some frustrations

This morning there was a national news item about a man in California who found a purse full of jewelry and turned it in to the police. Apparently, he thought it was all costume jewelry, but it turned out to be real, and all together it was worth around one million dollars.

And I thought, "This is sad, when a person doing a simple act like trying to return a lost item to its owner makes the national news."

...

In other news, I got really angry with my students yesterday and all but yelled at them. For some time now, they've been annoying me by asking questions that are answered on the syllabus, or not having their readings done and claiming that they didn't know about it, or trying to get extra points out of me. Yesterday, though, I hit my limit pretty quickly. They turned in their first papers, and I noticed that several of them hadn't formatted them correctly, despite the clearly-laid out formatting guidelines in their syllabus, along with the threat of a 10-point deduction for not following said guidelines. So I mentioned that deduction (which, admittedly I shouldn't have done), and they all went crazy wanting to come get their papers and staple them, or re-format them and hand them in later that day, or ... And it didn't take long for me to start telling them, "Look, I'm sorry, I don't want to take points away from you, but that's the policy, and no you can't change your papers now that they're turned in, and I did tell you about the formatting before, at the beginning of the semester, and it's in your syllabus and I shouldn't have to tell you anyway, and guess what? -- life is tough, and it's time you get used to it!" I just felt sick and tired of taking so much responsibility for them and helping them out so much -- especially when they have a syllabus that has all this information on it to begin with.

Oh yes, and I got an email yesterday from one student, explaining why his paper is late (he is having a hard time juggling two jobs and school) and asking me to still let him turn it in and get a grade on it. A big part of me wants to just say no, it's not fair to all my other students, and you knew about this deadline from the beginning of the semester, so I absolutely will not take. (I also have a "no late work" policy, which is clearly printed on -- you guessed it -- the syllabus.) But part of me also wants to be merciful and take it for a reduced grade or something ... it's worth a total of 20% of his grade, which means the highest grade he could possibly get if I don't take it is 80%, and most likely he would end up with a C of some kind. *sigh* I might have to call Katie and see if she has any advice on this one.

...

The last quote was from The Thin Man, a movie I just love!

Plain? It's as ugly as a parson's widow! (62 points)

a new update

spring break

Spring Break was lots of fun. Only Erin and I went, and we left on Saturday morning. Erin was fun to drive with. She always chooses a ‘guy’ — someone who’s driving just a little faster than her, or about the same speed, so that if there are any cops or there’s anything troublesome ahead, her ‘guy’ gets the brunt of it, and she’s been warned already. I never did that before, but I rather enjoyed the experience. We had lots of good conversation, too, and Erin is one of my favorite people to talk to, so that was great.

We didn’t really do anything in Missouri, we just hung around, did a little bit of homework, and ate lots. Erin’s mom is a great cook, and she had wonderful food for us, and they also took us out to eat a couple of times. My favorite part of the trip was when we went to Sikeston, Missouri, and ate at Lambert’s Café, “the only home of throwed rolls.” It was a little like eating at Tucano’s in Provo (mmmmm, Tucano’s ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... OK, I’m done zoning off and salivating now) — Right. It’s kind of like Tucano’s, since there was tons of food, I was super stuffed afterward, and they came around giving you free food if you wanted it. They had fried potatoes, macaroni and tomatoes, and fried okra, among other things. (By the way, I tried fried okra for the first time this trip, and I really enjoyed it.) And one of the other things they had were some fabulous, fresh, hot rolls, which they threw at you. So if you wanted a roll, you’d just stick your hands up in the air, and they would throw one at you, even from all the way across the room. It was great fun.

I stayed until Thursday, and that morning I left and drove home. In fact, I got a tad lost on the way home. It was sunset, and I was driving west, so I missed the sign that indicated I was supposed to turn left to stay on Highway 380 going west, and thus ended up on Highway 69 going north. Before long, I figured out that I was on the wrong road, and I stopped at the next town and bought a map. The whole thing only took about 45 extra minutes, and I got home in one piece. And I had a fabulous time driving my rented Ford Escape. Happiness.

like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife ...

Since the beginning of the semester, I have never yet had my British Lit professor commend me for anything I’ve written. On occasion, when something catches his eye that one of us has written about in our response papers, he’ll mention it in class and either ask us to tell the class about it, or if we don’t want to, he’ll tell them. But he’d never said anything about my stuff. Most of the time that doesn’t bother me, since I usually write a bunch of crap for that class, but every now and then I’d really spend time on it and give it some real effort, and I still got nothing.

The last day before class, which was also the last day that I posted here, I was agonizing over writing a response paper for “The Watsons” by Jane Austen. I finally forced myself to write something, which started out “I’ve had a really hard time appreciating ‘The Watsons’ ...” And then I finished it up by writing about what a difference it makes in how you read when you’re internally motivated to read something versus when you are forced to read it for, say, a graduate class. The whole paper really said nothing at all about “The Watsons” itself, but I managed to squeeze out two pages of it.

And ironically enough, Scott (my professor) asked me to talk about it in class. He said he was surprised to hear me talking about this, since he feels like he doesn’t really force people to read. I think he may have missed much of my point. He told us to read as though we’re reading for fun — meaning that we don’t have to try to analyze while we’re reading, or try to find significance in things, or whatever else. And he did mention that he’s had several students over the years write about how they hated something so much that they didn’t even finish reading (which I’ve done more than once, though I haven’t written about it). But my point was that I wouldn’t even be reading half of this stuff on my own, if it weren’t for the fact that I’m in this class and he’s assigned it to us.

monday, monday ...

