Keep your eyes on the tail.

I head off for Missoula tomorrow, so I'm using the ol' internet to quickly learn about the place and see what there is to do there. Other than hang out with Amy, of course. And you know what they have less than one hour away from Missoula? Can you guess?

The National Bison Range Wildlife Refuge! A whole range for bison! I'm already planning to talk Amy into taking me there. It sounds sweet.

Have you figured out by now that I like buffalo? (Bison is the correct term but nowadays they're pretty much interchangeable; and let's be honest, "buffalo" sounds awesomer. Yes, awesomer.) I have pictures of them hanging in my apartment and a buffalo-head magnet on my fridge. There's a little bison farm or something in Virginia off of highway 15 and when I told some friends I saw buffalo there they thought I was crazy and didn't know a buffalo from a fat horse. But I do. Also, there is this great little joint in Tacoma, Washington, that serves buffalo food- burgers, burritos, steaks, you name it. I miss that place.

Bison trivia: How do you know if a bison isn't feeling so amused and is about to charge? If its tale is sticking straight up. I'll look out for that.

Joke: What did the daddy buffalo say to his kid when he left for work? "Bison." Hahahaha.

The Change Train is coming through again...

I'm currently moping around my apartment attempting to organize things in preparation to move out. It's not very fun. I like my apartment. I don't want to take it apart. Right now I'm filling a large box with papers to take to the recycling center. I don't want to lug all these articles and things around that I read for classes, but I also worry I will wish I had them someday when I'm maybe back in school or remembering something pertinent to a project. You should have seen how nervous I was taking all my billions of colored tabs out of the thirty library books I returned after I finished my thesis. What if I work on this again? What if I've just lost a lot of information by tearing out the tabs? Honestly I probably won't look at any of this stuff again. But I like to be prepared.

So I'm going to get back to fretting over whether or not I should throw out the spiral notebook with notes I took from the classes I TA'd. Then maybe I'll move on to finally getting rid of a bunch of clothes I've moved around since college but never wear.

P.S. This cartoon accurately depicts every discussion I ever led in Harrelson Hall.

Do I see a fire? No, wrong again.

To celebrate the end of the semester Elizabeth and I headed west to Lake Lure for four nights. Our first night there we ate at a restaurant right by the lake and I pointed out some smoke to Elizabeth, thinking there was a fire. She looked where I pointed but then laughed. "That's not a fire, Andi. There's a reason these are called the Smokey Mountains." I felt sheepish.

Wednesday we visited the Biltmore in Asheville.

After touring the ginormous house we went to the farm and pet lambs and a calf and watched a blind chicken eat some egg yolk, which freaked me out. Then we visited the winery for a wine tasting. After leaving we headed toward Asheville and walked around a little before eating dinner and heading back to our condo at the lake.

Thursday it was cloudy and rainy all day, so we stayed in reading and napping. We were going to eat out but we realized we'd miss The Office, so we bought some groceries at the store and made dinner instead.

Friday we went to Chimney Rock Park and climbed a billion stairs and hiked all over the side of a mountain and saw some amazing views.

This was where Last of the Mohicans was filmed. Speaking of film sites, parts of Dirty Dancing were filmed at our resort. After leaving the park we headed back to the condo, where I took a nap. Then we went down to the lake and I wandered around while Elizabeth read. We ate dinner at another restaurant by the water but a cold front came through so I shivered through most of the meal since we were outside on the patio.

Today we checked out of the resort and went horseback riding. It was fun but not super exciting.

Once I went horseback riding in Red River, New Mexico, with my dad and brother, and our guide let us gallop and jump over rivers and do pretty much whatever we wanted, which was awesome. Now when I go on tours where the horses just follow each other and you don't have to do anything (they even park themselves back at the barn) I always feel disappointed. Anyway, after that we hopped in the car and drove back to Raleigh.

Now I have a few days to kill before I head off for another adventure in Missoula, Montana.

Graduation

Here I am, still wearing my cap, with Jenny and Elizabeth.


















And with Leslie and Alex.

Master Me

It's over. Yesterday I successfully defended my thesis. I enjoyed getting to sit there with three professors and talk about my work and where it could go, and it was rewarding to have them sign my title page and shake my hand. But as soon as I left and was walking across campus to my car the depression set it. I might have to get a PhD some day. Or at least make sure whatever archives/library job I eventually get actually lets me do history. I loved graduate school. Library school just won't be the same. Sigh.

On a brighter note, today was graduation and I had a great day. My cousin Leslie and her boyfriend Alex came down from Richmond to celebrate with me. We had a nice lunch, then headed to the history department's graduation ceremony. I might have pictures later. I almost cried with the undergraduate's speech, not because it was really great but, again, because I already miss history school. I am such a nerd.

After the ceremony and pictures we went for a drive- Alex wanted to see the Research Triangle and then we walked around UNC while drinking bubble tea. Eventually we drove back to Raleigh and gorged ourselves on delicious sushi. Now we're recovering and we might go out later tonight with some friends of mine.

So that's that. I'm a master now. Time flies.

My Wednesdays usually aren't this fun.

Sorry I've been away from the blogosphere for a while. I finished school, my mom has been visiting, and I've been hanging out in Richmond. But I'm back in Raleigh, at least until next week when I'm off to hang out at a lake in the mountains.

Now, back to my Wednesday.

I woke up to the smells of Grandma's cooking. Well, that might be a lie. I probably would have woken to the smells of Grandma's cooking eventually but I had my mother with me to tell me to get up. So I did, but slowly. We had a lovely brrrrrunch with a crazy egg dish and bagels and lox, then Grandpa and Mom and I headed out to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden for a stroll through the flowers and some cucumber soup. We returned home and I took a much too short nap, then my mom and I hit the road for Raleigh. We arrived in time for shwarma sandwiches at Neomonde and then raced downtown to see Avenue Q. If you A)know anything about the show or B)know my mother or especially C)know both, you can imagine that I was a little nervous going to see it with her and I gave her fair warning about what to expect. I'm not sure she heeded my warning, but I enjoyed the show and I think she had a good time, too. The actors were pretty impressive with their singing and acting and puppeteering all at once.

So that was my Wednesday. Hope yours was great as well!

Greatest night ever.

Tonight in celebration of finishing all of my papers and projects (except for grading exams tomorrow and defending my thesis next Friday) I went to hear my favorite guy ever play a concert in Chapel Hill. Who is my favorite? you ask.

Josh Ritter. I love him. I saw him play once in Seattle my senior year of college, and I have three of his albums. The last time I flew on a plane I tried to do work while listening to my iPod, but my iPod was playing a recording of a Josh Ritter concert I got off of All Songs Considered and it was so wonderful and distracting that I couldn't get any work done and instead just sat there in my seat with the silliest grin on my face because, as I said, Josh Ritter is my favorite.

So the fact that he was playing near me on the exact day I would finish school work was pretty excellent.

He had his band with him and they were great, too. You could tell they were all having a good time. It was also nice to be among a large crowd of people who also love Josh Ritter and know the words to his songs, because usually people have no clue who he is when I tell them he's my favorite.

So hooray for a really great Josh Ritter concert and an extra big hurray for the semester being over!

last-weekend-o-homework-for-a-while review

Friday: Met with advisor to talk about his final edits on my thesis, went to the library school at Chapel Hill to find out what I'm supposed to be doing to get ready for next semester, did a little research at the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, drove back to Raleigh and went to the grocery store, then came home to work on my documentary editing project.

