3-2-1 Liftoff!

The shuttle launch was truly a great experience (I'll post photos after I download them). This was definitely a perk that came with the boyfriend.

We had a whirlwind trip. We left mid-morning Saturday, driving from Houston to Pensacola. Sunday was from Pensacola to Cocoa Beach. Monday was the launch and then we left right afterwards, spending the night in Tallahassee. Yesterday we drove from Tallahassee to Houston.

Things learned during the trip:

1) We learned that we CAN do a road trip together. More than 32 hours in a car together and we still love each other - no blood was shed, despite the fact that I wanted to get home at a decent hour (made it at 10pm) and he wanted to stop and see things on the way back. We've already decided that we need to take more road trips so that we can spend time seeing things instead of just driving.

2) We learned that we both like to drive... so we have to come up with a driving schedule.

3) East Florida beaches are nice. We got to walk on the beach before and after the launch.

4) Seeing the launch on Kennedy Space Center property and having a VIP pass is definitely cool - we were invited to social gatherings, got a great press-type kit with picture, a shuttle patch and pin, bios of the astronauts, etc. We also got to watch the launch in the closest safe area. Way cool!

5) The shuttle goes up quickly! And loudly! And brightly!

6) Satellite radio makes a trip better. Since our music likes are so different, we listened to comedy stations mostly and those were surprisingly entertaining.

7) Jacuzzi jets will shoot water outside of the tub and onto the floor.

8) Florida oranges and tangerines really are better than Texas ones. And the fresh orange juice is yummy!!!

I'm sure there are more things, but I'm on a time limit. I finished 10 pages of essay number 1 just now and my brain is fried.

I'm so happy I don't have work next week. Last Thanksgiving I spent a great deal of time grading district exams. This year will be quite different: spending time with someone I love and feel 100% relaxed around and writing papers: the last 10 pages of essay number one and 12-15 pages of essay number two (not started, although primary research has begun). It's all about writing!!

And auditioning for a new play...

And planning the set for the "Midsummer's Night Dream," which I'm directing in the summer.

And reading summer reading book choices, if I have the time.

And cleaning my apartment.

Hey - can I get two weeks off?

Cheers and nighty-night!

Exciting!!!

This time next week I'll be in Florida - either hanging at the beach or maybe driving home (tba) - but the reason I'm going to be in Florida next week is... wait for it... the shuttle launch! The bf got VIP tickets, so I'm off to Cocoa Beach! I'm super excited - we're driving which is great because I love road trips and this will be the longest road trip he and I will have been on (previous road trip was only to Baton Rouge) AND I get to see the shuttle before the program ends. The only bummer is that, due to my work, we won't get in until Sunday (and the fact that I'm not a night driver - I fall asleep) which means we'll miss the KSC/launch pad tour. Oh, well. I still get to feel the ground shake, hear the roar of rocket engines and see the sight.

Yay!

And then I'm back to reality, in which I have 10 pages of a paper due next week. Well, it's due Monday, but I'm going to finish it tomorrow so that I won't have to worry about it. I have 6 pages so far... 4 will be easy to do.

Cheers!

Breathing Again... Sometimes

Whew. The difficult part of my semester is almost over. I have one small book to read and a 3-5 page critique due Wednesday. After that, I have 6-7 weeks of no classes because each of my classes want a huge paper. Funny, the huge paper doesn't worry me. These little readings and little papers due because there's so many of them!! My grading stack is shrinking very slowly, and sometimes getting bigger. After I get this last assignment done, I can spend some time at home grading and catching up.

So I have almost 300 pages to read, and hopefully it'll be all done today (or mostly). I was in Baton Rouge Friday and Saturday so I got very little reading done. Instead, I went to a party for one of my friends getting married and I introduced the boyfriend to them, to my godfather and to Southern Louisiana - food, culture, etc. I took him to my favorite places to eat - The Chimes East, Coffee Call and Cane's and . We spent an hour walking on LSU's campus (what the heck happened to the Union??), where he got a tour of my life in the late 90s, we went to a bunch of tiny meat markets in Lafayette and Scott for the best meats (he researched and we used my knowledge), and he got the "You take care of her and let me show you my gun collection" talk by my godfather (who heartily approved of him), who has assumed the fatherly obligations in so many things since he died a while ago.

