A "Rapid" Change

Greetings from Grand Rapids, Michigan, everyone! What am I doing here, you may ask. That is a wonderful question. The last week has literally been a whirlwind, and the last couple of days feel like they have lasted for months. It's crazy how quickly everything can change. One minute I'm a park ranger in Mississippi--the next minute I'm in Illinois for school--and the next minute I'm on a field trip to Michigan. As I wrote the other day, Mom and I left Natchez on Friday and then drove to Corinth. At the left you will see a picture of Mom and me out in front of the Generals' Quarters Bed and Breakfast where we stayed in Corinth, Mississippi. It was a really fun place, and we enjoyed seeing all of the historical markers and sites in Corinth. On Saturday morning we went to the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center, which is a really nice, new facility with high-tech exhibits. It made me happy to think that I'll be learning to do things like that in school. Then we went to the Shiloh National Military Park in Tennessee, which was very, very cool. We even got to see the monument marking the place where Albert Sidney Johnston was killed during the battle of Shiloh in 1862! But, as we approached Charleston, Illinois, I got sad again. We arrived in Charleston at about 8:30 p.m. and had a fun evening meeting the Stowells (Brother Stowell is the bishop of the ward) and their six cute kids. They let us stay at their house for the evening since I can't move in to my apartment until Wednesday. Then on Sunday I took Mom to the train station in Mattoon (about 10 miles from Charleston) to catch her train up to the Chicago O'Hare airport. Again I was sad. Then I went to church and had lunch with the Stowells, but I was still sad. In fact, today (Monday) is the first day I haven't broken down into tears from missing home and/or Mississippi. Last night I had a fun time meeting the other students in the program though (there are 10 of us). Alyson and I spent the night at our professors' home (Dr. Riccio and Dr. Small are married, but Dr. Small goes by her maiden name) since we are homeless until Wednesday. We had to wake up at 5:00 this morning to go over to the school, pile into a big white van, and drive to Grand Rapids. Talk about some seriously rapid bonding time for 10 students stuck in a van with one another.

We've had a good day in Grand Rapids visiting the Grand Rapids Public Museum and the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Some of the EIU Historical Administration program alumni work at these various institutions, so they've been giving us the behind-the-scenes look at museum operations. It was all good until we had a slightly awkward moment this evening. We had a BBQ at this lady Veronica's house. She's a graduate of the EIU program back in the day, and she works at the GR Public Museum. All of the older alumni were telling us rookies about weird people they'd had in their Historical Administration classes. Veronica said, "We had the weirdest guy named Benjamin. He was fine until he went and joined the Mormons!" Uh-oh, here we go, I thought to myself. She proceeded to tell everyone how weird he was, and how he became more involved with his "faith" than with school. Dr. Riccio and Alyson (my soon-to-be roommate) officially know I'm a Mormon, but hello, can one not figure out that the girl from Utah sitting there wearing a shirt that says BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY EST. 1875 is probably a Mormon???? Obviously everyone else but Veronica could figure it out because there was an awfully awkward moment of silence after her less-than-flattering remarks. Oh well, I'm afraid I need to just buck-up and get used to being the odd-man-out. The description of Mormons as a "peculiar people" never really meant much to me until I spent time away from Utah. Now I see the truthfulness of that description--we really are different (in good ways) from most of the people in the world! It's all good though--I'm just going to keep being the nice, happy Mormon girl. I'm still super super super super super duper extraordinarily homesick, but I'm not going to run away from school like I did last year. Well, I'm off to bed, and tomorrow we get to visit the Gerald Ford museum! Everyone thinks it's totally awesome that my mom used to babysit his kids!!!

