Funnest Fall Frolic Ever!

Today was sooooooooooooooooo much fun!!! We had a great time at the Fall Frolic at the Lincoln Log Cabin. I don't think Charleston has ever seen as many people as there are in town this weekend. It is Family Weekend here, so everyone's parents are in town, and they had a bunch of vendors and craftsmen come to town for the Fall Frolic. I guess it's a pretty big event among historical artisans. What do you think of my pioneer get up? My ancestors would be proud, don't you think? The first picture you see is of me with the first broom I ever made! Then you see me with my expert tutor--Dr. Reid. She can whip out brooms like there's no tomorrow. The next picture is great--there I am on what's called the shaving horse. Before actually making the brooms, we had to shave all of the bark off of these gigantic branches we were supposed to make into broom handles. This was my favorite job of all! For some reason I have a shaving fetish. I love peeling potatoes, carrots, and cucumbers, and as I found out today, shaving bark off of branches. Yes, it's true--you do see me pulling the large blade towards myself, but don't worry--that is how it's supposed to be done. The blade is such that even if you slipped and hit your mid-section, no damage would be done. I also had enough layers of clothing to protect myself, so there were no injuries sustained today. In the next picture you'll see Dr. Reid patiently teaching Laurie and me how to use what's called "the kicker." That's the machine you use to tie the broom corn to the handle using sinew. It was a pretty fun job too, but I liked shaving wood the best. I made two brooms today. They are quite time consuming. This morning it was Laurie and me manning the broom station with Dr. Reid, and then this afternoon, as you can see in the last picture, it was Kristen, Angie, and me with Dr. Reid. We all had a great time together, and I have decided that if I had lived back in the day, in 1845 as we pretended it was today, I would have made brooms for a living. A lot of people were really interested in how brooms are made, and we had a fun time showing people how much work went into making something that was then used to do work.

It was super, super, super, duper hot out there today, especially in our hefty dresses (by the way, how do you like my Cinderella dress? It doesn't look too bad in pictures. It's in real-life that it looks extra funny). We drank a lot of water and lemonade. It was still better than if it had been rainy though. There were all kinds of fun arts and crafts being demonstrated. My favorite was the chair maker--probably since I've been learning so much about chairs lately. There was a gunsmith, a blacksmith, several potters, a palm reader, a sewing machine maker, a lot of knitters, and plenty of good food for everyone. They fed us exceptionally well today. For lunch we had ham and beans with cornbread. Then the post-frolic dinner tonight was awesome! They served a bunch of food that had been made there at the cabin today. We had roast beef, okra, potatoes and other veggies, pickled eggs, homemade cottage cheese, and the best part of the whole day . . . fresh homemade apple pie and molasses cake! Can you think of a more perfect fall meal? Everybody was really nice and seemed to have a fun day. People thought it was cool that we were out there volunteering today as part of our class. I think it would be hard to have a more fun class project that what we did today!

Tilford Deadly

Tilford Dudley is going to bring about the destruction of the HA Class of 2008! Just kidding, but I think Deadly is a good last name for him. Being the only person in the class who knows how to use Photoshop has its advantages--it makes me popular, but it also has its disadvantages--it makes me the only one who can do certain things for the Dudley exhibit. Even though I'm not officially on the exhibit team (since I'm doing one of the presentations), I was recruited by them today because they needed some serious graphic help. We're feeling the crunch because we have to install the exhibit next Saturday--and everything still needs to be printed! I have to admit though, this is a very effective way to teach us how to do this stuff--we are all learning quickly, and if we survive this, we'll have some real experience under our belts. If we survive--that's the key. :-) I escaped earlier this evening, but I got a phone call from Kristen who sounded so utterly desperate that I didn't have the heart not to go back. I just got home, and it's now almost 12:30 in the morning--but I figure that we're all in this together so either we'll all go down as one or we'll help each other get through this program.

