2007 in Review

I can't believe it is already New Year's Eve!! Where has 2007 gone? In some ways it seems like it was just barely New Year's Eve 2006; yet, in other ways, when I think about all that has happened this year, it does feel like quite an eventful 12 months. Let's see, what all has happened?

• Baby Eliza was born in March
• I took an archaeology class at BYU and decided that anthropology wasn't the field for me
• Mom and I drove to Mississippi in April (getting stuck for a few days in Moriarty, NM)
• I lived at Routhland and worked at the Natchez National Historical Park during the summer
• Camden graduated from preschool and started kindergarten
• Riley started preschool
• Sarah, Joel, and Eliza moved to South Carolina and started their doctoral programs at Clemson
• I moved to Illinois and started graduate school at Eastern Illinois University
• I met and started dating Greg Bowles
• I was Tilford Dudley for Halloween
• Mom, Dad, Rich, and I spent Thanksgiving with Sarah, Joel, and Eliza in South Carolina
• Sidney turned one-year-old
• I survived a crazy semester of school and got to come home for Christmas break

Whew! It's been a busy year. This coming year will surely be very eventful as well. We'll see if I live to tell about it after this coming semester of school! :-) I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Zion Adventures

All of our fun at Zion National Park started with breakfast at Oscar's . . . . Sorry that I haven't written on my blog for a few days--it has been a busy and fun weekend, and there has been no time! Mom and I just got back from the most fun and productive trip to Zion of all time. Last Thursday Mom and I took Grandpa and Grandma F.T. back to St. George after their Christmas stay in Sandy. We had a fun trip with them, and we made it all right despite the frequent snow storms we kept encountering along the way. After taking them home, Mom and I went on over to Springdale to kick off our Zion National Park book research extravaganza. Even though we were there to do work, we still had a lot of fun. On Thursday night we ate at the Spotted Dog Cafe which is part of Flanigan's Inn--right across the street from Aunt Elsa's old house. It was quite the fancy restaurant, and we sat by the fire and had some especially delicious tomato basil soup--which warmed us up since it was FREEZING there!! Few are the times when I have been to Zion and have had to wear a coat; but I had on my fleece, my coat, my hat, and my gloves this time! Mom and I stayed at the Pioneer Lodge, which I have always thought of as being the same as it was when I was younger and we would go over there to swim in their pool when we were down staying at the cabin. So I expected it to be a little old and run-down, but they have recently renovated everything, and I was pleasantly surprised by how very nice it was there.

On Friday morning, Mom and I went over to try breakfast at this restaurant we've always wanted to try: Oscar's. It is in a funny little house just off of the main drag through Springdale, and we had the most delicious eggs, potatoes, sausage, oj, and hot chocolate of all time there! It was a great start to a great day. On our way to breakfast, Mom and I walked past the Zion Park Motel and looked at the little waterfall they've always had out front. I remembered that there used to be huge goldfish in the little pond there, but thought that surely with it being so cold the fish would not be in there. But nope! There were all of the goldfish in the frozen pond! It looked like they were all dead, and it kind of grossed Mom and me out, but when we went by again later, some of the water under the top layer of ice had thawed a bit, and several fish were swimming around. It was so weird! We were sure they had been dead, but then they just popped back to life.

After breakfast at Oscar's, Mom and I went up into the park. Unfortunately the park museum was closed, which I had been hoping to visit to gather information, but as you will soon read, we found many other sources of info. Since the museum was closed, Mom and I went to the visitor center and then went up through the Zion tunnel. We were in search of a particular park ranger, Valerie, who is a friend of my good friends Nathan and Kate down in Natchez. They told me that their friend Val works at Zion, and when we asked the rangers there, they said she was up monitoring the tunnel. So we drove up there and found Val at the east entrance to the tunnel. She is super nice, and she even says some of the same words I do such as "That rocks!" and "Right on!" (Maybe that is ranger language?)

After driving through the tunnel, we went up to the head of the Narrows trail and walked back to see the beautiful frozen waterfall you see pictured at the top. It was so pretty! The waterfall that usually comes down the mountain was totally frozen, and then there was ice on the little waterfall there in the river. The river was crystal clear, and there were deer all over the place. It was nice and quiet up in the park, and the snow on the mountains looked beautiful!!! As you can see from the other scenic photo there at the top, West Temple received a light dusting of snow earlier in the week. Mom and I took a picture of ourselves out in front of the Zion Lodge, which is the third picture you see up there.

After going up the canyon, we went to meet with Della Higley, the cutest, nicest lady I've ever met! She is 94 years old, and we went to speak with her about old photographs of the park and her memories of growing up in Springdale. She gave us some great pictures and a lot of good information. While we were there, Mom and I heard a noise out in front of the house, and then we heard a loud "POP," and then a geyser of water erupted right in front of Della's window. Her back was to the window, and she didn't hear the pipe break, but Mom and I certainly noticed it! We pointed it out to her, and then I went outside looking for the valve to turn off the water. Della called her son in law who lives right behind her and then came out and found where the water valve was located. We finally got the water turned off, but it had been coming out with such force that even though it was only erupting for a few minutes, there was already water clear down her driveway and almost up to the front porch of the house. It's a good thing we noticed it and stopped it as soon as we did! The broken pipe was laying there in her flower bed, and her son in law found a giant chunck of ice that had blown out of the pipe. It was about an inch in diameter and about four inches long--quite an ice bullet that shot out of there! Luckily the son in law said he'd fix the problem, so hopefully Della will be okay. She is such a sweet lady, and we had a good time visiting with her.

For lunch Mom and I went back to Oscar's to try the sweet potato fries we had heard about. I decided when I was in Mississippi that sweet potato fries are my favorite food, and Oscar's were awesome! What I can't figure out is, why aren't all French fries sweet potato fries? Sweet potato fries are so much better than regular French fries, so why don't they just make all fries with sweet potatoes? Anyway, after our tasty lunch, Mom and I went over to another lady's house. Her name is Nellie Ballard, and she lives in Rockville. She didn't think she would have much information that would help me, but her house ended up being the gold mine--the Zion jackpot! She had all kinds of great pictures and information. She seemed a little reserved at first, like she didn't trust Mom and me with her information and pictures, but as soon as we said that Elsa Ruesch was my dad's aunt and my great aunt, we were Nellie's new best friends. She thought the world of Aunt Elsa and was more than happy to lend us anything we needed. So we took a stack of pictures back to the hotel and scanned all evening.

Today we started out at Oscar's again with granola pancakes (yum), and then we met with another cute lady, Flora Ruesch, and scanned some of her photos of the early days of the park. She had some great ones too, and I feel like my book is really starting to come together. Now I just have to find time to gather the last few photos I need and to write the text! Maybe I can write the text during my pretend free time that I am theoretically supposed to have in the evenings once school starts again. :-)

After meeting with Flora, Mom and I had a delicious Navajo taco for lunch at the Pioneer Restaurant. Then we started heading home. After leaving Springdale, we took Nellie's pictures back to her house in Rockville. (She was gone to a funeral but left a note telling us to leave the pictures inside the front door, which we did.) After Rockville, we stopped at this funny little book store in Virgin City, which has always looked kind of intriguing, but a little scary, too. We had planned on maybe just going as far as Beaver tonight because there was supposed to be a nasty snowstorm around Fillmore; but when we got to Beaver, all was clear in the sky, so we got our usual ice cream at the cheese factory, and drove on. The weather ended up being fine until we got into Utah Valley and it started to snow. Luckily we beat the bad weather. Well, I'm tired and am going to sleep now, but will write more tomorrow.

A Little Christmas Dance

I had such a fun Christmas Day yesterday that I totally forgot to write on my blog! In fact, Mom, Dad, Rich, and I had such a great day that we decided to do a little dance. Click on the link below to check it out. You'll be impressed with our sweet dancing skills!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1812090320

We had a very fun Christmas here together. Yesterday morning we awoke to a perfect winter wonderland outside! It has snowed a few inches during the night, and it looked beautiful with the sun coming up over the snowy mountains. Everyone's Christmas lights were on, so it looked like a perfect Christmas scene.

