Of Baseball and Blogs

So, it’s clearly been a while since my last post—my apologies. Somehow the week-and weekend- got away from me. The Job is requiring me to work at least two nights a week for the time being and I haven’t gotten home until 8:30 or so, and then I’ve found myself settling in to watch baseball, not writing the blog. But, since I feel like I’ve been a bit derelict in my writing duties, tonight I’ve decided to combine blog-writing with baseball watching (Boston has just pulled within two runs of Cleveland).

Last night the Boyfriend and I went to see the band Wilco at the Iowa Memorial Union on the University campus. It was a great show and was apparently the smallest venue they’re playing on this tour. The crowd was an interesting mix of college students and post-college folks in their 30s and 40s. The band was rocking, especially guitarist Nels Cline, and had the crowd all fired up. All in all, a great show and only five minutes from home.

I’ve also started tutoring student athletes one night a week. A confidentiality agreement precludes me from discussing anything about my students, sorry. But, I can say that I have both male and female students and they pretty much cover the spectrum of student athletic opportunities at a Big Ten university. The pay is pretty bad- I think the local McDonald’s pays more (I’m not kidding)- but so far the tutoring has been a blast. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy working with college students. The tutoring combines the best of teaching- working with students, getting to know them, helping them transition to college- without any of the onerous work, like preparing for class or grading papers.

And, in local political news, Senator John Edwards tonight received the endorsement of the Iowa Service Employees International Union (SEIU), as well as from SEIU councils in California, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, Michigan, West Virginia, Ohio and Oregon. While this is huge, and it’s always good when labor supports you (indeed as one of the chants the eager John Edwards workers like to proclaim “Put Your Gloves and Work Boots On, Labor’s Gonna Work for John!), the reality is that a union endorsement doesn’t carry the weight it used to. But, every bit of support helps. And, although the polls don’t have Edwards leading the pack at this point, it’s worth remembering that 1) most Democratic caucus-goers in Iowa remain undecided and 2) that at this point in the last presidential cycle Howard Dean was the front-runner. Bottom line, a lot can change between now and January 14th. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, since I imagine I'll only be talking about politics more in the weeks and months to come, here are a few maps so those of you who are unfamiliar with the state can brush up on your Iowa geography:



And here's one with population information: