As some of you may have noticed, the blogs were down–or gone completely, rather–for about 12 hours.  I somehow managed to write over them when trying to update the domain.  I never actually got the domain going the way that I wanted to, so I was trying to fix that.  Instead, it went terribly wrong, but with the help of dad (thanks!) we are back with just about a month’s worth blogging missing.  But, really, I don’t think I’ve said anything interesting in the past month anyway.

Here’s a summary for history’s sake:

I finished up my grad classes and submitted the grades of the classes I teach.
We made a beorscipe for our Old English professor
and then covered Dr. Harris’ door with post-its.
We went to Chesapeake (and Sandbridge) and Woodbridge to celebrate Christmas with both sides of the family.
We came back and have been working on thesis work mostly and wasting time taking pictures.
We celebrated New Year’s with some friends and lit little pizzas on fire.
I decided to start taking a picture a day as a goal for 2009.

And now I leave you with two photos that I took yesterday just because I know I had made an entry with them….

My Christopher

And my lunch

Went to a job fair for Lynchburg City schools today….  Totally sounded like a 60-year-old smoker during my interview because I’ve been losing my voice for the past couple of days.  It seems that the teaching field has also felt the impact of the economy.  Everyone has it rough these days, I suppose.  The reality that we may have to move south after graduation is becoming more and more evident.  I’ll be disappointed to have to move even farther away from family, but I do need money to eat food and all.  Plus, I’ve never lived in another state, so maybe it’d be an adventure.

As money is tight for everyone, I realize that I am incredibly satisfied by small things.  I’m not very materialistic.  The most exciting “commodity” that I can think of is buying a new book that isn’t on a syllabus and actually having time to read it.  I love having new photographs to upload onto flickr, especially if we took them on a backpacking trip.  Tonight I enjoyed a pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks with 10% off for being a teacher–not to mention that we used a gift certificate.  Sitting in Starbucks, watching the snow come down heavily, talking to Christopher about the past…..  That is what keeps me content.  I don’t need a high-paying job or lots of toys.  I’m easily satisfied.  The economy is scary, especially when trying establish a career, but we’ll be ok.

Thanksgiving has come and gone.  One more day of break before heading back to classes on Monday.  I must confess that I am just so tired and drained with school.  I’m definitely welcoming the winter break, which will mark one last semester and also the beginning of the job search.  Again.  So agonizing.

During this break I have:

-seen my side of the family and Christopher’s.
-eaten at Macado’s twice (almost three times).  Once with the Robinson grandparents and once with Elizabeth and then we almost went with his parents.
-seen two movies at the dollar theater:  The Dark Knight and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.
-not cooked a lot aside from some potato soup recipe that I made up–we went to Cracker Barrel for Thanksgiving.
-been sick the entire time.

I think that my sickness is almost gone as of today.  No more “vertigo” and I am only sneezing blood a little.
Gee, this stuff really isn’t that interesting.

I’m not as excited about Christmas this year, but I think it is mostly due to the fact that I can’t even get myself to think about it for some reason since I’m feeling so overwhelmed with school.  I want to put the tree up soon, but a big part of me wants to get a real tree this year.  I don’t feel like paying $30 though and tying it to the roof of my car and hoping that it doesn’t kill someone on the way home.  I can’t seem to get Chris excited about Christmas this year–well, he never gets excited about it–and I think it is rubbing off on me.  I’ll make some sugar cookies or something to get us in the mood.

Thanksgiving is about half-way over for me.  We went back to Chesapeake for the first time since July to visit.  This meant lots of throwing the baby in the air, curling the little girl’s hair, and responding to the demands to “draw Mr. Rufus again.”  I miss those kids.  It was great to see everyone and to just relax.

Matthew

Sydney so hungry for Thanksgiving dinner that she started eating herself

Trying to teach Sydney to draw a rabbit.  She isn’t quite there yet.

More Thanksgiving photos on flickr.

When we got home last night, Chris had the idea that we should go for a day hike the following day (today).  I really want to go to the Grayson Highlands, but it is three and a half hours away.  I found some trails there that would be good for a three-day trip, so this will have to wait until after graduation.  Instead we decided to head to Roanoke and hike the Appalachian Trail up to McAfee Knob.  I’ve heard that McAfee Knob is the most photographed spot on the trail.  Since it is in the middle of the week and, well, cold, one would think it’d be reasonably empty.  It was, but we still saw about four groups of people out there.