Mom and I wanted to get up to open presents at 7:00 a.m., bur Rich wanted to sleep until 8:00, so we settled on 7:30. My family knows me too well--my gifts all had a Civil War theme :-) We had a fun time opening presents together! Later in the day we went for a Christmas walk out in the snow. It was so beautiful outside! Then we went over to Nate and Lindy's to see the Christmas mania. All was crazy fun as Camden, Riley, and Sidney showed us their mountain of Christmas presents. Camden and Riley were especially excited about their American Girl dolls who look just like them. Then of course they had to get in their American Girl p-jamas to match the dolls. They also got new Barbies complete with horses, sports cars, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Sidney loved her new baby doll--she loves giving babies kisses. She is very protective of said baby, and if anyone tries to hold the doll, she gets quite mad :-) We had a fun dinner over at the Barrett's, and then came home and watched one of our favorite movies: "Snowball Express." It was a great Christmas Day, and now we just have to wait 364 days until the next Christmas!

Today Mom and I had planned on heading down to Zion National Park to meet with some people and do some work on my book, but it is supposed to get quite snowy here today, so we opted to wait until tomorrow when there will be a bit of a break in the snow storm. Merry Day After Christmas!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Hooray--it will be a white Christmas here in Orem, Utah this year!! It got a little nasty here this afternoon when a blizzard blew through, but then it stopped snowing and was just cold outside. But, we are still under a "Heavy Snow Warning," and supposedly there will be 2-4 more inches of snow when we wake up tomorrow on Christmas morning!! Today was a very fun and busy day. Luckily Mom was able to go to the doctor and get a prescription for her sinus infection, so hopefully she can be on the mend. This morning Dad and I went over to Grandpa Taylor and Grandma Cathy's house to visit, and that was certainly fun to see them. I was able to see Grandpa for a few minutes last May when I came home from Mississippi for the Mormon History Association conference, but it had been far too long since I had actually been able to sit and visit with them. Then Dad and I went over to Lindy's house to stay with the girls while Nate and Lindy went up to Salt Lake to meet up with a lady who Lindy had taught on her mission in Thailand. This nice lady, Prair, and her husband Don then came down to Orem with Nate and Lindy for Christmas Eve dinner. Mom whipped up a feast, and we all had a great time here. Prair is a very nice, sweet person, and it was fun to meet her. Sidney was a little afraid of her at first, but she warmed up to Prair very quickly.

Camden, Riley, and Sidney got to open a couple of presents tonight here at our house, and their favorite presents were their American Girl p-jamas! They were so excited and they looked very cute in their matching nightgowns. Sidney got some nice soft, snuggly pj's to keep her warm. We also got to open one present from Mom and Dad tonight, and it was one of my favorite presents of all time--a copy of Amanda Barnes Smith's journal!!! That book is priceless, and our family has always had one copy of it, which all of us kids have used on numerous occasions, and now I have my own copy! She is the famous pioneer woman whose husband and son were killed at Haun's Mill, and she is also my great great great great grandma. It is a blessing to have such courageous ancestors.

Christmas Eve would be perfect if Sarah, Joel, Eliza, and Greg were here, but hopefully they will have merry Christmases in their respective parts of the country. Well I'm off to bed so that Santa can come!

Susan Easton Black: my testimony of Prophet Joseph Smith

One more tribute to the Prophet--from your favorite and mine, Susan Easton Black.

Joseph Smith - The Prophet

Here's a tribute to Joseph Smith on his birthday.

Joseph Smith

Today is the 202nd anniversary of the Prophet Joseph Smith's birth! I think it's very appropriate that his birthday falls at the same time of year that we celebrate Christmas. It was especially cool back in 2005 when we got to celebrate the 200th anniversary--and it was very neat to be working for Susan Easton Black at that time. Speaking of Sister Black, today Mom and I went by to see her and take her and Harvey a Christmas present. They are sooooo nice! Harvey was wearing his apron because they were whipping up a feast for the missionaries for this evening. It was great to catch up with Sister Black on all of her projects. A couple of the books I helped her with should be coming out this next year, so that will be cool. She gave me a copy of her latest book, Son of Man: King of Kings for a Christmas present, which was very nice of her. It is volume three in her Son of Man series of books with illustrations by Liz Lemon Swindle. It sounds like she's as busy as ever, and I certainly miss those good times working with her. The trip that she, Harvey, Mom, and I had to Nauvoo is one of my favorite memories. Sister Black taught me a lot about the Prophet Joseph Smith and helped me gain a greater appreciation for how Church history fits into American history. She was excited to hear about all of the latest happenings in my life, and we all had a great time chatting.

Today for church I was able to go with Mom over to the MTC and attend Dad's branch meetings with the missionaries. We also went to Relief Society there, where they had a really nice lesson about Joseph Smith. Mom and I even got to eat lunch in the cafeteria there--and Sunday is ice cream day! It was a very nice Sunday. Tonight we are having dinner here with the girls, and so far Sidney doesn't seem as scared of me as usual. She even played peek-a-boo with me and smiled! Oh great--I'll finally get her to like me and then I'll leave again :-( I wish my family could go everywhere with me!

One thing that Sister Black taught me about when Joseph Smith was born on December 23, 1805, was that the doctor who delivered him there in Sharon, Vermont was named Dr. Dennison. It just so happens that later on, when Joseph was tarred and feathered in Hiram, Ohio, a member of that mob was DR. DENNISON!! I think we all know where he ended up . . .

Good Sleepover Times

Hooray! We had the funnest sleepover ever last night! We had been planning this sleepover ever since I left for Natchez in April, so we got to do all of the things that we had waited so long to do. We ended up watching "Miracle on 34th Street" last night, then everyone got into our sleeping bags down by the Christmas tree at about 8:15 p.m. It has been a very, very, very long time since I got to go to bed before 9:00! It took us a while to go to sleep, and I was sleeping right in between two wiggly girls, but it was so much fun. At about 5:30 this morning, Riley woke up, and then the rest of us soon followed. We then went and woke Grandpa and Grandma up so that Grandpa could make us pancakes :-) The first picture there is one we took this morning when we first got up and still had our sleepy eyes and wild hair. One of the first things Riley said to me this morning was, "Tiffy, you need to comb yo' hair. It wooks CWAZY!" :-) After pancakes we made our gingerbread house with Grandma, and it turned out beautifully. Tonight we're heading up to Salt Lake for the Farnsworth family Christmas party, so there will surely be more good times up there!

Book of Secrets

Today Mom, Rich, and I saw the coolest movie ever--"National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets"!!!! When it began in Washington D.C. on April 14, 1865, I knew it was going to be a winner. We even got to see Abraham Lincoln for a second before he got shot by John Wilkes Booth! There were park rangers, Confederate treasures, people handling old documents without gloves, and hidden tunnels under Mt. Vernon--could it get any better than that? I think not.

Well, I'm off to have a fun sleepover with Camden and Riley. I have been instructed to put on my p-jamas, then we are going to go watch "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and go to bed.

Cavity Free

Hooray--I have no cavities! I had to go to the dentist this morning, and I was having scary flashbacks to the last time I went there and he found two cavities and then I had to get them filled and he didn't do a very good job giving me the shots in my mouth, so it hurt really bad. I was a little (or a lot) concerned today when he pulled out his drill and said he wanted to do something to one of my back teeth, but he was just polishing one of the previous fillings, so no shots were necessary.

