Good Milk

Illinois has weird weather--we've established that already. It also has no mountains. But, the state does have a number of things going for it like Abraham Lincoln and . . . milk. I have decided that Illinois has some of the best milk I've ever had. My family knows that growing up I was never a big milk drinker. I only really liked chocolate milk or regular milk if I had some chocolate to eat with it. But, I love milk now! Illinois has a lot of cows--fat, happy cows--and the milk that you buy at the grocery store is from local Illinois farms. So, I've decided that this must be why the milk is so good--because it is so fresh. It's so cool--the expiration dates on the milk are like two-and-a-half weeks after you buy it! My favorite brand is Prairie Farms milk, which is produced in Carlinville, Illinois--about 100 miles west of Charleston. It's declicious.

Anyway, today has been a good day except that it is really cold and snowy outside. Poor Stryder was carrying around about 100 extra pounds of salt and slush junk down around his tires, so I spent about a half an hour tonight knocking excess snow junk off of him. I think that this is the most it has snowed all year--there are probably about four inches or so on the ground right now. Earlier today we had to meet at the Dudley House to film that video we're doing for one of our class projects and for a university competition. My job today was to drive up in my car and walk up to the house like I'm totally cool--so all I had to do was act natural! :-) The next phase of our movie will need to be filmed at night sometime because part of the movie is supposed to be about the ghost that lives at the Dudley House, but I don't know when we'll do that. After the movie filming, I worked with Dr. Hardeman grading papers for the afternoon. He didn't fall asleep once! The funniest thing we read today was a student's essay about the 13 colonies. They were talking about different acts imposed by the British, and they referred to the "Currency Act," which, according to them, was England's way of saving the environment. The Currency Act, the student claimed, prohibited the colonists from printing any more newspapers because they were wasting a lot of paper. Actually, the Currency Act prevented the colonists from printing their own paper money--because everyone was printing their own, and all was chaos. Dr. Hardeman and I decided that the student who wrote that essay must be a big "green" person. It's a good thing that the British were so environmentally conscious back in the 1700s!

Tonight I'm going over to the local hang-out spot, the Panther Paw, to meet Catherine's new boyfriend Kevin who just flew in from Detroit. She is quite enamored, so I'll go meet him and see if I approve :-) Tomorrow it's off to Vandalia, Illinois to take some photographs for the upcoming exhibit. Thankfully Laurie is looking for something to do tomorrow, so she will be going with Dan and me. I really wasn't looking forward to hanging out with Dan by myself, so that will be good. Then Greg is coming in the afternoon, so we can hang out for the rest of the day! I love weekends!

The Reality of Logistics

Aw, I don't think I can get the kitty :-( Tonight I spent some serious time thinking about the logistics of it all, and I really don't think it could work right now. As fun as it would be to sneak him into my apartment so he could sleep on my bed at night, I did sign a lease saying that I wouldn't have any pets in my apartment. And even though my neighbors don't always hold up their end of their lease (like when they drink alcohol and listen to really loud music), that doesn't mean that I shouldn't do what I signed my name to in the lease. Then there would be the question of what to do with the kitty while I'm working on my internship. It wouldn't really be fair to leave Greg with the kitty for an indefinite period of time--especially since he has his little doggies to tend to. As many of you know (I'm sorry to those of you who I haven't been able to talk to in person about this), Greg and I have slightly adjusted our wedding plans due to school and internship stresses. We had originally planned on getting married on June 7th, but I discovered that my school schedule does not allow time to plan a wedding, and none of the internship possibilities in Springfield have been panning out. So there is a good chance that I will end up in Utah at Camp Floyd State Park for my internship for a few months (which would be a really cool and fun internship). That would just mean that we'll bump the wedding back a little bit until I can get my school requirements in the bag and can be in a better position to get married. I will keep you all posted, and I am grateful that Greg is being so understanding of my crazy schedule.

As far as the kitty goes, since I will probably be driving back and forth across the country, I don't think it would be possible to adopt him right now. I also realized that I have a hard enough time just barely taking care of myself each day, and I wouldn't want to be a negligent kitty owner. Catherine and I decided that some nice family in Michigan will surely adopt him because he is so very cute. Thank you to those of you who encouraged me to get him--I certainly wish I could! But I think he'll make some nice Michiganders very happy. Aunt Karalie sent me some pictures of her cute kitties, Zoe and Dumpster, and the cute Michigan cat looks like a mixture of the two.

Yesterday I received the cutest valentines ever in the mail! Thank you Camden, Riley, Sidney, and Eliza for sending such wonderful Valentine's Day greetings. You are four of the most adorable girls in the whole world.

I'm having a hard time going to sleep tonight, so I made a video about World War II war bonds. I have no idea why I did that, but it was kind of fun. You can see it by clicking here: http://americanimage.unm.edu/clip?id=415. Oh, man! I just barely found out that Aunt Karalie had to start chemotherapy last week :-( That is the worst news ever! I hope that she can make a quick recovery when all of this is over, and I am looking forward to being able to visit her during spring break. Everyone please keep her in your thoughts and prayers!

