On the Road

New entry over at the writer blog

http://jenelcope.wordpress.com/blog/

Happy Easter...at Home!

I am ridiculously relieved to be home from my trip, and this morning after eleven hours of sleep, I'm feeling downright human again.  I also had a few hours of clarity yesterday to put the finishing touches on my talk for Sacrament Meeting today.  There's something about giving a talk on Easter that gives it extra significance and a little bit of extra pressure, so I'm both nervous and really looking forward to it. 

So Happy Easter everyone!  I hope this day finds you just a little wired on chocolate eggs or bunnies, and in the mood to ponder about the miraculous real reasons we celebrate this day.

And did I mention I'm GLAD to be home!

More Princeton

Ok, here's proof that I officially quit being a research/motel room potato, for two hours tonight, and went to look at something. 

Oldest building at Princeton - Nassau Hall.  It is officially historic - it was shot at during the Revolutionary War.

Building Envy

With apologies to the History Department's shiny new building at the U, I am having some serious building envy. Apparently, this is where the history department lives at Princeton...

Though I must say, noticing the window unit A/C in the bottom left, having a new building definitely has some perks.

In other interesting tidbits, I had decided yesterday that other than better food at the campus cafe, being at Princeton didn't feel wildly different than being on any other campus.  However, I overheard a fascinating conversation today (from a group who were clearly students, and most likely undergrads)  about various ways one can use to get out of paying large amounts on your taxes.  They sounded like they were speaking from experience.  Not something I had a problem with as an undergrad.

Better Than Yesterday

Normally the process of travelling doesn't really bug me, but yesterday was a doozy - three and a half hour flight delay, turbulence, airsickness, lost while driving...yeah, not fun.

Today was better though.  I found my way to the library easily enough, and though the day was kind of uneven in terms of research results, I did find one really great thing.  Here at Princeton in 1971, one of their centers had a conference about the FBI, and one of the conference papers was co-presented by someone who worked in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.  The paper is about how the Bureau responded to civil rights complaints.  Definitely a great find for my topic.

I also have a great hotel, that miraculously provides both hot breakfast AND dinner.  I had potstickers, rice, salad and cream puffs for dinner.  Huzzah! They even have peppermint tea in their "free 24 hour" beverage station.  Also, there's a cute little campus cafe in the building right across the street from the archives where I can grab lunch.  Normally I have to figure out where a local grocery store is to get by when I'm travelling, but I'm not even going to bother this time.   It's a real luxury.

So here's some pictures.  First, because I can't seem to be able to help myself from taking pictures of trees...

And second well, because it's Princeton, of course....

Dealing with Writing Advice

Just put a new post on my writer blog

http://jenelcope.wordpress.com/blog

Scary New Jersey

I have to go to New Jersey next week for research and I have to admit I'm not entirely looking forward to it.  Most of my doldrums come from the fact that once again, Tracy is staying behind.  However, there's also the fact that I have to do a lot of driving on what I know are infamously busy roads in a place I don't know at all.  Last summer when I went to D.C. it was so nice to feel like I knew where I was going and to already know how to navigate a bit.  Even Oregon didn't seem this scary because the driving part was so straightforward, get on the freeway, get off the freeway, done.   Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the opportunity, but the gratitude doesn't seem to have much effect on the nerves.

Two Blogs and a Website

Does anyone really need TWO blogs?  Probably not.  However, I wanted to start to create a web presence for my writer personality with a website and a blog that focuses on books and writing, while still being able to have this blog, which isn't web searchable that lets me talk about General Conference and Easter Eggs.   So that anybody who reads this blog doesn't have to check both I'll put a note on here when I post to the writer blog.  The new website and blog is at http://jenelcope.wordpress.com .  If you happen to check it out I'd love to hear your comments on it, since it's still a bit of a work in progress.

New Decorations

It used to be that I would decorate for the holidays with anything that was cute, regardless if it matched the rest of my house or not.  I still think there's a lot to be said for that method, but lately I've been more into matching the holiday decor to my home, since my living room is basically earth tones and red, this is usually pretty easy.  Red is an amazingly versatile color when it comes to holiday decorations: Halloween/Thanksgiving - Red, Orange and Yellow, Valentine's Day - Red and Pink, Fourth of July - Red, White and Blue, Christmas-Red and Green.

There is one holiday however, that throws a wrench in this handy scheme....Easter.  Everything for Easter is pastels, or even more frustratingly, neon bright.   I've been keeping an eye out for Easter decorations that would blend in to my living room and there are some, but, like the $25 rabbit at Cost Plus, none of them had been budget friendly.

So, since I always like having some sort of basic project to do while watching General Conference I decided to try my hand at painting some of those bright plastic eggs I had on hand from previous years.  I wasn't too sure about whether or not I liked the first one, but Tracy encouraged me to keep going, and I think in the end they turned out pretty good.  It also sparked my creativity enough that I made a cute Easter sign as well.  Now, these don't match perfectly, but the muted tones are much better, and I was just happy I could come up with something cheap.

Highs and Lows

I'm finally feeling a little better today, and I got to go out to lunch today with one of my friends, which was fun and gave me a lot of energy, so that's good.  I also had a great experience watching General Conference this weekend.  Here's one of my favorite quotes:

Elder Paul V. Johnson: "Getting on top of the cliffs isn't easy...just before reaching the top the climber encounters the steepest part of the trail and views of the canyon are hidden by the cliffs themselves. The final exertion is worth the effort, because once on top the views are breathtaking.  The only way to see the views is to make the climb.  A pattern in the scripture and in life shows that many times the darkest most dangerous tests immediately precede remarkable events and tremendous growth."

This quote comes in handy because I just received an very polite, but very short rejection letter from the agent who asked for pages last week.  Clearly, in my writing career I have some additional climbing to do.