Sorry I forgot to write on my blog yesterday. It was just such a fun, busy day that it totally slipped my mind. Yesterday I did a lot of work on my Zion National Park book. Thankfully one of mom's friends had a grandpa who was a chief ranger down at Zion in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, so she has a lot of her mom's old photos. Mom and I went to her house and scanned pictures for a while, then we decided to take the rest of the pictures home so I could just spend the rest of the day scanning without taking up their kitchen table. I think that the book is coming together, but there will still be a lot of work to do. This next semester is going to be absolutely crazy with school and finishing the Zion book, but I guess I got good practice this last semester :-)

After Mom and I scanned pictures yesterday, we had a tasty tropical shrimp burrito at our favorite Mexican food restaurant: El Azteca! I had missed El Azteca very much, so it tasted especially good to me yesterday. I also got a new phone yesterday which is very exciting. It is red and when someone calls me, it plays the song: "Breakfast at Tiffany's." :-)

Today after going to the dentist, Mom and I went to the MTC to help fill gift bags for the missionaries for Christmas. There is a great spirit at the MTC, and it was fun to be there doing Christmas service. It's good to know that even if missionaries won't be receiving a lot of gifts from home, they will still have a nice Christmas present. The gift bags we put together today were extra special because we knew that a lot of people had donated time and money to help gather everything--in fact, even Camden, Riley, and Sidney donated money and sticky notes for the missionaries!

After the MTC, Mom and I went and had lunch with one of our favorite people of all time: Yevon! She met us at Zupa's, and we had a great time catching up on everything. That is my favorite part of coming home for the holidays--getting to see all of my family and friends who I have missed very much. I had planned on going to Greg's mom's work Christmas party with her tonight, but unfortunately--even though I am cavity free--I'm not feeling too great this afternoon. I think I'm going to curl up in some blankets and work on the Zion book. After going to the dentist, I feel extra motivated to not eat candy and stuff like that, but that will only last for about a day and then I'll be back to normal :-)

The New Do

Hooray--my new "do" is done! Today I got my hair highlighted. Now my hair is lighter--both in weight and color :-) Today was a fun and busy day. After getting my hair done, Mom and I went to lunch at Thai Village in American Fork with Greg's mom Pam Bowles. She is super nice, and we had a fun time eating Thai food and telling embarrassing stories about Greg (just kidding Greg!). We did have a very nice lunch though. After lunch Mom and I went to visit the Barrett girls who just keep getting cuter every day! Camden told me all about all of the American Girl dolls and showed me the one that she hopes Santa will bring her for Christmas. Then Mom and I took Rich to work, and on our way back we stopped to see my good friends Andrew and Stefani Knaupp along with their cute boys Taylor and Dallin. I couldn't believe how big Dallin is getting! The last time I saw him he was just a little tiny baby, and now he is walking around the house. He turns one on Christmas Eve, but they'll be out of town then, so I took his birthday present today. He actually liked the card better than the present, but Taylor (who is 3) enjoyed playing with the gift :-) Stefani was one of my high school volleyball coaches, and we have remained friends over all these years. It is crazy to think that in 2009 it will have been 10 YEARS since I first joined the Mountain View High School volleyball team as a little 9th grader and met Stefani (aka Coach Gappmayer). A lot has happened in both of our lives since that time! 2009 will also be Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday--wouldn't it be cool to work at a Lincoln site in 2009??!! Anyway, it was a very fun day today, and Mom and I had a good time hanging out and watching one of our favorite movies this evening: "While You Were Sleeping." Tomorrow will be another busy but fun day.

Weight Loss Plan

Here is a new weight loss plan, and it doesn't even involve eating at Chuck-a-Rama: let your hair grow for a long time and get really huge and curly, and then go get it cut. It's amazing how much lighter you feel after getting the mane trimmed! I truly didn't realize how much hair I had until today when I went to get it trimmed up. I didn't get it cut really short--I just got the mass of curls in the back shaped up a bit. The girl cutting my hair said, "Wow, you have a lot of hair." It is much easier to manage now, and I'm looking forward to getting just a touch of color put into it in the morning. It's a good little face-lift after a stressful semester of school.

Today I also got to go visit Sister Terry over at the Orem Institute of Religion, and it was so great to see her! She is one of my dear friends. I worked as a secretary at the Institute for about two years and loved my job there. Today I also ran into my old boss, LaDean, at the Institute, and we had a fun little chat. She truly was a fun boss to have. I also ran into Brother Beck who is super funny and Brother Kauffman who looks like Jay Leno. Speaking of look-alikes, I also went to the doctor this morning for a little check-up, and I think that my doctor, Dr. Stacy, looks just like Mitt Romney! I say the two could be brothers. :-)

This afternoon Mom and I ran some errands, and we even got to go to Super Target! Next to my family, friends, and the mountains, I'd say that having Super Target just a couple of blocks away is one of the main things I've missed about home. I love that store. Well, the social agenda continues tomorrow, so I'd better get some good rest tonight.

Cake Monster!

Cookie Monster, look out--a new star of the show has arrived: Cake Monster (aka Sidney)! Tonight we celebrated Mom's birthday with everyone, and of course we needed more cake. Sidney loved having cake two nights in a row! I was in charge of making the cake today--if only Dr. Daynes could see me now--baking cakes right and left :-) Sidney virtually inhaled any cake that was placed before her, and then she wanted some ice cream. She's so silly. Camden and Riley enjoyed helping Grandma blow out the candle on the cake, and they were so excited about the cute birthday cards they made for her. We had some exciting games of hide-and-seek tonight and had a fun evening celebrating Mom's birthday. We also planned the big Christmas sleepover with Camden and Riley which will take place later this week. So many fun things to do!

It was fun to go to church today and see everybody. I have a lot of very good friends in our ward here, and there were also a lot of new faces. It's funny how quickly a ward can change! I think that some people didn't recognize me with my crazy curly hair. I think my hair has even gotten bigger just since Thursday--it needs to be tamed a bit. So, one thing on the agenda for tomorrow is getting a little haircut. I also get to go visit Grandpa Taylor and Grandma Cathy tomorrow night which will be very fun! Well, I'm off to bed--it has been a fun day today. I took about a 2.5 hr. nap this afternoon. I think I'm still trying to catch up on sleep from this past semester.

Gingerbread Birthday Bonanza!

It was a gingerbread birthday bonanza tonight at the Barrett's house! Miss Sidney turned 1-year-old today, and she had a party to end all parties. Her party guests included her big sisters Camden and Riley, Mommy, Daddy, Grandpa and Grandma Barrett, Grandpa and Grandma Taylor, and Aunt Tiffy. As you can see from the pictures, she loved her dinner which consisted of chicken pot pie and crackers. She also loved the gifts from everybody, and when the gingerbread girl cake was placed in front of her, she couldn't quite believe that she was really allowed to dig into it. She thought that would be too good to be true, but when she figured out that she wasn't dreaming, and she really could have the cake all to herself, she certainly dug in. In fact, the cake had to be removed at one point because she was eating all of the frosting too fast :-) She also got to try ice cream for the first time tonight, and by giving it to her, I think Lindy has created a little ice cream monster--she loved it! Lindy decorated the house to look like the inside of a gingerbread house, and Sidney got all kinds of fun presents. She wished that Cousin Eliza, Auntie Sarah, Uncle Joel, and Uncle Rich could have been there tonight, but she was glad that they at least sent presents. Because I too gave her presents, she decided that she likes me now. She didn't when we first got there this evening--she was very suspicious of the mysterious stranger who had returned for the second night in a row, but we bonded when we ate chicken pot pie together, and she decided that I kind of fit in with the rest of the family.

It's pretty cold outside here, but we haven't had any snow since Thursday--unlike the Midwest which is getting hammered with winter storms again. Poor Greg is snowed-in up in Athens. I think that I made it home during the small window of good weather--because today they cancelled a bunch of flights out of Chicago again. Tomorrow we will be having more birthday celebrations here--this time for Mom. Since I arrived home kind of late on her birthday on Thursday, we decided to wait and have the party on Sunday afternoon when everyone can be here. So the birthday celebrations will continue! It will be fun to go to church here tomorrow and see all of the ward friends. I haven't seen them since last April! Next week all of my social engagements will begin--I have many people that I will be having lunch with, many visits to make, and many errands to run. It should be a busy but very fun pre-Christmas week.

There's No Place Like Home!

