Happy Tiffy

I have decided to make an addendum to some of my recent blog entries that, I now realize, have been kind of negative towards school and my classmates. I think I've had the Happy Bunny attitude you see here of, "Whatever. Can I have an A?" I think some of my negativity has just come from frustration with having too much to do, not enough time to do it, and having too much to think about. But I'm going to do better at looking for positive things to be happy about. I really am lucky to be at school here, and it's amazing to think that I only have one more semester of classes and an internship before I'll have a master's degree! And, I get a sweet deal here at EIU with my graduate assistantship and monthly stipend. So, I really am grateful for a good setup. I am also grateful to have Alyson as my roommate. She is very nice, and having a great roommate makes all of the difference. She and I share a lot of the same interests, and she's a lot of fun to be around. All of my other classmates are very nice, and I'm going to try to get along better with Dan--though I will still stick up for myself, I need to not be mean to him even if he's kind of mean to me. Even though everybody loves meetings, it's okay because it just means they're trying to stay on top of things, so I'll be grateful that people are on-the-ball rather than lazy. And, even though I don't see eye-to-eye with all of my teachers, they are very nice people, and I absolutely love Dr. Small and Dr. Reid. In short, life is good, and I'm sorry if I've made it sound like I'm not happy--because I am--but it's just been a little stressful. I'll try to be more positive though, and when things get hard, I can just remember the good times I've had recently at home and in Pennsylvania, and I can look for things to be happy about here.

Four Score and Seven Years Ago . . .

I just had the BEST, most fun trip ever!!! On Thursday, January 17, I flew to Baltimore, Maryland to visit my best friend Angie in Pennsylvania. Angie was one of the park rangers in Natchez, and she and I became best buds when I worked there. She is currently working in Pennsylvania and expecting a baby! Her husband Matt is still in Mississippi, but they're looking for a job for him up in Pennsylvania. I got to stay with Angie at her parents' house, and we had SO MUCH FUN. Before I jump into an everything, I'll give you a quick explanation of the pictures. The top picture is of Angie and me at the Dobbin House in Gettysburg, the second picture is of us on top of Little Round Top, and the third and fourth pictures are from the Gettysburg Battlefield. Picture number five is of Angie and me at Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania, picture six is of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, picture seven is of me at the Hampton House National Historic Site just outside of Baltimore, and the last picture is of me with Angie's cute mom, Chris.

So, on Thursday morning I took the train up to Chicago and flew from there to BWI. That day it snowed in Baltimore for the first time in a few weeks, and the roads were a little crazy, so Angie's dad, who works in Baltimore, picked me up at the airport on his way home. The Lurz homestead is near Jefferson, Pennsylvania, and it took us about an hour and a half to get from the airport up to the house. Angie's dad is really nice, and we had a great time chatting. It was fun to see Angie when we arrived at the house, and I got to meet her mom for the first time. Her parents are so nice--now I see where she gets it from! We ate pizza that night, chatted, and then went to bed to prepare for the good times to come.

On Friday, all of my Civil War dreams came true . . . I got to go to Gettysburg!!! I have always wanted to go to Gettysburg. I would say that it and Vicksburg are two of the most important battles of the Civil War--and both battles ended on the same day: July 4, 1863. When Angie and I got to Gettysburg, we started out at the National Park Service visitor center where she used to work. We then ate lunch at the coolest place in the whole world: the Dobbin House (see first picture up at the top)! The Dobbin House was built in 1776 and, four score and seven years later, in 1863, served as a hospital during the Battle of Gettysburg. It was also a stop on the Underground Railroad. They have a really cool restaurant set up in the cellar called the Springhouse Tavern. I had a delicious crab cake sandwich and some warm gingerbread with lemon sauce on top. After lunch Angie took me on a tour of the battlefield and we saw all of the places I'd only dreamed about or seen in movies before :-) The second picture you see up at the top is of Angie and me at the top of the New York memorial on Little Round Top--the famous spot from which the Union troops held off the Confederates and ultimately won the battle. As you can see, it was a little chilly. We saw the place where Pickett's Charge took place--when Confederate troops marched across a mile of open fields into Union cannon fire. This is also known as the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy" because it was as far north as the Confederate troops ever got and, while they had been winning battles for the previous two years, it was here at Gettysburg that things kind of started to go downhill for them. Angie also showed me the new visitor center that is scheduled to open in April, and then we headed downtown. The town of Gettysburg is cool too--it has a lot of historic houses, including the hotel where Abe Lincoln stayed and wrote his final draft of the Gettysburg Address. We also saw Jennie Wade's house--she was the only civilian casualty of the Battle of Gettysburg. She was baking bread in her house when a stray bullet went through the window and killed her. We went to some AWESOME shops there in town--including this one called The Horse Soldier, which has a whole bunch of old books, real Civil War uniforms, guns, and photographs for sale. I thought about buying a musket (just kidding). Even though it was cold outside, it was still nice and sunny--a perfect day in Gettysburg! The best thing about being there in the winter was that there weren't any crowds. I guess that in the summer it gets pretty crazy there--especially during the anniversary of the battle from July 1-4. Gettysburg is definitely a Civil War lover's paradise. After Gettysburg, Angie and I drove back to her house where her mom and dad had fixed a delicious dinner of steak, potatoes, and salad.

