Cahokia Mounds

Ever since I changed my minor from linguistics to anthropology, I have been learning things that I never knew existed. Such as Cahokia Mounds.

Cahokia was an ancient Native American city located near modern day St. Louis. It consisted of hundreds of mounds, serving both ritual and common needs. The largest of these is known as Monk's Mound, named for the monastery that was built upon it.
This is Monk's Mound. Estimates believe that it took around 167 years to build and is made entirely from dirt. See that tiny speck at the top of the mound? That's Dan. :)

We headed to Cahokia to listen to a lecture so that I could earn some much needed extra credit in my New World City States class. After the lecture we headed out to Monk's Mound.
It's quite a climb to get up there. I lost count when I was trying to count the stairs. It suddenly seemed more important to remember to breathe.
This is the second set of stairs that you have to go up to get to the top of the mound. This set alone has more than 100 stairs. The first set of stairs isn't as large and only has, at most, 50 stairs.

We were both winded. Mouth to mouth was necessary for survival. ;)
I love that we wear our geekiness on our shirts. He with his Chuck Norris, me with my Ghostbusters.

This sign pleased me more than I can say...Sledding down that huge hill hadn't even occurred to me. Especially as there is a major road directly in front of it.

Wow

So I'm in the process of applying for grad school and an assistantship. It's all very scary and different and, as such, I think that's feeding into my whole loss of mojo.

Enter my current English professor for my senior seminar. During class I pointed out a theme in the poem we were discussing and he got all excited because someone had spotted it and then told me to take the discussion. I spent the next 10 minutes basically teaching the class, pointing out different parts of the poem where this theme entered, etc. It was very cool.

After class I stayed to ask him about my first paper that I'm working on. While walking down the hall he asked what my plans in life were. I told him I wanted to be a college professor his response was "Good, excellent. You know, Dr. Suchandso speaks VERY highly of you. Are you applying to grad school?"

I said yes, somewhat stunned that anyone, let alone two PhDs, had been discussing me. He asked my GPA and I told him, cumulative is 3.64, in the English department it's 4.0.

"Applying for an assistantship as well?" I nodded slightly.

He smiled at me and nodded. "You'll get in. You'll get it. Don't you worry about a thing." And with that, he headed down the hall to his office, unaware that he'd single-handedly replenished the mojo I had so recently lamented losing.

$3 Holiday Cheer

This is the tree that decorates my apartment right now. Sadly I didn't get to put it up this year. The annoying roommates saw it sitting out, as I planned to decorate it after I finished writing a paper, and decided to do it for me. Now I'm a pretty big grinch, but that made me a little sad because I was looking forward to doing it.

Classes are over. I have two finals and a presentation to do next week, assuming that the ice storm heading towards us doesn't stop life as we know it for a few days. I've been wrapping up my holiday knitting. I still have a few more projects to finish up, one that has yet to be started actually.

I am so glad this semester is over. It has been horrible. Here's hoping next semester will be better.

Class Notes

I'm really getting my money's worth in this class..

Midterm Slump

I really want to be excited and eager in regards to school and life in general. But I am exhausted.

The semester is moving along and projects are looming in the near future. Over the next few weeks I have 7 papers to write and two presentations to prepare for. I'm not enjoying 3 out of 5 classes, which makes things interesting.

I keep trying to bolster myself up. Fall is here, it's my favorite season. Unfortunately I haven't had the time to enjoy it. I know a big part of my problem is that I'm not managing my time wisely. I seem to make schedules for the sheer joy of ignoring them. I don't knit. I don't read. I don't write. I just... sit and stare and worry about classes and money and homework.

The thing that's bothering me is that life is not bad.

My roommates and I have reached an agreement, wherein we are all polite and they leave me the hell alone. It's not a cozy place, but the horribly unwelcome feeling is gone.

Last week I went to a Graduate School seminar and was thrilled to hear that all applications submitted that day would have the $35 application fee waived. So I am officially an applicant for the SIUE Graduate Program.

Last Thursday my dad was in town, so Dan, he and I all went out for dinner at a local casino. This was not the first time he'd met Dan, but it was the first time we'd been in an intimate atmosphere. I think that things went well and Dad seemed to like Dan, which is always good. Highlights of the evening include Dan sitting down at his very first slot machine and bidding 1 cent at a time until we showed him how the machine worked.

Dan and I are both insanely busy, but we're finding time to be together, even if it's just a few hours here or there. Next semester, when he's student teaching, will be much harder, but we're committed to making it work.