All in all, it was a great trip. It's so much fun to introduce Yankees to southern Louisiana. He's taking me to Yankeeland in November (maybe I'll see snow!), and sometimes we're going to go to Annapolis so he can show me the naval academy, his alma mater.

I wish we had more time, but with school we didn't. Now we're planning two upcoming road trips: another one to Louisiana, where we'll go to New Orleans and then spend some time in New Iberia on the way back, going to plantations and finding good food. Then we're going to do a west Texas trip, going to barbeque places and checking out Texas landmarks.

Time to read. Cheers!

New Stakes

Well, the stakes are higher.

First of all, let me proudly say that my papers for my Research class are going a lot better than I thought: 7/8, 8/8, 8/8. I turned in number 4 today, and hopefully will get a 7 or 8 on it, and then the last one is due next week. I stand a very good chance at earning an "A" in the class, so I'm quite pleased!

The next two weeks, however, might challenge my optimism. I have the usual 50-page reading and 2 page essay for my Thursday night class. For my Wednesday night class, we have to read a book this week and write a 3-5 page critique on it. Usually we get two weeks, but since it's a smaller book, he gave us one. That sucks because R, Mom, my sister and I are going to a wine festival outside of the city Saturday... and then Saturday night I'm working the box office at the theatre, so my Saturday is shot. I'll have to do some heavy duty reading Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with two papers in there.

The following week, however is just as challenging. We have our last book in my Wednesday night class and he's only giving us a week to read that one (even though it's longer) and write the 3-5 page critique. The positive is that my Thursday night class will be done with the weekly readings (we'll then be focusing on the 20 page paper), but the negative is that I'm going to Baton Rouge that weekend, so my reading time will be severely limited. I'm attending a party Friday night (the purpose of the visit) and I was planning on staying until Sunday, giving me plenty of time to take R to all of my favorite BR places (the Chimes and LSU, mainly) and have him meet the important BR people (like my college buddies and my godfather) as well as going into New Orleans for a Port-of-Call stop, but I think I'll have to cut the trip short. Now I think I'll go up Friday afternoon, go to the party then, and go to my favorite places before 3pm Saturday and come back Saturday night so that I can get my reading done. New Orleans will have to wait until I don't have a major assignment due. A good friend is running the New Orleans marathon... maybe I'll sign up for the half and then go up there with her then, and I know R will come cheer me on (unless I can get him to walk it with me).

Anyway, I digress. The point of today's title is that my paper for my Research class has a whole new meaning. He asked for 3 volunteers to form a panel and present our papers to the Southwestern Historical Association's 2010 conference. It's a conference for professional historians, but they do allow grad school students to submit papers. I volunteered, bravely I might add, and stood alone. No one else wants to present their papers. Why the heck not??!! It's great experience, something I can put on my CV, I'll meet historians and professors who might be able to help me in the future and I'll get to have professionals weigh in on my paper. Now, the question-and-answer segment scares me, but I can play it cool.

So basically I'm writing my paper not only for getting an A, but to keep myself from looking like a fool. This paper has to be good.

Cheers!

Book Review

I just finished one of the best books I've read in years - Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.

The bf and I were at Cosco a couple of weeks ago and I picked it up - I'd never heard of it before, but it looked interesting. I put it aside, however, because I needed to read other books first. I finally started reading it Sunday and I couldn't put it down. I carried it with me EVERYWHERE. I read it at red lights, in line at the bank, in the morning before school, and I read it for 5 straight hours last night and 2 straight hours this evening.

I feel the same way I felt after "The Time Traveler's Wife" or "The Count of Monte Cristo" or "A Tale of Two Cities." I felt saddest when I finished it - I didn't want it to end. I wanted to know more. The author has such a wonderful voice and vivid descriptions, and it's historical fiction (which I'm quite fond of). In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I'm going to recommend it for school.