It's true--there's no place like home! It is so fun to be back here in Utah with the family. Yesterday was kind of a long day of travel, but it started out and ended well. Yesterday morning Greg drove all the way from Athens to have breakfast with me and take me to the train station, which was very nice of him. We had a nice morning together, but it was sad to say goodbye. Luckily he'll be coming out to Utah in a couple of weeks for a visit! I fell asleep on the train almost immediately and slept pretty much all the way to Chicago. I got out at Union Station and then walked a few blocks to catch the train out to the Midway airport. I walked right past the Sears Tower, and it was so cool because you couldn't even see the top of it--the clouds were covering it! That's when you know you have a tall building. It was super duper cold in Chicago, and the wind was blowing like crazy. I was wearing a pink snow hat, but the wind was blowing so hard that it blew it off. I think it got run over by a car, but I was able to chase it down. It's a little dirty, but it's nothing that a little run through the washing machine can't fix.

I rode the train out to Midway, which is a really cool airport. It's a lot smaller than O'Hare, but it has a lot of cool shops and restaurants. I had quite a bit of time so I ate some spinach ravioli at Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse and then looked around in the shops for a while. Then I went and got on the airplane and flew home! It was kind of a long flight, and there were lots of unhappy kids on it, but I was just glad to be home. We had to circle around Salt Lake for a while because of the snowstorm, and it was still pretty snowy when we were landing, but everything was okay. It was kind of weird because I'm used to seeing all of the lights from Salt Lake Valley, but because of the clouds, we couldn't see any lights until right before we landed. Mom and Dad were there to pick me up, and it was so fun to see them! Thankfully they braved the snowstorm to come and get me. We swung by to pick Rich up from work, and then we headed home. I've never been quite so excited to sleep in my own bed, and it was wonderful. I think I slept for about 10 or 11 hours!

Today was a fun day too. I slept in for a long time, then I went up to BYU with Mom while she went to Dad's office Christmas party. I hung out at the bookstore and visited with Sister Romney for a while. It was really fun to see her! The funnest part of the day was this evening when Mom, Dad, and I went over to the Barrett's to tend Camden, Riley, and Sidney while Nate and Lindy went to the big Barrett family dinner. The girls were SOOOOOO cute! Camden and Riley were really happy to see me, but Sidney didn't know quite what to think of it all. She was just a little baby when I left for Mississippi last April, and unfortunately I haven't been able to see her since, so she wasn't too sure about this strange person who just showed up out of the blue. We had a lot of fun tonight though--we all played Barbies, watched "Princess Diaries," and ate pizza. It's so fun to be here with the family! Well, I'm off to bed. I love being able to sleep in and not having to go to school!

Utah Eve

In reflecting on the last 24 hours, it all seems like a funny movie, TV show, or book where you feel really bad for the main character :-) BUT, the good news is that THE SEMESTER IS FINISHED, and tomorrow at this time I will be on my way to Utah. Where to begin?

Last night, after posting about 70 blog entries while trying to put-off finishing my Tilford Dudley paper, I finally did finish it. But then Alyson and I studied our Museum Administration stuff for a while, which kind of put me to sleep, so I planned on going to bed. By this time it was almost 1:00 a.m. though, so it's not like I was going to bed particularly early. I was a little worried about today's two finals, so I was a bit restless, but finally fell asleep. Then, I thought I was having a bad dream and could hear someone pounding on my door. I rolled over, looked at the clock, and saw that it was 3:30 a.m. Then I realized that something was terribly wrong--someone really was pounding on my door, and there were flashing lights and a ridiculously loud siren was going off. I was still half asleep, but I opened the door and it looked like a strobe light dance party was going on in the living room. There was a bright flashing light, and then there was Aly shouting expletives. I think she was still partially asleep (and delirious). She was screaming, "Turn it off! Turn it off!" Finally I kind of woke up a little bit and said, "Aly, we should go outside." So we grabbed our shoes and coats and headed outside along with everyone else in the building. Aly kept thinking she saw smoke, but it was just the steam coming out of vents around the building. It was SOOOOOO COLD outside! Even though I had on my warm pj's and my coat, I was shivering uncontrollably. The siren was totally loud, even outside. No one knew what was going on or how to turn the alarms off. Finally after about 15 minutes (goo thing it wasn't a real fire!), a fire truck rolled into the parking lot, and two unhappy looking firemen jumped out. They went all around the building and looked for a fire, but couldn't find one, so they were trying to figure out how to turn the alarm off. By this time it was about 4:00 a.m., and I was pretty much frozen stiff. Finally they let us go back inside, but I guess they were having a hard time getting the alarm to stay off because every few minutes it would go off for a few seconds. Finally all was quiet--except for the ringing in my ears from the loud siren. I was so cold that I had to lay there shivering in bed for a while with blankets piled on top of me before I warmed up. So I tossed and turned for a while, then went to sleep, but all too soon was woken up by my alarm. I'm a little concerned by the fact that my clock radio will wake me up but a fire alarm won't.

Anyway, Aly and I were really tired this morning. I still needed to print off my Tilford Dudley paper, so I turned on the computer, hit "Print," and waited for it to finish. Of course, just as it was printing the last page, I ran out of paper. I didn't have one more sheet of unused white paper in my entire room!! I thought, "You have got to be kidding me." Luckily Aly gave me one so I could print the last page. On that note we loaded up all of our books (except for the large stack of library books I still have--to be returned in the morning) and took off for school. Our first final today was in Mrs. Miller's Museum Administration class. She handed us our tests, I opened it up, and it was one of those moments when your heart sinks and you realize that you don't know any of the answers :-( Luckily after I thought about things for a while, the answers started coming to me. I think my brain just wasn't fully awake right at first. I don't know if I did very well, but honestly at this point, I don't care :-) I'm just glad it's finished! That test kind of fried my brain.

Then this afternoon, we had our final exam for Dr. Reid's Material Culture class. This has been one of my favorite classes, so I was feeling all right about the test . . . until time for the test. The way Dr. Reid does her final is she puts a bunch of material culture-related questions into this glass pumpkin container she has, then everyone draws a question, you spend 20 minutes preparing an answer to that question, and then you present your answer to the class. Once again, when I saw the question, my heart sank. Of all the questions in the whole pumpkin, I drew the one that had a picture of a jug and a cocktail tray and said: "If you worked for a museum and were asked to interpret the history of drinking alcohol, how would you incorporate these objects into your exhibit?" Oh great. Of all the people in the class, why was it I who got the drinking one? I had absolutely no idea what to say, and I think I was a little off on some of the information I presented to the class, but what I have learned is that as long as you can make people (especially the professor) laugh, it's all good. I came up with some kind of crazy stuff, which I think everyone found amusing, so if nothing else, hopefully I'll get an A for effort :-)

It was after this final that the drama began. (Yes, you'd think that I had put in a full day at this point, but it only gets better.) Aly got kind of a hard question, and Dr. Reid kind of grilled her on some things, but I thought Aly did a good job of coming up with some answers. The questions definitely weren't all the same level of difficulty, and Dr. Reid knew that, so I think that more than anything she was just wanting us to have some good class discussions today. But, Aly did not see it this way. As soon as Dr. Reid left the room, Aly burst into tears and ran crying to the bathroom. The rest of us were sitting there like, "Uh oh." I was commissioned to go check on her in the bathroom, and she was a wreck. She was pretty much beyond consoling. I think all of the stress of the semester was kind of coming out and that everything would be okay. But she cried and cried, and we were in there for about 15 minutes. Then we had to go take more of our books back to the textbook place, then I had to run up and grade finals with Dr. Hardeman.