Yesterday wasn’t such a great day. It was rather productive, so that was good. But other than that, it was pretty frustrating. My iPod, which I just sent in about two weeks ago to get a new battery, no longer works. I’m not sure that it’s still under warranty, so I don’t know if I can get it fixed again. And then, my internet is on the fritz. I’m worried that it may be a problem with my Ethernet card ... *sigh* That means that I can’t rely on being able to check my email, or Google things, or IMDb them, or FTP stuff for my website, or chat with Jim, or ... the list goes on. I tell you, you don’t realize just how much you rely on these things until they’re gone. It kind of reminds me of the time when I was so excited to get sheets after I first got to Lancaster.

the quotes

The last quote was from Toy Story. Gosh! I just got looking at that post again and realized just how long it’s been since I last posted. That seems like ages ago.

"I read where you were shot four times in the tabloids."

"It's not true -- they never came near my tabloids."

(83 points)

procrastinating ... again

I should be writing a response paper to "The Watsons" today, and boy am I having trouble with that. I suppose I could write something about Zofloya instead ... except that I haven't even begun reading it yet.

I'm really excited for Spring Break, which is next week. It looks like Erin and I will leave Saturday, and we're going to visit her family in Missouri. I've been looking forward to it for at least three months, so it's nice that it's finally so close. I'm not too picky on what we actually do there -- it's just the thought of being somewhere else, and not having to go to classes every day that makes me so happy.

I really, really, really don't want to go to my class today. That's largely because I don't have a response paper yet, and little hope of having a well-written one by the time I get to class. I'm trying to really force myself to go, though, since I have already missed more days in that class than I should have. And because it's good for me to be doing things I don't want to do.

The last quote was from Key Largo, a great movie with Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, and Edward G. Robinson. Classic. I expect most of you will know today's quote, but I have to add that Jim is not allowed to score points on this one, since we were discussing it last night.

Farewell, my friends, I go to a better place! (13 points)

aaaah!

This week is the second week for visual texts in the English classes I'm teaching, and we're supposed to watch a film and analyze it. I've been debating with myself since October about what films to show, and I still haven't decided!! We start watching these films tomorrow, and I still don't know what to do about them. Good golly! I've been strongly considering The Third Man and The Princess Bride for some time, but I just can't quite bring myself to a point.

In other news ... well, there's really nothing else to say. Nothing that interesting has gone on lately. Except that I did take a 4-hour nap on Saturday. We had an early temple trip that morning, and by the time I got home, I just couldn't function anymore. So I took a nap and didn't get up until 4 hours later. It reminded me of the time right after my mission when I frequently wound up taking naps that lasted anywhere from 4 to 8 hours. (Yes, I said naps.) I was just so physically exhausted from the mission, I couldn't control the desire to sleep whenever possible.

The last quote was, indeed, from "Love Changes Everything," a song by Andew Lloyd-Weber. And the other one in that post was from Alannis Morissette's "Head Over Feet."

One Rocco more or less isn't worth dying for! (181 points -- it's rather obscure)

4 weeks = 1 month

I have been avoiding talking very much about Jim on my blog, because I don't want you all to get sick of it. But I do have to tell about something he did today.

About 5:20, there was a knock on the door, which I recognized as Jim's. He came just to bring me some beautiful pink tulips in commemoration of our 1-month anniversary. We count from the day he asked me out ... I guess since that was the first day he made me outrageously happy.

Anyway, I just had to share how wonderful my Jim is. I really, really like him. And he treats me great. "Like I'm a princess," in fact. (17 points for that one)
Yesterday's quote was from School of Rock.

Love makes fools of everyone -- all the rules we make are broken. (22 points)

barefoot

So today I wore my flip-flops to class. They're rather flimsy, and I've had them for most of a year ... they're not in the best of condition anymore. We went outside for class, and right after I sat down, I realized that my left flip-flop had completely come apart. Which meant that when I walked home, I was going to have only one shoe, and I decided to just walk home barefoot. Hey, as long as one foot's gonna be dirty and hurting, why not both of them, right? So I walked home barefoot. It was nice. Really!

I think it's important to walk barefoot every now and then. For me, it's a reminder that life is not always about constraints or protecting yourself. That sometimes, life should be about being vulnerable. That it's good for the soul to remember the care-free days of childhood, running around the yard barefoot and running through sprinklers with all your clothes on.

Who knew that walking barefoot could do so much for a person?

procrastinating

I should be writing a response to Lady Susan right now, but I'm having a hard time finding anything interesting to write about it ... I haven't had so much trouble with a response paper yet this semester. I just don't seem to be able to think too well. So I thought I'd post to my blog quickly.

Last night we had the missionaries over for dinner. It was good. We had pork chops and creamed potatoes with green beans (which Erin made ... yummy!). We have a brand new elder here now -- he just arrived last week sometime. He seems pretty nice.

Oh, and the weather has turned really warm. The last few weeks it was rainy and cold every day, but it's now warmed up again. And I mean warm. It's currenty 78°, and it's supposed to get up 87° before the end of the day. It's only March, mind you. Oy! The one thing I most dislike about Texas is the heat. This also means I'm going to have to give up wearing my cute new pajamas with the sheep on them.

