EMDAT

It’s true. I have a class in which a book review is due next week, and yet the professors failed to order the book. Therefore, the bookstore does not have it. I haven’t seen it at any of the used bookstores either.

So, I am now probably forced to pay double the price of the book to have it shipped overnight, so that I’ll have it in time to read and review for next week. I’m headed back out later to check the used bookstores again, but short of a miracle, I see no other option.

Again, some professors are stupid.

So I dubbed today “Domesticity Day,” for a number of reasons.

I got up this morning, and after a bit of a slow start, I began the lengthy task of laundering my clothes. After several hours, this task is still ongoing, though nearly complete. I then cleaned the kitchen. After cleaning the kitchen, I proceeded to make brownies. Bad move. FYI, you should always make brownies before cleaning the kitchen. I did, however, manage to keep the kitchen in good shape, but there were a couple of frustrating moments.

Why am I making brownies, you ask? Well, because I’m attending a gathering this afternoon of historians and would-be historians (read: graduate students) sponsored by the department. I was instructed to bring hors d’ouevres, a salad, or a dessert. I chose brownies. But the bigger issue here is, since when do I attend functions were the price of admission is some sort of culinary creation? Am I an adult? I’m not sure I like this. I’ll let you know how it goes.

After the brownies, I organized some of the stuff still sitting around in my room, but not all. It will get done eventually. And then I swept the living room and dusted the apartment. I am about to embark on a trip to the grocery store, where I will procure the ingredients necessary to make shepherd’s pie (a Paula Deen recipe), burgers, and a concoction I have dreamed up, based loosely on Carrabba’s “Chicken Bryan.” I’m going to stuff the chicken breast with goat cheese and black olives and then top it with a lemon butter sauce. Again, I’ll let you know how it goes.

That’s about it for Domesticity Day. There were a couple of other things on my to-do list, but they just didn’t get done. And that’s OK.

In other news, it’s really bizarre to find myself walking around a college campus that isn’t in Charlottesville. I really miss U.Va. It reminds me of a TA I had my second year. He had come from UPenn and seemed to have not gotten over the fact that he had graduated. He wore UPenn clothes and his class ring, talked about it all the time (“When I was at UPenn,” “UPenn this and UPenn that,” etc.), and even had a UPenn patch on his backpack.

At the time, it really pissed me off. My attitude was “You’re at Virginia now, buddy, so fall in line. Nobody cares about UPenn.” But I can totally see where he’s coming from. I still definitely don’t want to be “that guy” (at least not in public–but you should see the decorations in my apartment), but I now have some retrospective sympathy for him.

In that vein, I’m looking forward to the Alabama football games this fall, but don’t anticipate the same sort of emotional ties to the team that I’ve had at Virginia, even here in the football-crazy SEC.

Oh, and “The Honor Men” (which is displayed prominently on my wall), gives me goosebumps every time I read it. Which is basically every day. Sometimes more than once.

So, this is my first post in a while (and my first ever from Alabama!), and the word on the street is, some of you guys are a little anxious to read about what I’ve been up to and what my apartment is like. So here it is. This post will (hopefully) knock your socks off. PLEASE leave me a comment.
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Last Wednesday, I got up, threw a couple of last-minute things in the back of the Penske truck that I rented for more than a few hundred dollars, and hit the road. I was sad to leave Virginia, but excited for what the next few days had in store.

The truck, in Spotsylvania

The next morning, we got up and drove about 3 hours to Tuscaloosa, where I got my keys and found my apartment building. It looks quite nice from the outside–almost like a little house (actually a big house).

The apartment, in Tuscaloosa

Outside my apartment, I found this and laughed:

Black Ice-scented front steps

The apartment is relatively nice on the inside. The living room has hardwood floors, which unfortunately have a fair amount of paint on them, but Jimmy the Maintenance Guy kindly scraped some of it off. My project for this weekend is to finish scraping and then mop and wax the floor. It has potential. The apartment has tons of natural light (not Natural Light–hopefully the apartment will have none of that), much to the dismay of my photographs. Oh well.