By this point I was too pooped to even find humor in any of his student's answers. I was quite amused, however, with my new technique of, if I am reading an essay and he falls asleep, I just skip over to the last sentence, and then when I stop reading, that wakes him up. It worked wonders, and we made it through many more tests than usual. After taking Dr. Hardeman home, it was off to Dr. Reid's for dinner. She made her famous Chilean soup which was very delicious. Dr. Barnhart, Dr. Small, and Mr. Riccio, along with all of the inmates were there, so we had a great evening. The best part was the white elephant gift exchange. I think everyone liked the gift I took the best. It was a collage of scraps from the Tilford Dudley exhibit that I had stuck in my backpack back in October. I mounted them on a piece of plywood in my own little mock T-Dud exhibit panel. Everyone cracked up, and it was finally decided that it will be put in our graduate lab so that we can all enjoy it. I got the coolest present--it was one that Angie brought, and it was perfect for me. It was a little die cast toy car--but not just any car, it was a National Park Service Ranger patrol car!!! Angie said she was hoping that someone else would have chosen that gift so that I could have fought them for it, but I just so happened to choose that gift the first time :-) We then said our good-byes, and now I am back here at the house. I have not even begun to pack, so it should be a nice long evening :-) I feel like I've been going 1000 miles per hour all day (and all last night), so I think I'm really going to crash when I have some down time. I am so looking forward to a break from school! It will be very fun to fly home tomorrow and see everyone there--especially since it is Mom's birthday tomorrow!! Greg is driving down here in the morning, and we'll go grab some breakfast before he takes me to the train station over in Mattoon. Hopefully the weather will cooperate, and I look forward to seeing many of you very soon! Happy Utah Eve!

Christmas Tag

I keep writing on my blog today because I keep needing little distractions from studying and writing my paper :-) So, since I have been tagged by Lindy and Sarah to take the Christmas survey, here goes:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I usually go for gift bags because they're so easy to use, but I also like Dora the Explorer Christmas wrapping paper.

2. Real tree or artificial? My favorite is the duct tape (aka duck tape) tree. :-)

3. When do you put up the tree? Early in December.

4. When do you take the tree down? Usually in January, but I think the duck tape tree might stay up longer than that.

5. Do you like eggnog? YES!!! I love it! It's one of the best things about the Christmas season. I especially like it with some milk mixed into it so it's not quite as strong. I also like eggnog milkshakes.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? My turtle named Leonardo that I got when I was probably 6 or 7.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, I have the cute one that Grandpa and Grandma F.T. gave me one year, and I also have the awesome nativity that Dad brought back to me from Ecuador. I think I also have one made out of flower pots that Sandra Stephan made for me.

8. Hardest person to buy for? Mom and Dad--what gifts could possible express how much I love them?

9. Easiest person to buy for? The girls: Camden, Riley, Sidney, and Eliza!

11. Mail or email Christmas card? Mail when you have time; e-mail when you don't.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? "While You Were Sleeping" and "Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean"

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever I see something at a store that I think someone would like for Christmas (this can happen as early as January).

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Only white elephant gifts.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Egg nog and hot chocolate with a little bit of peppermint ice cream on top.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Hmmmm, usually clear, but the colored lights kind of match the duck tape tree.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Traditional songs: "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," and "I Saw Three Ships." Pop song: "Mistletoe and Holly" by Leigh Nash.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Both--TRAVEL HOME for Christmas!!

19. Can you name Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph, and Dr. Small told me the other day that there is an additional reideer named Olive, but I've never heard of Olive before.

20. Do you have an Angel on top or a star? An angel with Abraham Lincoln's silhouette on it.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning . . . at 6:00 a.m.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Finals.

23. If you came upon a life-size Gingerbread House, which piece would you pull off first to eat (before the witch comes and puts you in a cage to fatten you up so she can eat you...)? I would dig into the gingerbread itself and then I would use a candy cane to fend off the witch.

I tag Mom! :-)

Vote for Mitt

Sorry that I was being kind of mean earlier today. I was just a little stressed out. I still am, but I'm dealing with it better than I was earlier. Anyway, I was checking the political scene for a minute this evening, and I saw this cool article from the National Review called "Romney for President." I love some of their quotes! They said:



"For some people, Romney’s Mormonism is still a barrier. But we are not electing a pastor. The notion that he will somehow be controlled by Salt Lake City or engaged in evangelism for his church is outlandish. He deserves to be judged on his considerable merits as a potential president. As he argued in his College Station speech, his faith informs his values, which he has demonstrated in both the private and public sectors. In none of these cases have any specific doctrines of his church affected the quality of his leadership. Romney is an exemplary family man and a patriot whose character matches the high office to which he aspires." Right on.

Hooray for Mitt! I hope that everybody votes for Mitt, but I'm afraid that not everybody will. All of the crazy women's lib. people are going to vote for Hillary, and all of the Oprah fans will vote for B-rock Osama (that's what one of the local radio stations here calls him). If Hillary wins, I'm totally going to move to Australia or England or someplace like that. If she does win, I think we'll know that the Second Coming is very near :-)

The End of My Rope

I think I have finally reached the end of my rope :-) Today I had to meet with Mr. Riccio, Dan, and this university technology guys who is going to set up a website for us to use in archiving the Dudley collection next semester. The meeting kind of pushed me over the edge, and now I am really grouchy, agitated, annoyed, irritated, frustrated, etc., etc. I have SOOOOO much to do today, but Mr. Riccio was insistent that we have this meeting today--and then he didn't even know what to talk about at the meeting. Mr. Riccio doesn't know what he wants for the Dudley website, and he and Dan expected me to know, but I have no idea! How am I supposed to know what we'll be doing in our digital archives class next year?? I thought Mr. Riccio wanted the website to go along with next semester's course, but I don't think that even he knows what we'll be doing in the class yet, or how to do it, so it's going to turn into us figuring out what to do--but I don't have time for that today!!!!! Sigh. Then Dr. Barnhart wants a Dudley website up on the EIU History Localities website, which Mr. Riccio also wanted to discuss today. He wondered what Dr. Barnhart was wanting done, and I was thinking to myself, "I don't know!!! WHY DON'T YOU ASK DR. BARNHART? AND WHY CAN'T WE JUST HAVE ONE TILFORD DUDLEY WEBSITE INSTEAD OF 73,000 OF THEM???" Sorry that I'm so upset. It's just a stressful time and my patience is running thin. I could tell that the university website guy was getting a little frustrated too because of Mr. Riccio's vague instructions, so the web guy doesn't really know what we're wanting either. I don't want to think about websites until next semester, but Dr. Barnhart has insisted that we get all of our Dudley presentations online before the break. Why it HAS TO be done before the break, I have no idea, but since it does and since nobody knows anything about what they want, I'm going to do it MY WAY, and they'd better be happy with it. :-)

Anyway, to make things worse, the weather here is terrible. It's not as cold out today, but there is this really dense fog that kind of freezes to your glasses and your windshield when you're walking or driving outside. It's cold, wet, gray, and dreary out there. Over 400 flights got cancelled in Chicago today, and they're supposed to get more freezing rain up there tonight. I am just hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping that it will clear up by Thursday. I want nothing more than to just go home to Utah and be with my family and sleep in my comfy bed there in my room.

I don't know how I'm going to fit everything in during the next two days. This afternoon I have to go work with Dr. Hardeman, then sometime tonight I have to finish my Tilford Dudley paper, but all of the compadres want to study for our two tests tomorrow and finish some house surveys, but I don't think I'll be able to go to the study session because I have to finish the paper and do a whole bunch of other stuff (including the freaking website stuff!!). Then, tomorrow I have two finals--which probably won't end until 3:30, but Dr. Hardeman requested that I come in to work for him at 2:00 tomorrow afternoon because he needs help grading finals. But I can't leave my final early, so he's going to have to wait. But then Aly and I have to take our textbooks back to the book rental place together (we can't take them back until after our last final because we need them for the final) because somehow in the craziness of our moving from Dr. Small's house to our apartment at the very first of the semester, our books all got switched, and we have been driving the textbook rental people crazy. So we need to sort that out tomorrow, but I'm supposed to be working with Dr. Hardeman, and Dr. Reid has invited all of us over for dinner where we planned to do a white elephant gift exchange. THEN, we need to finish the house surveys, and I'll have to pack sometime!!!! Maybe I just won't plan on sleeping at all until Thursday on the train. :-) Sorry to complain and rant and rave about everything, but it is definitely CRUNCH TIME here, and I feel like I'm about to be crunched.

One good thing did happen today--Mom sent me the nicest "Care Package" ever!! It has my favorite hot chocolates and cornbread mix in it--thank you Mom for providing the one thing that made me happy today!

Where is the Global Warming?