Saturday: Worked more on documentary editing project, edited my thesis, went for a run, planned out my early republic paper and consulted with my Oregon Trail map maker.

Sunday: Slept in, more map consultation, and worked on early republic paper on and off all day.

shortcuts

I just inadvertently discovered how to insert a footnote using shortcuts and my keyboard alone without having to mess with the mouse. That is exactly the kind of thing I wish I'd discovered, oh I don't know, say four years ago? Or at least before grad school. Sigh.

Just ignore the talon marks.

Once way back when (Maybe 1841? I don't have my notes with me...) this guy was traveling to California. Somewhere around the Sierra Nevada he ran out of food and was pretty hungry. Maybe even starving. But lo and behold, a hawk flew overhead! And he thought "hey, hawks probably taste like chicken, right?"* So he shot it.

Only he missed.

But all was not lost because "Look! What is that falling from the sky? Not a hawk, but..."*

...the hawk's lunch! The shot startled the bird and he dropped a squirrel! Like manna from heaven. And the hungry man cooked up that squirrel for supper.


*I totally made these quotes up, even though this is based on a true story. A pretty awesome story if you ask me.

Home stretch.

This is the last week of classes. Unless I one day get a PhD- which is not a plan right now but hey, the future is wide open- unless that happens this is my last week of history classes ever. Am I excited about a summer break? Definitely. Am I excited about graduating and being done with (history) school? Not at all.

But right now I don't have too much time to think about that. Today I scheduled my thesis defense for May 9. If you're wondering, that is exactly one day before graduation. I need to have the thesis finished to turn into my committee by Monday. I'm tired of working on the darned thing. Next week I also have a 15-page historiography paper due, as well as my big documentary editing project. Sigh.

So if you're asking yourself, "Hey, what exciting stuff is Andi up to down there in North Carolina?" the disappointing truth is that I'm holed up in my apartment slaving away. Or kicking myself in the shins for procrastinating and not slaving away enough.

weekend review

Friday: Worked on my thesis all day, went for a run, and went to a show downtown with the video store gang.

Saturday: Enjoyed coffee and a walk with Allison in Durham, bought groceries, and returned home to work on my thesis.

Sunday: Worked on the thesis, went for a run, went to church, made a disappointing dinner, and worked on thesis more.

Wait, you don't want this whole wheat bread?

Today I went to the grocery store and bought a lot of food. While shopping I briefly parked my cart next to a wine display and went to pick out my sandwich bread. When I returned and reached down to put the bread in my cart the other things in there didn't look familiar. After adopting a puzzled look I realized my mistake and looked up, only to see a woman staring wide-eyed at me.

"Whoops!" I said with a smile and a shrug of the shoulders. "Not my cart! Sorry about that. Haha...uh...this is awkward."

And I quickly found my own cart and walked away.

It's always weird when this happens.

Last semester in my Environmental History class we read Mike Davis's Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. He has a whole chapter on fires in Southern California, and a week after we discussed the Malibu mansions that stubbornly keep reappearing, fires went raging through the region. But I guess that's sort of a yearly occurrence.

Yesterday in my Early American Republic class we talked about the New Madrid earthquake of 1812. It shook about half the continent. And my professor mentioned something about how no one ever talks about the New Madrid fault line in the Midwest, but that surely it will move again. And what happened early this morning? There was an earthquake.

I would like to make a complaint.

My new loud neighbor has a puppy she never puts on a leash and she's leaving its poo all over the ground right in front of my apartment. I've never been one to complain about other people in official ways, but I feel like I might need to say something. Not to her, of course, because I tend to avoid confrontation like the plague, but maybe to the office. Because it's getting warm, and who wants a bunch of cooking poo right outside the window? Not me.

I turned 25!

This past weekend was my birthday weekend. It was pretty great.

As you may recall from last year, Tess and I share the exact same birthday. So this year, in honor of turning 25, we threw a birthday party! It was a fancy birthday party, which basically means we made everyone dress up. And they did!

















While everyone sang us "Happy Birthday" we held mini cupcakes with improvised candles (also called matches).














There was eating and chatting and drinking and dancing and an overall good birthday celebratin' time.

That was Saturday night. Sunday, my actual birthday, the fun only continued. Josh and I went to Historic Yates Mill, which includes a nature preserve so we walked around a marsh and mill pond and checked out nature. We couldn't go in the actual mill, but we still walked around it. This was a fun combination of history and being outside on a beautiful day.















While driving away from Yates Mill we just happened to pass a Putt-Putt place, so we obviously stopped. I beat Josh pretty badly, because I have some mini-golf skillz. We also played some sweet arcade games, including one I'd never seen before that is like whack-a-mole only you stomp on spiders with your feet and here the squish sound. A game with stomping on spiders is right up my alley.


















And we finished off the day with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (thanks Uncle Richard!), where I had birthday cheesecake for dessert!

Another RVA summer, coming at me!

Today I learned it's official- starting in June I'll be back at the same internship I did last summer. I wonder if it will be like a time warp. Like I was never even gone...

Now that's a lot of pages.

I just finished reading an 850 page book for class. It's probably one of the longest books I've ever read, not counting the Bible. Anywho, if you're interested in American history from say, post-War of 1812 until 1840s, I highly recommend Daniel Walker Howe's What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (2007). Yes it's long, but it's also very readable and a lot of important and interesting stuff happened during that period.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get busy writing a paper on the book...

***Update: Yesterday I said I liked the book and last night it won the Pulitzer Prize in U.S. history!

these weekends keep coming and going so quickly

This weekend I:

Ran, read, worked on my thesis, drove through the country, watched most of Superbad, practiced being a pool shark, played Ms. Packman, saw a cool site-specific art thing at an old barn, got rained on, napped, and did more work!

Also, a week from today I turn 25. Heads up.

He went to bed and bumped his head and couldn't get up in the morning!

[As a preliminary aside, does that song secretly refer to something else? The way London Bridges is about the plague or whatever, is the rain song really about more than rain?!]

So, it rained all weekend long. And according to the forecast, it will rain all week except for Wednesday. Now what is that all about? Did I move back to Tacoma or what?! I mean, I know we're in a drought and we need all the rain we can get, but couldn't the rain and general gloominess spread out a little? Because I'm pretty sure my African violet is supposed to get sunlight every once in a while. And I wouldn't mind some myself.

Weekend Review

Friday: Read, ran, worked on thesis, went out with the video store gang.

Saturday: Slept in, worked on thesis some, played Scrabble.

Sunday: Read, worked on thesis, went to church, and now ready to read and work on thesis more. Including all day tomorrow.

I am such a nerd.

I just heard someone on the radio (NPR) mention an upcoming story about "music about modes of transportation" and I got super excited.

Misc.

I've been making a ton of smoothies. This morning I made one with a banana, strawberries, pina colada yogurt, and orange juice. So good.

I have a new neighbor (or multiple neighbors?) who shows up around 11 every night and is obnoxiously loud while out in the breezeway. I wonder to myself, is she obnoxiously loud on purpose, or does she not realize we can all hear everything she says? Says and yells.

Yesterday I went for a walk from school over to Pullen Park. They have a carousel and little train and water with paddle boats in the summer and it was a beautiful day, so I'm glad I made that walking decision and checked it all out.