On Saturday, Angie and I shifted from cannons to chocolate! First we had to go to a notary in the little town of New Freedom so Angie could get some documents notarized. It was pretty funny--the sign out in front of the house said "Notary and Magic Shop." We wondered what that went, but when we went inside, it was very clear. The lady who was the notary also sold magic stuff--like disappearing tables. We wondered how much of a market there was for that in New Freedom, PA. After the notary and magic shop, we headed up to HERSHEY!! The whole town is a giant chocolate wonderland. Even the lamp posts along the street are shaped like Hershey's kisses. We went down Chocolate Avenue to the famous amusement park: Chocolate World (you can tell by the name that it was a great place). At Chocolate World, we went on a ride that showed us how Hershey's chocolate is made--I felt like I was in the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!" It was totally cool. After the tour was over, they of course gave us a candy bar. Then we got to go to the Hershey's shop where they sell all of the latest candy. We tried some delicious dark chocolate strawberry kisses and the latest invention: cheesecake-filled kisses. We ate lunch there at Chocolate World. You would think that we had chocolate for lunch, but we actually ate pasta. We decided that eating pasta a Chocolate World was kind of like eating steak at a Chinese restaurant--it's not what they're known for, but it's still good. We did have some ice cream topped with Hershey's candy for dessert. After a day in Civil War lover's paradise, we spent the morning in Chocolate lover's paradise!

After Hershey, we took off for Amish country. We went over to Lancaster County which is famous for all of its Amish towns. There are some wacky town names like Intercourse, Virginville, Blue Ball, and Paradise. Supposedly all of these town names have very innocent origins, but I think somebody (or perhaps a group of people) was trying to be funny. In Intercourse, we went to this cool little place called Kitchen Kettle Village. It was a whole little village of shops. My personal favorite was the jams and jellies company--where they had all kinds of salsa, jam, syrup, soup, and fruit prepared right there in Amish country. They let you sample whatever you wanted. My favorite was the raspberry salsa and the pepper jelly. There were also a lot of shops that sold t-shirts and magnets that said "I Love Intercourse"--which, if you ask me, seems a little scandalous for the Amish people! After hitting the shops, Angie and I went to this place called the Amish Farmhouse. It is an 1805 stone farmhouse that is now owned by a private organization. They give tours of the home and explain some things about the Amish people. It was a very interesting tour--we even saw an old Amish casket! We walked around outside on the farm for a little while. They had some funny farm animals. My favorite was this cutest little black lamb that was born on December 26. Angie and I were standing outside its little stall talking to it, and when it saw us, it perked up its ears and started coming over towards us. Just then, Momma Sheep made a funny noise to the baby like she was saying, "Don't even think about it." The little lamb obediently stopped coming towards us and immediately went back to playing in the straw :-) It was soooooooooo cute! After spending time at the Amish Farmhouse, we headed back to Angie's house and had "breakfast night" with her mom and dad--they fixed some great pancakes, sausage, eggs, and bacon. I told them that this was quite a different eating experience from my usual "I don't have time to fix any food" diet of granola bars and bowls of cereal. Angie's parents have a gigantic TV, so that evening we watched a movie about Alaska, and it looked really cool on the huge screen--it almost felt like we were in Alaska!

