We decided to take a night drive through downtown.
I love late spring/early summer nights in Lynchburg.
I saw a deer running along Rivermont Ave.
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Archive for May, 2009
I’m really over basketball. Really.
We went to Blackwater Creek so Chris could run for about forty minutes. I walked some and we met up later to go for about forty more minutes. I wish I could keep up with him, but I’ve just come to the conclusion that this little Katie can’t compete with 2003 Cross Country MVP. Once again, I’m reserved for his “cool down” runs.
Came home and had spinach ravioli with a spinach salad with strawberries, bananas, and walnuts. Yumz. Then I ruined it all with a bowl of cookie dough ice cream.
I think we’re going to have a picnic at Otter Creek tomorrow on the rocks and let Abed-nego play in the water.
This morning was one of those days when you get up and immediately want to go back to bed. Major neck and headache.
I had another zombie dream, but this time I was stuck in a resort in Florida with them. Not fun.
I have a list of things I need to do, but nothing is as stressful as it was just a month ago. So glad to be done with my English M.A. It was the roughest two years of my life, really. I was pretty much constantly having a panic attack.
I think we’re going to have a “dog day”–by that, I mean that we are going to parks and such, trying to stay out of the apartment. Our ac is messed up again, so we want to be out of the maintience people’s way if they are able to come work on it today.
This is boring.
Day two of work. It’s been fun so far. Right now I’m helping to organize a residential intensive.
Came home and went for a run at Blackwater Creek. I can’t begin to explain how happy I am that we are staying in Lynchburg. I love this little town. The honey suckles are definitely in bloom, making for a great run.
After being away for so long, I had forgotten just how difficult it is to cook in our kitchen. Chris and I are top chef competitors, but no matter which of us is the main cook for the night, we always help one another. But, man, it is so tight in there that we are always running into each other and knocking hips and saying, “Excuse me,” and smacking one another in face with cabinet doors. I miss the kitchen at our apartment in Farmville.
This new job is going to be awesome. I set my own hours, just as long as I work the required amount. For the first couple of months, I am going to be helping with an accreditation project for the doctoral program. After that is complete, I’ll be setting up student teachers with their schools. No more paper grading or lecturing, which makes me a bit sad because I love teaching and building relationships with the Engl 101ers, but now it is time to do some work behind the scenes.
I decided to go ahead and get started on this next degree and signed up for two summer school courses. If I take two classes next summer as well, I’ll be ready to student teach fall 2010. That sounds so far away. Of course, there is always the chance that someone will hire me without student teaching, something that happens a bit and wouldn’t be too strange since I already have an M.A. in English and two years’ worth of classroom experience. I think I’m going to try to sub in the fall too.
The awesome thing about this new job–well, there are many, many awesome things about it–is that I can take classes for free in the summer too, which wasn’t an option with the English M.A. since they didn’t need us to work any during the summer. Everything is going great. I wasn’t sure about this plan at first because I just really wanted to settle into a career, but this is for the best in the long term.
After going to the office for a little while, Chris and I had salmon, potatoes, and a salad for dinner. So good. We picked up the new Grizzly Bear on vinyl from the record store downtown. Went to Target… Then to Sam’s where we loaded up on new food. Whenever Chris drives, the gods protest and dump ridiculous amounts of rain on the roads. Like, I-can’t-see-anything-because-it-is-pouring amounts of rain.
First day of work tomorrow and I am really excited to get started and make some moneyyy.
Chris and I picked up our dog and rabbit today from Chris’ parents in Charlottesville. We took Abed-nego for a run at Blackwater Creek and spoiled Mr. Rufus with cuddles and scratches.
We re-stocked on groceries and came home to find two fire trucks outside of our apartment! Our first thought was the dog and rabbit, and I started spazzing a little, not knowing what in the world was going on. As it turns out, some guy was trying to grill in the bed of his truck, which didn’t work out. So, everything at home is safe. Just his truck received some damage. Phew.
Back home in Lynchburg! It has felt so long, which I guess it has been 11 days or something.