Do all of the global warming fanatics not watch the news? Maybe they all live near the Equator or something? The Midwest has become an icebox, and I think that people from Kansas City, to St. Louis, to Springfield would laugh if you brought up the topic of global warming. Fortunately for us here in Charleston, we've been spared from the worst of it, but even just up in Springfield they're getting hit really hard. As you can see from this Weather.com map, the ice storm (indicated by the pink color) is a little too close for comfort. Springfield is right there in the middle of the map, and Charleston is down in the right corner. We didn't really get any freezing rain here today like we were supposed to, but it was really cold outside. Now the storm is on its way up to Chicago--where I'm going on Thursday! But supposedly it will hit the city tomorrow and then leave, so hopefully things will be cleared up by Thursday. Today all of my compadres and I went to lunch at Marty's--a bar just off of campus (the story about our long day is to follow), and they had CNN playing on the big screen there. A news story about Al Gore receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to make the public aware of environmental issues (aka making up the global warming phenomenon), and I totally started laughing. Problem was (my compadres are a very liberal bunch), I was the only one laughing. Everyone else was saying, "Oh, that's so cool." I was thinking to myself, "Ummm, hello, guys? Has there not been a freezing rain advisory for the past week? Have you all not been complaining about the uncharacteristically cold weather? Do you really think our world is about to melt into oblivion?" I didn't say any of those things, but I continued to laugh in mockery as they talked about Al Gore's award. Being out here in liberal world has only made me more conservative in my political views because many of the people I associate with are so freakishly liberal that it increases my desire NOT to be like them.

Anyway, enough about the weather. As you can see from the picture of Angie and me, we're still smiling--even though it is finals week and all is craziness. I went to school this morning at 8:40 a.m. and just got back at 10:45 p.m. We didn't have any classes or tests today, but we had to finish up a truck load of projects. We had to finish compiling a binder containing all of our exhibit plans and materials to use next semester when we actually assemble our corridors exhibit; we had to compile a binder containing all of our Tilford Dudley material; and we had to compile a binder containing all 83 of our house surveys (I thought we only had 70 house surveys, but after having to go through and reformat all of them, I learned that there were actually 83)! As we were compiling the house surveys, we realized that we had forgotten to make a survey form for one house on First Street, so Angie and I were given the assignment to go out and survey the house. As you can see, we had a fun time doing it--even though we kept getting hit by icicles falling out of trees. At lunch time, everyone decided they needed beer to help them through the rest of the day, and I needed food, so we went to Marty's bar, and I got a hamburger while everyone else got a hamburger and beer. We worked and worked all afternoon, and then everyone got a little disgruntled by Alisha.

I don't mean to gossip, but I just have to vent a little bit. Remember how Alisha can't say a sentence without the words "my boyfriend Matt" in it? Well, this has been grating on everyone's nerves a bit lately, and today was kind of the final straw. Catherine, Alisha, and I were supposed to reformat all of the house survey forms, so if there were 83 all together, that turns out to be 27.66666667 survey forms for each of us. Now, this was not an easy process because we had to add research sources, photographs, and standardize all of the wording, etc. Well, after working on it for about 15 minutes, Alisha said, "Well, I've got to go up to Champaign because it's Matt's and my one-and-a-half year anniversary, and we're going to a bar for dinner." We all just looked at her like, "You have GOT to be kidding." (This was at about 3:30 p.m.) She insisted that she must go and then left. We were SOOOO mad because of all the times of the semester when everyone needs to pull their own weight, this is that time!! So she was gone for the rest of the evening, and we all stayed until 10:45, and we were all mad at her--especially since she didn't tell us she was leaving until right before she left. We have a nice long "To Do" list for her to do tomorrow though. It's not like she's the only one who has other places she would like to be rather than at school. Laurie, Sarah, and I all have significant others who live relatively close by, and sure we'd like to hang out with them rather than do our work, but that's not an option. If I hear one more thing about "my boyfriend Matt" tomorrow, I just might lose it and have to smack Alisha with the house survey binder (which weighs about 25 pounds now). Sorry--enough venting, but I feel much better now after letting out all of my frustration :-)

Tonight we ordered pizza for dinner so we could just eat it there in the graduate lab while we were working. My body didn't know what to think during the weekend when it was given all of the REAL food (aka nutritious and delicious food) at Greg's house and the Stowell's house--because it's gotten so used to a steady diet of cereal, pizza, and Diet Coke (that's literally all I've had time for). I am really looking forward to having real food again over Christmas break (and thankfully I have some leftovers from Greg's meal that I can eat tomorrow and Wednesday).

Speaking of Christmas break, I am SOOOOO excited to come home on Thursday and see everybody!! I realize I've been gone from home for about seven-and-a-half months, which is way too long! There are several people here I will miss (Greg, Aly, Lincoln the Cat, the Stowells), but other than that, it will be wonderful to have a break from everyone and everything having to do with Charleston, Illinois. It will be especially fun to arrive home on Mom's birthday!

Well, I'm off to write a paper, dig through my stuff to find the library books I need to return, and find the books I need to study for Wednesday's tests. If I have time, I'll squeeze some sleep in there somewhere, but at this rate, that might not happen until Thursday night ;-)

Ice is Not Nice, nor is Freezing Fog

Today was a very busy but super fun day! First of all, the weather is a little wacky (this seems to be a recurring thing). As you can see from Abe's picture here, it is a little cold. This picture was on a Yahoo news story about the cold Midwest weather--it was taken of an Abe statue in front of the Presidential Museum in Springfield. Poor Abe! He looks very cold. A winter storm warning and a freezing fog advisory have been issued for central Illinois. I've never heard of a freezing fog advisory before--that doesn't sound very good. Supposedly tonight and tomorrow it's supposed to get pretty nasty here with freezing rain, ice, cold temperatures, and, I guess, freezing fog. Maybe it will be so foggy and frozen that all of my teachers will have to cancel finals and give everyone A's? Wishful thinking, I know, but isn't Christmas time the season of wishful thinking?

Today Greg came down here and we went over to church together which was fun. Bishop Stowell was released from his calling today. He's been the bishop for five years, so a new bishop, Bishop Emett, was called to fill that position now. I think that the Stowell family will be glad to have their dad back on Sundays (and every other day of the week). I am really glad that Bishop Stowell was the bishop when I came out here--if it wasn't for his recommendations, I don't think I would have ever come out here to school, and if it wasn't for the kindness of the Stowell family when I first got here and was trying to figure out what was going on, I probably would have packed my bags and headed for home.

After church, Greg and I drove to Sullivan so he could pick some things up at his parents' house, then we picked Catherine up and went over to Dr. Small's and Mr. Riccio's to see the two new horses: Freda and Willa. They are soooooo cute! It's sad that they were in a bad place before, but happy that they're in a good place now. Willa even let me feed her some treats, but I was the only one she would take treats from. Then Dr. Small gave us some treats, and Greg and I took Catherine home before going over to the Stowell's for an early dinner. The kids were soooo cute while we were there. They are such a cute family. Well, I'm super tired, so I actually think I'm going to bed. Good night.

Early Christmas

Sad story . . . BYU lost to Michigan State today in basketball :-( This was a very important game for them to win because one of my fellow inmates, Laurie, is from the town where Michigan State is located and is a huge fan. I was really counting on BYU to defend my Cougar pride today, but I guess I have to accept defeat and prepare myself to face Laurie. It would be easier to face her if we hadn't trash-talked each other so much this week :-) I guess it's okay though because when Michigan State played Michigan in football, Catherine, who is a Michigan graduate, had a good time taunting Laurie, so I guess Laurie needed something to be happy about.