Separation Anxiety

Well, the journey to Illinois has begun. Mom and I have had a really fun day today, but I have also been an emotional basket case. I didn't realize how attached to Natchez I was until I had to leave. Mom and I had breakfast this morning with Angie at the Marketplace Cafe. We had some yummy beignets, but when it came time to say goodbye, I got all teary-eyed. Mom and I had to then finish packing the car--which was a seemingly insurmountable challenge. We did it though, and the only things we had to leave behind were my mop bucket and one of the two toasters that we accidentally packed when I came to Natchez. Catherine assured us she would find good uses for these things, and we were glad that we had gotten everything else in the car. It's going to be quite a chore to unload all of that, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I think I have too much stuff. Tim came over and went grocery shopping in my fridge this morning. You'd think he'd died and gone to heaven. He had a date last night, and took this girl to the Castle for dinner. It almost killed him to have spent that much on one meal, and he had been afraid that he wouldn't be able to afford groceries, so he said I saved the day. I'm glad if I can keep Tim from starving. Mom and I got away at about 11:00 this morning, and we took off over to I-55 and went north. We stopped for lunch in Winona, Mississippi, and I had some delicious BBQ ribs and Mom had a delicious BBQ sandwich. Luckily my GPS (named "Weezer" after one of the ladies in the "Steel Magnolias" movie) could find such good restaurants for us. I don't know how I ever lived without Weezer before--she's a life saver! We then headed west and got on the Natchez Trace. We stopped at the Natchez Trace headquarters visitor center in Tupelo, Mississippi, but seeing the happy park rangers there made me homesick for Natchez again, and I started to cry. Mom was very patient with me though, and we were able to continue on our way up to Corinth, Mississippi, were we are spending the night at the Generals' Quarters bed and breakfast. Corinth is such a cool Civil War town!! Just a block-and-a-half from our B&B is the house that Albert Sidney Johnston (of Utah Expedition fame) used as a headquarters during the Battle of Shiloh. He was killed at Shiloh, and his body lay in state there in this house down the street from us. Pretty cool! This is also where Generals Earl Van Dorn (of Port Gibson fame) and Sterling Price (the villainous general who persecuted Mormons) were hanging out back in 1862. There is a lot of interesting history, and I'm looking forward to visiting some National Park sites tomorrow. I lucked out in being able to have internet access tonight, but the next few nights will be questionable. If you don't hear from me for a little while, it's just that I don't have internet, but I'll be sure to catch everyone up as soon as I do. I'll try to keep the blog going during the school year (though it may not be updated every day) so that y'all can keep track of me. Thank you everyone, for your love and support!

Fun, Busy, and Crazy!

Hello everyone! I am sorry it has been so long since I have written anything, but I have not had one single spare moment in the last few days--the adventures have been non-stop. I know you're all dying to see "Mysterious Rob" as Sarah calls him, so here's a picture from the Mississippi Braves (a minor league baseball team) game in Jackson on Tuesday night. I'm on the left, Angie is next to me, Rob is next to Angie, and Angie's husband Matt is next to Rob. Tuesday was a fun day full of crazy adventures! My mission was to keep Rob entertained while Matt and Angie were at work, so we decided to have a Port Gibson Civil War day. I did not know there were any Civil War sites to see in Port Gibson except for Grand Gulf, about 10 miles from town, but little did I know that the place is full of interesting landmarks. Matt is the king of random Civil War knowledge, so he set us up with an entire driving tour of P.G. Rob and I started out with lunch at Grant's Place (the one with the "home cookin'"), which he enjoyed, then we went in search of General Van Dorn's grave at the P.G. cemetery (he was the Confederate general who captured the Union supply lines at Holly Springs, Mississippi back in 1863). General Van Dorn, it turns out, was killed by the husband of a woman he was having an affair with--scandalous! It's funny how soap-opera-ish history can be! Then we went in search of Gen. Van Dorn's boyhood home, which is now a private residence. After that, we went for a drive through the backwoods of Port Gibson, got lost several times, but had fun looking for random log churches, hidden roads, and various historical markers. We went in search of this old home that served as General McClernand's ("J-Mack") headquarters after the Union troops moved into the area. It was clear in the back country along this horrible, deep, rutted, tree-covered, muddy road that Matt told us we had to follow. My car has never done such off-roading in its entire existence! At one point Rob had to move an entire tree from its position across the road, and when we got out of the car upon finding the historic home, we saw that a tree branch had become lodged up in the front grill of my car!! We wondered how on earth that had happened, and it took some tugging, but we finally extracted it without damaging Stryder. It was quite the wild Civil War adventure, but Rob and I were both having a great time. Then we went to Grand Gulf, after which we followed General Grant's original route back towards Jackson. We stopped in Raymond, Mississippi, where a Civil War battle took place, and we found a random "Confederate Mess" sign out in the battlefield that looked as if it had been there for some time after being discarded from a Civil War re-enactment. Rob decided that Matt and Angie needed the sign in their kitchen, so we hauled it back to the car and put it in the trunk :-) (they loved the gift, by the way!) We then went on to Jackson and met up with Matt and Angie at the baseball stadium for the Mississippi Braves game. We had a wonderful time--even though the Braves lost, and then we headed back to the Burg. I spent the night at Matt and Angie's, and then on Wednesday we all headed off to Bovina Dina for a yummy lunch of fried chicken, black-eyed peas, green beans, mac and cheese, cornbread, and coconut pie--yummy! Then Matt took us on an exclusive Civil War tour of the Big Black River area, the City of Vicksburg, and Chickasaw Bayou (just north of the Burg--where General Sherman first tried to attack Vicksburg). I have never learned so much Civil War history in such a small amount of time! Then while Rob and Matt went off to see some cemetery, Angie and I did some shopping along Washington Street in downtown Vicksburg. We had such a fun time together, and then I got to head over to Jackson to pick Mom up at the airport--what could be a better day! Mom arrived around 6:00, then we went back to the Burg and had dinner with Angie, Matt, and Rob at this fun Cajun restaurant called Tony's. Mom and I then drove back to Natchez, went to bed, and have been packing ever since we woke up this morning. Today we had lunch at Mammy's with Kate, got the oil changed in my car, and then packed, packed, packed. Mom and I are both exhausted, but we're almost ready to go in the morning. I'm sooooooooooooooo sad to be leaving, and don't really want to go, but I know it will be good to have some new adventures and learning experiences. Well, I'm off to bed and will probably not be able to post anything for the next few days--because tomorrow night Mom and I will be in Corinth, Mississippi, then in Charleston on Saturday, then I'm leaving for the graduate student trip to Grand Rapids on Monday, and will be moving into my new apartment in Charleston on Wednesday--whew! So hopefully by next week I can update everyone on the new adventures.