Well, I guess I'll get going now ... I only have another 30 minutes to finish my paper, if I'm going to have time to actually get ready for the day before leaving for class.

The last quote was from "The Great Muppet Caper" and the one before was "Muppet Treasure Island." Sorry, Elizabeth -- close, but no cigar.

It will test your head, and your mind, and your brain. (41 points)

adventurous sabbath

Last night, there was supposed to be a YSA fireside in Plano (north of Dallas). So Margo, Hector, Jim, and I tried to go down there for it. "Tried" is an operative word in that sentence. And really, the whole thing could probably be put down as my fault. Here's what happened.

After church, Jim asked me if I would get directions for the meetinghouse in Plano, since he's the ward clerk and therefore had to stay after church. He usually gets done by around 6:00 pm, but we needed to leave here around 6:30 to make sure we had enough time to find the place. So I readily agreed to find the directions. I asked around a little after church, and no one was entirely sure where the fireside would be, but someone thought it was probably at the Roundrock chapel. That sounded all right to me, and from what I could tell from the bulletin board at the church, there seemed to be only two chapels in Plano. When we came home, I got online and found the address for the Roundrock chapel, along with the driving directions (thanks, GoogleMaps!). I also found that the Roundrock chapel is the stake center, so that seemed likely to be where the fireside would be held. Just to be on the safe side, I thought I'd get the directions from Roundrock to the other chapel, in case we got there and found that wasn't the right place.

Jim and Hector (who is also a clerk in our ward) came over about 6:00, and we decided that Margo would drive. We set out, with directions in our hands and hope in our hearts. :) But fate seemed to be against us. First, there was a whole debacle with the tollway ... but that's for another day. In any case, we got off at the correct exit in Plano and followed our directions until all we had left was to turn onto Roundrock Trail and find the chapel. But we couldn't find Roundrock. After several miles, we decided to stop at a gas station and ask for directions. The man at the counter didn't know where Roundrock Trail was, but he did have some maps that we were able to use to figure out where we'd gone wrong.

We finally found Roundrock Trail and the chapel ... but there was no one there. In fact, there was some kind of construction going on, at least in the parking lot, if nowhere else. So we figured it must be at the other chapel. Good thing we wrote down those directions, right? We followed the directions with no trouble, until -- once again -- all we had left was to find a street called Legacy and then find the chapel. But we couldn't find Legacy (does this sound at all familiar?). We did eventually find the chapel, and there were at least a few cars out in the parking lot, so we got out and went inside. It didn't take us long, though, to figure out that this wasn't actually the chapel. We think it may have been a Korean church -- we're not sure. We got back in the car and continued down the street ... and finally found the chapel. For real, this time. There were some cars out in the parking lot, and there was a group of three young adults standing outside, which seemed to us like a good sign. So we went inside.

There were people there in the building, and we thought we were in the clear. We were about half an hour late, but hey! at least we'd made it, right? Wrong. About the time we got to the chapel (where you'd expect the fireside to be held), some folks sitting in the foyer asked if we were looking for something, and could they help us? We explained that we were looking for the fireside, and they all looked a bit blank. Apparently we weren't in the right chapel, after all. One of them finally found an events calendar that actually said which chapel the fireside was being held in, and they gave us directions to get there. Margo prudently asked them, though, how long it would take us to get there, and they estimated about 20 minutes. By the time we got there, the fireside would be over.

So we went back home instead. And ate cookies that Hector had brought us. And life was good.

At least we can say that we made a darn good effort to get to the YSA activity, next time the bishop asks.

"Look, Daddy, a bear!"

"No, honey, that's a frog. Bears wear hats."

(21 points)

I'm a bit disappointed that no one seems to know the last quote, but if you get this one, it might help. In other words, the last quote is still open for point-getting. I also have to add that Erin is barred from guessing on today's quote, since I just quoted it to her the other day, but she can still get points for the last one.

celebrating the pathetic

Yesterday I spent a good couple of hours (on a break from my homework ...) playing Noah's Ark. I did the free-fall style, and I got further than I've ever gotten before. I just had to share that accomplishment with you all, since I know you care deeply.

LEVEL: 102
ANIMALS SAVED: 4,956
COMBOS: 359
BIGGEST COMBO: x12
TOTAL POINTS: 1,535,130
RANK: Super Beastmaster

The last quote was, indeed, from "A Close Shave," a classic short film starring Wallace and Gromit.

Beware running with scissors or any other pointy object. It's all good fun, until someone loses an eye. (17 points)

what's been going on

I know I haven't posted for quite some time, so I thought I'd take a minute or two today. The last few weeks have been really eventful, and really great, mainly due to the fact that I have started seeing this guy from my ward, Jim, who I really like (no, I mean really a lot!). He's absolutely amazing, and I'm constantly shocked that he would be at all interested in me, but miracles never cease, and he is. I would tell you about all the great things he does, but they would just sound silly and mushy to most of you, not being able to hear about them in person. Suffice it to say that he's wonderful, he really likes me, and I really like him, too.

We went to the Mozart concert last week that I talked about in my last post, and it was wonderful! Honestly, how can you go wrong with Mozart, the Dallas Opera orchestra, and UNT and SMU singers?