I am currently trying to read up on making brooms for tomorrow's fall frolic at the Lincoln Log Cabin. Did you know that the introduction of broom corn to the United States has been attributed to Benjamin Franklin? He gets credit for everything :-) In this article broom corn is referred to as "the plant that swept America." Ha ha. It has turned from fall into summer again here in Illinois, so I have a feeling that we're going to melt tomorrow--especially in our pioneer dresses! It's forcasted to be 92 degrees tomorrow! What happened to fall? Isn't this supposed to be a FALL frolic? I hear that it's been super chilly back home in Utah. Too bad it can't be nice mild, crisp, cool fall weather everywhere right now. I will surely have many adventures to report tomorrow after the festivities. I'm supposed to report to Lincoln Log at 9:45 a.m. at which time I will receive a 10-minute broom-making tutorial from Dr. Reid, then I will work until 4:00 in the afternoon. We will get to take breaks and walk around to see other people's crafts. They are also feeding us lunch and dinner cooked in a Dutch oven! Heck, I'd dress up like a chicken if it meant getting Dutch oven food! Dinner is at 5:00 tomorrow evening, so I'm thinking it will be quite a long day.

Speaking of a long day, today was a long day. This morning Kristen, Aly, and I went out surveying houses. Remember how I said that somebody got attacked in that neighborhood? Well, everyone there is a little edgy--and I certainly don't blame them. A lady wearing black Hawaiian shorts came out and questioned us today because she thought we looked suspicious. Aly did look kind of like an FBI agent in her shades and her black shirt. Then I worked with Dr. Hardeman all afternoon, and though we did make more headway than we have in the past (we made it through grading two papers and four tests in three hours!), he was falling asleep more than ever today. I had to keep waking him up, but the problem was he didn't know he had gone to sleep. So I would ask him if he wanted to stand up and walk around, but he would say that he was fine--then the next minute he would be snoring. Sometimes he would be telling me what to write on one of the student's papers, but he would be half asleep, so what he was saying didn't make sense. :-) Actually, come to think of it, what the students were writing didn't make sense either! In an essay about the events leading up to the Revolutionary War, one student was talking about Rosie O'Donnell--comparing her to the Whig party in reference to the Bill of Rights. This made no sense. Needless to say, by the time I finished today, I was a bit exasperated. Dr. Hardeman offered to pop out his prosthetic eye to show me, but I told him I wasn't really in the mood to see a prosthetic eye today. Now I'm so pooped that I don't really feel like going to bed. But I will because I know I need to. I think my days of having a normal eating and sleeping schedule are no more--at least until next April. It's all good though!

Digital Dudley

I was able to astound everybody last night with my sweet Photoshop skills! :-) I made the promo poster pictured at the left for the upcoming Dudley festivities. Yesterday Dr. Reid look totally exhausted, and she still needed to finish the script for the Dudley exhibit. I felt really bad for her, and I knew she had a lot on her plate, so I volunteered to do the promo materials. She was ecstatic, and when I whipped out this poster at 9:30 last night (she was still at her office working), she was so excited. Today I helped her out with the Coles County Historical Society newsletter, then we made a couple hundred copies of everything, and I took them over to Norma Winkelblack (that's really her name!) who is in charge of doing mailings for the historical society. Dr. Reid was really glad that she didn't have to worry about doing that stuff, and I was glad I could help. Besides, I like a good excuse to play around in Photoshop, and it was fun to hang out with Dr. Reid while we pulled everything together. She is super funny! She keeps finding more funny stuff about the Dudley family. She came across an article from the Washington Post about Rick Dudley (the slightly bitter son) entitled "Rick Dudley: His Ship Blew In." I guess that he and his wife live on the coast in Washington state, and back in the 1970s, during a hurricane, this random boat blew by. They roped it in, fixed it up, and hung out on it with their dogs. I believe Rick is sort of the free-spirited type. Dr. Reid also discovered that Tilford's wife, Martha, was a children's book author. She had this series of kids' books called "Bad Mousie." How great is that! Dr. Reid ordered the books over inter-library loan, and all of us students decided that we'll have to do a Freudian reading of the books to see if said "bad mousie" may actually be a symbolic representation of her husband. :-)