The living room, before

The living room, after

The kitchen has plenty of room, though unfortunately also a bit of a bug problem. It could be much worse, but I’m in the process of trying to take care of that. I’ll keep you posted.

The kitchen, before

The kitchen, after

Finally, I have a quasi-office with room for my books and my big desk. Of course, I can’t acquire any more books, because there is no room for those, but that’s OK. I can make do. The office has three bookshelves full of books, my big desk, and a closet full of junk (mostly boxes). It also has a futon, which is where I anticipate doing most of my reading, and where I anticipate those of you who come to visit will be sleeping. Fear not; it’s comfortable.

The office/spare bedroom, before

The office/spare bedroom, after

The bedroom is big enough. I’ve got a queen bed, which is pushed up against the wall, but there is actually a big open space in the room. Not bad.

The bedroom, before

The bedroom, after

As you can see, the bedroom is still a little underdecorated, but it does have a big walk-in closet and a master bath. So I have too much wall space, really. It’s still a work in progress.

I made a crappy little video tour of the apartment, so that if any of you are REALLY bored, you can actually see how it all comes together. I thought about embedding a video, but I realized that I didn’t really want a video of my apartment on YouTube, so I’m just providing a link. You can find it here. I’ll warn you; it’s big.

In other news, classes have started, and they’re alright I guess. I had History of the Vietnam War and Literature of European History yesterday. The class I’m actually looking forward to (Proseminar in Southern History) doesn’t meet until Monday.

The Vietnam course is essentially an upper-level undergraduate lecture, except that I have to write a few extra papers. It’s team-taught by two guys, both of whom are funny, one of whom is kind of jerk-funny. We’ll see how that goes. If I don’t show up late or wear a baseball cap, I think I’ll be alright.

The other is basically a European historiography course with a healthy helping of historical philosophy thrown into the mix (Nietzsche, Hegel, Weber, Marx, etc.). It’s going to suck, I think, but it’s a requirement, so I’ll deal. Judging by the syllabus, there could be some highlights.

I have class Mondays (11-12, 2-430), Wednesdays (11-12, 3-530), and Fridays (11-12). I have a paper due on October 22 and a midterm on October 23, both of which immediately follow our fall break, so my plan of flying back to Virginia and seeing the UVA/UNC game has effectively been shot to hell. We’ll see what will happen; I’m still going to try to make a game if I can afford it.

Switching gears, Emily left this morning. I took her to the airport in Birmingham. It was a tough goodbye–I won’t see her for close to four months, and as a newly-minted graduate student, I expect that they may be four of the most lonely and sanity-challenging months of my life to date. I would much rather have her here, but I think that she will learn a lot in Costa Rica and it will probably be beneficial for both of us.

So, I’m here. I’m relatively settled in, I’m getting inundated with work already, and I miss everyone tremendously. That’s my life in a nutshell right now. I’m looking forward to getting this place in order once and for all, though several things have to happen before I can do that. I’m also anxiously awaiting the start of college football season.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Check back soon, and shout me a holla!

The truck is packed (with two minor exceptions), and we’re ready to roll. Except I’m not really ready at all. Maybe I’ll be ready tomorrow at 8:00 am. If not, oh well.

I’ll be sans internet for about a week, but expect a flurry of new material when I log back on, hopefully in the form of long-winded posts, photos, and more!

Best of luck to any of you who are also moving–what a brutal thing it is.

So, I thought that I was 100% ready to get out of New Haven and be done with the summer. And as far as work goes, I am. I think if it had lasted another week, I would have lost my mind. But leaving today, while probably good for my mental stability, was bittersweet.

As opposed to last year, when I didn’t really connect with the staff, I met a ton of cool people this year, and made several good friends who I think I will probably stay in touch with for a long time.

In what I thought was the perfect cap to the summer, I took my final paycheck and shook my bosses’ hands with a case of beer over my shoulder (left over from the final night Dean’s Office party). Was I unprofessional? Maybe. Was I worried about that? No.