I Heart Raleigh

Or at least I want to. That's my plan. I've been thinking a lot lately about how I need to dive in here. So far my mind has mostly thought "I live far away from campus and downtown, I'm only here for school, I'm too busy to get involved in stuff besides school, and after school I'll probably just move away again." All of those things might be true, but I will probably miss out on good times here if I stop there. When my dad was here we went to some different parts of town I'd never been to, and ate at real live restaurants! (Being alone and poor means I don't really eat out much...) So that widened my Raleigh world a little. I'm also trying to get to know more people through church, so I've started going to a "home group." And tonight I carved pumpkins with kids at a city block fall festival, organized by the church. Let me tell you, I'm pretty masterful at scooping out pumpkins. Grey's Anatomy night is also still happening, which makes me excited because I like the girls and we are starting to be friends.

So I don't dislike Raleigh, I just don't know it enough yet. My heart is now ready to embrace the City of Oaks.

Go Archives!

Apparently October is "American Archives Month," according to the SAA website. I know you wish I'd told you sooner, but you only have six more days to celebrate it, so hop to it!

Henry Ford

Today in my TA class, the history of technology, we learned about Henry Ford and his Model T. The professor played this "music video," basically a six-minute biography set to folksy music. I thought it was hilarious. The chorus goes:

Henry Ford
He's a self-made man
Henry Ford
With a simple plan
Henry Ford
Showed us time after time how to build a better life with an assembly line.

There's also a song about Henry Ford in the musical Ragtime that I like a lot. One of the lines goes, "Even workers who ain't too clever, can learn to tighten a nut forever!" I'm not saying that's a good thing, I'm just saying it's a fun song.

Skittles Sandwich

Today in class a guy (the same guy I mentioned who used to teach in Tacoma) was eating Skittles, and it reminded me of the Skittles Sandwiches I used to make. You take one of each color and smash them all together into a flattened sandwich. I told him this, and he said he used to do it, too! And he agreed about how you couldn't make too many sandwiches because all that smashing started to hurt your fingers. So maybe I found a Skittles Sandwich soul mate? Or maybe that's something everyone does? Either way, if you haven't tried it you should, because it's the best way to "taste the rainbow."

More coffee shop conversations

Yesterday I was at another coffee shop (okay okay, it was Starbucks) when these three men sat near me. From what I could hear (and I tried hard to concentrate on my reading about the apotheosis of Captain Cook and not pay any attention to their conversation, but they were so loud...) they know each other from church, and they were trying to plan a trip to Ithaca, NY to set something up, not sure what, a conference maybe? Anyway, one of the guys was super pretentious and obnoxious and rude and patronizing, all very loudly, and it made me want to yell at him. Seriously, I really thought about saying something. Instead, I tried to bend over my article with my hair hiding the fact that my fingers were plugging my ears, but I think he noticed, because they moved. Now, I feel bad for making them move, because they have the same right I have to sit there, but the one guy made me want to curl up under the table and die, so I didn't feel toooo bad.

Then today, at a different coffee shop (I know, sounds like I go a lot, and it's true because I don't have anything better to do and caffeine is a necessary part of my graduate studies) I was sitting there, quietly reading about the myths surrounding the American West in history, when a woman and her grown son sat at the couch opposite me. He pulled out a vocab list and began quizzing his mother on her... Swahili lessons. This week she is learning the name of different foods in Swahili. This was slightly distracting, but amusing at the same time, and luckily I had to leave shortly after they arrived to go to class.

Remind me to bring headphones

I'm sitting in a coffee shop trying to write a review of several articles in The Public Historian on advocating for history. It's due tomorrow. I was supposed to work on it yesterday but I got distracted and that didn't happen, so I'm trying to do it now. Normally I work very well in coffee shops, but my lack of inspiration for this paper and the presence of nearby conversations are more distracting than usual. First two women talked about their houses and market values and kids rooms and the price of wine and how great Portland is, and just when I thought I would go mad they finally left. Then this older couple came, and my eaves dropping leads me to believe they're not really a couple but are on some sort of lunch first date. They were very nice though. The woman said I look cozy here in my booth, and I told her I am writing a paper and wished I did not have to be here, even if it is cozy. That's when the man asked "how can you write a paper on a computer? You're not writing a paper, you're writing electronics." Finally they moved on as well. It's quiet for now, and hopefully this will last. Otherwise I'll have to take my triple latte home with me and try to work there.

