Yeah, so now I’m just as bad as Caitlin and Liz used to be. I’ve fallen off the face of the blogging earth. I have good excuses, I swear, but I know you don’t want to hear them. (I warn you in advance, this has turned out to be quite long. Don’t write for a couple months and then get going, and you just can’t stop. But if you care about me as a friend, you’ll read it all. And I’ll know if you don’t.)
Things here are going well, although the month of November was as crazy as I expected it to be. Believe it or not, I was actually ahead on my work for most of the semester, the result of my misreading the syllabus. Twice. I won’t go into details, because frankly, I started writing them out, and I realized they were boring as hell. Even to me. And I lived them.
Anyway, suffice it to say, I was ahead on my work for a while. Then, my mother y brother came to visit for a weekend, then Emily and I went out of town for a weekend, then we went out of town for another weekend for The Marriage Rites of Mr. Bedard (sounds like a book, right? right?), then back here for lazy weekend at home, then back home for several days of thanks-giving.
I have learned a few things. One: weddings are really fun. Especially when they have a seven-hour open bar. Two: Do not provide a seven-hour open bar for your friends. If your friends include my friends, this might prevent you from ever owning your own home. (Sorry, John!) Three: The 12-hour drive between Virginia and Alabama is really not too bad, but I do not recommend it 4 times in a span of 13 days. Of course, I will be making it again in about a week, when I return home for Christmas. Or, if you prefer, the holidays.
Speaking as a student, my semester is over. It was actually a fairly easy one. I was (ostensibly) taking 6 credits, which broke down as follows: Black History Since 1877 (4 credits), Independent Readings (1 credit), Teaching History (1 credit). For all intents and purposes, I was taking only one class. Three guesses which one it was. Yes, you’re correct. It was black history.
(Quick recap: Sort of mediocre, not because of the material, but because of the professor. He’s a nice guy, but a real oddball. If you notice anything out there on the web that says “Academics for Ron Paul” or “Historians for Ron Paul,” that would be my guy. He’s leading that charge, if that tells you anything.)
I finished up the independent readings class in mid-October (probably around the same time I posted last) because I read the books over the summer. Of course, I went to see the professor about a month later because I wanted to ask her a question and she said, “You still owe me a paper, right?” To which I responded, “Yeah, no. I turned that in about a month ago. But that answers my question.”
The teaching history class was basically a joke, but a for-credit joke. Which, when you’re trying to get a degree, is really the best kind. It’s only right, considering the German language exam I also had to pass a couple of months ago. That’s what I call a sick joke. (Speaking of sick jokes, Emily and I also watched The Aristocrats the other night. Wow. Just wow. I did laugh though.)
So, speaking as a student, my semester is over. As a graduate teaching assistant, however, it is not. We give the final on Thursday, but I’ve already calculated my grades to this point, so I just have to plug in the final exam grade. Hopefully I can crank those out in about 24 hours. Everyone tells me grading the final is really easy because 99% of students won’t care enough to ask for them back, so you just read it, make a couple of check marks, and throw a grade on there. And if they come back in January like, “I wanna see my grade, you toad!” then I’ll re-read it and throw some erudition on it real quick.
Sounds good to me.
What that means is that for the next week or so (a little less now), I’m basically just chillin’ and finally getting to do some reading that I’ve been wanting to do for a while.
I found a copy of Eric Foner’s book Who Owns History? at the library bookstore for $1, so I bought it. I then realized I put it on my Christmas list this year, so I e-mailed my mom to tell her. Her response? “Well, I guess you can take it to Border’s for store credit. Merry Christmas.” It was pretty good, but not quite as good as I had hoped, so I’m kind of glad I got it for one junior bacon cheeseburger instead of unwrapping it on Christmas Eve, giddy with anticipation.
Now, I’ve moved on to a Grisham novel, one of the few I haven’t yet gotten to (The Testament). It’s pretty good so far, but it’s a Grisham novel, so what more can I really say here?
I’m also reading another history book (I’m a masochist), but this one I got for free in exchange for writing a review for the UA-published grad student journal of southern history. It’s called The Spirit and the Shotgun, and it’s about armed self-defense v. philosophical non-violence during the civil rights movement. It’s very good (much better than I expected), although I suspect that none of you are particularly interested in reading it.
Pause. Emily just woke up, so it’s time for me to make some french toast. Back in a few.
OK, back. Where was I? Oh, yes–books. Right.
So, next on my list is a (relatively) new book I picked up the other day called 1 Dead in Attic. Written by a journalist, it is a collection of observations in New Orleans, post-Katrina. I have a feeling it’s going to be a powerful read, and after reading the acknowledgments–always my first stop, the author (Chris Rose) seems to have an engaging writing style. It’s labeled as a history book (indeed, I found it in the history section), but it just doesn’t seem like history yet. Which brings me to a philosophical question on the nature of history: when does the past become “history?” Is the recent shooting in Omaha a part of “history?” Or is it simply the very recent past? What about Katrina? I think we’re starting to see 9/11 dealt with in a way that it’s considered “history,” so maybe the threshold is somewhere around 5 years or so.
Anyway, the book seems to have a history of its own. Rose self-published the book in early 2006, not terribly long after the storm. It apparently sold very well and Rose was working on a follow-up book when Simon & Schuster approached him about buying the rights to republish, so both books have been combined as the new 1 Dead in Attic. I’m looking forward to it.
In other news, I have a more formal interview at a (for now) unnamed school in R_____, V______ coming up very soon (I’m not sure why I did that with the name of the city. Seemed appropriate at the time. Probably wasn’t. Oh well). As some of you are probably aware, I had an informal meeting there about a month ago, which seemed to go pretty well. In any event, I’m really trying to not get my hopes up here, but it’s tough. I really like the school (at least from what I’ve seen so far). I’d love to get back closer to home, and in terms of logistics for this summer, what with the finishing school, getting married, not starving while waiting for the new job to start, and moving, it would be really nice to know in the next month or two what I’ll be doing next fall. Then we could start making the less important but much more nagging arrangements in terms of moving trucks, subleasing, etc., etc., etc.
Of course, it all seems too easy. That’s what I’m telling myself. How could I possibly get a job in December or January at the first place I really looked? It just doesn’t work that way usually. But deep down, my hopes are up. Alas.
Sorry for the delay in posting. I hope this small book has given you an insight into my life of late, and I hope this finds you all doing well. Merry holidays!
