Webcam

Greg brought me a really cool gift today--a webcam so I can talk to people from my computer!! As you can see, the webcam also takes photos, and tonight before bed I thought I'd experiment with the different photo options. What is wrong with my hair? Well, I've been learning about textiles this evening and how microorganisms can start growing on fabric if it is stored in an area with a relative humidity above 65%, and as you can see, all of the knowledge is starting to come out of my brain and is affecting my hairdo. Now I know why Einstein's hair was always so crazy--because he had too much info. in his head! I am already loving the webcam, and you can be sure that there will be videos on here in the near future. Greg was able to come visit today, which was very fun, and we had a good time hanging out, watching TV, eating lunch at the Little Ponies restaurant here in town, and reading about microorganisms on fabric. We made chicken tacos with Aly for dinner tonight, which were very delicious.

Many of my classmates are of the Catholic faith and have been making quite a big deal out of celebrating Lent. Everyone was saying that last Wednesday--Ash Wednesday--they wouldn't eat any meat, but then we went to Burger King over in Mattoon, and that pretty much went out the window. :-) They've been saying other things like they aren't going to eat any sweets for the next 40 days, or they're not going to drink soda pop for the next 40 days, but most of those resolutions have gone out the window too. So, I decided to, in the spirit of Lent, give up something that will be hard to go without for 40 days, but I think I can do it: homework!!! Do you think my teachers will go for that one? Okay, just kidding.

Population 199?

One of my favorite books is Adventures in Small Town America by Bill Bryson. I think someday I'll write my own book called Adventures in Small Town Illinois, and it will definitely have chapters about Marshall and Darwin in it! Today Alisha, Dan, Aly, and I went on a trip to Marshall--that's an adventure waiting to happen. Marshall is only about 28 miles from Charleston, but it took us over an hour to get there because we were lost somewhere out in the middle of nowhere for a long time. I realized the value of a GPS today and wished that we had mine with us--Mapquest directions just don't cut it when Illinois "County Roads" are involved. There are about a billion county roads. At least if you take a wrong turn and you have a GPS, she will get you back on track to where you are going. The printed instructions from Mapquest.com, however, leave no room for error. I was just glad that I didn't have to drive though :-) You may remember that I have been to Marshall before, but when Catherine, Laurie, and I went, we went by way of Moonshine, Illinois--and got lost--so I had no idea how to get there from Charleston.

Once we finally made it to Marshall, Dan and I had to go take random pictures of transportation corridors while Aly and Alisha talked one of the historic preservation ladies there into letting us borrow some things for our exhibit. Dan and I started out at a winner of a place--the Lincoln Motel--complete with Abe's profile on the sign. Needless to say, I don't think I'll be staying there anytime soon :-) Then all of a sudden Dan and I found ourselves walking along some random railroad tracks. I said, "Dan, don't you think that this is a little too hard core?" But nothing is ever too hard core for Dan--he lives to go "above and beyond," so we kept walking along the tracks looking for the perfect picture spot. I did happen upon some historical-looking railroad spikes that I decided we needed to have as back-up objects for our exhibit--in case the railroad car that we're supposed to build doesn't work out (don't worry, I already checked and it's not illegal to pick up discarded railroad spikes in Illinois).

Finally we were able to stop walking along the tracks waiting for a train to hit us, and we went back to pick up Aly and Alisha. They said, "You guys! We have to go find this place called Darwin's Ferry that has been an actual ferry across the Wabash River since the 1850s!" Only people as ridiculously obsessed with history as us would go chasing down a ferry across the Wabash River--especially when the Wabash River is at extreme flood stage after this past week's little storms. So, off we went to find Darwin's Ferry. The directions the Marshall lady gave us were: "Head south out of town, pass three curves in the road, and then turn off on the fourth. Then follow the road down a steep hill until you reach the town of Darwin. Be careful that you don't drive off the road into one of the flooded fields." Okay--sounds like a winner. :-)

Somehow we ended up finding the town of Darwin, and oh what a find it was! We have decided that Darwin is our new favorite small town. First of all, when you enter the town, you see the sign that says "Welcome to Darwin, Population 199? And 1 Grouchy Old Man." When you see a sign like that, you know you've found someplace special. Next we saw the "Glory Barn." It was this gigantic red barn with a metal cross on the side of it and big metal letters that said "GLORY BARN." Then, we saw the boxcar house. There was literally an old railroad car parked behind a trailer home that had windows cut out of it and everything. Then we saw a house made out of an old army bunker. Talk about a variety of architecture!! We finally found the ferry along the flooded Wabash River, but because the river was so high, the ferry was pretty much out in the middle of the river, so I don't think it's used much these days. I put a picture up there at the top of the view from Illinois across the Wabash River over into Indiana. We were so close to the Indiana state line that my cell phone kept trying to switch over to Eastern time. :-) Good times in Darwin.