Today in my Historic Preservation class we talked about the National Park Service and its responsibility to protect natural, cultural, and historic resources. Yay! I love the Park Service, and I love that I have a class where we get to talk about it. Later this evening, we all got together to study for our Digital Applications test on Monday. The bad news is that we have a test on Monday. The good news is that Digital Applications is only a one credit class, so this Monday is our last day of that class! I mean, not that I don't enjoy that class. It's just that the extra three hours on Monday afternoons will come in very handy. And, just having 15 credits of classes doesn't sound quite as menacing as 16.

Friday is typically my "day off," but it will not be so tomorrow. In the morning Aly, Kristen, and I have to go out and survey some houses (which we are always going to do in groups because someone got attacked by a guy in a ski mask the other day in the very neighborhood we're surveying!), then I'm going to go help Dr. Hardeman grade tests and papers for the afternoon. We only made it through one paper the other day when I was helping him, though we did get quite a bit of reading done in this book he's researching. Well, okay, I got quite a bit of reading done, and he took a little nap. :-) I would break into a coughing fit every now and then (which wasn't too hard to do), which would wake him up, but then he'd fall back to sleep again. I don't blame him--it wasn't the most exciting material we were reading. Dr. Hardeman has been sick, his assistant Ellen has been sick, and then I got the bug, so at least we don't have to worry about making each other sick there in the office.

Speaking of the office, tonight after our study session, everyone wanted to watch "The Office" on TV. Several of my classmates are obsessed with the show. They came over to our apartment to watch it because we have the "comfiest couch." My favorite part of the show this evening was when the boss guy was driving around in a rental car with a GPS, and when he came to a stop sign, the GPS said "turn right." He started to turn right, but the guy riding with him said, "No, she means veer right up ahead." The boss guy was insistent that if the GPS said turn right, he should. He said, "Maybe she knows a short cut." The guy in the passenger seat said, "No, there's a lake right there!" But the boss guy hit the gas and said, "The GPS knows best. She'll get us through this! We must do as she says!" Then they drove into the lake and ended up having to swim ashore. It was sooooooo funny! Oh, and good news--I'm getting a $100/month raise! Yay!! The dean of the college really took the First Choice award thing seriously, and it turns out that we HA grad assistants were getting paid less each month than the regular History grad. assistants, so the dean agreed to give us all more money for our assistantships. That will be a big help!

Cinderella Lincoln

It was a little rainy last night and this morning, but it turned into a beautiful fall day! It was even a little too warm outside, but it was nice to have the sunshine. Today for my Material Culture class, we met out at the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site to get our 1845 period clothing for when we make brooms at the Fall Frolic on Saturday. We had so much fun out there today, so I'm sure it will be even more fun on Saturday! We learned all about Thomas Lincoln (Abe's dad) and the family's home there called Goosenest Prairie. Dr. Reid wanted us to be clear on all of our Lincoln facts in case visitors ask us questions about them this weekend. We also looked at some of the historic furniture on the farm and went out to the field where the broom corn is crowing. Broom corn is very different from regular corn. It's actually considered to be a type of sorghum, and it has really long stems full of seeds. I read yesterday that the seeds can be used for animal feed or can also be eaten by people (but they don't look like they'd taste very good). We saw what the brooms we'll be making will look like, but we won't learn the actual broom-making methods until Saturday morning before all of the guests come.

