agree or not, whether you understand or not. So, it was nowhere near as bad as I had imagined. Not the small "oh" my friend warned me about, but the somewhat cheerier "oh!" of when one receives good, unexpected news.

Lately I had been guessing it would not be bad-- she likes to talk about my jewelry, ask me what I'm doing now, tell me how she showed it to this person or that person and how she needs more business cards cuz she gave out all the ones I sent her. Way more conversational mileage than we ever got out of linguistics. So I guess not surprising that she likes it better, too.

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