Last Day

I am soooooooo sad that today is actually my last day of work! I was going to work tomorrow, but since Rob came into town yesterday, and Angie and Matt both need to work tomorrow, we decided that I will go up to V-burg and keep Rob occupied for the day. We had a really fun time last night going to dinner, hanging out at Angie and Matt's, laughing, and telling stories. I need to get some packing done tonight, but then I'll head to the Burg in the morning, Rob and I will find something fun to do, then we'll have dinner and spend the evening with Matt and Angie. Everybody has the day off on Wednesday, so we'll hang out up in the Burg, then that afternoon I'll drive over to Jackson to pick Mom up from the airport! I cannot believe that it's time to leave already--it feels like I just got here.

Today Melissa, Mary, Angie, and I went out to lunch at Uptown Grocery to commemorate (not celebrate) my last day of work. Everyone here is really cool, and it will be sad to leave, but it's good to know that I've got a bunch of friends here who I can keep in touch with. I had to turn in my gold ranger badges today, as well as my government keys--that's always a sad thing to do. Well, I've got to close up the visitor center, then I'll start my packing marathon this evening.

Random Rob

Happy Sunday everyone! It would have been fun to go to church today, but this week's work schedule wouldn't permit me to do so. But, at least I got to say good-bye to the Wesselmans and the Brelands already. I can't believe that only a week from now I will be in Charleston, Illinois, Mom will be flying home from Chicago, and I'll be packing for the graduate study trip to Grand Rapids the next day! This is going to be a crazy week. I was remembering that last summer everything happened within the last week before I left--that's when we went on our bread pudding rampage and tried all of the bread pudding in Natchez. This summer it seems that everything is happening during this last week again. Last night I found out that Matt's friend, Rob from Virginia, who he's been wanting to set me up with, is flying into Jackson tonight! So, I'm going to go up to Vicksburg with Angie after work, and we'll hang out up there this evening. Rob is going to be in town for a few days, so who knows how much packing I'll be able to do between now and Wednesday when Mom arrives, but I think I'll be able to get everything done. Rob sounds like a really cool guy, and we have very similar interests, so I am excited to meet him. I don't know if I would trust purely Matt's judgement, but Angie agreed that Rob and I seem like we'd get along pretty well, and Angie's approval is enough for me. It just seems like time is flying by so fast, and I'm afraid that once I get up to Illinois time is going to slow way down (that always happens when I go to a new place). It's true that time flies when you're having fun, so hopefully school will be fun and time will fly there too.

Today when I went home for lunch, the slobbery dog from yesterday was back (it belongs to Wade--Catherine and Everett's kid). I think it's Wade's wife who had her wedding portrait hanging in my apartment for a few weeks until I finally got so sick and tired of looking at her that I took it down and replaced it with a painting of an Indian chief. He's much more pleasant to look at--feathers, war paint, and all. There were some four-legged friends waiting to greet me when I went inside the apartment--Scully and Regis were over with Nathan while their house was being sprayed for fleas. So there's a lot happening at Routhland today. I'm kind of glad I won't be there this evening, if Wade and portrait wife are still going to be there, because they seem to come home drunk kind of late at night, and this morning there were beer cans and bottles all over outside--not to mention their slobbery dog. They also left all of the lights outside on last night, which made it kind of hard to sleep, but it's okay. I think they may have been the ones who left the beef in my fridge yesterday. I hope that when they went in to place the beef in the fridge, they noticed that the wedding portrait had been replaced by the Indian chief :-) Hint, hint--that wasn't the most flattering pose for a wedding portrait!