Archive for October, 2007

“I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.”

Published at October 25, 2007 in Literature and Blabber. 0 Comments

The weather has been gloomy the past couple of days, which makes me feel like I have an excuse to not do anything productive. This, however, is not true. Life doesn’t get canceled no matter what the weather is like.

Last night we went by Barnes and Noble and found this book:


Disapproving Rabbits

It has glossy photographs of rabbits making disapproving faces with clever quotations. We stood in the middle of the store laughing for quite some time, swearing that we must buy it–well, until we realized that it was $15. Maybe only a rabbit owner can completely appreciate this book. Rabbits, much like cats, always seem to have this neutral face and act extra sassy.  Here is an excerpt I stole from bn.com:

Instead we used a gift certificate to buy this:


The collected works of Amy Hempel

We came home and I began to miss Advanced Writing Fiction back at Longwood. I read about three or four stories aloud to Chris, which really isn’t that much since it is flash fiction. I think that thus far my favorite story by her is “What Were the White Things” aside from “Housewife”–that is too much of an accomplishment to ignore. I took out Booth’s The Rhetoric of Fiction and read through some of the parts wishing that I had more time to write what I want to.

My Engl 101 students will be working on their argumentative essays next so I am bringing in Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” just for fun. I’m pretty excited for that tomorrow.

12:20

Published at October 20, 2007 in Photography and Blabber. 0 Comments

Another week has come to a close bringing me closer to frightening due dates. Three 20-page papers… That’s all I can think all day long.

Last night we had Stephanie, Charity, Crystal, and Amber over to watch some of season two of The Office. Stephanie is catching up. Then Crystal taught Abed-nego this trick.

I like him looking like a circus seal performing a trick for a fish. Today we need to get some work done and then I think we’re going to the dollar theater tonight. Maybe tomorrow we’ll go to the park to throw the ball for Abed-nego and make him this happy:

badumpa badumpa

Published at October 7, 2007 in Hiking, Photography and Blabber. 3 Comments

I guess fall break can be summarized in a few photographs.


The top of Sharp Top at Peaks of Otter.


It looks very Mexican, doesn’t it?

 


My family came to visit and Sydney had a lot of energy.


We took them to Blackwater Creek. She was rather freaked out by the leaf-blower.

So, Fall Break… I am not ready for it to end at all. Friday we went to Peaks of Otter and hiked the Elk Run Trail and then Sharp Top. Photographs can be found here. We took Abed-nego with us and he loved the trails, however we did not love having to carry him up the steps and rocks that were too big for him. Dachshunds have fragile backs, as we all know. The top was absolutely beautiful. I think we’ll be going back in a few weeks, because we discovered that Peaks of Otter is only 40 minutes from our apartment.

Saturday afternoon my parents, sister, grandmother, and Sydney arrived. My dad and Chris installed a water filter in our sink while the rest of us played with Sydney. She grows so quickly and it is hard to imagine that in just a couple of months, baby number two will be here. I took a bunch of photos of Sydney during their trip as well. The next day (today) we met my aunt, uncle, and cousins at Blackwater Creek. We walked some, but between our party consisting of a lady in her mid-70’s, a lady in her mid-7th month of pregnancy, and then someone who had recently undergone knee surgery, our walk didn’t last too long. It was nice to get out and show my family a different part of Lynchburg.

As my family was leaving to go back to Chesapeake, they walked out the door and made it downstairs before realizing that Sydney was missing.  She had shut herself up in a bedroom to play with Mr. Rufus and screamed when she was discovered.

And I’m here with papers to grade and reading to do. Not quite feeling chipper enough for all of it, but it needs to get done. If I just had one more day….

this is how ghosts turn into lambs

Published at October 3, 2007 in Literature, Photography and Blabber. 0 Comments

Fall break finally.  I definitely need it; this week has been so disheartening.  I hate that feeling like the world is crashing in and you are overall misunderstood.

I’ve been missing DC a bit lately.  I think this is because the weather should be changing and we always visited DC over winter break.  It’s been a while since we went in.


DC Metro.

I like being places that bring me inspiration.  Everything about DC seems so big and makes me feel like most anything is possible.  That does not make sense at all, because nothing in DC is possible for me aside from sore feet from walking lots and maybe getting to see some rad red pandas.  It all is so expensive.

I’ve been feeling so sub-par lately.   I think this is because I’m not one to throw myself out in front of people.  I kind of lurk in the shadows more, this has always been my nature, so it’s hard to get noticed.  I don’t chase stray cats as much anymore, mostly a concern for rabies.  We’re reading The Unvanquished in Faulkner and I’m not enjoying it quite as much as the other novels.  I want to read something really great so I can feel “infinite,” something postmodern, I think.  We bought Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathon Safran Foer.  It looks quite exciting.  I want more time to write what I want to write.  Maybe I can do some of this over fall break.  Who am I kidding?  I won’t do any of that at all.

I don’t think camping is going to happen this break.  Instead we’re going to go hiking somewhere all day tomorrow.

I don’t understand why certain aspects of literature are labeled bad here.  I don’t get it at all.  Everyone hates the Romantics.  Poor Blake.