Driving on 460 at night is such a familiar feeling. I used to hate it, but I’ve come to really enjoy it and feel nostalgic as long as the driving is done late at night. We enjoyed the late spring air and smelled the honey suckles. Whenever I take that right exit to stay on 460 West, I always think of Louise Edrich and Love Medicine because two and a half years ago, Chris and I were talking about that book on the way back to Farmville one day after a visit to Chesapeake to work on wedding plans. I think that is when we booked Lesner Inn for our reception.
So, we weren’t even in Chesapeake for 24 hours–barely 12–but we managed to see my grandma, had sushi with Patrick, and got on the road. It was interesting to sit with my grandma and her friends while they talked about blue grass. “Good music comes out of the mountains.” I’ve never known my grandma to care much about music. I don’t think she really does, but everything felt like an O’Connor story. Right from the moment we arrived to find her out back digging a hole in front of her field of seven and a half acres, saying, “We’re plantin’ a nursey.” It depresses me that the feild is just over-grown grass, empty of barns and animals now, but I suppose that things simply change. My grandparents’ farm was such a big part of my life for a long time. Ah.
But. We’re back home now, and after being gone so long, I’m relieved. Tomorrow will be fun–we’ll go for a run downtown, re-stock on groceries, re-organize our books, and meet some friends for Ashley’s going away party. I’m so happy for Ashley. She found a job and is moving to Boston. Then on Monday we are meeting up with Chris’ parents to get our pets back. The apartment feels so empty without my puppy and bunny. How will I sleep without them?
Today is the last day of vacation. I think we are heading home tomorrow. It has been great to get away and not worry about what is going on in life back home. I swam in the ocean, ducked under huge, crashing waves, and floated over soft, rolling waves. I hadn’t swam that far out in the ocean since the summer before senior year of high school. Six years ago. It felt good to get some salt water up my nose, but Chris just worried since the waves were rather rough.
Honestly, though, this makes me miss home incredibly. And by home I mean Lynchburg. I’m glad that it seems we are staying there, and I really don’t want to leave. It has so much to offer–little traffic, safe downtown that is thriving, a record store, beautiful historic houses, really great schools, the most amazing parks, and not to mention the mountains. It is only an hour to Charlottesville or two hours to Richmond if you want to go to a larger city for the day or want to go shopping. I hope we can stay. I have house dreams boiling big time in my brain, but I suppose that we just need to wait and see. The payment would be the same as our rent, though! Ahh!
By the way, I did end up receiving an A on my thesis, so I got straight A’s for the semester and graduated with a 3.66. Awesome.
Goodbye to warm, blue Key West water.
Hello to warm, blue Atlantic water.
Back to lounging, reading, and relaxing.
During this trip, I’ve come to realize that Chris and I never get annoyed with one another,
which is surprising since we are both very critical.
And I honestly am missing my mountains.
I really do love Virginia and don’t know how I would cope without it.
K. West for Key West, not Kanye West.
Man, some bot is going to pick up on the key word “Kanye West” and leave me lots of spam comments. Same thing happened a lot during the election.
So, we got up early and drove four hours down to Key West. It was Chris’s first time down there, and he really just loved it once we made it. Had lunch at Sloppy Joe’s, and he was pumped by all of the Ernest Hemingway photographs everywhere. And his skis from the Swiss Alps. Awesome. I had never realized how much of the island hypes up Hemingway, probably because the last time I was there (at age 12) I didn’t really know much about him. Now he is really one of my favorite authors. I wish the island were just one big celebration of literature and that we could all just forget about Jimmy Buffet. Ugh.
Of course, we paid a visit to Hemingway’s house, which is just gorgeous, and found ourselves far too excited about chasing the six-toed cats around. My favorite cat was laying on Heminway’s bed, and as a Google search revealed, he really does just lay there all day long, licking his toes.
Here are some of my favorite photos of the day:
Chris at Hemingway’s house.
Meh and one of the fourty-five kittehs.
Where Hemingway wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Today we, like tourists, took a fan boat ride through the Everglades. I saw alligators and cute birds and panthers and wolves.