I'm coming down to the wire on this whole thesis thing. Ugh.

Um, we have a wildlife situation...

The other night in Richmond I was headed out of the house around 9pm when I heard a noise by my car. Without getting too scared about serial killers lurking over the fence I quickly realized there was a little bird rat-tatting at the window from inside the detached garage. I went back inside to inform Grandpa about the bird situation, since they really seem to like living in there. Grandpa simply told me to go open the garage doors and let him out, but when my aunt saw the look of horror on my face ("Me? go out there alone? and deal with a wild bird?") she told my ten-year-old cousin Sunni to go out and help me (aka hold my hand). So we went to the garage, Sunni leading the way and me creeping slowly behind. There was the little bird, still rat-tatting at the window. I opened the garage doors and it started to fly around, but it didn't fly out. It sat on the bike hanging from the ceiling, it rested by the window, it flew into the mirror and pecked at its reflection, but it wouldn't leave! Sunni picked up a stick and headed toward it, but the bird just kept flying around. I hid outside the door and peaked in through the fingers over my eyes. I happened to be holding a newspaper in my other hand, so I told Sunni to replace her stick with a broom, and together maybe we could wave at it enough to make it leave. But the bird kept flying around and I kept running back outside to hide. Eventually my fear rubbed off a little on Sunni, and we both hid outside, but she bucked up quickly.

"Okay," she told me sternly, "we just have to get up our courage and go in there and DO THIS."

"Okay," I nodded in agreement.

We took a collective deep breath and went back inside armed with the paper and broom. We waved waved waved and yelled "shoo! go outside! keep flying! that way that way!" And finally it flew outside, but just barely. As soon as it was gone I yelled "hurry! Close the door! Turn out the light! Let's get outta here before it comes back in this side door!" So we hurried and shut the doors and ran back inside the house.

Wildlife situation: under control.

Easter Weekend Review

Friday: Read, ran, cleaned, packed, drove to Richmond, snacked, went to see Diary of the Dead.

Saturday: Slept in, went to Edo's Squid for lunch, went to see Horton Hears a Who, went to aunt's house for mac n' cheese and hangin out.

Sunday: Up early for church with Grandma, home to make my mom's rolls with Sunni, dyed eggs, ate huge meal, hunted for eggs, napped, more hanging out and watched I am Legend.

a pleasant coincidence

I just sat down in my comfy chair with a cup of coffee and my warm blanket to begin reading Alan Taylor's William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic for class. This book won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize in American History. I get most of my books used on Amazon or Half.com, so the first thing I noticed was the little price tag that says $17.95 placed over the original price of $17.00. Er, I hope I didn't actually pay $17.95. Anyway, I read the back cover of the book, then I looked for a bibliography but ended up reading the acknowledgements at the back of the book. (I like to see historians thank all the librarians and archivists at different institutions and imagine that some day historians will be thanking me in their books...) Next I opened the front cover and read the short blurb about Alan Taylor himself.

And then...then I turned the page and there was a handwritten note in blue ink reading: "For Andrea, with my best wishes & best of luck for your research, Alan Taylor, 5-8-97 Albany."

Why, thank you very much Professor Taylor!

I love jokes.

And these are my favorite kinds of jokes. Yes, I'm taking these directly from a forwarded email, but I don't even care because they're funny! So enjoy.

o What is out on the lawn all summer and is Irish?
Patty O'Furniture.

o What do you call a fake stone in Ireland?
Sham rock.

o When is an Irish Potato not an Irish Potato?
When it is a French fry.

o What does it mean when you find a horseshoe?
Some poor horse is going barefoot.

o Why did the elephant wear his green sneakers instead of his red ones?
His red ones were in the wash.

o Why is a river rich?
Because it has two banks.

o Why did St. Patrick drive all the snakes out of Ireland?
He couldn't afford plane fare.

o What do you call a diseased Irish criminal?
A leper con.

o What do you call a leprechaun's vacation home?
A lepre-condo!

o What do you call a leprechaun with a sore throat?
A streprechaun!

o What do elves learn in school?
The elf-abet!

o What's an Irishman who keeps bouncing off walls called?
Rick O'Shea.

Almost 25 and still getting Easter baskets.

Even though the package showed up looking like this:


















Nothing was harmed and it is still awesome!

















Thanks parents.

No green thumb here.

At the beginning of last semester I decided to get a plant. I picked an easy one- African violet. It was pretty and I put it in a cute self-watering pot. I opened the shades to give it light. But it stopped flowering, and has not flowered since. Maybe that's the way African violets go, but I wanted a flower, not a green thing. It's like my dislike for cats- I prefer dogs who give me attention and make me feel good about myself. Instead of giving me pretty flowers and making me feel good about myself, my African violet has really let me down. Or maybe I've let it down, but whatever. Today leaves started falling out of it. They still look green and plump and all, but they just fall out. My grandparents will read this and shake their heads at my poor plant-owning abilities. Yet even as I complain I don't really care enough to figure out the problem- get a bigger pot? More water? Less water? More sun? Plant food? It's all too much trouble.

keepin' stock in stock

I have discovered lately the need to keep chicken and/or vegetable stock, well, in stock. (Okay, after typing the first sentence I got confused and checked my pantry to see if it's really called "stock," and my store-bought cans are called "broth," but I assume those are the same, and if they're not, um, that's embarrasing.) This is because I like making vegetable soups. We all know my favorite is butternut squash soup, but I have also made cauliflower soup and tonight I made carrot soup! It was no butternut squash soup, let me tell you, but it was still good. I also ate some asparagus and two biscuits. Pretty good dinner I would say. However, the thing about cooking at this point in my life is that too often the act is synonymous with procrastinating.

blue skies

It's sunny and warm out. That makes me extra excited. Even if I'm not even going outside of my apartment today, I still appreciate all the daylight and warmth. "Hey Spring, let's be friends okay?"

Pictures!

saw lots of sights

So my New York trip is almost over. We checked out of the Carlyle today and Ryan flew home, so that is sad. I miss him already. We had a pretty good time.

Let me think...I think I last updated on Wednesday. So Thursday we walked through Central Park and visited the Natural History museum, which was pretty awesome. Then we went to Soho and Ryan bought some clothes, and then we wandered around there and Chinatown for a really long time until some friends met us for dinner. Then Friday we slept in, visited the Met, went to the ginormous Macy's (Ryan did more shopping), and went to MoMA. Oh, then dinner in Little Italy. This morning we got up and visited KMart so Ryan could buy a cheap suitcase to carry all of this extra clothes back home, and then we had to check out. He drove away in a cab, and I took the bus across town to meet my friend Keith for lunch, which was great. It's so fun to see these good friends and even though we haven't seen each other in a few years we jump right back in as if no time has passed! After lunch I stopped by the Carlyle one last time to get my bag, then took a cab to Celia's house in Brooklyn. That's where I am now. Her dad made chicken for dinner, just like old times in Santa Fe. Tomorrow we plan to visit the Whitney Biennial (which I saw last time I was here!) before I fly back to Richmond.

So that's that. I'll post a few pictures when I'm home- Ryan was our official photographer and I think we got some fun ones.

Signing off,
Andi

more updates on our fabulous time in New York

This will be quick, because Ryan is not amused with my blogging as we sit here in the "business center," but today was pretty exciting.

