So

Well now.

I started this blog back in February as a way for me to both update folks on my life and reflect upon my new role as mother-in-academia.

Then AC and I decided to uproot our lives, move to California, and switch roles. We went from being a counter-culture family in Altoona (Stay-at-home-Dad and Breadwinning Mom) to one with a more traditional structure in the East Bay. (Well, I’m not sure about that actually… traditional may indeed make us counter-cultural out here).

So now after months of limbo and transition, we’re here. We’re mostly unpacked. Our websites are back online. Sam just turned one year old. And finally I can think about writing.

I have several scholarly projects in the works, and one creative one that’s been on the back burner for so long that the pot has fused to the stove. I feel like a dog (or as Sam would say a “go!”) who’s been presented with too many enticing sticks to play with. Instead of snapping one between my jaws and sprinting down the block with it, I’m circling them madly, pawing each one frantically, dizzy with indecision and delight, fearing that someone will take one of them away. And then I’m just too tired to do anything.

And so, I return to this blog.

Hopefully MonsterFool will serve as both a way to update family and friends on my new life and as a way to figure out what the hell I’m doing. Who do I want to be? What do I want for this new life? What do I want to write? For years I used to tell my students, “Just start writing and you’ll eventually figure out what it is that you want to say.”

So here goes.