I'm trying to think if there's anything else I should tell you all about, but that's pretty much it. I spend a lot of time with Jim these days, and that means that I don't spend a lot of time with my homework anymore, or with anything else. Nevertheless, my classes are going all right, though they would be much better if I were putting in more time and energy with them. I have a lot of reading to do, and I'm way behind. Mondays are the worst day of the week for me these days, because I have a really long day, which is not at all conducive to seeing Jim. So that means that I do a lot of sitting around starting blankly at walls with a silly grin on my face, or just staring blankly at pages of stuff I'm supposed to be reading, without getting anything done. Today, though, I'm really determined to get productive things done. In about half an hour here, I'm going to go to Curves and do my work-out, reading on the bus, and then I'm actually going to go to both my classes today! It should be a good day.

Margo also can't think of anything else I should talk about, so I guess that means I'm done.

Elizabeth was right with the last quote, from a song called "You're Just in Love".

Not even Wensleydale? (32 points)

concerts

I am just loving the fact that this year is the 250th anniversary of my favorite composer's birth. (That would be Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Theophilus Mozart, in case you weren't sure.) It means that there are all kinds of great Mozart evens going on all year. Some of them are here at UNT, and I'm so excited for them.

Next week there's a concert at the university that's actually called "Celebrating Mozart". They will have opera students from UNT and SMU working together to perform some of the most popular pieces from Mozart's operas. Later in the semester, the UNT opera is going to be Cosi fan tutte, which I've never heard or seen, so I'm excited about that one, too. And there are a couple of other events going on that sound really great. I just hope I can find people to go with me to all of these -- my roommates don't have much time, and some of the events also cost a pretty penny (even for UNT students). I'll have to ask around a bit and see what I can work out.

For that matter, there's another concert next week that I'm really interested in. It's the UNT symphony orchestra, and they'll be performing some pieces by Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and some other Russian composers.

Going to concerts like this always remeinds me of the time I went to see the Utah Symphony in concert at Abravanell Hall in Salt Lake. They were performing a Mahler symphony, and even though Mahler is one of my least favorite composers, I really enjoyed the concert. That was largely because Keith Lockhart was conducting. Mr. Lockhart currently conducts the Boston Pops orchestra, and in his "spare time" he comes to Utah to work with the Utah Symphony. He is an amazing conductor, and just plain fun to watch -- he was so in to what he was doing, jumping up and down on his little stand, and all. *sigh* Good times.

And speaking of concerts, guess what I'm doing on March 17th? That's right, friends, I'm going to Fort Worth to see Michael Buble in concert! I'm so excited! I have never been to this kind of concert before, and I think this will be a really fun one. I do love Michael. I'll have to listen to him more now, just to make sure I know all the songs. :)

The last quote was from ... well, actually I'm going to leave it open for a little while longer. I'm pretty sure Erin knows it (but she hasn't posted yet), and I'm still interested to see if Paul really found the right one. But in the meantime, here's another one for you.

I keep tossing in my sleep at night, and what's more I've lost my appetite. (23 points)

just peachy

I just got reading through my second-to-last post, and realized how awful it sounded. I want to reassure everyone that I'm actually quite happy still (I generally am, you know). Even though I'm not thrilled with some things right now, I'm still perfectly happy to be where I am. I love my roommates to death, I have wonderful friends in the ward, and I'm generally in quite good health. So, all in all, things are good.

The last couple of quotes were from Pride and Prejudice and The Big Store, respectively. I have to give Elizabeth credit for getting The Big Store so quickly. I knew she was a big Marx Brothers fan and all, but I didn't think she'd manage it that quickly.

I'm a concientious objecter.

A what?

You know, a coward.

(68 points)

the toilet incident

I admit it, the toilet incident was my fault. It's just best to get that out of the way now. It makes the whole story that's about to follow much easier to tell.

Sunday night we had some people over for dinner, among them our home teacher Jim. When everyone had left, around 10:00, Margo and I went to find Erin. She had disappeared an hour or two earlier, when the phone rang, and we assumed it was this guy she’s interested in, who lives in Colorado. Wanting to satisfy our curiosity, we found her sitting on the floor of our walk-in closet, talking on the phone. When we asked who it was, she told us it was her sister, and that they were having a serious conversation. Knowing as we did that Erin and her sister have plenty of material for serious conversations these days, we respectfully left her there on the floor of the closet and cleaned up the kitchen and dining room.

After a half hour of cleaning, which was punctuated by a brief but loud argument between Erin and her sister from our bedroom, I decided it was definitely time for bed. So I went into our room, where I found that Erin had come out of the closet and was still talking on the phone. Realizing now that everyone had left for the night, she moved out into the living room to continue her conversation. In the meantime, I changed into my pajamas and started my bed-time routine. A few minutes later, I ran at full speed into the living room, pausing just long enough to yell at Erin, “Help! How do you stop an overflowing toilet?!” I then proceeded to find as many towels and rags as I could to at least sop up some of the water, while Erin followed, laughing, into our bedroom. There she also helped to find some more towels, while I awkwardly positioned myself in our Cracker-Jack-box of a bathroom in such a way that I could hold up the auto leveling assembly in the toilet’s tank to stop the flow of water, whilst and at the same time attempting to hold up the cuff of my pajama bottoms so they wouldn’t get wet.