Today was a very fun day--I got to have an early Christmas! I went up to Sullivan and met Greg at his parents' house, and he made the most delicious lunch ever. It was awesome! He even made pumpkin pie! We had a fun day together, and since I'll be out in Utah for Christmas, we exchanged gifts today. He gave me a beeeeautiful string of pearls, which I totally love. Earlier today I had to go meet with Dan to finish up one of our Mr. Riccio projects, and he was nice for a change, so that was good. Tonight I need to do some homework and stuff like that. I should probably also clean my room. It kind of looks like a bomb went off in here because during the week I didn't have time to put any clothes or papers away, so it's quite the mess. Hopefully the forecasted freezing rain won't really come tonight--that would make it a little hard to get to church tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. I am NOT a fan of freezing rain. I like it better in Utah where it either rains or snows--none of this in-between freezing rain junk :-)

The First Real Snow

Hooray--last night we had our first real snow, and this morning we woke up to a winter wonderland! I wanted to go outside and enjoy it, but I was barricaded in my room until about 3:00 this afternoon trying to put the finishing touches on the paper--or we could call it the icing on the cake :-) I had hoped to finish the paper last night, since it was due today at 4:00 p.m. and I had other stuff I needed to do today, but for some reason I worked on it all evening and into the late hours of the night yesterday, but just couldn't quite pull it together. It was like the never-ending paper, and it felt like the more I did on it, the more I still had to write. Anyway, the paper was printed out this afternoon and delivered to Dr. Reid at about 3:30. I hate turning things in at the last minute, I did the best I could. I also don't know if I like the paper very much, but I added some pretty pictures to it, so hopefully that will make Dr. Reid happy :-) After handing in the paper, I read to Dr. Hardeman for a while, then picked up some pizza and came home to meet with Alisha to work on part of an assignment that is due for Mr. Riccio's class on Monday. If it weren't for Mr. Riccio's assignments, life would be totally good. We got the assignment done, but when Alisha went to leave this evening, her car wouldn't start. Her battery is probably toast, but hopefully we can figure out what to do about it tomorrow. I took her home this evening. Tomorrow I have to get up and go work on the website narrative with Dan--which is due tomorrow night, and I am not looking forward to this! I've decided that if Dan is going to be a jerk, then I'm not going to go out of my way to try to be extra nice to him--because he's acting totally lame. So I imagine our meeting in the morning will be very short, curt, and cold. As Patrick would say from Spongebob Squarepants, "Dan has issues!" I am really looking forward to taking some time to relax tomorrow and hanging out with Greg up in Sullivan.

The Eleventh Hour

Well, it is the eleventh hour, as it were, here in Charleston. The time has finally come that my paper has to be done, so there is no putting it off until tomorrow anymore. For the last few nights, and I can imagine that is how it will be tonight, I have been on the 5:2 sleep schedule. I sleep five hours at night, then two hours in the afternoon. The problem is that I don't always have time for the 2 hours in the afternoon. But, after I turn in tomorrow's paper I'll only have one more research paper to finish (and a whole bunch of other stuff, but I won't think about that right now), so hopefully everything will fall into place all right. Like they say, if it weren't for the last minute, a lot of stuff would never get done.

This morning I had my very last class of the semester! We'll still have finals next week, but classes have officially ended for us. I have loved Dr. Small's historic preservation class. Speaking of Dr. Small, she and Mr. Riccio (they are married, but she still goes by her maiden name because that's how everyone in the world of academia knows her) have rescued some horses from a mean guy here in Charleston. I guess that the guy would beat his horses, and they were pretty much starving, so the police seized all of his animals and tried to find good homes for them. The Small/Riccio house has a barn, so they fixed it up and have adopted two horsies. The poor horsies are quite traumatized, but they're working with them to help them get used to people--nice people--and are nursing them back to health. They said that the horsies are really skittish and timid around people--understandably so, so they have commissioned me as the "horse whisperer" to come over on Sunday afternoon and talk to the cute horses. I'm totally excited! Some of the other girls want to go with me so we can shower the horses with love, affection, and carrots, and hopefully make them feel happy. The mean guy who abused these horses should be put in the stocks on town square and left out in the cold (I think that the stocks should be reinstituted as a form of public humiliation, or humility as Dr. Hardeman's students would call it).

Speaking of Dr. Hardeman, I worked with him for a few hours this afternoon, but we didn't get much done because he spent the whole time telling me stories. When I got there, he told me to kick up my heels, take a seat, grab a mint julep, and relax, and then I made the mistake of asking him if he'd ever had a mint julep (because I've heard they're really quite gross). This launched him into a whole slew of stories, most of which were about these Ukrainian girls he knew in college who had hollow legs so they could drink and drink and drink alcohol without it ever affecting them. :-) We also had to read some judicial affairs documents to prepare him for some cases he has to oversee tomorrow to decide if the dumb students (and in this case they really can be called dumb because they do some really stupid things) should be kicked out of school. I won't elaborate, since I was sworn to secrecy, but there are some messed up students here. Then Dr. Reid came upstairs to eat some candy with us, and we had a good time chatting. She's big into politics, and so she brought up Mitt Romney's speech today about religion. Even though she and Dr. Hardeman are very emphatic Democrats, they both agree that it's kind of lame that Mitt has been given such a hard time about his religion. Dr. Reid said what I've been saying all along: "If someone's religion keeps them from being voted as President, then America really isn't as free as we all claim it is." Amen. Well, unfortunately my procrastination has gone far enough and I must be off to finish the paper!

The Other Boyfriend

Sorry Greg, I'm afraid you're going to have to share me with another man. His name is Lincoln, and he is my latest boyfriend :-) Just kidding--Lincoln is a cat, but everyone teases me about him being my boyfriend because every time I go over to Catherine's house, he sits behind me on the couch, puts his paws on my head, and tickles my ear with his tail. Isn't he cute? This picture was taken at Catherine's house last Sunday. It was ridiculously cold outside, so I had put on my black gangster hat to keep me warm, and Lincoln loved it. The hat is now covered in white kitty hair because he liked it so much. Catherine adopted Lincoln from the Charleston animal shelter earlier in the semester, and he is one of the most adorable, cuddly cats I have ever seen. She also adopted Lincoln's sister, Sassi, but Sassi doesn't like me as much as Lincoln does.

Well, it is now 2:00 a.m. on Thursday morning. The last time I remember looking at the clock it was 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday night, but then I kind of got on a roll on my material culture in slave life paper, and time got away from me. It's so much easier to work on papers at night because you don't have the interruptions that always pop up during the day, but the problem is that it's hard to stop writing to go to bed, and then when you do go to bed you keep thinking about your paper. I'll try to go to bed anyway though. This seems like the never-ending paper, but it will have to end soon because it is due on Friday!!! I've got plenty of information, but I'm just having a hard time piecing everything together and saying what I want to say. I seem to work better under pressure though, and there will be plenty of that tomorrow (actually later today--since it's already Thursday morning), so maybe I can pull it together then. Then I have one more research paper to do before next Wednesday, but it's about Tilford Dudley, and it's mostly done, so it will be a piece of cake (one of the academic cakes I am becoming very proficient at baking!) to finish it up. Okay, well, I'm going to head to bed. I think I am becoming nocturnal.

Barbie Nation

When my phone rang this morning, I thought for sure it must be Mrs. Miller calling to cancel class, but alas, it was not. The voice said, "Hi, I'm looking for Jackrabbit Shipping." I get calls for Jackrabbit Shipping all of the time! I guess it is a Utah shipping company that went out of business a few years ago, and I ended up with their old phone number. One day when I answered the phone, the person said, "Hello. Is this Jack from Jackrabbit Shipping?" So unfortunately it didn't snow enough last night to prevent class from happening this morning. It didn't really snow at all here--just a few flakes--but oh it is FRRRREEEEEEZING here!! This morning the wind was blowing so hard, and Aly and I thought our faces were going to freeze off just walking from the parking lot to our classroom.

Today was my last day of Wednesday classes, and they were both really fun and interesting. Even though Wednesdays have been my busiest days all semester, they've been my favorite days because I learn so much. This morning in Mrs. Miller's class we watched this movie about a slave auction reenactment they held at Colonial Williamsburg in 1994. The group of African American interpreters they have at Williamsburg wanted to do the slave auction reenactment to put a face on an aspect of history that most people can't really comprehend. But then came the NAACP :-( There were Virginia NAACP people there protesting the reenactment--even though it was black people who thought to have it in the first place. The NAACP guys said that it was a disgrace to their ancestors to turn their trials into entertainment. The key is, it wasn't going to be entertainment--it was going to be education! Some people are totally lame. So the NAACP people made a big ol' ruckus, but finally the reenactment was able to take place, and it made all of the people in the audience--including the NAACP people--cry because it was pretty powerful. They had one married slave couple get sold to different people, and even the angry NAACP people couldn't deny that it was an effective educational presentation. So that was a cool video.

