Bad Mousies, Locked Doors, and Lincoln Logs

Today was a beautiful fall day!! Finally Greg and I took a picture of ourselves--isn't he cute? He drove down to Charleston today to take me to lunch at the new Mexican place--the "Little Horse" place that has delicious food. After lunch we went out to the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site, and it was very fun and fall-ish out there. We even saw the newest member of the Lincoln Log family: the little piggy! This is the pig that my classmate Matt, who works at Lincoln Log, drove to Memphis yesterday to pick up. Isn't it the cutest piggy you've ever seen? Catherine, Aly, and I watched "Charlotte's Web" the other night, and now we've all decided that we love pigs and spiders, and we all kind of want pet pigs. I think the new Lincoln piggy is going to be getting a lot of visits from us. The last picture is of the pretty fall colors that were all over the place out there at the cabin--it was a perfect day! Greg and I like each other a lot. He told his grandma the other day that he has a girlfriend, and she started to cry (tears of joy) and said, "It's about time." :-)

Sorry that I forgot to write on my blog yesterday--I was totally stressed out. Yesterday morning we had Dr. Barnhart's class. It is one of the most random classes I've ever taken :-) It makes us laugh because he'll ask a question, and someone will respond, but then he'll start talking, talking, talking, and talking. Then, about 45 minutes later, he'll stop and say, "Others?" (As in, do any of us have other answers to the question?) But by that time we can't even remember what the question was. It's so funny because he does that multiple times every time we have class! Ha ha. It makes us laugh. The other day Dr. Small asked us a question in class, but it was a really long question, and by the time she was done, Laurie said, "Wait, what was the question?" Dr. Small started to laugh and said, "Uh oh, I did a Dr. Barnhart!"

After class yesterday morning I worked with Dr. Hardeman. He was especially tired, and we read the same essay about seven times before he was able to make comments about it. He would zonk out for about ten or fifteen minutes at a time, and I would try to wake him up, but he would only be awake for about two seconds before kicking out again. We got one whole test graded in two and a half hours :-) It was pretty funny though because in the essay on this particular test, the student kept talking about how the South had won the Battle of Antietam. But, the South didn't win the Battle of Antietam! True, it has often been called a stalemate, but strategically the North won the battle. This kid's whole essay was based on the "fact" that the South won the battle. It was, according to this young man, "An important political victory for Robert E. Lee." I don't think so.

Then last night we had our Material Culture class which was very fun. I brought the pizza, and everyone had a good time eating and learning about historic house museums. Dr. Reid brought in a book she had ordered called "Bad Mousie" which was written by Tilford Dudley's wife!!!! She was a children's author, and had written this kids' series called "Bad Mousie" about a mom mouse whose husband leaves her and she has to raise the little mice by herself. Hmmm, do you think she was trying to say anything about her own life? Could we safely assume that "Bad Mousie" was symbolic of Tilford Dudley? I think so.

After class last night Dr. Reid took me over to her house to teach me about the kitty routine, as I will be taking care of the kitties this week while she is out of town. Her kitties are super cute, and Eleanor especially seemed very intrigued by me. The problem was, Dr. Reid's door locks are a little tight, and we couldn't get into her house at first! It was kind of funny--we were out there in the dark trying to break into her house. I think she was a little panicked, but we finally got in, and with a little hammering, the lock works wonderfully now. :-)

This morning we had our Museum Administration class, and a CPA came to talk with us about accounting for non-profit organizations. She was a super nice lady, but everything she said was way over all of our heads. She was asking us questions, and all we had to offer her were blank stares. I think she realized the depth of our lack of accounting knowledge when she did a story problem on the board where someone made $100 dollars a month and owed $50 rent plus $150 for utilities, and she asked me how she would go about paying for the utilities in that situation. My response was, "Don't pay the rent?" My fellow students thought that was a good solution, but the answer according to her was that the person needed more income so they should get a second job. That's silly! :-) It was kind of a long class, but it's good to know about those things.

Well, I've got to go have dinner before heading off to the weekly meeting later tonight. Since we had class last night, our "mandatory" meeting got bumped to tonight. I think that we would all survive if we didn't have the weekly meeting, but everyone is quite convinced that these meetings are absolutely necessary. I bet Abe Lincoln would say we didn't need all of these meetings.

Cooking with Garlic

Here is the surprise of the century: I have become quite the acclaimed chef here among my little HA world in Charleston, Illinois. I usually don't have time to whip up anything, but for the past few days I've made some pretty fancy schmancy dishes. On Friday Alyson wanted to make some broccoli and garlic pasta from an old Italian family recipe of hers, which sounds like a great idea, but whenever she has cooking ideas, she never actually wants to do the cooking (she's afraid of the stove--especially when oil is involved). So I whipped up the broccoli and garlic pasta, and my hands have smelled like garlic ever since :-) I am also quite well known for my Asiago, Romano, and Parmesan cheese chicken, and now everyone's new favorite dish is the bruschetta chicken bake which Mom sent me the recipe for. We had Angie and Kristen over for dinner last night, and they couldn't believe the bruschetta chicken. We had leftover garlic from the other night, so the girls made some lethal garlic bread, which I'm sure people will be able to smell on us for weeks! It's been fun though to try some new recipes, although now that another week has started, I don't think there will be any more fancy cooking going on until the weekend rolls around again.