By this time, Margo had come in as well, and she suggested that we try calling one of the guys who’d just left our apartment — surely one of them would know how to take care of this problem, right? So, I called Jim, our home teacher, worrying that he wouldn’t even be home yet, as he has a good drive from our house to his. But he was home, and he explained to me where the emergency shut off valve was, and Margo managed to get it turned off. So, now there was no longer any water flowing out of the toilet onto our floor. Jim offered to come over and help us unclog the toilet, since we didn’t have a plunger (and, in fact, have still to buy one). I thanked him profusely, hung up the phone, and turned to the business of getting all the water soaked up from the floor.

While Margo and I did what we could with the rags, I realized that the conversation Erin was having on the phone didn’t actually sound her sister was on the other end. “Are you actually talking to Eric?” I asked.

“Yes,” she responded.

“You’ve been talking to him this whole time?”

“Yeah.”

“And you told us you were talking to Christine? You lied to us?”

“Well,” she explained, “I didn’t realize everyone had left already, and I didn’t want you to go back and tell them I was talking to Eric and make fun of me.”

“So, you just said it was Christine so that we wouldn’t tell anyone it was Eric?”

“Yeah.”

“I can’t believe you’d do that!” I exclaimed with indignation.

“Oh come on,” Erin laughed, “ you guys should know me better than that.”

“Right,” Margo contended, “and you actually thought that we would go back there and make fun of you with everyone? You should know us better than that!”

Erin, who was feeling particularly amused that night, laughed at Margo’s quick come-back and continued to find more towels for us.

“So what’s going on then?” she asked. She had, understandably, missed most of my conversation with Jim, being caught up in her own conversation with Eric.

I explained that Jim was going to come try to unclog the toilet for us, adding just how embarrassing I found the whole situation. I didn’t like having to rely on anyone else to fix our toilet, and for reasons of my own, I found it particularly galling to have to confide in Jim for that help. Erin offered to claim that the whole thing was her fault, if it would make me feel any better. I answered her only with a laugh, thinking she probably wasn’t serious, and also feeling unable to lie so blatantly to Jim.

Eventually, Jim arrived, with two plungers in tow. By this time, we had sopped up all the water from the bathroom, wrung out all the cloths into the bathtub, started a load of laundry, and thoroughly rubbed down the tub and the bathroom floor with a Clorox disinfectant cloth. When Jim arrived, then, Erin and I were both in the living room, and Margo had gone to bed already. He started to make for the guest bathroom, but we quickly disabused him and led him into our bedroom to the smaller (“Master”) bathroom. I stood just outside the door (I would defy anyone to get two people and two plungers into that bathroom, ever, with enough room left over for a sneeze) and watched while he went to work. As Erin wandered back into the living room, I tried to think of something to say to Jim, and came out with the first thing that came to mind: “So ... have you plunged many toilets in your life?”

I could hear Erin in the other room, guffawing at my masterful conversational skills. Jim stopped what he was doing, turned to look at me squarely, and replied, “No, not many. How about you?”

Feeling about as idiotic as I ever have in my entire life, I made some mild answer to this and kept up as a good a flow of mundane conversation as possible while Jim continued to plunge away. However, as both of the plungers he’d brought were too small for our toilet, he didn’t make much headway after getting the water to drain out of the bowl. Eventually, he had to give it up, recommending that we put in a work order the next morning. I again thanked him profusely, offered a grocery bag for his now wet plungers, and saw him to the door.

As soon as he had left, I found Erin, who was still sitting on the couch talking to Eric, and explained to her the epiphany I had about half-way through Jim’s attempt at clearing our toilet.

“So, the toilet is not in Margo’s bathroom — clearly, you’ve been on the phone for hours ... Jim is a smart guy, whose fault is he going to think it is?”

After a few more hearty rounds of laughter, assurances from Eric that this is a situation where it is perfectly acceptable to call your home teacher, and some anecdotes about toilets in general, I managed to get myself in bed, though it was a full three hours later than I had planned. In the morning, I called the office to put in a work order, and they were able to come by before the end of the day to fix things. Ah, the joys of a flushing toilet.

a whole month

It doesn't seem like it has been that long, but really it has. One whole month since the last time I posted on my blog here. A lot of little, uninteresting things have happened during that month, but nothing worth talking about on here. Oh, except that I'm now 27. According to my friend Katie, that means I'm now old.

I'm not at all happy about school this semester. I just don't feel like being here. Last year when this happened, I had a better social life to make up for my lack of scholastic enthusiasm. I hope something as good comes along today.

Tonight I've been feeling really annoyed. I'm tired as it is, and then when I went to Curves (which took great effort, as I really didn't want to go), the bus was a half hour late, and for reasons I don't want to take the time to explain right now, that meant that I couldn't actually go to Curves. So I wasted an entire hour of my life. Very frustrating. It made me want to eat something sweet to compensate for my anger (I'm very much an emotional eater), but I'm on a diet right now, so I had to try some low-carb brownies. I haven't actually tasted them yet, so we'll see how that goes.

Well, I have absolutely nothing else to say about anything (or at least not something that anyone cares to hear about), so I'll go ahead and go.

The last quote was from The Rocketeer.

I would by no means suspend any pleasure of yours. (3 points, I expect most of you to know it)

And to make up for that easy quote, here's another.

I'm afraid after we're married a while, a beautiful young girl will come along and you'll forget all about me.

Don't be silly! I'll write you twice a week. (73 points, with half points for Margo, since she watched the movie with me recently, though I don't think she'll get this right away)

squeaky clean music

I'm really frustrated, because I spent a good, long time updating my blog earlier, but before I could get it published, Firefox malfunctioned and had to close down.

