Questions from alchemi:

If a movie was made about your life, what essential scenes would have to be cut to come in below a NC-17 rating?

If you're filming the gritty exposé, about half of college and a few stretches in my twenties. If you're more interested in emotional significance, then before Jeff, there were three. The specific scenes might as well be the beginnings with each of them; my beginnings have tended to carry more dramatic weight than my endings.

What does your best writing say about you as a person?

I think that really depends on what I'm writing about. My best academic writing reveals that I can produce compelling and nuanced close readings of texts, and that I am capable of doing interdisciplinary work that isn't a disservice to the disciplines from which I'm drawing. My best personal writing might tell you something about how I love, how I screw up, what makes me laugh, what pisses me off: it depends on when you catch me. I do think that people have a tendency to forget that the personal writing they read in people's journals is not the person herself. People want to connect the dots, to build scenes out of snapshots, and while I have control over what I write, I don't have any control over the way readers interpret it. In short, if someone wants to decide that I'm smart, friendly, insightful, and funny, they will. If they're looking for evidence that I'm idiotic, cranky, flaky, and annoying, they'll surely find it.

What is your ideal wardrobe? (Photographs depicting said wardrobe expected). Why?

Well, I suppose one version of the ideal is what I'd buy if you gave me someone else's credit card and set me loose at Anthropologie. I tend to like skirt and blouse pairings that are casual enough for everyday use but nice enough to wear to work (bear in mind that my jobs almost never require that I wear suits or formal office wear). I don't like to look sloppy, but I hate being uncomfortable, so there's a sort of easy femininity to a lot of the clothes I like: strappy sandals good, high heels bad. I'll wear heels if I'm more dressed up, but my ankles have both been sprained so many times that they turn easily, so while I'm wearing them, I worry constantly that I'm going to seriously gimp myself out.

I can't give you pictures of the above stuff, because most of the clothing I own that fits into that category is too big for me at the moment, and I can't afford to replace it right now. Instead, I tend to purchase the types of outfits I end up wearing most of the time, which is typically some variation on jeans and a black shirt. The combination isn't particularly exciting, but I do suppose it really is another version of my ideal. Anything that serves my purposes so much of the time has to be an ideal of a sort, right? Anyway, since I have whole drawers full of jeans and black shirts, taking a picture of that is easy. Here you go.

What is the worst thing about marriage? The best?

The worst? The times when I realize just how much damage I could do and wonder if I'm capable of not doing it.

The best? I get to live with my best friend and get free nookie. It's a good deal.

At what time have you felt the most intelligent? Appealing? Sexy? Why?

I've probably felt most intelligent during some of my better teaching and tutoring sessions. I've felt the most appealing and sexy during times of sexual tension.

How goes that-which-cannot-be-mentioned?

I'm actually quite serious about not wanting to answer questions about my dissertation right now. Here's the deal: I think many of the people who are closer to me know that I don't want to talk about it in general. However, they feel that since they're closer to me, they can ask when they're curious, because they aren't "in general" kinds of people. My friends are indeed extraordinary people who help me with all sorts of things, but I don't want help on this right now. My dissertation is a sore spot, for all the obvious reasons, and talking about it won't change that. I've talked about it. Lots. So much that I'm fucking sick of hearing myself talk about it. When there is a change, it will be because I've done some work, not because I've shared my feelings about doing some work or told you—once again—that I haven't done dick. Until then, just hang tight and be confident in the knowledge that I'll say something when I have something to say.