We walked around Times Square.

We ate a Reuben and pickles at the Carnegie Deli.

We visited F.A.O. Schwartz.

Ryan bought a soda from Rupert himself at the Hello Deli.

We saw Wicked. It was great.

We came back to the hotel and got slightly dirty looks walking through the "Gallery" in our jeans.

But when we came back for dinner dressed in a sweet black suit and black dress, they were more impressed. Ryan had fish, I had a delicious veal chop, and we had dessert. We also got a special appetizer "compliments of the chef" thanks to Ryan's status as the "internal guest of the year."

Two and a half hours later, we were done with dinner, and after this short trip to the "business center" to chat with you all, we're headed back up to our fancy room.

So this is how the other half lives...

Ok guys, Ryan and I are in New York and staying at the Carlyle, most likely the fanciest hotel I will ever stay in in my entire life. I got in yesterday several hours before Ryan and stopped by the hotel to drop off my bags. Right away the ladies at the desk were very nice, and they knew I was Ryan's sister and he was bringing me for my graduation and yadda yadda yadda. They had a fancy room picked out for us way up on the 30-something floor with an amazing few of Madison Avenue and Central Park and the rest of the city. However, the room was so small that the two twin beds were pushed together to make one big bed. So instead we have a much bigger and just as nice room over-looking Madison Avenue, but down on the fourth floor. They brought us a tray of fresh berries and chocolate covered strawberries, and we've both already made use of the big white robes.

Anyway, after I dropped off my bags and had my personal tour of the place, I went walking forever and ever. Finally with very tired feet I headed back to the hotel for a short nap, then Ryan arrived and right after that my friend Celia arrived! So we sat in our room admiring how fancy it all is. Then we headed to the East Village for dinner and walked around a little, and then it was home to bed. I'm feeling slightly sick so my body gets tired and achy pretty quickly with all this walking, but hopefully I'll get back to normal soon.

Ooh, and here's the most awesome part...on our way back into the hotel last night Ryan and I stopped by the cafe downstairs to peek in because...get this...Woody Allen was playing the clarinet! So I looked at him for a few minutes, but Ryan wasn't interested because he sees famous people all the time at his hotel in Santa Fe and has become snooty about it.

Today we got up and headed way down to the South Street Seaport and Battery Park, but really just walked around a lot and didn't actually go into anything. Except for the huge discount clothing store that was full of Europeans buying fancy clothes. Ryan bought a suit because he wants us to eat at the restaurant here at the hotel but he needs a jacket for that. Seriously, we're not nearly fancy enough for this place.

Anyway, I'm in the business center now using the free internet, because using wireless from our room costs $15 a day! You'd think the fancy hotel would give free wireless... So I'm about to go back up for a short rest, then we'll probably go out and eat with Celia and her sister.

Sorry this post was more like a mass email than an exciting blog...maybe I'll have fun pictures to post when I get back.

Tata for now!

These happen to be on my camera. And, I like them.

Weekend Review

Friday: Read, went to school to listen to Natalie Zemon Davis and Jonathan Spence, (famous historians of early France and China, respectively), read at a coffee shop, watched The Return of Martin Guerre (starring Gerard Depardieu) at school and listened to Davis talk about the work she did on it, went out with the video store gang.

Saturday: Slept in, spent a billion hours at the mall helping Tess look for a suit jacket, read briefly, celebrated Elizabeth's birthday with the girls by eating at Mellow Mushroom and going ice skating!

Sunday: Read, read more, went to church and the grocery store, watched the Oscars, read a tiny bit more.

Did I tell you?

I don't know if I've shared this with you, dear internet readers, but the truth is...I have a thing for old men. Not a romantic thing, just an I-think-they're-awesome thing. I like to watch old men, and talk to old men, and I especially like portraits of old men.

I don't really know what it is about old men that makes me like them. But I do. Once in college I played Bingo at a retirement home and this really great old man next to me kept making jokes, like "B4 what?" I laughed every time. Then he told me stories about his logging days.

Only this other time at a different retirement home I played the piano while some folks ate dinner and afterwards this old man came up to me and said his wife used to teach piano so he heard every mistake I made. He was an old man I didn't like.

Another time I saw a whole slew of old men in cute white sweaters lawn bowling at a park in London. I hid behind bushes and took pictures.

I think my affinity for old men might also have something to do with my love for history. I could spend hours looking at presidents at the National Portrait Gallery.

P.S. I hope that my writing "old men" isn't offensive. I definitely mean no offense. I think "awesome old men" sounds much better than something like "elderly men," or "senior men."

Headed to the Big Apple!

Remember when my brother Ryan won a free trip? Well, fancy beach resorts were already full during my spring break. Then we thought about Tokyo, but that was when his hotel tried to take his free trip away from him. We were mad. But Ryan made a deal with them, and our new (and booked and flights-paid-for) plan is to go to New York City! And according to my guidebook, the hotel where we're staying is listed as the number two best hotel in New York. Upper East Side by Central Park. I'm just sayin'.

Ryan is the best brother in the whole world. He could give two flips about visiting New York, but he's taking me there because he knows I love it. He'll have fun, too, though. I hear there is a museum where you can walk on ships. That sounds awesome. And my friend Celia lives there, now with her dad and sister (Ryan went to school with her sister), so we'll get to see them and have good times. You may recall what happened last time I visited Celia in New York...

And now, in preparation for mingling with the rich and famous at our fancy hotel, I think I'll need to run my purple Converse through the wash.

Weekend Review

Friday: Worked on shortening my conference paper some more and practiced reading it slowly. Went to the art museum, just for fun. Went to school and helped set up for the conference for three hours. Home to watch a movie.

Saturday: Up early to get to the North Carolina Graduate Student History Conference. Ran the technology for Tess's panel, listened to Gabriel's panel, ate lunch, and ran the front desk (about three people walked in) during the third session. Then it was my turn. This other guy read a paper, then I read my paper, then the commentator talked for so long that there was no time left for questions. But it went well. I got good feedback from people and it was a good experience. After eating some cheese and veggies, helped take down the conference by moving a bunch of furniture around again (and breaking three nails in the process). Home for a nap and dinner, then out to Mitch's with lots of students, and then out on Glenwood with the girls. Home late.

Sunday: Slept in a lot, generally lazed about, went to church, watched another movie.

Did you hear the one about the "toe" truck?

A handful of cash and an entertaining ride to Cary with the tow truck man later, I am now back in possession of my car! And that lot across from school where I've been parking occasionally for the past semester and a half? Well, maybe I won't park there anymore.

some things I like:

Oreos
fields of tulips
temporary tattoos
croissants
bluegrass
portraits of old men
hot pink
Shirley Temple drinks
big windows
lobsters

it's the little things

This weekend I got some work done! I wrote five pages which finished a rough draft of my section on the California Trail, so that was not a lot but still exciting.

Then to reward myself I went for a drive in the country! I saw cute little towns and a sign for a strawberry patch and a sign for goat milk soap for sale and a sign for pancakes! I also saw real live buffalo! And it was a beautiful day, topped off with sharing a cinnamon roll the size of my head.

Today I got a new tooth. When you're a kid and you lose a tooth you put it under your pillow and wake up with money! But if you're me, and one of your baby teeth never falls out or gets replaced with an adult tooth, not only don't you get money under your pillow but you take many months and many dollars and many dentist appointments to finally get a tooth. Now that process is finally over!

tonight's dinner:

pistachios
apple sauce
chips and salsa
Skittles
coffee

When you think about it, that covers several important food groups...