Then in Material Culture today, we also watched a video. It was crazy! It was called "Barbie Nation," and talked about the history and evolution of Barbie and how she and Ken have had an effect on American culture. We watched the movie as a part of our discussion about material culture and popular culture. The movie had some pretty outrageous stuff in it, and we were pretty much laughing the whole time because it was so off-the-wall. There was some seriously messed-up stuff in there.

Remember how a few weeks ago Dr. Reid and Dr. Barnhart nominated us to receive an award from the graduate school for our work on the Dudley project? Well, we just found out that we received it! The award is for about $550, and we thought of splitting it up amongst ourselves, but we've decided to reserve it to use on the spring field trip we will have at the first of next May. Well, I'm off to write more on my paper (shouldn't I be done by now?) and finish my house surveys--projects that will take me all night and then some.

Baking the Cake

I know that I already posted something today, but I think when it's late and I'm trying to work on stuff but having a hard time focusing, it helps to just take a second and write something on the blog--especially when it's something I've been thinking about. As school has gotten more stressful lately, I've needed a little bit of motivation to keep myself going. One thing I have found helpful is reflecting on a conversation I had at BYU in 2006 with the infamous Dr. Daynes who was, at the time, the graduate coordinator for the history department. (The new graduate coordinator is Dr. Richards--one of my favorite teachers--how come she couldn't have been the coordinator when I applied to the grad. program???) Thinking about Dr. Daynes, however, makes me a little bit upset--but in a good way, because the thought of her motivates me to keep going and do a good job on all of my school work. (If I have told this story before, please forgive the repeat.) You see, when I applied to the graduate program in history at BYU in 2005, I got a prompt reply early in 2006 that I had not been accepted to the program. I was quite distraught by this and did not understand the reasoning of the graduate committee in making said decision, so I went to talk with the grad. coordinator--Dr. Daynes. I had never had a class from her before, and she didn't know who I was until that day. I asked her why, with all of the practical history experience I had in researching, writing, publishing, etc., what more I could have done to be accepted into the program. Her response was:

"Well, Tiffany, you have shown that you can put the icing on the cake, but can you actually bake the cake?"

My first thought was, "Did she really just say that to me?" Then I thought, "What on earth is she talking about??" She seemed to think that I had my priorities all messed up and that I put more emphasis on work and outside projects than my actual school work. But what good is it to bake a bunch of cakes if you can't frost them? And of course I know how to bake the cake! Take a look at that cake up there that I baked . . . and frosted last year--I bet Dr. Daynes and Stanley Thayne couldn't do that! :-) So anyway, I am here at graduate school showing that yes, despite what Dr. Daynes or anyone else thinks, I can bake cakes--real cakes and figurative school cakes. When I get worn down by school I just remind myself that one of my goals is to prove Dr. Daynes wrong and show her (and myself and everyone else) that I can bake academic cakes. I think after I graduate from EIU I'm going to bake an actual cake and take it to Dr. Daynes and say, "Hi Dr. Daynes. You once asked me if, even though I had shown that I can put the icing on the cake, could I really bake the cake? Here's your answer--I bake freaking awesome cakes and frost them too." That will be a happy day.

I am praying for snow tonight because I could really, really, really use the extra couple of hours in the morning to get stuff done if class had to be cancelled because of bad weather. I mean, I don't want Mrs. Miller to get stuck in snow on her way down here from Champaign, but if it would snow enough that when she wakes up in the morning, she sees that driving would not be a good idea and cancels class, that would be wonderful. This afternoon I took Dr. Hardeman grocery shopping for egg nog and apple cider--that was quite the adventure.

Dan Needs to Go to Japan

My sister Lindy always finds the coolest stuff online! Today she introduced me to www.brainfall.com, which I now love. I found out all about myself! I needed some introspection this morning to help me deal with my stressed-out situation. So, here's a little bit about me that you didn't know:

Which Disney Princess am I? Like Lindy, it was a tie between two of them.

You are part Jasmine. You are loyal and would visit the ends of the earth for what you believe. You would never let obstacles stand in the way of true love.

You are part Cinderella. You are hard-working and never complain, however, your trust is sometimes misplaced and people sometimes take advantage of you. Still, you are beautiful inside and out, and one day you will realize it and find true love.

Which "24" character am I? Hooray--she's my favorite!

You are Chloe. You are the doer in any group. This is not a bad thing, as you are the only person who can do those things beyond the control and realm of other beings. As a very caring person, you're emotionally attached to others, though from the outside you might seem to be very aggressive.

Which "The Office" character am I? Hooray--she's my favorite too!

You are Pam. You are sweet and likable, but your shyness makes it hard for you to express yourself sometimes. Regardless, you are always there for your friends and will usually come out of your shell to help anyone.

Which female action hero am I? Hooray again--she's also my favorite!

You are Princess Leia. You are down-to-earth and stick to a rigid sense of ethics. Nerds may lust over you, but everyone looks to you for your grounded logic and intellect.

Which animal was I in my previous life? Didn't unicorns die off because they wouldn't get onto Noah's Ark? :-)

You were a unicorn. You were mysterious and noble. You have fairytale traits, and other people can only dream in envy. Your nature is completely impossible to decipher and behind all that, you know that you shine bright, for only the luckiest people get the chance to know you.

What city should I live in? Hmmmm, I don't know about this one.

You should live in New York City. America's largest city will ensure that you will blend into the crowd. You are the brooding type--introspective, creative, and eccentric--and NYC's cutting-edge, individualistic culture and ambiance will appeal to you.

What car am I? I always knew I loved Volvos.

You would be a Volvo Station Wagon. You may never be the snazziest, but who cares what others think about you? You power-steer your way to soccer practice with assuredness and confidence.

Ha ha ha. That was a fun little distraction from my school worries. And now that I know that I AM Chloe from "24," I should be able to handle anything. I slept with my phone by my bed last night--just in case Dr. Barnhart called again this morning to cancel class, but alas, he did not. At least class was kind of short today, but he added some things to our list of things to do, and I have a bad feeling that our weekly meeting tonight is going to be really, really, really long and painful. Things are really, really, really weird with my classmate Dan. I think I've discussed the situation before--how Dan is mad because I like Greg and Dan likes me. It's like Dan keeps getting more and more bitter towards me. We have to work on a narrative of our website that we'll be doing for next spring's exhibit, but when I asked Dan about it today, he just scowled at me and said, "I thought we're not doing the website until next semester." I said, "That is true, but our narrative is due next Monday." He didn't really seem to care, so whatever--I'll take care of it and will send it to him to look over and make suggestions on. All of the girls are mad at him because he's acting like a jerk towards me (and because he's already done with all of his papers and everything, and he likes everyone else to know it). Oh well, in a graduate class of only ten people, there's bound to be some drama.

It's supposed to snow tonight and be quite chilly tomorrow. Mrs. Miller, who teaches my museum administration class, drives down from Champaign every Wednesday morning for class. She e-mailed us to say that if she can't make it because of the weather tomorrow, she'll initiate the phone tree by calling Tiffany. I wonder why I'm always the first one to be called? I guess I'll sleep with my phone by my bed again tonight. Well, I'm going to write papers for a while (and probably fall asleep because I'm really tired) and then I need to go work with Dr. Hardeman at 2:00. Then later tonight I have to pick up a cake for Alisha's half birthday (some of us who have birthdays in the summer are celebrating our half birthdays instead), meet with Catherine to transfer some stuff from her computer to the school computer, and head to the dreaded weekly meeting. I also need to read some microfilm, finish my house surveys, compile everyone's Dudley presentations to be put online, compose a website proposal for the Dudley archives project, write the exhibit website narrative, finish two research papers, update the professor pages on the HA website, and send out a bunch of e-mails. Sigh.