Some random things from tonight

As I was driving toward school I saw a girl park her car on the side of a busy road with her hazard lights on, walk several yards, and give a homeless guy on the corner a meal.

I went to a Bible study in a bowling alley. And we all prayed out loud at the same time. I liked it though, and plan to go back next week.

In the library I was looking through the journal The American Archivist for ideas on what to write my term paper on (I decided on ethics in acquisitions and collections policies...we'll see how that goes) and one of the journal covers had this really great picture of nuns making music with tambourines and triangles. It made me smile.

Make up your mind please!

Is it hot or cold? Do I need the heater or air conditioner? A sweater or sunblock? I don't like all this back and forth!

Stupid glasses

All this studious reading is making me go blind. I was already having a hard time seeing road signs, and now I can't even see people's faces as I walk through campus. I haven't worn my glasses in class yet, because my classrooms are all small, but last night I sort of wanted them. And being tired doesn't help.

Jessica Simpson has practically been to my house.

Tonight my dad and I went and saw Employee of the Month, the new movie with Jessica Simpson in which two guys who work at a Costco-like store compete for Employee of the Month in order to win the girl's (Jessica's) affections. Obviously it wasn't that great of a movie, but that's not why we went. We went because the whole thing was filmed in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, including a scene RIGHT BY MY HOUSE. If you see it, and you should if only so you can see where I grew up (and still visit my family), pay careful attention to the baseball game scene. It takes place at Ragle Park, which is about two blocks from my house. You can see the racquetball court on the corner with the mural painted on it, which is also where lots of prairie dogs live. You can also see my high school up on the hill, and the apartments across the street. You can see the corner of my neighborhood, and the fence at the back of Megan's house, who was one of my best friends all through school. Though you can't see it, my elementary school is just on the other side of the park, and I used to walk through it to and from school. You can also see the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the distance. The scenes at the store, though, were shot in Albuquerque, and the mountains you see there are the Sandias. It's pretty exciting to see your neighborhood up on the big screen, especially when it's as random as Ragle Park in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Crazy South and her liquor laws

Why are there stupid laws down here regarding places that serve alcohol? Last night I wanted to go see Tom Brosseau perform in Chapel Hill, but it turns out the place serves liquor (not just beer and wine) and that means they have to be a members-only club, and to see a show you have to become a "member" at least three days in advance. Who does that?! Yet at the same time, Saturday I'm going to be in a crowd of over 200,000 people who are all allowed to BRING THEIR OWN BEER (that's right, I'm going to the Nascar race in Charlotte with my dad). I mean, I know New Mexico is crazy, too, with her drive up liquor stores and super high rate of DUI, but at least they don't keep me from seeing a $10 show just because they can also sell me a martini.

weekend update

Yesterday I woke up to a flooded (sort of) bedroom carpet. I guess my refrigerator was leaking under the wall into the bedroom? Anyway, it smells. They came and worked on it, but the carpet won't be dry for a while, so they're coming back on Monday to put the carpet padding back.

Last night I saw 1776 the Musical!!! It is one of my favorites, even though it's not really that great as far as musicals go. But it's about the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence and I love it. I sat with one of my professors, who went up afterwards and did a little "talk back" with the actors. He guessed 85-90% of the show is fiction, but pshaw, it's the spirit that counts. Haha, I'm not a history grad student who just said that. The costumes were pretty interesting- they kept the basic shape and idea of period costumes, but really they were just normal clothes cut in crazy ways. John Adams' pants were simply cut off and stringy below the knee, Benjamin Franklin wore a trench coat cut and shaped to look like it was from the 18th century, and Thomas Jefferson wore blue galoshes. In my head I sang along to all the songs.

Tomorrow's soccer game might be a disaster (if it doesn't get rained out). We're going to be short on girls, which means we'll be down two players because of the male-female ration you have to keep, and I will have to play the entire time. It's annoying that the person who doesn't know anything (me) will have to play (and get tired) the whole time while perfectly willing and able guys who do know what they're doing have to stand on the side and watch. We'll see what happens.

Other than that? Homework, and lots of it. Plus grading papers. And my dad comes Wednesday!

Confession

I am addicted to playing Spider Solitaire. That is bad news. My freshman year of college I was addicted to it, and I eventually had to remove it from my computer. I also drew a spider with a big red X across it and taped it to my monitor. Now I have a new computer and it's back. Being addicted to a stupid game is not healthy for a girl with papers to write and articles to read! Ugh.