I had an intimidation contest with a peacock and lost when he turned his tail at me and then I freaked out.
All right, I better stop using up all of the pictures or else Chris will have nothing to post.
Vacation has gone well so far–just the right amount of action and rest. The water at the beach is absolutely blue and warm. I didn’t actually get in today because it rained, but I plan to at some point tomorrow. I’ll probably put up some photos tomorrow as well.
I’m still waiting on my final grade for the thesis, but I have received A’s in all of my other classes. I don’t see why I wouldn’t get an A on my thesis. I was the first person to have it posted in the library (which you can access here if you want), I had a tough committee yet they all really liked it, and I worked quickly and efficiently. It’d be nice to finish this all out with straight A’s, which I think is probable.
I’m trying to relax, but am anxious to begin my new job. I spend too much energy looking to the future. I’m nervous to start working in a new department. I’m so accustomed to the English hall. I’d like to also find a second job, yet I know it’ll be a good situation once I get adjusted.
Key West on Tuesday. 
I miss my dog
and my rabbit
I know Chris’s parents and sister are more than spoiling them, though.
We’ve been checked in for about six hours now, and have checked out the pools, gotten food, taken photos, and so on. The place is great, and I am all set to relax without any worries. Last time I had a vacation during our honeymoon almost two years ago, we were fretting over the future, unsure of what to expect when we got home. Plans weren’t going as quickly or as smoothly as we had hoped. It all worked out fine in the end, but this time I have my job set up and know everything will transition smoothly. I won’t even have to go a week between paychecks.
Chris and I got jobs today at the school.
A back up plan? More school? I don’t know, but I’m excited in a lot of ways.
Basically, the university’s education department hired us as research/office assistants. Free tuition… So, I guess we’re going for the education M.A. unless we can find something else before then. Jobs don’t really exist in the economy right now, so at least we’re working toward something on a low but livable income. Right? We’re going to try to teach adjunct at the university on the side.
I start next Tuesday when we get back from vacation. Chris starts July 2nd.
Elizabeth showing Chris (and Abed-nego) how to play lacrosse.
I refused to look into HDR photography for a long while. For growing up around computers, I really tend to resist technology. Besides, HDR kind of goes against my editing philosophy: Photoshop is great to touch up images, but I’m not trying to create high tech advertisements with little cheap tricks. I like my pictures to remain natural. Otherwise, I feel like I’m cheating. People just go way over the top sometimes, sharpening images so much that people’s skin looks reptilian or upping the saturation to a ridiculously fake extreme or air brushing to the point that the person looks like an alien.
However, Chris has been wanting to give it a try, especially since we’re doing Charity and Andrew’s wedding, and Andrew mentioned that he kind of likes HDR sometimes.
Today Chris pulled out the camera and took a few shots from the balcony. He didn’t have the tripod out, so the images don’t align exactly. I did the editing. Not bad, I’d say.
We wanted another attempt. As the sun just began to set, we headed to the Wyngate and took these photos overlooking Liberty’s campus and Williams stadium.
I’m actually kind of proud of it. The crazy part, though, is the amount space these files take up. The above full-sized photo is 314 MB! I had to resize it to 700 pixels in width just to get it to load on Flickr due to their 20 MB limit. Looks like that external hard drive is going to get some use.
Busy busy busy.
I feel like I need a couple of days to sit and do nothing, but then I’d just feel unproductive. I get bored with summer rather quickly. Chris and I are continuing the summer job search today and getting things in line to go out of town. Tomorrow, I think, we’re heading up to Woodbridge to see his parents for a couple of days and drop off the pets, then down to Chesapeake Thursday night to leave early on Friday morning for vacation! I am so excited. Then I can just do nothing. When we come back, it’ll be lots of summer working, “real” job searching, and arranging to re-locate if necessary.
We went to see Watchmen last night with some friends. All I can say is that I’m glad I only paid a dollar to see it. I really liked some of the themes, issues that we must deal with. The question of time. The savage nature of humanity. The value of life. And so on. But, man, it went downhill and just didn’t come back. “I’m going to another galaxy where things aren’t quite as confusing.” What a cop out.
