Technical Difficulties, and News I Wish I Could Spread

Technical Difficulties:

To everybody who has expressed frustration with the new template (it seems to be a problem only in some browsers, though there is a weird 2 blogs for the price of one thing going on at the bottom of the blog even in my browser which is the culprit) and we're at work on fixing it. As I'm a dummy with the computer languages, this could take a while, so please accept my apologies and know that I'm trying to get the situation under control in the coming days.

News I Wish I Could Spread:

One of the things that sucks about having a blog with a pseudonym is that one can't talk in a non-cryptic way about certain real life things. Suffice it to say that a journal article that I wrote and was accepted over a year ago for publication in "the journal of record for [insert literary period here] literature" has finally come out today! I'm really, really proud of it, and I suppose of myself, too. I realize that having an article published isn't the biggest deal in the world, and I've got other publications, but this one... well, for whatever reason it's very special to me. Maybe because it is the first time that I felt like I was doing work that was really important or meaningful to my field, or maybe because it came along when I was pretty green on the tenure track and it helped me to feel like a Real Live Professional Scholar, you know?

At any rate, I am wicked pleased with myself, and I feel like I want to celebrate. Perhaps I can con my best friend in my department into going out to dinner tonight? (Incidentally, I really, really need a pseudonym for her. What would you like my best friend here to be called? Please provide suggestions in the comments.) And maybe after I go to the gym and then shower I will go shopping. I still resist the skinny jean (though I'm sure even I will cave eventually), but I can totally get behind the legging trend, and I think I might be able to manage the straight leg jean... At any rate, I'm in the mood to do some shopping. This is really the point. And I'm really excited about the purported nod to the style of my fashion-coming-of-age era, grunge. Also, I should note that one reason I'm excited about shopping is that I lost my vacation weight and now I'm beginning to build on the weight loss of the spring. Feeling very healthy and strong (though sore from lifting weights because, well, I'm a weak out-of-shape woman, but not for long!)