On Sunday morning, Angie and I headed for Baltimore. I had never seen the harbor before, and it was so pretty! Angie thought it was funny that I thought it was the ocean :-) I learned that the harbor goes into Chesapeake Bay, which then goes into the ocean--so I was a little off. Our first stop was Fort McHenry--another National Park Service site. You may recognize the origin of its fame in the words "O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light . . ." It was at Fort McHenry that the "Star-Spangled Banner" was written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 when the harbor was being attacked by the British. It was neat to see the American flag flying there over the fort and to think that it was a scene much like that which inspired the words to what was to become the national anthem. One thing I found ironic was that Francis Scott Key's grandson was held as a prisoner at the fort during the Civil War. In the 1860s, the fort was used as a prison for captured Confederate soldiers and Southern sympathizers from Baltimore. Key's grandson fell into the latter category, and one of his journal entries was very interesting. He said that he found it ironic that the scene he saw from his prison window--the stars and stripes flying over Fort McHenry--was the same scene that his grandpa had seen only a few decades before. To his grandpa, the scene had been one of freedom, but to him it was one of captivity. Angie and I wanted to do some walking around at the fort, but it was SO COLD with the wind blowing off the harbor. We were frozen to the bone, so we ran back to her car and decided to continue our journey. I had another crab cake for lunch--Baltimore is famous for crabs--when we ate at a cool restaurant called the Green Turtle. After lunch we went to yet another National Park Site (I love traveling with Angie because she loves National Parks as much--or more--than I do!): the historic Hampton House in Towson, Maryland--just outside Baltimore. The mansion was awesome!! It was similar to Melrose in Natchez in many ways. It was the home of the Ridgely family--prominent Baltimorians--and was constructed in the late 1700s. They had tons of really neat furniture, artifacts, paintings, and stories. I especially loved it after having taken my Material Culture class last semester. After visiting the Hampton mansion, we headed out and went back to Angie's house. Her parents wanted to take us to a fun little Italian restaurant in a closeby town called Glen Rock, Pennsylvania. After dinner we went back and watched the Giants beat the Packers, then headed to bed.

Yesterday morning, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we had a famous Pennsylvania breakfast (or dessert) item: Tasty Cakes! I had never eaten Tasty Cakes before. They're kind of similar to Hostess treat--only much tastier. Yummm! Then, unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to Angie's parents, and she and I took off for the airport. We stopped at a grocery store to get some Berger Cookies, which Angie has been telling me about for months. These are a famous Baltimore creation, and you can only get them there in the greater Baltimore area. They are SOOOO GOOD!! They consist mostly of fudge with a little cookie underneath to hold everything together. :-) Angie and I had a good time chatting on the way to the airport, but it was REALLY, REALLY hard to say goodbye--especially to think of what I was returning to: the crazy people at school! Angie is a great friend, and I feel very, very lucky to have met her in Natchez. We had such a great time together, and I found that I love Pennsylvania. All of the little towns are so cool! There are bunches of old houses and cemeteries, and the architecture in all of the towns is very neat. The people are very nice too, and I love the winding country roads. I also really like Baltimore. This was one of the most fun trips ever, and it was a welcome and much-needed reprieve from the craziness of Illinois.

I flew from BWI back to Chicago Midway, and then I took the CTA train downtown to Union Station. There are some pretty nutty people in Chicago. When I was on the CTA train last Thursday, this giant black man stood up in the train car and announced to everyone that he was recently released from five years in prison and was in need of money to help him start a new life. If you're looking for money, the whole "recently released from prison" bit probably isn't the best tactic to use. The funny thing is that when I was on the CTA train back to Union Station yesterday, the same guy was on there with the same story!! Creepy. I just kind of pulled my snow hat down over my eyes and pretended like I wasn't there. (And it was okay because there were a lot of people on the train.) I ate dinner at Union Station and then caught the 8:00 p.m. train City of New Orleans back to Mattoon. The City of New Orleans runs all the way from Chicago to New Orleans, and I was tempted to just stay on the train to escape my school troubles, but I realized that running away from things probably isn't the best way to deal with them. The train was very nice--I could even stretch my legs clear out in front of me and fall asleep. It was supposed to be snowy in Mattoon, but luckily the snow held off until I drove back to Charleston and was safely back in my warm apartment. Aly had made some chocolate chip cookies for me, which was very nice of her. I did find, however, upon checking my e-mail last night, that Dan hates me even more than before (because I sent him an e-mail telling him that it was lame to be worrying about the exhibit website right now--since we don't have anything to put on it), and that all heck broke loose in all of my classes while I was away. Welcome back to Charleston! Oh well, at least I was able to have a few GREAT days when I didn't have to worry about anything. Now I guess I'll try to buckle down and deal with everything--but I am going to stick to my new resolution to not let my classmates--especially Dan--affect me in any way. Tomorrow we're going up to Springfield again to do more collections management stuff, so we'll all be spending more quality time together, but I'm just going to sit quietly and think of the good times I had in Pennsylvania!