Never Have I Ever

Back in the day I had the nickname Miss PP. I'm talkin' junior high days. While PP might conjure images of something entirely different it actually stood for Propriety Police. I kept the other kids on their toes. No littering, no talking with your mouth full, no bad language. Writing this makes me think I must have been pretty obnoxious, which was probably true, but I also know it was all in fun- they liked calling me Miss PP and I didn't mind it either.

The thing about being Miss PP, however, is that you automatically set yourself up on a dangerously high pedestal.

Take, for example, the day we played Never Have I Ever. In case you don't know, Never Have I Ever is a game in which lots of people sit in chairs in a circle, and one person stands in the middle and says something they have never done before (like "never have I ever beat Super Mario Brothers," or "never have I ever been to Topeka"). Anyone else who has done that thing gets up and runs to another seat, and the person left standing takes a turn saying something they've never done. During one particular game of Never Have I Ever someone announced that they had never...I hesitate to write it...peed in a swimming pool. Now that I think about it that person must have been lying, because what little kid has never peed in a pool? So naturally everyone else got up and ran for a new seat, and making the conscious decision not to be a liar myself, I got up and ran.

Only I ran too slowly. Sure enough, me, Miss PP, was the only one left without a seat. I was mortified. And ironically, my nickname became doubly fitting.

Weekend Review

Friday: Woke up (in Richmond) and worked on my conference paper, went to an Indian buffet (my favorite ever) for lunch with the grandparents, a little more work on the paper mixed with puttering around, went to First Fridays and Cafe Gutenberg afterwards.

Saturday: Slept in, visited with Uncle Richard, learned to play a song on the ukulele, had everyone over for a big fancy lunch that included special spoons for digging marrow out of bones, took a nap, saw Strange Wilderness and really miss those 8 bucks, ate at the Waffle House, had a dance party in aunt's kitchen.

Sunday: Slept in, ate lunch, went to ukulele store and almost bought a tenor but will save the idea for my birthday, hung out with the young folk to watch the Superbowl and play Scrabble.

Most archivists are awesome.

But the guy in this news story deserves a million punches in the face.

A post in which I take an undeserved break to show you what I'm up to.

(Notice the mood-setting pictures of buffalo!)

Weekend Review

Friday: Worked on my conference paper on and off all day, then hung out with the video store gang and went out to the Jackpot.

Saturday: Read, took a nap, read more, played Scrabble.

Sunday: Went to church, looked at thesis stuff, took a nap, now trying to write thesis stuff.

If Danny were a baby he would be this cute.

Roughing It

"Nothing helps scenery like ham and eggs."

So wrote Mark Twain in the humorous account of his mail coach ride to the Wild West in Roughing It. That also happens to be a quote I include in my thesis. Just now I pulled down my paperback copy of the book to check the page number, and on that very page with the ham and eggs quote is the following handwritten note:

"I got whipped one night for just saying I was glad I was not a decendant of one of the pioneer women of California, but it did not change my mind. -HCS"

HCS was my great grandfather, and apparently he loved to read Mark Twain and take notes in the margins. In fact, his above quote is written in blue ink, but "women" is underlined in red pencil. It's neat to see how engaged he was with the book through his underlinings, scribblings, and asterisks. This is one book I'll keep for a long time.

"Open wide. A little wider."

Here is why I don't like going to the dentist: I have a small mouth. Contrary to what my father might say at this point, it really is a small mouth. And small mouths don't like to open uncomfortably wide, and they especially don't like to stay in that position for long periods of time. They especially especially don't like when you prop them open wide and fill them with lots of goo and then have a stranger's finger in there putting pressure on a tray for EIGHT WHOLE MINUTES, eight minutes that begin okay because you're grooving to the tune on the radio but then the song ends and you're left with nothing but quiet and boring commercials that leave you no other choice except to concentrate on the fact that your mouth is open very wide and you're about to drool on yourself.

This weekend I...

made pizza
walked around my lake
watched Flight of the Conchords
went for a walk in the snow
went to the Big Mammas House of Burlesque show
listened to dueling pianos at a bar
watched The Muppet Movie
made fruit smoothies
ate steak
played Scrabble

plan ahead

Last night around 7:30 my school declared a two hour delay for today. Was it snowing? No. Was there snow in the morning? No. Did my class get cancelled? No, because it started at 10:15.

But then my other class got cancelled. After I stuck around campus for 3 hours and was sitting in the room waiting for five minutes for the professor to show up.

And it still hasn't snowed.

Mimes of the Prairie

Here's that video my professor sent me. Because historians have a sense of humor, too!

I heart the West.

Sometimes I get sad that there aren't any history classes in my program on the American West. I mean, I guess it's understandable, what with the West being way over there and us being way over here on the East Coast, but still. Anyhow, I have managed to become known among some of our professors as that one student interested in the West (and unfortunately that sometimes gets confused with a student who is actually really knowledgeable about the West, which I'm not, but I guess it's all relative).

I haven't always loved the West. I'm from the Southwest, but while I have a fierce New Mexican pride I was also sure eager to get the heck out of there for college. I loved the Pacific Northwest, but even there when it came to history I always wanted to look east. In my senior thesis seminar my professor asked us to write a research paper on anything we wanted...in the West. I was not a happy camper, so I compromised by writing about easterners traveling west. And that's when I sort of got hooked. Now I'm obsessed with the Oregon Trail and I have pictures of buffalo hanging in my apartment.

Anyway, the point of this post is to tell you that I just received an email from one of my professors with a YouTube clip that was sent to him by his old advisor, who happens to be a big deal in both western and environmental history. I haven't even seen the clip yet (dial-up internet and video clips don't go together very well...) but I'm excited that he thought of me. You know, as that one student obsessed with the West.

I hear ya bro.

My brother Ryan on the phone: You know how when you go to a foreign country it's polite to eat whatever they eat? Well today I made dinner for The Foreigners [two of his friends from work, one from France and the other from Spain] and they refused to eat it!

Me: What did you make them?

Ryan: Kraft's Blue Box Macaroni and Cheese.

Me: I ate that for lunch!

Ryan: I know, right? But they wouldn't eat it! I was all, "You guys don't understand, I grew up on this stuff!"

And it's true, we did grow up on mac and cheese. I still love it. We had a babysitter once who didn't think a box of macaroni and cheese was a decent meal, so she made us cut up and stir in a hot dog. Even way back then I thought, "you really think adding a hot dog to this is making it better for us?" There was also the time Ryan and I were alone making mac and cheese for lunch but discovered we didn't have any milk to add, so he went across the street and asked our neighbor for a little glass. Because sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

weekend review

Friday: Hung out around the apartment all day unpacking and reorganizing my pantry to fit all the new food my aunt gave me, and did some reading.

Saturday: Slept in, read, went for a run, went to potluck at Tess's house and hung out with the girls afterwards.

Sunday: Slept in, read, went to church, now ready to read more.

It's been a quiet and relaxing weekend, even though that fan is still running in the bedroom and my room isn't put back together yet.

smoooooth

Check out the delicious smoothie I just made with my new blender.

