Miscellaneous Happiness (For a Sick-ish Weekend)

My new theme song. It makes me so utterly happy and drives my roommates utterly nutty, but if anything can make your day better, it's this song.

Being reunited with these lovely ladies after a year apart. As much as they loved being in Rome last fall, and I loved being in Rome last spring, we are all so very happy to be back together.

Finding recordings of my Project Poet. There's absolutely nothing like hearing these poems read by the poet.

Exquisite Texan sunsets. This is the view from my balcony, sure there's a tree in the way, but we have front row seats for the sunsets.

Happy and hilarious Rome memories. Why were we posing like this while a thunderstorm was rolling in? Do you remember how we had to sprint for shelter right after this photo was taken? Do you remember...? 

My newest Icon. On my last day of work at the Catholic bookshop this summer, we unpacked an entire crate of Russian Icons, and this one (Our Lady of Vladmir) was a going away present from my bosses. She now is in a place of honor (my nightstand) in our apartment. 

Roommate silliness. Very rarely do I let all my goofiness loose, and my poor roommates didn't know what they were getting themselves into.But they are holding up remarkably well, as I do and say the silliest things with very little provocation. 

  

This music video. Because what could possibly be happier, than the happiness of two claymation monsters? I mean, really?

Day 17

Dear Diary,
I've been stranded in this wasteland for 17 days now with no sign of rescue. The monsoon season is coming, and I have developed a cold. My only hope for recovery lies in a potion that one of the locals gave me. It is a startling shade of blue, and apparently, if taken in excess can kill you. One of the natives has undertaken it to teach me their poetry. Today, he tried to teach me about the meter of their poems, but in my weakened state I could barely understand him. I am, however, eager to learn and am trying my best to scan one of their native laments. I hope someday to write an intelligent essay on the matter. Perhaps, if I make it through this ordeal alive, I can have it published.
I have also moved my living quarters and am now installed in a tiny wooden box measuring about three feet by three feet, with room only for a small wooden table on which I spread my books. It is neither large nor comfortable, but I must stay here until the period of final examination, by the natives' calendar, has past. Sleep is irrelevant and nourishment unnecessary. If you find my bones here, commend my soul to the Lord and give me a proper burial. 

Apparently, I wrote this the other day, while sitting in the library. It worries me somewhat that I have only vague memories of this event.

Life at Bag End, Among Other Things

Well, we're finally settled into our apartment, and the semester is in full swing. We've christened our apartment Bag End, which really makes no sense because we live on the second floor and our front door is decidedly rectangular, but we needed a name for our wifi, so after rejecting "The Wardrobe", "Narnia", and other such names we decided that Bag End seemed dorky and literary enough for our home. Little did we know what repercussions our seemingly innocent wifi naming would have. Now we all have Hobbit names: I'm Merry because apparently he was the youngest hobbit in the fellowship.

We're still working on decorating the rest of the apartment, but I've definitely got my room all sorted out. Sure, it's basically the same as last year, but our apartment is cute that I just have to share it. I absolutely love the window above my bed! I doubt you can see it, but there's a tree right outside, so it's like our room is in a tree house! As you can see Little Miss Sunshine is still around, and what's even scarier, after a year in storage her batteries still work, which is utterly terrifying when, oh you know, you sit on her in the middle of the night, and suddenly a cheery voice says, "Hooray for everybody!" Terrifying I tell you.

I'm also doing a pretty good job keeping myself well fed. My roommates are always chopping vegetables and stuff, like they're gourmet ninja's or something, while I'm dumping things out of cans on to frozen chicken. But all in all I feel pretty satisfied with myself.

This is one of my favorite "quick fixes" from last week. Basically what I did was brown some ground turkey in a frying pan with some olive oil and other spices, then I added it to a jar of Prego pasta sauce. Sure, not the most original recipe ever, but it's a good way to add some protein to basic pasta.

As far as classes go, my schedule is pretty weird: I have classes at 10 or 11, and then my next one won't be until about 3 in the afternoon. I really hate afternoon classes because if I've spent my day studying, the last thing I want to do is go sit in a classroom for an hour. I really prefer to get my classes over with as early as possible, so I can work all afternoon and then, occasionally, have the evening to do my own thing. On the up side, I really do like all my classes, so it's worth the goofy schedule.

I did decide to drop down to twelve credits this semester, which does feel like kind of a cop out, but I am taking four upper level English classes, so I need the extra time just to get all my reading done. I had originally thought about auditing an intensive German class, but I'm already taking Old English this semester, and I really just don't have time to learn another language. Unfortunately, because the German language is absolutely beautiful. Ah, well, perhaps Senior year.

Speaking of English classes, I am really excited about my major now. This semester I'm focusing heavily on poetry, what with the Junior Poetry project as well as Medieval Lit., and we're even translating a lot of Anglo-Saxon poetry in Old English! I have studied poetry before, but never as intensely as we are this semester. I have a feeling that soon I'll be spouting lyric out of my ears.

Even though I'm not getting to spend this semester without one of the loves of my life (German), I am getting to spend a lot of time with my other one- the Anglo-Saxons. I don't know what it is about those lovely tribes, but I absolutely love them. I was a little wary about Old English at first, but when I got the syllabus, and realized that the first class was entitled "Getting in Touch with your Inner Anglo-Saxon", I knew that I was in the right place. The first poem we worked on- Caedmon's Hymn, is one of my favorites, and I actually translated it out of Medieval Latin when I was in high school, so I was super excited to get to read it in the language in which it was composed. The Anglo-Saxon history class I took last semester is also helping me out a lot both in Old English as well as Medieval Lit., which is really nice because I already done most of the reading for both classes.

Anyway, I'm supposed to be working on the Wife's Lament!

Back at School!

I am finally back at school, and, let me tell you, it is absolutely awesome to be back! Because of Rome, my class has been split in half for the last year, and there are a lot of people I haven't seen in ages, so it is wonderful to catch up with them. I had a lot of great friends from freshman year who I haven't seen in nine months, but we're able to meld back together right away. It's also been really fun meeting the people in my class who I didn't get to know freshman year.

Moving into my apartment has been a lot of fun.  Even with our lovely view of the dumpster, we really love it. It's nice that everyone can have at least a little bit of space to themselves, albeit a very tiny bit of space, but space none the less. Yesterday we went to the thrift store, and found some pretty rad decor. There will be pictures soon, I promise.

 Going to the grocery store, however, proved to be a lot less fun. Nothing says stressful like the knowledge that you have to keep yourself alive for the next four months. So we galloped around Wal-mart trying to figure out what we knew how to cook and what we needed to make it. So we now have the most random assortment of food items, but at least we won't starve to death within the first week.

Tomorrow is the first day of classes, and then the real fun begins. I've been looking forward to starting classes all summer, but looking at my schedule is making me rethink all my life decisions. Signing up for classes while in Rome is just a bad idea. I mean, there you are, in Rome, having the time of your life, feeling like anything is possible, and then you sign up for, oh, four upper level English classes. Then you get back to Texas, and all you can think is, "Anything is not possible- like surviving this semester." But we'll see how it goes, but right now, sheer panic.