Anger Management

Alyson and I are anxiously awaiting tonight's conflict resolution, or, as one of our classmates accidentally called it today, anger management training. We figured that the two are pretty much the same thing. We'll see how that goes. All that the professors will tell us is that we're going to be best friends after this evening (that scares me, greatly!). Today was a fun day of classes. This morning we had Historical Organization Administration, in which we will learn about how museums, historic sites, and professional historical organizations run, as well as how to write research grants. I have a little bit of grant writing experience from my time at BYU, but for this class we're actually going to be helping a museum write a grant proposal. We were all assigned different museums, and mine is the Piatt County Museum located in Monticello, Illinois. I didn't even know there was a place called Monticello, Illinois, but it doesn't surprise me because in Natchez we decided that there must be a town named Monticello in every state. There's for sure one in Utah, one in Mississippi, one in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, New York, Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, and now we know, Illinois. I guess that the Piatt County Museum is in the process of revamping its whole image. They've received a barn from the University of Illinois, and they're going to be giving barn tours in October. I have no idea what the proposed grant will be for, but I'll meet with the museum people to find out. Maybe we could buy some cows for the barn or something like that? (just kidding) It should be a really good experience!

This afternoon we had our Material Culture class, where we will be learning about decorative arts in America. I think it will be a super hard but super helpful and fun class. For class today, we met at a house belonging to some people who live just outside of Charleston. They have been collecting antiques for years, and so we had our first lesson in identifying wood type, era of production, and origin. I'm pretty good at identifying things made of walnut now. Dr. Reid teaches that class, and she seems like a really, really cool/knowledgeable person, so I'm excited for the course.

I found out in kind of a roundabout way, through the grapevine, that one of the other students in the program is a Mormon! BUT, she cannot know that I know she's a Mormon because she doesn't want people to know she's a Mormon. She's from Illinois, so she doesn't have the Utah factor as a giveaway. The difference between the two of us is that she wouldn't be caught dead in a BYU t-shirt, whereas I proudly wear my cougar gear. Also, her creative way of telling people she doesn't drink alcohol involves something about her family having a history of alcoholism and she doesn't want to take the risk of becoming an alcoholic. I find it's easier to just tell people that Mormons don't drink alcohol--end of story. Oh well, different strokes for different folks. I won't let her know that I know she's a Mormon unless she decides to tell me sometime. I thought it was kind of a coincidence, though, that we both ended up in the program at the same time. Well, I'm off to anger management--wish me luck!