Thanks parents.

just give me my cuppa joe

I think I'm addicted to caffeine. I didn't have any all day, and then I got a headache. I very rarely get headaches. Now I've just finished a cup of coffee and my headache is gone! And since I got a bigger French press and made two cups, I'm about to go drink more and finally do some reading! At nine o'clock on a Friday night. Go me!

"Don't blink!"

Are you tired of wearing glasses? Thinking about Lasik but concerned about the cost? Afraid of doctors?

Well have I got the thing for you!

For only $99 you can order a Lasik@Home kit and be your own surgeon! All it takes is four easy steps (if you don't click that link you are seriously missing out).

And when you're done you can order a stylish t-shirt or tote bag!



*thanks go to Josh for finding this hilarious site!

sloshin' through a constant noise

Aaarrgghhhhh! My leak is back. The one that makes the carpet in my bedroom wet. I just got back to Raleigh and stopped by my apartment to unload my car and run off to class, but while throwing suitcases and boxes and grocery bags all over the place I noticed the wet carpet (the odd smell clued me in). I told the office and then left for class, and when I got back the carpet guy was still in the parking lot so we chatted. There is a large and LOUD fan in my room that I'm supposed to keep running until Friday, when they suspect the carpet will be dry enough to put in new padding. This time the water spread far enough that the guy turned my bed sideways and put a bookshelf in my bathroom. They also dripped pink carpet liquid through the apartment to the front door.

Welcome back to me.

apparently I sit around thinking about this

People always talk about elevator music, but how often do you actually hear music in elevators these days? Maybe I'm not going to fancy enough places. Or tall enough places.

weekend review

I feel like I've been on one big three weeks long weekend, but in an effort to get back into the swing of things, here we go...

Friday: Slept until 10 (after falling asleep at 7pm), lounged around, ate lunch, got out my thesis stuff and thought hard about working on it, not sure what else...maybe played Rook?

Saturday: Slept in, went to Mexican Saturday, hung out with Sunni, looked at thesis stuff again, chatted with Katie, hung out more around the house with various family members.

Sunday: Ran a couple errands then helped my aunt move, home for dinner and to crash.

Sunni

For a long time there were four of us cousins on my mom's side of the family. I was the oldest, then came Leslie, Jay, and finally my brother Ryan. Even though Ryan and I lived in New Mexico and Leslie and Jay lived in Texas, we were all pretty close.

Then along came the youngest cousin, Sunni. It's been no secret around here that Sunni has a keen ability to drive me nuts. She called me her "Serious Cousin," because I had a stern face while doing crossword puzzles and never laughed. She would try to kiss me goodbye and, just as I do with anyone who kisses me goodbye and isn't a cute boy, I would squish up my nose and exclaim "gross!"

But lately we've been friends. We chill. We tell secrets about boys. We go shopping. We dance. We have "mucho awesome-o fun," as she has just informed me.

And to prove it, I've got pictures.

Here we worked on our gangsta looks.


Then we danced to Mary Poppins.


And we were all-around cute on Christmas!


*photos by Leslie, who, if she would only come out from behind the camera every once in a while, might also be in fun photos with us!

MIA from the Blogosphere

Howdy folks, long time no see. It's crazy how being busy having a good time leaves me with zero ideas for blog posts.

I can't tell you about my New Year's Resolutions, because I don't make them. I thought about giving a Year in Review, but you can just go through the archives for that. I spent a split second trying to think of a good Story from Andi's Childhood, but nothing came that quickly.

So instead I will give you a boring list of recent things, just to catch you up.

I saw Sweeney Todd. It was fun. But I won't lie, I wish their voices were better. I mean, it is a musical. I spent about a third of the movie giving my dad's arm the death grip and looking away from the screen.

I still believe Danny is the Cutest Dog Ever.

I made Martha Washington Balls, Peanut Butter Balls, and Biscochito cookies.

I've been dancin'.

I watched my cousin Jay propose to a girl on Christmas Day, and she said yes. Before that I was the Keeper of the Ring, because I'm Responsible.

I learned some chords on the ukulele.

I went to the American Civil War Center, Colonial Williamsburg, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

I ate lucky black eyed peas on New Year's Day.

I was a Tetris champion.

You can take the girl out of New Mexico, but you can't take New Mexico out of the girl.

This is the first year I will not be in Santa Fe at all during the holidays/winter break. However, this does not stop me from trying to have a New Mexican Christmas.

On Christmas Eve my dad and I put about 50 farolitos in front of my grandparents house, and even though the picture doesn't do it justice the place looked great.

That same night my mom made our traditional Christmas Eve posole dinner, and for dessert we had the biscochito cookies she and I made.


To top off my New Mexican Christmas in Richmond, my parents gave me a book on the West, a calendar with wood block prints that are in the New Mexico Museum of Art, and a little note pad made out of a New Mexico license plate.

Overall I had a great Christmas, though it would have been better if my brother Ryan were here. Hope you all had a great holiday, too!

hey guess what

My semester is over! It took a while, I tell you what. Today was the last day of finals and guess who, as a graduate student in a field in which tests are not usually given in upper level courses, had a test. Ding ding ding, that would be me. So after a weekend of not studying I hopped to on Monday (except for that Christmas party Monday night...) and then got up this morning at 5:15 to get to school a little early (little early?) to cram before the eight o'clock test. Afterwards the professor asked me, "Now was that so bad?" and I replied, "I don't know yet, it depends on how you grade it." Anyway, that's a third semester of grad school under my belt and only one left to go.

Now I'm working on my holiday spirit and making sure that my no school time is a non-stop good time.

weekend review

Thursday: Went to a coffee shop to study Spanish for a few hours, took my Spanish test, home to putter around and try to take a nap, out with friends on Glenwood until late.

Friday: Went for a run, graded exams, and didn't study.

Saturday: Finished grading exams, went shopping (aka didn't study), out to a Christmas party.

Sunday: Read through some notes in bed, had to take a nap, went for a run, went to church, stopped by Target on the way home, now finally studying. (Or not, since I'm on the internet...)

I passed!

I just learned I passed my Spanish test, which was the reading comprehension in a foreign language requirement to graduate. This makes me very excited.

No one likes a six-year-old Christmas liar.

The only time I ever had perfect attendance at school was during the first grade. The first grade was also the year I lied at Christmas.

December 13 is Saint Lucia Day. I'm not going to pretend I know very much about the actual holiday and how it is celebrated in Sweden or wherever else it is celebrated. I can only tell you how Ms. Nelson's First Grade Class attempted to celebrate this holiday tradition.

Ms. Nelson told our class that on Saint Lucia day the oldest girl would get to wear a green wreath on her head and walk around the classroom passing out cookies. I desperately wanted to be that girl. I was six. My birthday is in April.

We interested girls gathered around her desk trying to figure out who was the oldest. I declared that I was.

"Aren't you six?" she asked.

"Noooo, I'm seven. Definitely the oldest girl here."

"When is your birthday?"

"April 13."

"Weren't you born in 1983?"

"Me? Nope, 1982. I'm seven."

Looking back, I realize Ms. Nelson must surely have known my real age. Or she could have easily looked it up. Yet I insisted, and she gave in. I wore the wreath and passed out those cookies and was immensely pleased with myself.

Of course eighteen years later I still can't see a picture of the blond Saint Lucia without cringing and feeling like a guilty idiot.

Did I forget to mention?

