Another thing that wasn't very cool about yesterday was the weather. I'm sure you have heard about the nasty tornadoes that tore through the South--that was really sad! There were even tornadoes in Oxford, Mississippi--where the University of Mississippi is located. I got accepted into the Southern Studies graduate program there at Ole Miss, but I am infinitely grateful that I ended up where I am instead! Fortunately the band of really bad storms was south of where we are here, but we still got some nastiness. There was so much thunder and lightning outside! At about 7:00, just when it was time for our weekly meeting, Aly and I went and got in the car. It then proceeded to rain cats and dogs. The streets were filling up with water very quickly, and even with the windshield wipers going full-blast, it was really hard to see. I asked her why we were driving in this, and she said that it was because we hadn't had a meeting for a few weeks and we needed to touch base with everybody. :-) So, we drove over to Dan's apartment where the meeting was to be held. It was probably about 30 yards from the parking lot to the apartment, and we counted to three then jumped out of the car. It was like getting a bucket of water dumped on you! There were also already about two inches of standing water on the ground, so immediately the feet were soaked. By the time we ran the 30 yards to the apartment, both Aly and I were soaked to the bone. It literally felt like I had jumped into a swimming pool. Then we all had to sit there in our wet clothes for two hours while everyone argued about our museum exhibit, but I didn't mind because we had CNN on in the background and I was able to watch the Super Tuesday results (which ended up making me sad). Everyone was giving me a hard time about Mitt Romney, but I sat there proudly wearing my very wet Mitt t-shirt. Angie told me that the rain outside was punishment for my liking Mitt Romney, but I told her that it was more like punishment to Illinois for voting for McCain. (Angie also says that "Mormon church" doesn't count on Sunday even though it lasts for 3 hours. According to her, the only true religious worship is mass.) :-) So, yesterday was kind of a long and wet day.
Today was a better day though. For our Collections Care class, we went over to Mattoon to meet with some people from the Coles County Historical Society. One of our projects this semester is to re-write the CCHS collections plan--which now needs to include a preservation plan for the Mattoon train depot. Those of you who have seen the Mattoon train depot know that it is a very cool building, but it needs a lot of work! Here is a picture I took of the train depot from one of the more scenic angles. We spent the morning at the CCHS storage facility cataloging artifacts. I got to catalog Tilford Dudley's dad's World War I mess kit--complete with knife, fork, and spoon. It was cool except for when I found what I believed were food remnants in the bottom of the tin pan. :-) After cataloging objects, we went over to the train depot to go on a tour. The building is a lot bigger than it looks--there's even an area in there that used to be a fancy restaurant. The Coles County Historical Society wants to put offices in there and restore the building to its original grandeur. There are several problems, however: one is that the building is falling apart; two is that they only have $2.5 million to work with (they'll be lucky to fix the roof with that much money); and three is that they don't have any staff to do any of the work. Another problem is the homeless people. While we were there, this one homeless guy came in and started following us around which was a little weird. The guy showing us the depot said that they have a lot of vandalism problems with homeless people trying to dig out places to sleep--especially during the winter.Then, we got to go outside and down below the building to see the room where they are hoping to someday put the Coles County Historical Society museum. When your guide opens the door and says to you, "It's pretty dangerous in here, so be careful. Don't stand on any part of the floor for too long because it's been known to cave in," that is never a good sign :-) When we stepped into the future museum room, we all gasped in horror. It was the darkest, nastiest, yuckiest place I've ever seen! It smelled very strongly of natural gas, and there was broken glass, cigarettes, spider webs, mold, trash, and all other sorts of lovely things everywhere! Our guide said, "It will need a lot of work." That was the understatement of the century! But we all just smiled and nodded our heads encouragingly--thankful that we didn't have to be involved with that project! All of a sudden, our museum exhibit project doesn't seem so bad after all :-) You've got to give the Coles County Historical Society props for trying to restore the depot though--a lot of people in the city just wanted to tear the building down, but it really is a cool place, so hopefully they can get more funding and do something really neat with it.
During our jaunt to Mattoon today we also went to lunch at the original Burger King (different than the chain restaurant). Because there is no proof of who had the name first--this Burger King or the chain (which began in Florida), they came to an agreement that the restaurant in Mattoon could keep the name. They claim, however, that they had the name first and the Florida chain stole it from them. They have really delicious burgers and cherry vanilla Cokes there. Speaking of Coke, I have discovered something delicious. I bought some Hershey's chocolate syrup the other day (because I'm now Hershey's #1 fan after visiting Chocolate World in Pennsylvania), and I found that it is really delicious if you squeeze some of that into a 20 oz. bottle of Cherry Coke Zero. Mmmmm!
This afternoon it got really cold and snowy outside, and after returning from Mattoon, I curled up on my bed in a blanket to do some homework and inadvertantly fell asleep--I guess it's about that time of week when I get really tired! Today Dr. Reid helped me figure out a way to incorporate the research paper I have to do for her class into my research for the Zion National Park book--which I thought was very nice and helpful of her. She feels bad that I have to write a book in addition to doing homework, so she found some sources to help me out. She totally rocks! Well, I'm off to work on some homework and then head to bed. I'd better try to get some good sleep tonight because tomorrow is my double-whammy day: Dr. Barnhart AND Mr. Riccio!
2 comments:
I'm sorry you've had to stand by yourself surrounded by democratic bumpkins during this whole crazy election time. Mitt didn't really stand a chance because nobody treated him like a real person. Oh well--see how happy America is with the bed they've made now. I'm seriously going to have to go with Obama too, there's no other choice. Hope you're surviving everything--school and weather included. Sure love you!
The country has gone crazy. What do you think of my idea that we all defect to the keys? You can see what church that girl think counts in heaven.... :)
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