One of the nice things about living in Lynchburg is that it only takes about an hour to get to most places to hike.  We headed out and it began to rain a little in Bedford, yet as we got closer, it started snowing quite heavily.  By the time we arrived in the parking lot, it was just flurries.  Of course, once you get moving, the cold isn’t too much of an issue.  The summit was just amazing, so much more vast than pictures can capture, especially since the weather made it look a bit hazey.  I’m excited to hike it again in the spring, though it was rather unique to be on top of a mountain watching the snow come down.

More photos on flickr.

Taking a break from translating….

When we finally got home yesterday around 11:00 am, the apartment was down to 63 degrees, so we figured that it was about time to turn on the heat.  Though it is a bit chilly and windy, it looks like there may be a few days in the 50’s.  I hope so because I really want to get out and go for a hike soon, especially since I got fancy new hiking boots in Minnesota.  I had been needing some quite badly since I have always had very weak ankles.  I can just be walking along like normal and my ankle will give out.  I ended up having to get a kid’s size 3 and a half.  Oh man….

It was a really nice trip to Minnesota.  The conference was quite informative and a great experience to present.  My panel went well, and it is such a relief to have it behind me.  I think that I was able to represent Liberty well and hopefully show what our grad program is capable of since the program is rather new.  In fact, this is only its second year.  Getting to see family was also quite the convience.  I hadn’t been to Minnesota in well over 10 years.  After talking about portaging, I think we may try to get up there in summer 2010 and go on an adventure with my family in the Boundary Waters. You have to plan it a year in advanced because they only let a certain number of people in at a time and people come from all over the country to go.

More photos of the trip on Flickr.  I still have more to upload.

Quick update!  The battery is dying!

Still in Minnesota.  Presented last night.  I spoke.  I answered questions.  It went well.
We have done fun things, like going to the Mall of America and met up with my grandmother.
It is 30 degrees here and I have heard that it is about 40 degrees warmer back home.  Sounds like going camping soon might not be unrealistic seeing as the weather is quite warm….  We’ll be getting back home on Monday morning.

 Skywalk in downtown Minneapolis before the first night of the M/MLA conference.

Minnesota tomorrow!!!

Be back Monday.

It has been a crazy, stressful, fast-paced week.  Friday night we decided to go ghost hunting on Candler’s Mountain around midnight.  Due to the artificial ski slope construction/worst idea for a college, many of the trails were closed off.  We had to take the Louge Trail, which is straight up the mountain with an incredibly steep incline.  We hiked up to the monogram and looked at the city lights.  We planned to take the gravel road back, but even that is closed for construction.  Our only option was to take the Louge Trail down.  No fun.  We shuffled our way down and all of us girls kept slipping and falling all over the place.  No ghosts found, but it was still fun and adventurous.

Chris, Charity, Andrew, and I preparing.

Charity and Andrew reading the trail sign with blooood on it.

Today we picked up the collection of America’s best short stories for the year 2008.  This year it is edited by Salman Rushdie, which seems a lot cooler than last year’s–sorry, Stephen King.

In 2005, I had a dream that I met Barack Obama and said, “Mr. Obama, I think you should run for President.”
This was before he had announced his running for the presidency.
It has been a long road.

I am so proud of our country for perhaps the first time in a long, long time.
I am proud that Virginia went for Obama, especially considering certain rough attitudes that I had encountered around town.

I had gotten so sick of being told that Obama is a Muslim and “real Christians” can’t vote for anyone who is anything but Prolife and that I’d be a Socialist for voting for him and that Obama is the anti-Christ.  Come on, guys.  Perhaps unlike others at this moment, I am thanking God that Obama won, not mourning the loss of McCain and Palin.

I feel like I might be able to stop reading Ginberg’s “America” with such frustration. I know Obama isn’t going to save the world and he isn’t perfect.  He is a man.  However, it his approach that we need, his hope, his ability to bring America together so we can work toward fixing our country.

After seeing him speak at the Save Darfur rally in spring 2005,
After following the debates in the primaries,
After watching the numbers come in from Iowa,
After then voting for him in the Virginia primary,
After knocking on doors and handing out fliers,
I almost can’t believe that I have finally been able to vote for Barack Obama for President.

We got up earlier than usual and headed to our polling place at 8:00 am.  The line for last names A-G was ridiculously long, but I was able to get through rather quickly.  We decided that it was revenge for those us of who always had to be last in line in elementary school, graduation, and all that.