Later this afternoon we were given our clothes for this weekend based on our size. Unfortunately I was just the right size for the one dress that looks like it has been through the ringer a few too many times! Usually I don't mind being short, but the short dress was truly not in the best condition. :-) It's kind of funny--it has holes all over it, but they gave me a chemise to wear under it, and I'll probably throw on some basketball shorts too--just to be on the safe side. We also have to wear aprons, and Dr. Reid came across this funny, old apron covered with patches and stains. We decided that it kind of matched the condition of my dress, so I'm going to be the homeless servant girl making brooms on the farm :-) Everyone decided that a good name for my character this weekend would be Cinderella--because my clothes look like something Cinderella would have been forced to wear by her evil stepsisters before she made it big. I asked Dr. Reid if I should show up with dirt smeared on my face just to complete the persona, but she assured me that by the end of the day we'll all look a little ragged and dirty. Ha ha! I also have to wear a day cap because my hair is not long enough to be historically accurate. There will surely be some funny pictures taken this weekend!

I'm feeling a little better today than yesterday, but I've still been pretty congested. Being sick stinks! Last night we had a fun combination birthday party for Kristen and weekly meeting. Everyone brought different stir fry ingredients, and we made a gigantic pan of stir fry. We also had some yummy birthday cake. We had the meeting over at Angie's house, and she has such cute cats! Her big fat black cat, named Lil' Bits, fell in love with me, and he kept following me around wanting me to scratch his tummy. He's tooooo cute! Everyone seemed a little stressed out, but we're all keeping a positive attitude. Today Dr. Reid told us that she really appreciates the "good humor" we all have, despite the fact that we've got waaaay too much to do. Speaking of too much to do, I'd better go read about legal issues in historic preservation for tomorrow!

New Website!

Hi everyone! This morning Dr. Barnhardt had to go fulfill his jury duty obligation, so we didn't have class. I was going to go into campus and do some work, but when my alarm went off, I rolled over, realized I still wasn't feeling well, and went back to sleep. I've just been getting some things done here since finally waking up. Maybe what I needed was a morning to rest a bit. I feel a little better now. While trying to be productive here at home today, I got the new Historical Administration website up! You can check it out at http://www.eiu.edu/~history/ha/2008.htm. That job has been hanging over my head for a while now, so it was good to have a few hours to just get it done. It still needs a lot of work, but at least everything is in place. I was never able to get in touch with the web guy to tell me how he wanted me to do things, so I just figured it out by myself and did it my own way. If that makes the web guy mad, he'll just have to deal with it because he's the one who never called me back! There are a few kinks that still need to be worked out, and I still need to make our official exhibit website, but other than that, we're in pretty good shape.

Now I need to get ready and actually head to campus for real. I'm scheduled to help Dr. Hardeman grade tests this afternoon, and hopefully both he and I can stay awake! Today is Kristin's birthday, so tonight for our weekly class meeting we are going to make stir fry and eat while we talk, and talk, and talk, and talk. :-) It's a beautiful fall day here in Charleston, so I'd better get on my way before it's over!

First Choice

Yay! The History Department (thanks to the Historical Administration component) was awarded Eastern Illinois University's First Choice Award. The university got a new president this year, and he has set a goal of making EIU the best graduate-degree-offering middle-sized university in the country. He decided to go through all of the grad. programs and see which ones have the best national recognition at this point. Yep, we're #1! The HA program is "the crowning jewel of the university." That made us all feel good inside.

I'm sad because Mom left for home today, but I'm glad that she made it back all right and that we had sooooooo much fun while she was here. We really did have a great time, and her visit helped the semester not feel as long as it was feeling before. Alyson's mom was happy that my mom brought some Halloween decorations for the apartment because for some reason she thought that Mormons didn't celebrate Halloween. Don't know where that came from! She said she's going to send us some Halloween candy.