Ryan's employee of the year award included an all-expense paid trip to one of the company's other resorts, anywhere in the world. I have it under good graduation present authority that there is an incredible week of brother-sister bonding in the Caribbean in my future...

I'm the employee of the year's proud big sister.

My little brother works as a valet at one of the fanciest hotels in Santa Fe where all the rich people and celebrities stay. Not only is he an excellent professional car parker, he also has some mad people skillz. Everyone loves him. In fact, they love him so much that tonight at the employee Christmas party he won employee of the quarter AND employee of the year! Way to go Ryan!

weekend review

Friday: Slept in, worked on my paper, went to school to help lead a review session, ran a couple errands, home to work on the paper more, chatted with my friend Amy and learned SHE IS GETTING MARRIED!!!, went out with the video store gang.

Saturday: Didn't sleep in enough, drove to Richmond, had tea and chatted with my grandparents, went to my aunt's house to hang out and eat dinner, home to bed early.

Sunday: Worked on my paper, ate steak, took a three hour nap, finished and submitted the paper, played Rook and won the game by shooting the moon for the first time ever, went back to aunt's house to decorate for Christmas, now to bed.

four little elves gettin' down

Click here for an early present!

today felt like ice outside

It was also the last day of classes! As much as I love school, I also love when school ends for breaks. However, I still have to finish a paper, take a Spanish test, grade tests, take a women's history test, and possibly take another Spanish test if I fail the first one. When all of this is finally done it will be 4pm on December 18, which is a really long way away.

In the meantime, I have some procrastinating work and studying to do.

I froze and caved.

Last night I wore sweats and socks to sleep, and had an extra blanket on the bed. It still took a long time to fall asleep because I was freezing. This morning I woke up nice and warm though, until I got out of bed. I sat in my sweats with a blanket wrapped around me, and thought things might be fine. But then I cringed at the thought of taking all this warmth off to get in the shower, and I couldn't stand it. I have turned on the heat.

signs through radio waves

Yesterday I decided I might start looking into PhD programs in history in case I want to pursue a career editing historical documents, and tonight when I listened to NPR's Fresh Air I was excited because the guest Terry Gross interviewed talked about doing that exact same thing. Coincidence? Or a sign?

Chingedy Ching (hee-haw, hee-haw)

My friend Elizabeth heard a Christmas song on the radio and she became obsessed with learning about it and finding others who had heard it, too. Last I heard she'd only come up with one person, a girl from Boston. The other night she even gave us a rendition of the song, and hoo boy do I wish we'd had a video camera.

Well just now she IMed me to turn on the radio, and sure enough her ridiculous song really does exist. It's "Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey," and for your listening pleasure follow the link. It'll surely put you in the holiday spirit!

Things that went down this weekend:

Friday: Slept in, read some stuff, and went to dinner at my professor's house for mole enchiladas and mulled wine.

Saturday: Slept in even more, wasted time around the apartment, went for a run, read an article, graded some papers, pulled out my cello for the first time in Raleigh and scratched out some Christmas carols, graded more, and watched a movie.

Sunday: Slept in (again!), worked on my paper, went to church at 6, watched some TV, and worked on the paper a little more.

In other news, Ryan moved out of the house Saturday and the family is experiencing a sad empty nest. My parents are sad, Ryan is sad, and the thought of going home to visit (some day, maybe next summer, who knows?) and not having him in the same house makes me sad.

"It's priest. Have a little priest."

Guess who's excited about the movie Sweeney Todd!!! That's right, I am! I love this musical. I mean, a barber kills people and then his lady friend bakes them into pies! That's exciting stuff right there.

I learned about Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street when a cabinmate at Interlochen showed me a video of her performing the song "Wait" at her school. I was hooked from that song alone, and as soon as I got back home I bought the original Broadway production's soundtrack, starring Angela Lansbury. I played it all the time, including on family road trips. My brother Ryan was scared by the musical and didn't like it, which usually made me want to play it around him even more.

If he gets to come to Richmond for Christmas I'll make him go see it with me.

bundled

It's 61 degrees in my apartment, and since I'm still unwilling to turn the heat on I'll just put a fleece vest over my sweatshirt instead.

a short list of random

We're supposed to fill out online course evaluations for school, and the last question in the section that asks you to click strongly agree, agree, don't agree, etc. is: "Overall, this course was excellent." Um, isn't' this called leading the witness, or something?

Today I told my professor I didn't think I was smart enough to be a professor because I still can't figure out what postmodernism is, and then a really smart man walked by so she called him in to explain it, and after many minutes packed with big words and concepts like metanarrative, subjectivity, cultural history, and more I can't think of, my head sort of wanted to explode.

So far two students have complained to me about how I graded their papers, and that makes me want to crawl under my bed and never read my emails again.

Tomorrow is the deadline for submitting a proposal for presenting a paper at our graduate student conference in February, and while I'm helping to run the thing I didn't think I wanted to submit a paper. Then I got an email from a fellow student who claims to have read part of my draft for my environmental history paper/thesis and thinks I should submit, and even though I think he's just sayin' that to get more proposals it sort of makes me think I should, because it would be good experience and it looks good on your CV. Apparently the academic life is all about enhancing the ol' CV. So now I have to decide if I want to spend lots of time tomorrow writing a short proposal and, well, writing a CV, which sounds like zero fun.

Walking to the parking deck tonight I heard a girl say her friend got her toe stepped on at a club and the toenail fell off. That's gross. I had a toenail fall off once, while slip n' slidin at my cousins' house in Texas, back in the day. It only fell off on the slip n' slide, that's not where I hurt it. I hurt it when I tried to break a huge rock open on the cement to find gold. Instead of gold I got a jelly shoe and frilly sock full of blood.

At least your beer stays cold.

Tonight I had beer, a hot dog, and popcorn while sitting down on row K at a Carolina Hurricanes hockey game with four guys who range in age from 8 to 32. The Canes lost, but it was still good times.

a big bowl of deliciousness

Tonight I made my delicious butternut squash soup. I like it, so I'm going to share it with you in case you want to make it and like it, too. If you don't like it, don't tell me, because I will be sad.

Now, I'm no cook, but this is pretty easy. Take a butternut squash and cook it. I have done this in two ways: you can halve and seed the squash, then place it face down on a baking sheet and put it in the oven until it's scoopable; or you can peel, seed, and cut the squash up into little pieces and boil it (boil it in 1/2 cup of water and two cans of vegetable broth, or if you bake it in the oven add it to the water and broth after it's cooked).

I also like to add a cooked apple, some cooked onion, and garlic.
You're supposed to put the cooked squash in a food processor or blender to puree it, but I don't have those fancy contraptions so I use a slotted spoon and smash it all by hand.

Cook it all up. I added some chili pepper tonight too, with salt and pepper, and a tablespoon of butter.

That's pretty much it. I also like to cook rotini pasta and pour the soup over that. It's good.

It's groups like this that make me thankful.

things I've done the last few days, in no particular order:

read about white southern women during the Civil War

made my mom's rolls

went to the bus station on Boulevard in Richmond at midnight

pet Danny

graded papers

ate a lot of food

played with an iPhone

hung out with the Mayor of Taylortopia

finally started writing my paper

learned to C-walk like the gangster kids of NYC

watched guys chase a dog with flashlights

tried on sunglasses with Sunni

met and hung out with a distant cousin I never knew I had

procrastinated on paper writing

played Wii

watched two guys and a ten-year-old girl chug hot pho

took a couple naps

went on a group Thanksgiving Day walk

ate at Nacho Mama's for Mexican Saturday

listened to Bishop Allen for a billion hours

drank a lot of hot tea with milk

Black Friday

That's what I like to call this day of paper writing. What a sorry excuse for a holiday break.