Well, it is Mother’s Day and so far I have been a terrible daughter. Since I’ve been living away from home for the past four years, being around family on holidays isn’t always a given, but I even saw my mom today and forgot to wish her a happy Mother’s Day. When they were on the way over, I kept trying to remember to say it, but once everyone got inside, I was thoroughly distracted.
So, mom, since I know you read this, happy Mother’s Day!
Now let me tell you why my mom is awesome. She puts everyone before herself and continues to make sacrifices for them even when people take advantage of her. She has always been so supportive throughout my entire life even when she didn’t fully understand why things were important to me. She is always optimistic and encouraging, always supporting every decision I make, yet is sure to ask those important questions. When I was younger, finances got tight and although my mom had previously been a successful high-ranking secretary for the the city of Virginia Beach, she didn’t go back to work in an office because she wanted to be sure that she would definitely be home when my sister and I got home from school. Instead, she went to work at McDonalds and endured grease burns while going to night school to become a vet assistant. My sister and I would walk to McDonalds in the summer and I’d get a Mcchicken sandwich, happy to know that my mom was still making me lunch and she knew that it was me ordering it because I always get chicken sandwiches everywhere I go if possible.
My mom has continued to do everything she can for my sister and me. This weekend was Mother’s Day weekend, but she didn’t even think of herself. Instead, she sat in the heat through a long, boring graduation ceremony because she wanted to celebrate my accomplishments. Then she even went out of her way to pick up a cake for me, making sure that she got whipped icing just because she knows it is my favorite. So, thanks, mom, for all the things you do. They don’t go unnoticed! I hope that I can make you proud and never disappoint you.
After everyone left, Chris and I have enjoyed the fantastic weather by driving around on back roads looking for a dam. We did eventually find the dam, but on the way we also discovered this old abandoned barn, which made for some nice shots.
It is true. I have graduated.
I am now a Master of the Arts of English.
And I have photographs to prove it.
Do I not look like a cult leader?
In the morning at 7:30 am. When our spirits were still high and the hat hair hadn’t set in.
A handful of the graduate students and our special yet awkward graduate student sleeves.
Still waiting to walk. For two hours.
We made it!
Kirsten and I with our thesis chair, Dr. Schmidt.
*The lighting in the gym was awful*
Melissa took this one–me receiving my hood from my thesis chair.
That is more than enough, I’m sure. More on flickr.
Sometimes I find that it is the middle of the day and realize that I haven’t drank anything yet.
Sometimes I’m amazed at how rude people can be.
Sometimes I get really excited about possibilities and then get incredibly discouraged thinking that I don’t have a chance.
Sometimes I’m just all right with any little thing that life throws at me, and I take it in stride.
Sometimes I graduate.
Sometimes I write stupid blogs and question myself before hitting “publish,” but then do it anyway.
At all times, though, punctuation goes inside the quotation marks.
I can’t get myself to just submit my final paper. It isn’t due until midnight, so I keep wanting to revise, yet I feel done. Just done.
I’m pretty sure that I live in a rain forest. It will suddenly start pouring for about ten minutes and then stop. Gloom gloom gloom. I wonder if the sun will ever come back. I’d like to think of Abed-nego as a spider monkey and Mr. Rufus as a … panther. We live together in a tree house in the rain forest canopy. The rain is making me all achy like an old person.
Speaking of old people, I have a pot of vegetarian chili simmering on the stove top that I can’t wait to get into.
Another cold, wet, rainy day. I don’t mind the rain; it is refreshing. I worry about Saturday (graduation), though. The forecast is not looking too good. What happens in that case, I wonder?
Slowly creeping toward the end. Tomorrow I submit the 101ers’ final grades and I also submit my last paper. Then it is done.