I guess I'm not really a beach girl

This weekend I'm hanging out with my grandparents at Sandbridge, near Virginia Beach. Beach trips with the family are always nice because they're low key and involve a lot of food and napping. My mom's family has always gone to the beach for family vacations, and a lot of them dream of having a beach house or condo of their own some day. I grew up in land-locked New Mexico though, and my family vacations were usually to the Colorado mountains. I sit here looking out at the ocean and it's nice and all, but quite frankly it's just a big body of blue topped with more blue above the horizon. Some green would be nice, in my opinion. I think my dream vacation home would be in the mountains on a lake, so you still have the water to look at, or for fishing/swimming/boating, but you also have mountains and trees and the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves.

New Friends?!

Last night six of us first year public history girls got together and watched Grey's Anatomy, then hung out for another two and half hours chatting. It was super fun. This is the first time we've hung out, and I'm so excited for some girl friends in Raleigh! It all started the other night when three of us were walking to our cars after class and I blurted out, "umm... I don't know what your lives are like but..." Immediately one of the girls jumped in with, "this is it, you're looking at it." Exactly. And thus the idea of a regular Grey's Anatomy night was born.

School Spirit

I've been a firebird, a conqueror, a demon, a logger, and now I'm in the wolf pack. What about you?

An email from Grandma

Dear Andi,

I forgot to tell you the most exciting news this morning.

Daddy came home from his walk with Danny yesterday with a red-eyed tortoise he had found in the middle of the street.

When we got home from 8:30 church, they had already found each other (Myrtle and Yertle, that is).

Anyway, I expect we will be having some very small turtles in the spring.

Danny still tries to steal turtle food, but I try to keep him in the house until they have had time to have some first.

Love, GMa

Some thoughts about school

When I first came to school I tried to do the cool thing and think, "man, I can't believe I'm back in school. It's been so long. Will I be able to handle it?" Maybe that's not the "cool" thing to think, but whatever. Then I really thought about it. I've been a full time student for something like 19 of my 23 years. This isn't a crazy back to scary school feeling, it's more like a back to normal feeling. Sort of.

New city and living alone with no friends aside, I'm enjoying school so far. I like my classes. I like reading. I like the way the content of my classes are all slightly overlapping, so I can say "right, right, I get this," or "so that's why we do things that way." Even in high school and college I loved it when subjects overlapped. All the sudden things made sense and fit together, rather than remaining isolated and theoretical. Maybe that's why I like history- it can fit everything in it.

I haven't written any papers yet, but my first one is due Tuesday. Just a short paper comparing social history methodologies in Europe and Latin America. Ha! That sounds awful. I haven't read the part about Latin America yet. I hope I understand it enough to write something comprehensible down. But other papers are slightly more practical. I get to review a museum exhibit next.

I just wrote "I get to." That's right. I'm going to try to make that my new mind set. Not "I have to," but "I get to." I've chosen to be here, and I can see more clearly how what I'm learning and doing now will relate to my future work. I guess that helps explain why lots of people seem to say they liked grad school more than college.

Team Annales Wins!

I joined the graduate history student intramural soccer team, Team Annales, and today we played our first game. We won by one point in overtime during a penalty kick showdown. I'd like to say I had a lot to do with scoring our 8 points, but I didn't. I mean, I kicked the ball a few times and played some defense, and a few times I got the "good job Andi!" I'll get better. I think I need to be more aggressive. And I need to know what the real soccer people mean when they're yelling at me to do something. I'm not down with the lingo yet.

Junior High nostalgia

I mentioned that I haven't run very far since track in junior high (this was 7th and 8th grade, not to be confused with a "middle school" that might include 6th or even 9th). Then I found out yesterday that my 8th grade Algebra teacher (Ms. Trasp) is now working temporarily for my mom, and that she remembers me (I know, I know, how could she not remember Andi?). Well this brings me to another little memory that I would like to share with you. My 8th grade American History class met in a portable (again, a portable, not a "trailer" as people out here like to call them). For a while there we had a homeless man sleeping in our class at night, and sometimes my teacher (Ms. Robertson, whom we all loved) would be greeted in the morning by a note from him saying how much he enjoyed reading our papers and looking at our projects. Now doesn't that make you feel warm and fuzzy?