This morning I finished the two-day task of cleaning out my music files. I had collected about 15 gigs of music, and since I only have about 25G on my hard drive, I figured it was time to get rid of some of it. It's now down to about 11G. The task is not complete yet, since I still plan burn some music onto CDs (stuff like Christmas music that I don't listen to a lot but still want), but it sure feels good to have that much of it done.

I've been feeling really awful the last few days, with a terrbile cold. At least I think it's a cold, but it's quite different from my usual cold. Yesterday I even had my home teachers come over to give me a blessing. I felt silly getting a blessing for a cold, but it has seemed to help -- I feel a lot better today.

Right now I'm watching Going My Way with Bing Crosby on TCM. Bing is the star of the month, but I've seen very little on TCM with him in it. Tonight, though, they're showing three of his classic films, including Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary's. It's making me pine for some >Road movies.

The last quote was from The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Acting is acting like you're not acting! (28 points)

graduating in England

Dad and I had a good time in England. Once we actually got there. We both were delayed getting to Chicago, where we were supposed to meet up for the same flight to Manchester. We had to stay over in Chicago for a night to take thse same flight one day later, but that turned out to be fine. We got really well acquainted with the international terminal of the O'Hare airport, that's all.

We got to Lancaster on Saturday. Riding the train from Manchester, I kept feeling like I was coming home again. Everything was just so familiar and comfortable.

On Sunday we went to church at the Lancaster ward, where I got to give the opening prayer in sacrament meeting and lead the closing hymn in Relief Society. I also got lots of hugs and got to introduce Dad to many of the ward. Vic and Sue Kureczko had invited Denise and Diana to dinner for that afternoon, and they asked us to come along as well. That made me very happy, because I really love spending time with Vic and Sue, and I also wanted Dad to get to know them a little, since they were such an important part of my life in Lancaster.

Monday was my graduation day. We spent about an hour in the morning doing a little shopping downtown, where I managed to find really good presents for Margo, Erin, and Kimberly. I was so excited about them! I could hardly wait for them to open their presents. :) But I still had about 48 hours before that, so ... Instead I showered and got pretty for graduation, and then Dad and I headed up to campus around noon. I got my robes and got dressed, and we went back to the Linguistics Department for our reception. (It was here that I fatally heard the song "Happy Christmas" by John Lennon. More about that later.) We got to speak to Jonathan and Elena, as well as Marj and a lot of the students who were there with me on the same course. I got pictures with them as well, some of which I've posted below.



me with Jonathan Culpeper (who supervised my dissertation)


me in Alexandra Park at Lancaster University

The graduation ceremony started at 3:00, so I had to be in my place by 2:00. Unfortunately, they didn't have the information that I would be attending, so I had to get them to squeeze me in to the line somewhere. I ended up with all the LLM graduands (as they're called in England), so I didn't have anyone near me that I knew. The girl next to me was really nice, though, so that made things better. (Oh, LLM is a Master's law degree, by the way.)

The ceremony itself was quite ... ceremonious. We had a knight and a princess present. Princess Alexandra, is a cousin to Queen Elizabeth, and she's nearly the same age as the Queen. She helped Lancaster University get its charter back in 1964 and served as Chancellor to the university from 1964 to 2004. At the end of the calendar year 2004 she retired from this (largely ceremonial) position, and Sir Christian Bonington took her place. Sir Christian is, I just learned, a famous mountaineer, and as Chancellor, he is the one all the graduands get to shake hands with when crossing the stage. I couldn't even tell, personally, which one was Princess Alexandra until after we had all walked, and she stood to receive an honorary doctorate in Music. There was a lot of standing up and sitting down, and there were trumpet fanfares when the academic procession entered and left the hall ... very ceremonious, as I said. Oh, and we also sang the first verse of the British national anthem right before the academic procession left the Great Hall. (I did sing along, in case anyone was wondering.)

That night, I went to sleep around 9:30, being very tired. I only slept a few hours, though, and woke up again just after midnight. I laid there for a while, found that I had John Lennon's "Happy Christmas" in my head, and eventually got up to sit in the bathroom and read a Georgette Heyer book I had bought on Saturday. After an hour or so of this, I got back in bed, closed my eyes and tried to think of nothing. Instead, I found I still had "Happy Christmas" running constantly through my mind. Try as I might to get it out, it just stuck like glue. After a few more hours, I got up and went back into the bathroom to read again. Eventually Dad got up -- apparently he was worried about me, sitting in the bathroom so long, and that woke him. He let me turn the light on again, so I got back in bed and read for a few more hours. Around 5:45, I finally fell asleep again. Unfortunately, we were planning to get up at 6:00 that morning to catch the train to the airport. Dad woke me around 6:40, and I happily still managed to get everything together all right.