Today I had my Museum Exhibits class, then I got some work done at school before coming home and sitting on my bed to do some reading. I inevitably fall asleep anytime I do that, but I think I did really need a little nap this afternoon. Then I went to Institute class and am now back at home trying to do the reading that put me to sleep earlier. Tomorrow night we are having our Material Culture class (which is usually on Wednesdays) because Dr. Reid will be out of town on Wed. I have been given the mandate of procuring some pizza for class tomorrow (well, I kind of volunteered for this assignment), so we should have some good eating times there. Speaking of eating, I haven't really had dinner yet, so I'm going to go rummage through the fridge. Oh, and all of us HA students are quite famous after having the big feature in the paper yesterday! We were the buzz of the History Department today :-)

Tilford is Smiling

Thank goodness I talked with Mom on the phone last night so she could remind me to set my clock back an hour! Otherwise I would have shown up to church an hour early this morning. I like that we gain an hour of sleep, but it makes me sad that it gets dark earlier--now it's going to get dark really early here because we're kind of on the backside of the central time zone anyway. It's okay though because I spend most of my time in class or doing homework anyway :-)

Well, we HA students are quite famous. Today in the Mattoon Journal - Charleston Gazette they printed the full-page story about us and our Dudley project. There's a big color picture of our group sitting out in front of the Dud's house, and then a really nice, long article about all of our presentations and everything. I thought that you all would appreciate the first sentence of the article. It says: "Somewhere, the spirit of Tilford E. Dudley is smiling." Yes, he'd better be smiling after all we went through for him! :-) The newspaper guy interviewed Catherine and me when we were over at the house the other day, so he put some good quotes from us in the article. They even put a pull-quote in from me (one of those quotes printed in bigger type), but the way he wrote it was a little different than how I said it. It's okay though. He wrote that I said: "I find it especially interesting what Tilford was doing in Washington, D.C. was affecting his hometown. He was always fighting for the rights of labor." What I actually said was: "I find it especially interesting THAT what Tilford was doing in Washington, D.C. was affecting his hometown. He was always fighting for the rights of the LABORER." I guess it means pretty much the same thing--the first one just kind of sounds like I don't talk right. :-) It's quite cool though--I'll send a copy of the article home to Mom.

Today at church I filled in for one of the primary teachers. I got to teach the 4-7 year olds, and they are super cute. This one girl was wearing these adorable pink cowboy boots! Well, I'm off to do some house surveying--we are going to finish our portion of the survey today!!! I had a great time in Springfield (actually Athens) with Greg yesterday--we had fun hanging out, watching movies, etc. He is a super nice guy, and I think things are becoming quite serious between us. As I've been thinking about it, I'm kind of feeling like things may be progressing a little too fast. Hmmmm, I don't know though. I don't know what to think anymore! :-) It's all quite exciting. If anyone has advice for me, please call or e-mail. I have already gotten some very helpful advice from Mom and Dad :-) Well, I've got to run. That's good that Tilford's spirit is off smiling somewhere!

Booth Library

The library here on campus, which is the one building besides Coleman Hall where we HA students spend a lot of our time, is called the Booth Library. I can't remember who the Booth is that it's named after (I think either an early professor here, or a donor, or somebody like that), but we decided it would be funny to start telling people that it's named after John Wilkes Booth! Ha ha ha, wouldn't that be funny if, in the heart of Illinois--Lincoln Land--there was a university library named after the hated assassin? We thought it would make a good story of irony: Only five miles from the world's tallest Abraham Lincoln statue, an 80-foot monument to the man who saved our nation from certain destruction, is the Booth Library on the campus of Eastern Illinois University--named for the man, John Wilkes Booth, who martyred the saintly President. Don't you think that would be cool to put in travel brochures? Okay, so maybe it's not the best idea, but we thought it was kind of funny.

Today is a beautiful fall day! This morning Aly and I went over to the Tarble Arts Center to meet Alisha and Dan to take pictures of items that will be displayed in our exhibit next spring. Now I'm off to work with Dr. Hardeman for the afternoon, and after that I'm going to hit the books and get some homework done so I'll be free to head to Springfield tomorrow. It should be a fun weekend! I'm also going to be stopping over at Dr. Reid's house sometime in the next few days to learn the ropes of, you guessed it, taking care of her kitties while she's out of town next week :-) I love taking care of people's kitties, and Dr. Reid's are super cute. Their names are Eleanor and Katie. Well, I'm off to work!

Sad China

Here are some pictures I've been wanting to upload, but my computer was being silly the other day. The first picture you see is of Catherine and me out in front of the Dudley House on Sunday just before the big presentation. I was really, really nervous because all of my professors and a bunch of people were there! Next, you will see a picture from Monday's Marshall adventure. This picture was taken out in front of the Moonshine--which, unfortunately, was closed when we got there. It's definitely a funny place though--I especially like the "Population: 2" sign :-)

Well today in Historic Preservation Laurie and I presented our Marshall Main Street findings. We concluded that Marshall is doing a good job with what they have, but they just don't have enough money to do what needs to be done there on Main Street. One of the buildings we featured in our presentation was a restaurant in Marshall called Happy China--only we renamed it Sad China because it was really shabby looking. Everyone enjoyed that.

After class I drove up to Sullivan and met Greg at his parents' house. We went to this really pretty park with a lake and walked around for a while. I didn't know that there could be any super pretty parks like that out in the middle of the cornfields--except for Allerton Park. It was a little chilly outside, but it was a beautiful fall day. The leaves on the trees looked awesome! We then went and got Chinese food with Greg's mom and dad--and his mom was sad because this was her last dinner in Sullivan before heading to Utah for a few months to work at the AF hospital. I'm glad I've gotten to know her as much as I have--she's a really nice lady! After dinner, Greg and I went and saw the movie "Dan in Real Life" with Steve Carell in it. It was a very funny, cute movie. My favorite part was when Steve got pulled over by a policeman for the second time in two days and he said to the officer, "Just put it on my tab." The officer didn't think it was very funny :-) I had a great time today, and I really do like Greg a lot!! I'm going to head up to Springfield on Saturday to help him get settled in his new house, and we're going to go visit Abe Lincoln's house--my favorite place!