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this afternoon, after waking from a much needed friday afternoon nap following my first full week of studyin’ to be a doctor ‘n all, i received two emails. the first received read in part:

Subject: LSU Closed Tuesday, September 2nd

Due to the threat posed by Tropical Storm Gustav, LSU will be closed on Tuesday, Sept. 2.

LSU officials will continue to monitor the storm and a decision on whether or not the university will reopen on Wednesday, Sept. 3, will be made accordingly. The decision about Wednesday will be announced through the news media, broadcast e-mail and the LSU Web site at www.lsu.edu.

the second email read:

Appalachian State Kickoff Moved to 10 a.m.

BATON ROUGE – LSU’s football game against Appalachian State on Saturday has been moved to 10 a.m. CDT on ESPN Classic, director of athletics Joe Alleva announced Friday.

The move was made in consultation with state officials in anticipation of an evacuation of New Orleans and an anticipated traffic contraflow order by the governor of Louisiana in preparation for the impact of Tropical Storm Gustav.

“Public safety was the overriding concern expressed by all parties when we met with the governor and his staff today,” Alleva said. “10 a.m. is obviously not the optimal time for a football game, but when one of the options was to not play the game at all, this is a matter of making the best of an unfortunate situation.”

The gates of Tiger Stadium will open at 8 a.m.

***

school is canceled; the game goes on. amazing. you can follow along at home with tigertv, a wordpress blog about hurricanes and football and other life decisions.

earlier in the week, i was walking by one of the campus’ auditoriums and noticed two huge temporary structures outside labeled “women” and “men.” my first thought was there was some kind of construction going on on the bathrooms inside (i wonder why my mind would go there?), but soon discovered they were everywhere. miles from the stadium they’re going up. tailgating shitters. supposedly thousands of people show up with r.v.s on friday night and literally sleep and party on campus all weekend. i still can’t really wrap my head around it. classes are cancelled; the game goes on.

i can’t remember if i mentioned this before, but they keep a live tiger down here on campus. mike. i think they’re on mike the 6th or something like that. i haven’t found mike’s area of campus yet, but evidently mike used to by wheeled into the tunnel of the visiting team so they would have to pass a live fucking tiger en route to the playing field. imagine walking down a narrow tunnel and having to go single file passed a pissed off tiger? again, i can’t quite get it in perspective, yet. classes are canceled …

speaking of tailgaiting shitters, i still need one. they thankfully got the new tub and enclosure in. however, this note was waiting for me when i came home this afternoon:

kevin-

sorry no commode. wrong bolts. try again tuesday. thanks. good news! gas back on.

so at least i have a shower and stan and joan’s eternal kindness. and their tailgaiting shitter. i will survive.

classes so far are great. watched junebug in my southern studies class, which i can’t believe i missed before (yo la tengo wrote the score for fuck’s sake). i love the class i’m teaching. it’s more peter elbow and less theory of argument. so much more fun. today’s class was one of the best i’ve ever taught. i was just the right amount of exhausted, and i forgot to change into my teaching garb thanks to all the commotion around here with the commode &c, so i was more casual than usual = more comfortable. we talked about an example of a firsthand portrait written by a fellow lsu 1001 student, and they just got into it. so nice … shit’s fun when it works.

also reading a lot more marx and thinking about publishing and conferences and all other sorts of academic hullabaloo. just trying to let things come as they may – with or without a shitter. i should do a song parody of u2′s with or without you called with out without a shitter. i’m probably not quite qualified to speak tenderly of love and relationships, but i can reach out to those amongst us who piss in their kitchen sinks at 3 a.m. i would do one of those bono dr. king-esque raps like he does in the breakdown section … my brothers and sisters, i know how it feels to get up on your tippy toes in the dark of night and have to hang your hog over the cold stainless steel kitchen sink to make water ’cause you’re too tired and lazy to put on your rain gear and boots to go throw a piss in the backyard like a man. i have not seen the morning yet where i didn’t have to go next door to shit in stan and joan’s garage. but dawn will rise one day, and we will all ascend to that most glorious mountain top, and the sun will shine down on all our faces, and there will be a heavenly sea of tailgating shitters as far as the eye can see in both directions …

hallelujah.

amen.

where’s the tylenol?

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