Weekend Review

Friday: Can't really remember what I did during the day...I'm sure it was supposed to be homework but was infused with procrastination. Went to school in the afternoon to pick up my students' papers, then went with the girls to see Love in the Time of Cholera (which I didn't like) and out to dinner.

Saturday: Talked to Jennifer for an hour, work and procrastination mixed together, mapped the Overland Trail on the floor, went for an extra long run because I got lost (should have made up a story...), met Erin and Brook at the huge library book sale and got The Year of Decision: 1846 and a book on the Donner Party, went with them to Target, went back to Erin's house and ended up staying to talk and watch fighting on TV.

Sunday: Went to church, then home to procrastinate and finally work more on my research and paper. No writing ever happened, but it will eventually.

A thesis in the making.

Yesterday I was going through my research on the Overland Trail and having trouble visualizing where my quotes and evidence fit into their proper geographic locations. Pretty much all of my primary source research is hand-written on index cards, which helps me physically manipulate their order when organizing my papers (which will eventually combine into my master's thesis). So I started putting the cards into piles for areas like the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevadas, and Oregon. But those are way too broad. What about things that took place at the South Pass, Fort Hall, or on the Umatilla River? It was all too confusing for me to keep in my head.

Then I was a genius. Using string and even more index cards with color coded markers, I mapped out the second half of the Overland Trail on my living room floor. It's awesome.


I started the map at the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains, and I have the Oregon Trail going to the Willamette Vally and the California Trail cutting off and going to the Sacramento Valley.

Now I'm going to go add my research cards to the map and decide how best to write this section of my paper. But first I will make coffee.

*************
Later...

See? Only now I still have to figure out how to get all this across in narrative form...

squishin' in the halls

I just got home and took my damp shoes and socks off. It was 6:30pm. They got wet when I walked across campus this morning in a hurricane at 8:30am. That's gross.

You know you're a bad granddaughter when...

When you're talking on the phone to your granddad on his 85th (!) birthday and after he asks excitedly "are you going to sing to me?" you follow the ensuing long pause with "uhhh..."

iknewit

According to the Associated Press Virginia has one tenth of all the vanity license plates in the country. If you're thinking "wow, that's a lot of vanity plates," boy are you correct.

I have this pet peeve when people think their city or state or whatever is really unique about something that, turns out, is common in lots of places. For example, if you ever say "Nothing in [insert town/city here] ever starts on time," or "The weather in [insert town/city here] is so crazy- just wait an hour and it will change," then you should stop saying those things right now. Everyone says those things. I've lived in four states in three different regions, so I will go ahead and claim authority on this one.

However, when it comes to vanity plates, Virginia really does take the cake. It also has way too many inflatable outdoor Christmas decorations.

weekend review

Friday: Slept in, read a little, took a nap, read some more, and went to an archives meeting at school. Stopped by the video store to rent a free movie from Ryan, but instead stayed for lots of hours chatting and ended up going out with him and his friends after work. After hanging out at the hipster dive bar with the bad dj I played and watched a little Guitar Hero, then finally got home really late (or really early, depending on how you look at it). I also met my key chain twin. We both have this key chain:

Saturday: Thought I slept in, but turns out I didn't at all. Read, emailed, read a little more, watched Everything is Illuminated, discovered I was in a time warp, took a nap, read more, watched True Romance, and read more.

Sunday: Slept a little later than I meant to, almost made it to morning church but didn't, somehow found myself in Garner desperately looking for gas, went to my favorite coffee shop downtown to work on my thesis/environmental history paper, ate a shawarma sandwich for dinner, went to church, stopped by the grocery store, and now home to do a little more work.

call me a detective

I'm still thinking about my time warp. I checked some emails I sent out this afternoon, but turns out I really sent them around 10:30 in the morning. Let me just say, 10:30am is the time I set my alarm to wake me up today, and I never got on the computer until (what I thought was) around 1. So I think when I set my alarm last night I accidentally set the clock time ahead three hours before I realized it was on the wrong setting, and without fixing the time I just went ahead and set the alarm time. I think this also means I only got about 3-4 hours of sleep last night. This has never happened to me. And now it's only about 4, so maybe I should go take a nap...

I have just been through a time warp.

Seriously. I'm very confused about what time it is. I honestly thought it was 6:45. I slept in late and am still in my pajamas and have done some reading and I even just finished watching a movie, and here it is, not even 4 in the afternoon. My clock mysteriously jumped three hours ahead. I'm not even sure what time I woke up now. It's like I passed out and now that I'm awake I have this little present in my lap of three extra hours for my day. Now I think I'm going crazy.

Weekend Review: Fort Worth

Friday: Flew out for a mini family vacation in Fort Worth, Texas. Drank coffee so I could read on the plane. Dad and Ryan picked me up at the airport, we picked Mom up at the hotel, and went out to dinner. Back at the hotel to get in the hot tub.

Saturday: Breakfast at the hotel, then off to see exciting art at the Amon Carter Museum. Lunch, then wandered around Texas Christian University for a couple hours before the football game against the University of New Mexico. Took a nap on the grass during a pre-game pep rally. Watched the game and got bored when I couldn't cheer anymore after the first quarter because UNM was terrible and lost 37-0. Left early and took a nap in the car on the way back to the hotel. Hung out in my parents' room looking stuff up on the internet for the next day.

Sunday: Dropped Dad and Ryan off at a shuttle stop so they could go to the Nascar race. Went with Mom to a French restaurant downtown for breakfast and to work a crossword puzzle. Went to the Modern Art Museum where we made fun of crazy art and wore blue booties to go into a white installation. Went to the Botanic Gardens and walked through the conservatory and gardens, then went to the Japanese Gardens, which are always my favorite. Went back downtown and had smoothies, then saw the movie The Darjeeling Limited. Read for a while in the Starbucks at Barnes and Noble, then went to pick up Dad and Ryan. Ate steak and fried pickles. Back to the hotel for a swim and hot tubbing.

Monday: Breakfast in the hotel. Toured the Dallas Cowboys' stadium and threw a football around on the field. Went to the touristy Historic Stockyards but missed seeing the longhorns walk down the street. Got lost in a cow pen maze with Ryan and watched him ride a mechanical bull. Ate a barbecue sandwich. Went to the Bass Pro Outdoor store and saw lots of dead stuffed animals and some live animals, too. Parents dropped Ryan and I off, and we each flew back to New Mexico and North Carolina, respectively. Drank more coffee so I could read and not sleep, and finally got home by 11:45.

Hope I didn't drop a sock in the parking lot.

I just scrounged up sixteen quarters and did laundry here at my apartment complex. In Raleigh. I don't remember the last time I didn't do laundry in Richmond. It had to be some time in the spring. Anyway, I'm leaving on a jet plane tomorrow and desperate times call for desperate measures.

**Update: shortly after I posted I left to go watch The Office at a friend's house, and I saw a sock near my neighbor's door. "That's weird," I thought, "why is there a sock on the ground?" That's right folks, I really did drop a sock.