I got really lucky this semester. I usually get very sick in the fall as it is beginning to get cold and in the spring as the weather is changing. I didn’t get sick once this semester, which really is amazing. However, I have had a headache for about a week straight now from all the pollen and I can’t really hear well out of my left ear. Hm. If that is all the sickness I have to endure for the semester, I’ll take it.
Today Chris and I were both really feeling the need for sushi. We headed to King’s Island and split a California roll and a spicy tuna roll. After we finished up, our waitor said, “I will bring you your good fortune,” as he went to get our fortune cookies. If only it were that easy.
So, I have a little bit of revising to do, but instead I think I’ll listen to music and clean. Do some laundry. That sort of thing. Life has felt like it has been falling apart through all the stress and panic of the past two months. I don’t know what to expect and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t care.
Well, yesterday was the GSA party. Obviously.
Most of the second-year GSAs made it and we sat around talking about memories. As promised, Mrs. Towles told an embarrassing or funny story about each of us. Mine was that I am short, of course. She joked on the fact that I pretty much always use a power point in my lectures because I can only reach half of the white board. It’s true. Every once in a while I’ll stand on a chair to write on the board.
Then we gave her a tree, which she really seemed to like a lot. Then it was time for lasagna and more talk of the past. And how weird Las Vegas is. I decided to write a paper on the simulacra of Vegas. Too bad I’ve never been there. Or maybe not. We didn’t end up leaving until almost 9:00 pm, and it was just pouring on the way home. I was actually a little scared, but we made it.
After saying so many times “It’s almost over,” I still can’t reconcile it in my mind. It was strange that this was the last time that I will see many of the students. I have an exam to take tomorrow, but that will mostly be it aside from graduation. Grad school has completely consumed my life for the past two years. It is all I have thought about. There has been no “life” outside of it unless you count backpacking, which has been our only way to get ourselves to stop thinking about school for just a little while. I’m sad to see it end, but ready to move on. I wish we could stay in Lynchburg with all of our friends and keep teaching at the university. Alas, it is time to go onto something else somewhere else.
GSA party at Mrs. Towles’ house!
Free lasagna!
Anne, Bri, and Amber on the couch. Ellissa and Mrs. Tolwes. Dallas and Ryan on the other couch.
We gave her a tree!
Her house is so awesome.
Ryan, Stephanie, Lauren, Ashley, Travis, Jessica, Eric, and Amber.
And Bri, Charity, and Ellissa.
We decided last night that our main goal today is just to have fun and maybe work in some school work later.
This past week has been very frustrating with some terrifying conflicts (that weren’t our fault), but it looks like these issues will just be annoying a little bit longer and work out fine in the end. It’s tough to graduate–by the way, my “cost to graduate” has gone up to over $500 now because we had to pay $55 each to submit out theses to the library, a requirement. Good thing we got a raise this year.
Today we plan to go downtown to the market. I want real strawberries that aren’t artificially huge due to hormones so they taste like nothing. I want ones that are red all the way through. Chris wants to pick up some local honey comb. All available at the market! Then we’re going to apply for summer jobs at a couple of places.
After that, who knows. Maybe a walk at the park. Maybe we’ll go to Farmville and walk on their rails to trails.
Tomorrow is the end of the year party with Towles! I have already missed two other faculty sponsored parties due to the aforementioned “conflicts” that have been nagging us. So time consuming. Not this time. I’m going to eat lasagna.
Today was my last day teaching as an English GSA. Well, I just gave a final, but it is the last time that I’ll see those kids.
The experience of teaching 101 has been just amazing. The students taught me so much about myself, writing, teaching, and public speaking. I’m not the same Katie who sheepishly directed students to their sections back in August 2007. I hope that someone can recognize the value of this experience and give me a decent job.
One of the other GSAs shared a quote from a paper. The paper was supposed to be analyzing an Indiana Jones poster, but instead the student just gave a summary of the movie. The paper ended with a comment akin to this: At the end of the movie, the high priest of evil falls into a pit of cockatiels.
Wow. Cockatiels? Really? Just amazing. It totally made my day. I made this picture on Paint as my response:
I also found this video clip and thought it was too hilarious NOT to post.