Today was a really good day, one of those days when I don't think it was such a crazy idea to leave my job at the archives. I was fairly disciplined, and spent the day working on research for the American West Center, preparing a travel funding proposal for my dissertation (can you believe I'm actually asking them to send me to New Jersey?), and doing a little work on the new novel, which I've continued working on tonight.
When I finished Chapter Nine and added it to the manuscript file I discovered that I reached what I consider to be, the momentous goal of a hundred continuous pages. I have the weirdly ambitious goal to finish a draft of this thing by Christmas. We'll see if I can make that.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Crafty
I think I love Fall. As long as I don't think of it as winter's prologue, Fall and I get along spectacularly. When I was shopping for Tracy's birthday presents I saw some beautiful fall wreaths, which, even at 50% off were over my budget. Dollar store to the rescue! Eight dollars, four glue gun burns, and some existing supplies later I had this little guy.
My other new, and entirely adorable, fall decoration was a gift from my friend Becky C. Having never done glass etching myself, I found it mystifyingly impressive that she could do this.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Park City
This weekend, Tracy and I made a quick trip to Park City. We went up Parley's Canyon, stayed overnight in Park City and came back down Provo Canyon. While in Park City we rode up the mountain on one of the ski lifts they have open. The fall colors were beautiful, especially the aspen trees.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Still Here...Just Boring
I realized today I'd gone a long time without posting a blog post. No real reason. Life has been good. I left my job at the Archives on Thursday the 30th, and while I'm going to miss the people there I'm already enjoying having time to work on my dissertation more. There just isn't much that I've felt compelled to share with the universe I guess, but all is well.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Foggy, Foggy, Brain
So my Mom and I have started our own little book club and the current selection is To Kill a Mockingbird. I love the book and the movie, but my Mom hadn't read it, so we decided to read it together. When she was down for her last visit I let her borrow my copy (because she doesn't like her public library) and I checked one out.
When I handed my copy to her I noticed I'd underlined and starred a lot of text. Now, I really like this book so that's not unheard of, but for me and a fiction book, it is a little odd. It looked for all the world like notes I would make in a book for grad school. (The fact I actually had that thought will demonstrate how nutty I've apparently gotten)
Well I finished the book today and was reading something someone had written about it portraying southern gender roles and something rushed into my brain - I had written a paper on that topic. Yeah, I had read it in a graduate class - recently. Now granted it was in my first year here at the U so its been a couple of years, but still the fact I didn't remember that has me wondering if my brain has found itself in pea soup level fog. Sigh...maybe it's a good thing I'm quitting one of my jobs :-)
When I handed my copy to her I noticed I'd underlined and starred a lot of text. Now, I really like this book so that's not unheard of, but for me and a fiction book, it is a little odd. It looked for all the world like notes I would make in a book for grad school. (The fact I actually had that thought will demonstrate how nutty I've apparently gotten)
Well I finished the book today and was reading something someone had written about it portraying southern gender roles and something rushed into my brain - I had written a paper on that topic. Yeah, I had read it in a graduate class - recently. Now granted it was in my first year here at the U so its been a couple of years, but still the fact I didn't remember that has me wondering if my brain has found itself in pea soup level fog. Sigh...maybe it's a good thing I'm quitting one of my jobs :-)
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
It all started with...
Last night I discovered that Young Riders was available on the Netflix Instant Play library, so I pulled it up and watched the pilot episode. I loved that show as a teenager, and though it may have something to do with the cute boys on horses (which explains my twenty-second urge to see Jonah Hex before sanity kicked in), I think it also spoke to my genuine love for history. I told Tracy, in all honesty, that the show, coupled with my childhood love for the Little House books, probably changed my life and led me into my current career path. It also explains why I know an obscene amount about Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody for a Twentieth-Century historian.
It made me think about the other popular culture things that have affected the course of my life. Now I'm not saying they are the main source of inspiration or guidance in my life, I'd like to think that my faith, family, friends and teachers have had the greater impact. However, I can't escape the fact that my life has been profoundly impacted by certain popular culture experiences. Here's some other examples I thought of:
Superman - This is a no brainer. I spent my entire high school career and the first half of my college career trying to be a journalist because I wanted to be Lois Lane.
Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword - This wasn't the first Robin Mckinley book I read and loved, but it was the first book I ever finished and said to myself, "I want to write a book like that." Speaking of which...
The Lord of the Rings films - One day after watching Fellowship of the Ring I was on break at the library and I was thinking about how I wished there were more women in the film. I wondered what kind of women I had in mind, and this girl popped into my head. Dark haired, quiet, with two swords and strange animal fur armor, her name was Rell, and I quickly discovered that this girl needed her own story.
It made me think about the other popular culture things that have affected the course of my life. Now I'm not saying they are the main source of inspiration or guidance in my life, I'd like to think that my faith, family, friends and teachers have had the greater impact. However, I can't escape the fact that my life has been profoundly impacted by certain popular culture experiences. Here's some other examples I thought of:
Superman - This is a no brainer. I spent my entire high school career and the first half of my college career trying to be a journalist because I wanted to be Lois Lane.
Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword - This wasn't the first Robin Mckinley book I read and loved, but it was the first book I ever finished and said to myself, "I want to write a book like that." Speaking of which...
The Lord of the Rings films - One day after watching Fellowship of the Ring I was on break at the library and I was thinking about how I wished there were more women in the film. I wondered what kind of women I had in mind, and this girl popped into my head. Dark haired, quiet, with two swords and strange animal fur armor, her name was Rell, and I quickly discovered that this girl needed her own story.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Family and Other Fun
Had a great time with my family over Labor Day weekend. Tracy and I hadn't been to Boise since Christmas and it was so much fun to see everyone. It was hard to come home!
In other, more silly, news my three year quest to spot the license plates of all 50 states (and the District of Columbia) finally came to an end on Sunday when Tracy's sharp eyes spotted the coveted last place - Connecticut! Strangely, we were only about ten miles from home when this occurred.
In other, more silly, news my three year quest to spot the license plates of all 50 states (and the District of Columbia) finally came to an end on Sunday when Tracy's sharp eyes spotted the coveted last place - Connecticut! Strangely, we were only about ten miles from home when this occurred.
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