After our adventures there, we went back to Marshall and ate lunch at the family diner that Catherine, Laurie, and I discovered back in October. I had a delicious reuben sandwich. I think I'll also write a book about the best reuben sandwiches in Illinois--the first prize would still go to Flesor's Candy Kitchen in Tuscola. We kind of got lost again on the way home this afternoon, but I fell asleep, so it was all the same to me :-) Now I've got to hit the books and prepare a presentation about the preservation of textiles for Collections Care next Wednesday (among other things). Hooray for small town Illinois! Oh, and I have some good news--the Arcadia Publishing people contacted me and said that they want to make postcards out of some of the images I'll be using in my Zion book--hooray! I guess I'd better get on that :-)

The View from Here to There

Poor Mitt. I was very sad to hear that he resigned from the campaign today, but I think it was a wise decision on his part--because anything from here on out probably would have just been a waste of time, money, and energy. And he needs to get started with his preparations for 2012!! My classmates loved harassing me today, and they forced me to concede defeat. But, I told them that I'm not the only one losing--America and all of its citizens (including them) are losing their only chance for a great President :-) Today was kind of a long day of classes and projects, but I always enjoy that (theoretically) I have Fridays off. Last Friday I was able to spend pretty much all day getting things done around here, but that is quite rare, and I'm afraid it will never happen again. Tomorrow Aly, Dan, Alisha, and I are going to the booming town of Marshall, Illinois to take pictures of Route 40 and other such things for the upcoming museum exhibit. So, it has the potential to be a long--but hopefully fun--day.

Speaking of the museum exhibit, its new title is "The View from Here to There: Transportation Corridors in the Midwest." Lately I've been thinking about the view from here to there in my life--I've certainly come a long way since high school! It's pretty interesting how things work out along the way so that you can learn the things you need to know for what you're supposed to do in the future. I started out wanting to be a high school business teacher, so I transferred from BYU to UVSC to complete the Business Education program there. But then I decided I liked history better, and I had some not-so-great experiences with a certain Dr. Whelan-Berry (she is the one person who I can truly say despises me), and I wanted to be Susan Black's assistant, so I went back to BYU. While getting my associate's degree in business at UVSC though, I learned a lot of valuable skills that have really helped me along the way; and I had the opportunity to work on a big-time research project that taught me that doing research can be fun. At BYU, I was sure that I wanted to stay there and do the history graduate program, but we all know that didn't happen because, according to Dr. Daynes, I am not capable of "baking cakes"--only frosting them. Then, it just so happened that my good friend Dr. Rugh was friends with Dr. Reid here at EIU, so she suggested that I come out here. I remember that it was about a year ago right now that I was first thinking about EIU. Mom and I came to visit campus during our February trip to Chicago and Bloomington for the Illinois State History Symposium, and though I thought campus was nice, it was waaaaay too cold to consider going to school here :-) But, alas, here I am, and I'm glad I came because I've been having a lot of great experiences . . . and most importantly I met Greg! So, in looking back at the view from here to there, I think my life has gone in a good direction--even though it's a bit different than I imagined. The only thing I wish is that I was closer to home, but thankfully I have been blessed to have good friends out here. And, I'm happy that I can go home to visit! Well, I'm off to bed in a little while so that I won't be too tired for the big trip to Marshall tomorrow. They tried to convince me to drive, but I told them that the last time I went to Marshall, despite the help of the GPS, I ended up in various random cornfields, and I am not doing that again :-)

Un-Super Tuesday

So, Super Tuesday was not so super yesterday. Utah proved itself once again to be the only state in the country where people really have their politics straight (excluding the governor, of course!). I was overjoyed that Mitt got 90% of the vote in Utah--I've never been so proud of my home state. I was terribly disappointed in my current state of Illinois, however, as well as a bunch of other states who voted for McCain. California was the greatest disappointment of all: McCain AND Hitlery???? What were they thinking?! I was feeling pretty sad about everything until Mom sent me a cool e-mail today reminding us of what happened to Ronald Reagan in 1976. He got beat-out for the Republican nomination by Gerald Ford (which wasn't a bad thing!), but then we ended up with Jimmy Carter as the Pres. (that was a bad thing). Even after he was defeated, however, Ronald Reagan worked on his political career and came back even stronger. So, as Bob Lonsberry so aptly suggested in the cool article, Mitt should do the same. Even though the next four years will surely not be super great--no matter who wins out of the candidates who look like they have a chance--we can hope for better things in 2012. I have significantly revised this year's political strategy. I am NOT going to vote for John McCain. And I will definitely NOT vote for Hillary Clinton. But, if B-Rock Obama gets the Democratic bid, I think I could vote for him. I would much rather vote for a regular Democrat (except Hillary Clinton) than a Democrat trying to disguise himself as a Republican. Sorry to go off on my little political soap box.

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!

Super Fat Tuesday

Today is Super Tuesday, and it is Fat Tuesday--a day full of election ballots and Mardi Gras festivities. I am really, really, really, really, really, really, really hoping that Mitt Romney beats McCain today in all of the states holding primaries--especially California. I don't like John McCain one bit--he is a bad Republican. He is actually a Democrat in Republican clothing. Mitt, on the other hand, is totally cool. All of my liberal compadres here in C-town are pulling for McCain because they know that if he's elected as President, it would pretty much be like having one of their own in office. Tonight when we have our weekly meeting and as the election results come in, I'm going to be the only one rooting for Romney, but I don't mind. In fact, I think I'll wear my Mitt for President shirt again tonight.

The weather here has been nasty to the max. Last night at about midnight, some crazy thunderstorms blew through and lasted for two or three hours. There was so much lightning and thunder--it made it impossible to sleep. Today the rain is steadily pouring down outside, and then tonight we're supposed to get more wild storms again. The weather people keep talking about the possiblity of tornadoes, so we'll see what happens. This is definitely strange February weather. Well, I'm off to do some homework.