We caught our train just fine, but it kept getting delayed on our way to Manchester. It seemed to barely crawl along most of the time, and I was getting pretty annoyed with them. Finally, they decided to terminate the service at Manchester Piccadilly, so we had to get out there and wait for the next train. That meant that we got to the airport around 9:15 instead of 8:45, and my plane was scheduled to leave at 10:00. Even after arriving there, we still had to go find the terminal, which took another 15 minutes. When I finally got to the American Airlines counter, the man asked me where I was going, and I said Boston. He looked at me and said, "You're joking?" Nope, I sure wasn't! He took me over to another lady, explained that I was going to Boston. She looked at him, looked at me, and asked, "You're joking?" When I managed to convince that I was not trying to play a very terrible prank on them, they got me a boarding pass and asked one of the security guys to take me down to the gate express. (Naturally, my bag was subjected to a random search on the way there.) We got to the gate before they had finished boarding, so it wasn't too awful. My flight was rather uneventful (except that the girl next to me got up to use the bathroom twice), and things were quite nice when I got to Boston. I hadn't checked any baggage, so I got through passport control and customs very quickly and had plenty of time left to get to my gate, have some lunch, and even finish grading my students' papers.

My roommates picked me up in Dallas, and we stopped off and had some dinner on the way home. It turns out that Erin and our friends Matt and Kimberly were going to see King Kong at the midnight show, and they had one ticket left. After a long struggle with myself, I decided to go with them. We enjoyed it immensely. It was very intense, and I found myself squirming in my seat a lot. I really love Jack Black, though, and he was wonderful in this role. The special effects were fantastic, too. All in all, we had a good time.

The last quote was from Dickens's "A Christmas Carol."

"I have a plan."
"Oh, you have a plan. You, who are practically incapable of any thought entering your head that is not - trivial."
(13 points)

nothing particular

Well, here I am. I really wanted to post today mostly so that I could inform my acquaintance that I have a new desktop/wallpaper picture. It has a picture of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby from one of the "Road to" films (I'm not sure which one). I found it on this great website called reeljewels.com. Great stuff.

Bing Crosby is this month's star on TCM, and we enjoyed that thoroughly last night. We watched the end of a film called Going Hollywood, then Pennies from Heaven was on. "Pennies from Heaven" is one of my favorite songs, and it was fun to see and hear it in its world premiere context. After that, they had two of the "Road to" shows (Singapore and Zanzibar, the first two), and then they played three Bob Hope movies to fill up the wee hours of the night. I really wanted to watch Bob, but I knew I was too tired to stay up for long, so I decided to sleep in the living room with the TV on all night. That way, I reasoned, if I woke up during the night, I would have some Bob Hope to watch. I didn't wake up at all, and I woke this morning with a terrible headache. (Now that I think about it, we probably could have recorded the movies, but I didn't think of that at the time. It was late.)

I'm getting excited to go to England in two days. :) I need to spend the rest of the day here trying to finish up some of my work so that I'll be ready to leave then. I have lots of writing to do for the Teaching Composition class I had at the beginning of the semester -- we have to turn in a Writer's Notebook, but it is due at the end of the semester instead of in the middle, when the class actually ended. So now I have to finish up all that work. I also have to work on a set of phonology problems, and continue reading about syntax for my online Linguistics class (which I really wish I hadn't taken).

Somehow, this all reminded me that I wanted to tell Elizabeth in particular about our cool friend Andrew. Andrew is in our singles ward down here, and he's a Thurber. His last name is Thurber. Right after I first met him, I asked if he might be related to James Thurber, and to my surprise he said he was. Just the other day I was talking to his dad about it too, and he says they're related to James on two different lines. In fact, Myron (Andrew's dad) has all kinds of genealogy and family history information about the Thurbers, which has never been published. Having read some Thurber and seen a few pictures, I can see the resemblance in both Myron and Andrew -- both their looks and their humor remind me of James.

Well, I suppose I'd better get along now. The last quote was from The Spanish Prisoner, a movie I really enjoy. It's by David Mamet, who also did The Winslow Boy (thanks, Emily!). The full quote is actually, "It just shows to go ya, you never know who anybody is."

This next quote is from one of my all-time favorite works. I just ran across it again the other day, and I have a new appreciation for it now, having been to St. Paul's Churchyard, which is undoubtedly one of the most "breezy" spots on the face of the planet.

If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot -- say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance -- literally to astonish his son's weak mind. (32 points)

home again

I had a super time in Kansas and Oklahoma City this week. I feel very much like part of Margo's family now -- they were all wonderful! I'm really happy for Warren and Rachael, too, and I'm sure they'll be very happy together. Rachael has such a fun sense of humor, and she and Warren are really fun together.

On Thursday we went over to Margo's Aunt Shelly's house, and there I realized that I had lived with Margo's cousin Kristie for a semseter at BYU. It was the one semester before I left for my mission. It was an odd coincidence, but I spent Thanksgiving in part with one of my roommates from six years ago. It was fun to see Kristie again, and it made me remember all kinds of fun things that happened that semester.

Friday we drove down to Oklahoma City, and the next morning Warren and Rachael got married. (Warren is Margo's older brother.) Margo's grandfather is currently serving as first counselor in the presidency at the Oklahoma City temple, and they have a condo right across the street from the temple. We had a little luncheon there for the family and a few friends who had come for the sealing. President and Sister Hill (Margo's grandparents) had invited the other members of the temple presidency to come over in the afternoon whenever they had time, to have some lunch. When the president and his wife came over, there were very few of us left. Sister Hill convinced Margo to play the piano for us, and at one point when everyone else was out of the room, a slightly uncomfortable silence fell, and I decided I'd best make some conversation. So I asked President Gillespie how things were over there. I really meant just over there by the window, where he and Sister Gillespie were eating. But he assumed I meant over there at the temple, so he started in to a long discussion of how this was one of the best assignments they'd had. He said they really enjoyed it because they could work together in this calling, where in all of their other callings, they hadn't really been able to. In the middle of this conversation, I began to realize that President Gillespie is also Elder Gillespie -- Elder H. Aldridge Gillespie of the Quorum of Seventy. I thought it was kind of funny, because it made me think how differently I would have behaved if I had realized that right away, but at the same time there was nothing at all wrong with the way I did behave. I was just much more relaxed and informal with them than I would otherwise have been. And President Gillespie seemed to really enjoy Margo's playing. A lot.