The Governor's Office

Check out this picture that was in the most recent Piatt County Museum newsletter! I am now a famous grant-writer :-) The Piatt County Museum is the one up in Monticello for which I wrote the grant last semester. The museum board people are so nice, and it was fun that they put my picture and a little blurb about the grant proposal in their newsletter. They are so cool! This picture was taken when I went up to the Piatt County Barn Tour last October--a very fun day. I actually just got the grant for their museum sent off yesterday (we had to get signatures and stuff, which took a while), so hopefully they'll be able to get the money we requested.

Though today was a super long day, it was totally cool. Guess where I got to catalog artifacts this afternoon . . . the GOVERNOR'S OFFICE at the Old State Capitol building in Springfield! Now, this isn't the current governor's office in the new state capitol building (besides he probably doesn't even have an office in Springfield because he spends all of his time up in Chicago with his peeps, stealing money from the state), but this was the old governor's office in the original capitol building in Springfield, where Abe Lincoln practiced law and ran his Presidential campaign. So, guess who else would have used that office . . . Mormon Enemy #1: THOMAS FORD! Construction on the building began in 1837 and it was completed in 1840. It served as the Illinois state capitol building from 1840 to 1876, when the current capitol building was built. Thomas Ford was the governor of Illinois from 1842-1846, so he was probably the second governor to use that room as his office!

It was pretty cool--we met with the director of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency in Springfield today for my Collections Care and Management class (the only unfortunate thing was that we had to leave Charleston at 6:30 this morning), and after she gave us some instructions, she took us over to the Old State Capitol (which is now a state historic site) to help catalog artifacts. She took us upstairs and she was just plopping us in different rooms and showing us what she wanted us to inspect and record. I didn't know what room I was in because we went in the back way, but when I stepped outside and saw that it was the governor's office, I got really excited. My compadres wondered why I was so excited, and I said, "This is where Thomas Ford, the devil himself, had his office!!" They wondered who Thomas Ford was, so I told them that he was a loser who didn't help the Mormons and that he's the reason Joseph and Hyrum Smith got killed. It was kind of weird to be in his office going through stuff--I wondered if any of it was his. I was assigned to catalog and make condition reports for an old medicine cabinet and the medicine bottles it contained (don't ask me why it was in the governor's office), which was very cool. We had to wear special gloves and try really hard not to break anything.

Today we also learned how to put numbers on artifacts, which, to me, is a very strange process. Basically, in order to keep track of artifacts, museums have very complex numbering systems, and so to insure that numbered tags don't fall off the objects, numbers are actually written ON the artifact! This seems like a big NO NO if you ask me, but there's this whole process of putting on this clear nail polish-looking stuff, then writing the number on top of that, then sealing it with different nail polish-ish stuff--which, supposedly, comes right off if you take a Q-tip and put yet other clear nail polish-ish stuff on it. I personally don't like writing on artifacts, but I don't make up the rules. :-) So it was a very fun day in Springfield. I tried being really nice to the IHPA director lady, so that she would hopefully hook me up with a sweet job, but I think she could see through my efforts to win her over :-) We'll be meeting with her every week for the next few weeks, so I can still try to impress her.

Speaking of Abe Lincoln, there was a very timely story that was on CNN today. The curator at the Library of Congress found four photos of Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration in 1865. If I remember right, John Wilkes Booth is in the photo somewhere I think, or maybe he was just out in the crowd. But he did attend the speech which was held just a little over a month before he would assassinate President Lincoln. This story was very timely because the curator who found the photos said that they had been mislabeled--thus they were lost, and today we learned all about labeling systems for museum collections!