Back in the day, a few years ago, I was majoring in Business Education at Utah Valley State College. I completed my Associate's degree before realizing that my heart was in history instead of business. But my time in Business Ed. has not gone to waste! I now have a whole set of skills that give me a bit of an advantage over my history peers when it comes to technical stuff. My good friend and neighbor at home, Carolyn Kuehne, was my Access database course instructor at UVSC, and she taught me many wonderful things that have been useful to me many times. Today was one of those times. I was in my Digital Applications class this afternoon, trying not to pass out or fall asleep (we'll blame it on the cold). I had my Mentholatum, pack of Kleenex, Vitamin C drops, hand sanitizer, and schoolbooks all spread out across my table and was zoning out as our teacher Mr. Riccio was talking about the assignment we having coming up. He said that we needed to complete some metadata descriptions of photographs in Micorsoft Access. I was about ready to kick out and fall asleep when I heard Mr. Riccio, say, "Has anyone ever worked with Microsoft Access?" Everyone was giving him blank stares, shaking their heads, and saying, "No. What is that?" Then he looked at me, and I said, "Well, I took an Access class one time." Everything went silent, and everyone turned and looked at me as if I had just gotten back from the moon. Mr. Riccio hadn't ever worked with Access, so he asked if I would come up to the front of the classroom and instruct everyone on how to use Access. I think it's funny that we have a class assignment that needs to be completed in Access, but even Mr. Riccio doesn't quite know the in's and out's of the program. :-) So I went up to the front and hooked the computer into the projector so everyone could see what I was doing on the big screen. We had a quick 20-minute version of Access 101 and got the framework for our assignment laid out. The other students were grateful that they didn't have to go and figure out how to use Access by themselves, and they thanked me profusely for knowing how to use the program.

Speaking of being grateful, I am grateful that I left "early" from our 3:00 meeting yesterday afternoon. I don't really consider leaving a meeting five hours after it starts as leaving early, but when one considers the fact that the meeting didn't end until 10:00 P.M., I really did leave quite early. A seven-hour meeting??????? Oh dear, what am I going to do with these guys? The whole point of the meeting was to complete the museum exhibit design brief that was due this morning, but there was truly nothing brief about the document. Mr. Riccio said it was the largest design brief he'd ever seen. Yes, I thought to myself, because it took seven hours to write!! We have our weekly class meeting tomorrow night, and I am really, really, really hoping that everyone is getting at least a little tired of meeting with each other so that it can hopefully be a short and sweet meeting. Well, I'm off to bed to see if I can recover from the cold.

Five Hours and Counting

Yikes! It's 8:00 p.m., and I just barely left a school meeting that started at 3:00 this afternoon!!! And the scary thing is, I left early--they're still there talking in circles. The students in my program were meeting to discuss a museum exhibit assignment that is due tomorrow, but everyone is so analytical and over-achieving that it was seriously taking an hour to get through each section of the assignment. There are 10 sections to the assignment! I still love everyone in the program, but they think and talk waaaaay too much about everything. This was one of those occasions where you're actually glad to have a cold--because it's a good excuse to leave a never-ending meeting early. As I sat there blowing my nose, it was pretty obvious that I needed to leave and take some more cold medicine. When I realized that this was not going to be a short meeting, I called Mom and she came over to eat some pizza with us. She thought it was quite funny that our meeting was never going to end. She was nice enough to stay there with me until I was able to escape. I think her presence also contributed to making my exit easier. Finally we are back at home, I have taken some cold meds, and am much happier.

Mom and I had a fun time at church today. Everyone there was very happy to meet her. I accidentally fell asleep during sacrament meeting (we'll blame it on the cold), but luckily I had Mom there to catch me up on what happened :-) After church today, Mom and I went over to the Small/Riccio farm to return the house key and so that Mom could meet more of my professors. They loved meeting Mom, and she loved meeting them. They took us on a tour of their house, and we got to sit out on the front porch and chat in the cool fall breeze. We had a great time out there!

Mom and I are going to go eat one of the delicious pumpkin cookies we bought at the Great Pumpkin Patch yesterday--they are the best things we've ever eaten! Unfortunately Mom has to go home tomorrow :-( I told her that I wish she could stay for the rest of the semester, but I know that everyone at home would miss her too much. I'm glad she's been able to come for a visit though!