The Cutest Kitty

Is this not the cutest cat you have ever seen???? He is five years old and, like the famous cats at Ernest Hemingway's house in Key West, Florida, has six toes on one paw. He is currently housed at an animal shelter in Michigan. Catherine's sister volunteers at the shelter and sent Catherine this picture of the kitty hoping that Catherine could find someone to adopt him before he gets euthanized. I don't want him to get euthanized! Ever since I became a cat person, about a year and a half ago, I have always wanted to name a cat General Sterling Price, and then call him Ol' Pap for short (like the infamous Civil War general). Would this kitty not make the perfect Ol' Pap?? He's got Confederate general written all over him. And his big, fat paws melt my heart. Hmmm, do you think I could get away with housing a cat at my apartment? The Campus Pointe people give us a notice before they come check our apartments, and Catherine said that if we did sneak a contraband cat into the apartment, he could stay at her house during apartment checks. Aly is all for it. Catherine also said that she would pick the cat up and bring it back when she goes home for spring break. Unfortunately I don't think it could really work, but I wish it could--maybe we could make it work? What do you all think? Anyone want to adopt the cutest cat ever? :-) Greg, you know that your doggies need another four-legged creature to play with! :-) He's supposedly a super friendly, super cudly cat, and he's up-to-date on all of his shots, and he's potty trained.

It is snowing really hard outside, and it's cold and icy too. Today on my way back over to school after lunch, I accidentally did a perfect fish tail in the car when I was pulling out of the Campus Pointe parking lot. Even though I was being careful, the tires couldn't find anything to grip, and I did a movie-esque little 90 degree spin. Even though it was a good one, I don't want to do that any more--and I wish I could stay inside tonight. But, alas, there is more to be done today. I have institute class this evening, and then everyone is going out to eat for Dan's birthday. I would become the total outcast of the group (even more so than I already am because of being the only Mormon and Republican in the bunch) if I didn't go, so I guess I need to. We're supposedly going to carpool, so I am NOT going to drive in the snow! Speaking of Mormons, today Kristen was telling me that the missionaries keep calling her every few hours, leaving messages on her answering machine and wondering if they can come visit her (I think things might be a little slow for the missionaries here in Charleston right now). Kristen was totally kidding, but she said to everybody, "If any of you make me mad, I'm going to give the missionaries your phone number." :-) Alisha piped in and said (unlike Kristen, Alisha was serious): "Well, then, I am NEVER going to make you mad!!!" That made me laugh really hard inside. Alisha's eternal fear is that some Mormons--whether they be missionaries or classmates--are going to try to make her go to church.

Well, I'm going to go bundle up in preparation for going outside and heading to institute. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you a funny Mr. Riccio story. He's such a nice man, but he's a little spacy, and we never know what is going on during class. So, on Tuesday during class, we weren't really doing anything, and he was just kind of wandering aimlessly around the classroom. I had my textbooks out on the table, and he stopped and was looking at one of them. He said to me (he was totally serious), "What book is this?" Everyone stopped and stared at him in disbelief. I said, "The book for this class." He said, "Oh, where did you get it?" I said, "From the textbook rental place with all of my other books for the semester." He said, "Oh, cool, I haven't seen this one. Are you sure it's for this class?" Considering that we were sitting in our Museum Exhibits class, and the book's title is Constructing a Museum Exhibit, and the book is listed on his syllabus, I said, "Yes, Mr. Riccio, I'm pretty darn sure." I have a funny life here--but funny in a good way!

If I was a Podcast . . .

. . . I would look something like this :-) Tonight I am working on a paper about the use of podcast technology at museums and national park sites for Mr. Riccio's class tomorrow. Mr. Riccio likes Photoshopped pictures, so I thought I might as well score a few extra points by imposing myself onto an iPod for the cover of the paper :-) There is a cool lunar eclipse outside tonight! It is a clear, cold night here in C-town, so the eclipsed moon is quite visible. Hopefully everyone in Utah will be able to see it too!

It was soooooooo cold all day today. For today's Collections Care class, we went over to Mattoon and worked with the collections at the Coles County Historical Society research facility, and we all had to majorly bundle up to even go outside. We spent the entire day painting catalog numbers onto artifacts, and it felt very strange to be rubbing paint thinner onto old farming equipment. After the paint thinner, I had to paint some whiteout-like substance onto the metal, then write the number on top. Theoretically all of this painting on artifacts is supposed to be reversible, but taking it off is easier said than done, and I still don't like writing on artifacts. But, I do as I am told :-) And, I do like painting. I felt a little bad for Laurie because she had to catalog an old bed pan--ewww! :-)

My classmates are back to their old ways. I thought that Christmas break had cured us of our never-ending meetings, but 'tis not so. Yesterday afternoon during and after Mr. Riccio's class, we were working on re-numbering our museum exhibit items, and it took us from 2:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. Then, we had our weekly meeting at 8:00 p.m.! We spent waaaaay too much time together yesterday. I'm kind of used to it now though. Well, I'm going to get back to writing the paper, and Wednesday night is also my "Ghost Hunters" night on the SciFi channel!

The Mormons are Coming!

My classmates like to joke around with me and say, "Ahhh, run for your lives! The Mormons are coming!" :-) Everybody encounters the missionaries every now and then, and as I mentioned the other day, Kristen accidentally requested that the missionaries come visit her when she ordered a copy of the Book of Mormon online. She just likes free religious books and didn't mean to get the missionaries involved. The missionaries have called her multiple times, but she told them that she has a Mormon friend who would give her a Book of Mormon. Luckily I had some extra copies! I told her, "Well, you're the one who filled out the form online." ha ha ha. We will get her! :-) Last night before our evening class, my classmate Angie was eating dinner at the Thai restaurant here in town. She said that she saw the Mormon missionaries outside parking their bikes, then they came and looked into the door of the restaurant but didn't come in. Then they left. She said, "Maybe they realized that the restaurant served food from a non-Christian country or something?" I looked at her and said, "Angie, my sister went on her mission to Thailand. Missionaries can eat Thai food." She said, "Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot." :-) That's cool that one of Dad's missionaries in his branch is from Champaign! Good ol' Illinois folk. Well, I'm off to class, and then Aly and I are hosting this week's weekly meeting tonight, so I guess I should vacuum the apartment and do some dishes.