After a fun day in Springfield I am in a much better mood than I was yesterday. I was (and still am) SO MAD at Dan!! He drives me CRAZY and is a jerk. It's like he's walking around with this huge chip on his shoulder, and every time he looks at me or talks to me (which isn't very often), it's like he's sending daggers right through me. Last night at our lame (and unnecessary) meeting, we got talking about the Tilford Dudley website. The other day in class, Mr. Riccio had asked if someone would e-mail Danny Harvey, the computer tech guy, with questions about how to set up our site. He was looking right at me when he asked, and no one else said anything, so I figured I should volunteer. He had e-mailed me back, so we discussed his response a bit at the meeting last night. Someone said, "Sorry that you got put in charge of this whole website, Tiffany." I said, "Ummm, I am NOT in charge of it." Then, with venom in his voice and a face red with anger and hatred, Dan said in a very derogatory and spiteful tone, "Well, you volunteered to e-mail Danny Harvey the other day, so you were volunteering to be in charge." There was an awkward moment of silence after that, and then I got pretty mad and said, "No, I only volunteered to e-mail Danny Harvey, NOT be in charge of the whole mess." Then I tried to stare daggers back into Dan. He makes me so mad. The other day when I was choosing animals for my classmates, I decided Dan was a turtle because he kind of looks like one, but now, I realize that, as Mom pointed out, he's actually more of a SNAPPING turtle with serious anger management and jealousy issues. He needs to start acting like we're not in the 5th grade anymore. At least Alisha seemed extra nice to me yesterday :-) Maybe she's not mad about my being a Mormon anymore.

HOORAY that Mitt Romney won Michigan last night!!!!!! That is another reason why I loved today--I could rub it in everyone's liberal faces. Half of my classmates are from Michigan, and they hated to think that their state was the one to, not only give Mitt the thumbs-up, but to not even hold the Democratic primary. Ha ha ha ha ha. I told them how much I love their state, and they all just frowned at me. It was my finest moment as the only Republican in the group. Dr. Reid was grumbling about the Democrats not getting to have their primary in Michigan, and I exclaimed once again how happy I was that things had turned out like they did. Angie said, "You realize you're the only one here who feels that way." I said, "YES! And that makes me love it even more! Ha ha ha ha ha!!!" :-) I've been much more of a vocal political person that I used to be--probably because all of my classmates' political views seem so insane. I loved that all of the Michigan kids couldn't stand it that Mitt had won in their state. I offered to let them wear the Mitt Romney political button that I have on my backpack, but I got more grumbles in response.

Hooray that tomorrow I get to leave the crazy liberal classmates and head to Pennsylvania to see one of my favorite friends in the whole world: Ranger Angie from Natchez! She moved from Mississippi to Pennsylvania for work purposes, and she is from Pennsylvania, so I am excited to go meet her parents and everybody up there. We're going to go to all kinds of fun historical sites and eat lots of yummy Dutch food. I'll be taking the train up to Chicago tomorrow and then flying into Baltimore, where Angie will pick me up. I'm not sure if I'll have computer access while I'm there, so I might just have to catch you all up on all of the adventures when I get back. Adios!

Birthday Sausage

Yesterday was Dad's birthday! I hope that he had a great day (even though he had to go to work). It sounds like the family had a very fun birthday party on Sunday night, and the girls were quite excited about the Book of Mormon "Go Fish" game they gave him. Speaking of birthdays, today is Catherine's birthday, and so she wanted to have a birthday breakfast at her house. I figured that since I won't be here for the combined Laurie and Catherine birthday dinner on Thursday, I'd better go this morning, so I showed up and cooked some sausage. Catherine made some crazy flax seed chocolate chip pancakes. After we ate breakfast, everyone got up and left, and she had a huge pile of dirty dishes in her sink. I suppose that since the breakfast was her idea she should have anticipated there being a lot of dishes, but I just didn't feel right leaving her with all of the dishes to do on her birthday, so I helped her clean them.