Class registration was last week and I got into the senior seminar that I wanted, which was essential to me graduating in May.

My yarn sale was very successful and I want to thank everyone who purchased something.

I found out that I've been on the Dean's List due to my good grades since last year, which will look GREAT on that Graduate application.

Dan and I are spending Thanksgiving with my family, including a hockey game and lots of leisure time.

I've been going to knitting night at a local yarn shop and I really enjoy spending time with the ladies there, they're all great. And they've made me feel very welcome into their group.

Things are good, I'm just... tired. I'm thinking I'll double up on my vitamins, add extra veggies and the occasional cookie.

Damn Those Weeks Pass Quickly!

I can hardly believe that it's Friday again.

The Beethoven concert was amazing. It was such an intimate setting and we were in the 3rd row, so all I could do the whole time was gape at the violinist's bow as it moved.

I also dropped a class this week. I did some serious thinking and admitted my own limits and withdrew from my Literary Theory course. Perhaps if it had been a different teacher I'd have battled it out, but this guy seemed nuts! He read to us a whole bunch of student reviews saying that they'd never been so glad to pass a class with a C-, that they'd never had to work so hard for a C- in their life. He told us that in a class of 20 people, 6 were going to get Ds. That's just how it had to be. I'm not fond of teachers who have grading quotas, so I dropped the class and I'll take it over the summer with someone else.

In happier news, this weekend D is going to learn to knit. He asked me to teach him last semester and I agreed, but honestly I thought he was just, you know, fibbing to seem more interested in my hobbies. Well I was wrong. He keeps pestering me to teach him, as he's started promising knitted gifts to friends.

I'm especially excited, not only because I appear to have found the perfect man, but also because he's going to teach me the piano in return. This makes me very happy as I've always wanted to learn to play.

Other parts of this weekend will be spent in intense work on a paper due Thursday and the accompanying presentation to go with it. That I have to then present. To the whole class. Eek!!

I miss spring.

30

Hours. That's how many I worked in the past 3 days. 11 Friday, 12 Saturday and 7 today.

I'm pooped. My feet are actually bruised from standing so much and for so long. And, if you can believe this, I actually strained my wrist while talking to potential customers because I had my hand on my hip all the time and it over-extended the muscles.

I know, what a moronic injury to get. It's like falling out of a chair and breaking a leg or something.

But you know what? Things are great. My refund check came though so I no longer have to decide between bread or milk. I have a few papers to write, but I also have the next two weeks off of work, so I can get them done in more than enough time.

Tomorrow is a holiday from classes, so I'm going to try to get a little ahead on my homework, do laundry, make spaghetti and then D and I are going to a Beethoven concert on campus. And it's free! Woot!!

Finding Good in the Bad

I'm so done with cleaning for a while. I've been at it all day, getting things arranged for the new comer. I cleaned out a shelf in the pantry (I'm sure Ly will bitch at me about taking away one of her shelves, but I manage with 1, so can she) cleaned out a cabinet for dishes and plates and stuff, disassembled the bed, dragged it into the other bedroom (It was in the living room. D and I loved it. We could cuddle and watch movies.) reassembled it and found that there wasn't enough room for it. So now it's set diagonally, blocking everything until the two can fight out the room set-up. We'll pass inspection, that's all I care about.

Admittedly, I sort of usurped the extra desk in the apartment.
Hey, I just realized that this picture doesn't show the other desk at all. Well... imagine a desk with crap piled all over it. Yup, that's what it looked like.

So I had to clean it off and in the process, I had to find a place for all the crap. And I figured since I was doing that, I might as well clean off my own messy desk.

While searching for storage solutions I found these great wooden shelves for $15 each. So I put them together and realized that the bottom section was too small to really store books, which is why I needed them in the first place. But then I had a great idea.
It's like having a little LYS right in my own dorm! WIPs on the top, Koigu next, then Misc Yarn, then Lace Weight! It makes me happy.

I also emptied out my backpack and arranged my files.
In those folders is every paper I've written in college thus far. I read some of the oldest ones, holy crap have I improved, writing wise!

Tomorrow I'll be at Textbook Services. My Victorian Novel teacher has requested that we all pick up the books early and try to read as many of them as we can. Which doesn't really make sense to me, as usually they want you to wait so that you can have fresh perspectives. D's had her before and has nothing good to say about her as a teacher. It'll be interesting, we're both in the class. Gothic Fiction too. Lets hope we stay together or those classes will be AWKWARD.