The story is about two females - Sarah, a 10-year old French Jewish girl who, in 1942, is arrested and sent with thousands of other French Jews to camps with the final goal of the gas chambers at Auschwitz. When she's arrested, she doesn't understand what's happening and she thinks she'll be coming home shortly - so she hid her 4 year old brother in a hidden compartment in the wall. She locked him in and took the key with her. The other female, Julia, is a 45-year old American who is a journalist researching the Jewish sweeps. Their stories intertwine and I can't put into words how moving the story is.

Read it - this book will change you.

Cheers!

Triumph! Cough-cough

As I type this, I am armed with tissues, Nye-Quil (or however it's spelled), Dan Brown's newest book and season 7 of Law and Order SVU.

Yep, I'm sick. My illness began Wednesday night, in which my professor looked at me sneezing and coughing and dismissed us early on account of the plague (me). I went to work yesterday because I had to - I'm a teacher leader and we had a long professional development meeting that I was supposed to lead, but towards the end of school I started making plans to be absent. Last night, my other professor sent me home early - he didn't want me to contaminate anyone else. Fine by me - I was miserable.

So today I stayed home. I briefly went to work this morning to meet with the substitute and show her everything, warn her against cheating kids and their methods of getting away with stuff. Then I went back home and promptly fell back asleep. In between medicine-induced naps and lunch (brought by the BF, who risked infection himself), I read Dan Brown's newest book. I probably could've read grad school stuff, but I logically analyzed that if I was working, I wouldn't be reading grad school stuff (I'd be working... duh).

Now, at 7:49, I feel better than I did this morning but actually worse than I did an hour ago. An hour ago I felt good enough to get out of the house, go to the theatre, chat with people in the theatre office and then I decided I was tired again. So I'm back home and I'm sneezing again and my head feels over-pressurized. And as the moments tick, my throat hurts more. Yep. My body was psyching me out an hour ago.

But, on to the triumph in my title... I got 3 of my papers back.

Wednesday night (European history) came with the delight that I earned a 49/50 on my first paper. He had lots of positive comments and thought my writing was well-written. Score! I knew I was a good writer!

Thursday night (Research Methods) brought more delight - and a surprise. I resigned myself to the fact that I will probably end up with a B in the class. We have the 5 little papers, each worth 8 points, and a big paper worth 60. I realized that if I got a 6/8 on each of the little papers, I would end up with a B because I doubt I'd get all 60 points on my big paper. But no... on the one I thought was terrible, I earned a 7/8 and the other one (the one I knew was pretty good) I earned an 8/8! There's hope! I might come out with an A!

The thing that makes me laugh, though, is his comments on my paper - he says that while my word choice is vivid, I need to use less words - why use three when one will do?

Sigh. That's going to be tough for me. Me, who loves Shakespeare and Dickens and Dumas and Rowling - each of whom go great lengths into descriptions and wit and demonstrates their love of the English language.

But I can still get an A!!! Cough, cough. Achoo.

Cheers!

Still Writing...

Well, I spent almost 3 hours writing a 3-4 page prospectus on my paper (including a dreaded historiography, background, hypothesis and impact of my research). The part that took the longest was writing the bibliography - I had to cite every tiny thing - which meant every single primary source/letter I'm using. I thought I could bundle the letters into one citing since they were in the same folder in the archive. Nope. So I had almost 20 letters, 6-7 electronic journal articles, 4 books, 2 government websites and another website. Besides the sheer number of sources, I'm also not used to citing in the Chicago style. I miss MLA.

Now, onto essay #3 - What is the most significant impact of interdisciplinarity on the discipline of history? Thank goodness that after this essay, I only have 2 left. And then a 20 page paper, a 15 page paper and 2 more 3-5 page literary critiques.

That's going to be a doozy. I might leave that for tomorrow evening.

And a plague will be upon my house soon - I'm going to research the Plague of 1665 for my European Towns and Villages course. I had hoped to do the plague's influence on London theatre in the 1590s, but I'm having trouble locating an adequate number of sources. And since flying to London and digging around in archives there isn't possible this semester, I must use what I can find!

Cheers!