Now I'm trying to do the truckload of reading for tomorrow's collections care class. There is way too much information to even comprehend! We're learning about cataloging procedures, acquisitions, deaccessioning, loans, collections policies, legal issues, museum nomenclature, storage, condition assessment, monitoring, automated documentation, numbering, handling, measuring, and marking. I feel like crying right now because in addition to trying to wrap my mind around all of this, I have to go to the Dudley House in a little while, then I have to pick Dr. Hardeman up and take him home, then we have our ridiculous meeting tonight. Mom asked a very good question last night: since we'll be spending two hours in the van together on Wednesday morning, why not have our meeting then? Especially when we have so much reading to do and we have to get up early the next morning!!!! I asked Aly this question and she said, "Because it is what it is, and for some reason the weekly meetings at someone's house HAVE to happen." It's like the meetings control our lives :-(

We were supposed to go to the Dudley House at 3:30 this afternoon, but Mr. Riccio is in St. Louis installing a museum exhibit, so he said he won't be back until 4:00. I am dreading going over there and cramming all 11 of us into a room built for two or three people and going through everything to decide what we want to scan for our disaster of a website. I'm hoping that when I pick Dr. Hardeman up at 4:00, he's running really, really late so I don't have to go back to the Dudley House. There are only two keys to the Dudley House in existence, and one of them belonged to the History Department. The department secretery, Donna, was in charge of this key, and during the entire Dudley exhibit and presentation time, she was sure that one of us irresponsible students would lose the key. But we didn't. Then the History Department had their Christmas party at the Dudley House, and someone lost the key to the house there!!! :-) I wish that meant that we never had to go there again, but unfortunately there is that one other key which is in the possession of Norma Winkelblack--the Coles County Historical Society president.

Sorry it seems like all I've been doing is complaining lately--there's just a lot of crazy stuff that goes on here, and it wears me out. Tomorrow will be a pretty wild day up in Springfield. We're leaving at 6:30 in the morning and aren't scheduled to return to C-town until 6:30 tomorrow night. Dr. Reid is going to be taking us to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency main offices where we'll look at their collections, then at some point we'll go to the Old State Capitol building to see how they preserve the collections there. Supposedly we have to fill out a bunch of worksheets and things like that throughout the day. It should be fun, but thinking about it makes me tired :-) Well, off to read some more before today's Dudley adventures (or nightmares)!

The EIU Zoo

Today was a bit of a slow day in my Architectural history class, although that truly is one of my favorite classes. But, since it was a little slow, my mind was wandering a bit--mostly due to Dr. Small's cool knit sweater she was wearing today. It was a white sweater with black sleeves, but the design on the sleeves made it look like she had two black wings--causing her, with her dark hair, to sort of resemble a crow. This made me start thinking about what kind of animals all of my classmates remind me of--because I truly feel like I'm part of a zoo when I'm around them :-) I won't go into specifics so that it doesn't seem like I'm being mean to anyone (even though I didn't mean this as a mean thing--I love all animals), but I can tell you that some animals I came up with included a hyena, monkeys, elephants, turtles, a fox, and a nesting hen. As you can tell, after about two hours in class I start to lose my mind :-)

I'm at home right now trying to gear up to go work with Dr. Hardeman this afternoon. Then, I'll have to go to Dr. Barnhart's class this evening. Even though I don't have classes tomorrow, I'll still end up spending all day at the zoo. We're having a breakfast in the morning for Catherine's birthday (it's always someone's real or half birthday), then we have to spend the afternoon at the Dudley House scanning things we've already scanned, then we have to have one of our multi-hour meetings tomorrow night to talk about all of the stuff we should be doing instead of having our meeting. THEN, we all have to wake up early on Wednesday morning to be at school by 6:30 a.m. to get in a van together and drive up to Springfield to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency for our Collections Care and Management class, and we have to hang out together ALL DAY and into the evening. Someone had the brilliant idea to play Tilford Dudley madlibs in the van on the way to and from Springfield--NO! :-( If I didn't have Pennsylvania to look forward to later in the week, I don't think I would make it.

I think Alisha is mad at me again for being a Mormon. I think I mentioned before that her name was on the list of LDS EIU students that I got from Brother Stowell, who will be the Institute teacher this semester, and I told him that I really didn't want to contact her about Institute because she doesn't like to be associated with Mormons any more--and I couldn't afford to make another enemy among my classmates. (She used to be kind of mean to me at the beginning of the semester when she found out I went to BYU--probably because she thought I'd make her go to church or something.) So he said it was fine if I didn't contact her, but last night he sent an e-mail to all of the students, including Alisha, telling them about the Institute class and listing me as the contact person to e-mail if they have any questions. I've done a pretty good job of not letting Alisha know that I know she was LDS, but now that she knows that I know she's on the e-mail list, I think my carefully maintained appearance of ignorance on the matter is blown. Oh well, as long as Dan is mad at me, Alisha might as well be too :-) Just kidding--it will be okay.