Words, Words, Everywhere

Today I have learned so much about captivity narratives and New Criticism and David Hume and Edmund Burke that my mind is full of language.

You've seen this before. We've all seen this before, but I am tired and fresh out of class and it struck me as a good sentiment:

"Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that; one stitch at a time taken patiently." --Oliver Wendell Holmes

I shall embroider it onto a pillow.

Maybe tomorrow.

Tonight, I go to bed with the good kind of exhaustion. I am accomplishing a lot these days.

Flowers for School

See what was delivered to me at work today:



Andy scores again. He's the best. :-)

Introducing Shannah the English Major

Yesterday morning I left the house at 6:30 A.M., and I took my pink, purple, blue and brown spotted backpack filled with books, and I stopped for a tall non-fat no-whip Mocha from Starbucks, and I parked in the parking lot at my new university, and I was off!

I went to my first class, which is canceled for two weeks while the professor leads some sort of governmental emergency mission in Alaska. Not canceled in the sense that he didn't leave us any work to do, but canceled in the sense that I don't have to actually GO to the class for two weeks. I think this is a positive.

So I walked about campus, fiddled around in the student union, checked out the library, and sat out in the sun.

My second and third class were with the same professor, in the same room. I have American Lit and a kind of "baby theory" English class that I probably should have fought harder to get out of. Except: I'm really excited about both of them; they look interesting, and who doesn't need a good and thorough review when they've been out of school for two years?

Then I went to work.

Then I went back to school and faced what will probably end up being my most terrifying class to date. Literary Criticism. Part 2. My professor is vintage--she's been teaching at my school for forty years. She believes that she is doing us a great favor by ripping our papers apart. She loves Heidegger. She wishes the semester was only Heidegger, but they required she teach other things. She hopes that we will have great in depth discussions in class. For class on Thursday we'll cover selections from David Hume and Edmund Burke. Some light reading. As for last night's class period? I took four pages of notes.

Well, look here. I'm already learning! :)

Check List

New Notebook. Check!
Fresh Notebook paper. College Ruled. Check!
Unused dividers. Check!
New Box of pens and pencils. Check!
New highlighters. Check!
Sticky Notes, pop up tabs. Check!
New backpack. Check!

School books. Check!

Dining room table turned into desk/workstation. Check!

House cleaned? Yes.
Papers sorted? Yes.
Clothes washed? Yes.
Backpack packed? Yes.
Lunch packed? Yes.
Coffee ready for one-button punch in the morning? Yes.

Well, I think I'm ready for school tomorrow. (Now, where did I put the car keys?)

Letting it Go

Last night I had a vision of myself as an organizing queen. I was going to sit down on my couch and go through two boxes of old papers. I was going to file them in clearly labeled folders, in order of date. I was going to be completely ready for school to start, with no baggage, with a new organizational method.

Did you notice the tense there?

It didn't happen.

What did happen was me, close to tears, with seven years worth of paperwork in my lap, on the floor, and spilling off the coffee table. No organization at all.

Now, at this point, I could have made myself a cup of caffeine-filled tea and plowed on through. I could have channeled my well-organized Grandma Mitchell and just thrown things away. I could have taken myself to task and whipped myself into shape and did all of those not fun things and had my past more organized with my present.

I didn't.

I made a cup of caffeine-free tea and put everything back into the boxes. On one I wrote "Misc. Paperwork 2002-2008." On the other I wrote "Misc. Paperwork 2008-August 2009" and then I put them in a closet. And then a started a new filing system and filed everything for the rest of August away neatly. And then I went to bed.

What can I say? I'm too tired to sort through all that crap. I'm moving forward. Highly organized from here on out!

(Maybe.)

(No. Definitely.) :-)

Quilt Paintings

Oh! Stop by Helen R. Klebesadel's website and look at her paintings of quilts.

I am in love.

Rushing Forward

Why, hello, Blog!

Since my last post, I have been to another Rangers game, to Austin to visit good folks, and to the wedding of a dear college friend. I have also registered for four classes, changed my work schedule, familiarized myself with a new campus, and bought books.

And, I have, dear Blog, pieced all of the squares for a quilt, ironed them, and "squared up" about half of them.

I have knit a dishcloth. (Sometimes things are measured in little progresses.)

I have tried to bake two kinds of cookies (cranberry chocolate chip and chocolate/white chocolate chip bars) with great disappointment. But we ate them anyway.

So next week I return to college, full-time, to complete an English degree begun seven years ago. I am excited. I have three English classes and a Political Science class and a B I G stack of books. I went shopping this week and bought a new backpack with pink and purple polka dots, and a purple notebook I've filled with college-ruled paper, and lots of pens, pencils, highlighters, and sticky notes. I am ready.

I'll also be working full time.

So... here we go!