That night we slept at Margo's grandparents' condo. They put out an air mattress for us, and we put on a movie and lay in bed watching it. It was a great movie, Maytime, with Nelson Eddy and Jeannette MacDonald. I really liked it a lot! I wish that I could find it sometime so that all my friends can watch it. Until then, I guess I'll have to be content with the knowledge that Margo has seen it and can share all the little jokes with me.

The last quote was, indeed, Bob Hope. Congrats to Elizabeth, who gets 53 points (10 off for not knowing the exact source).

It just shows to go ya. (28 points -- another of those things that I always wish others were familiar with so I could share the joke, so if you know it, be sure and tell me and we'll be much closer friends!)

recent activities and Thanksgiving plans

All right, I know it's been close to forever since I posted, so I decided it's about time.

This morning I took Erin to the airport. She let me drive Sweetie (her new Scion) down to DFW and back. What an adventure! I've always enjoyed driving, and it's been a long time since I have, so that was nice. Plus, there were a couple of incidents that could have been much more serious than they were, so I was grateful to get home in one piece. I said a little prayer of thanksgiving. :)

Right now I'm watching Matlock on TV. Mysteries always make me happy, so that means I'm feeling pretty happy. Besides that, I'm having a great time procrastinating some of my more pressing schoolwork. I have at least three minor to major projects that I need to work on during Thanksgiving break, and I keep telling myself that I ought to be working on them now, but I just don't have the oomph to do it. I have to get them all done by Dec. 6, though, so that I don't have to worry about them once I'm ready to leave for England on Dec. 8.

For Thanksgiving, I'm going up to Kansas with Margo. I'm looking forward to meeting her family, and I also get to see two (count 'em, two!) new states. I've never been to Kansas before, and on Friday we're going to Oklahoma as well, where Margo's brother is getting married. Should make for a fun rest of the week. I'm a little sad that we'll have to miss our ward on Sunday, but beggars can't be choosers and all that. Plus, I'm actually looking forward to spending a Sunday in a family ward and seeing some new faces and all.

Speaking of church, I had a tithing settlement interview on Sunday, and the bishop did something I've always hated and dreaded. After talking about my tithing and making sure my records are correct, he asked me (and I quote): "Have you met any young men?" I really wasn't sure what to say to that. Sure, I've met plenty of guys here, but did he really expect me to tell him who I'm crushing on? What would he have if I had given him somebody's name? What makes it worse, I specifically asked Margo, and she says he didn't ask her about it. Does this mean that he's specifically concerned about me? that he knows of someone who's interested? I'm probably making a bigger deal about this than I need to, but I just can't help wondering.

Well, I suppose I'll get going now. I don't have anything else mildly interesting to say, and you're probably all bored to tears already anyway.

The last quote was from Clue, a movie that I just love! Tim Curry has always cracked me up, and he's especially wonderful in that one.

I'll have to kiss this girl because she's got just the kind of lips I love: one on top and one on bottom. (63 points, since this is a rather obscure one)

Happy Halloween!

Halloween weekend has been interesting. On Friday, Erin took me to go get the finishing touches for me costume, and that night we all went to a YSA dance in Hearst (about 45 mins away). The dance ended at midnight, and after that we decided to go to IHOP. However, Matt got us a little lost on the way back to Denton, and we took quite the detour through the heart of Dallas. We finally got to IHOP around 1:45, and we got back to our apartment about 3:00. That was not a good decision -- I'm still recovering from it!

On Saturday we mostly hung around in the apartment, recuperating. We got a couple of Hitchcock films from the UNT Media Library and watched those. In the evening we went to the Institute Halloween Party. We hung out there for about an hour or so, and then we all went over to Matt's house to watch Rope, another Hitchcock film. The Hitchcock touch is very apparent in that one.

Sunday we had been invited over to have dinner with some friends of ours in the ward, Nikki and Lauren. They fed us Hawaiian Haystacks, which was very good, and we had a fun conversation afterward. Nikki is fast becoming one of my favorite people in our ward.

Despite sleeping in quite a bit both Saturday and Sunday, I still have not fully recovered from Friday's lat night, as previously mentioned. In my first class this morning, one of my students even commented on it: "Wow, you look tired! Are you OK?" Well, at least I know they care about my well-being, huh?

Oh! and it rained today, too, which is always welcome, especially here in Texas. I had to walk through it in the rain to go to Institute today, and that was wonderful!

All right, here's the moment I know you've all been waiting for -- drumroll please! -- the pictures of my goth costume. (Well, all right, it's really only one, at least for right now.) I must add that I had a super time being gothic, and I have some fun stories about shopping at Hot Topic.



And finally, a great quote for the day. The last one was specifically from School of Rock, a hilarious movie.

"To make a long story short --" "Too late." (23 points)