Weekend at Home

This weekend finds Ken and me at home in IL. He's dinking around the apartment doing little weekend projects, and I'm trying to get things organized as well. On Wednesday, Mom, Melissa, and I leave for NYC where I'm attending a Writing Project conference. Mom and Missy will be sightseeing on their own. I wish I could do that too. But I was just there in March. Hopefully, we'll have some time to do things together in the evenings and on Saturday for sure. We'll return to IL on Sunday morning at which time Mom and Missy will drive back to Iowa. Ken and I'll be leaving early in the week for Iowa ourselves to celebrate the holiday.

I need to get writing done this weekend as I'll lose several days and another weekend with the traveling. My goal is to return to the Results chapter and see what I can get drafted. My director gave me minimal comments on the first 40 pages, so I feel as though I can move forward with some confidence. I keep dreaming of what it will feel like someday to have my weekends back and not to be working on this project.

Not much else to share right now. May have more news later.

Same As Before

The weekend has come and gone, and it is a Monday once again. Thankfully, this Monday finds me at home working. It'll be one of those weird weeks again. Home on Monday, CTLT on Tuesday, Coal City workshop on Wednesday, CTLT on Thursday and Friday. I like having my Fridays at home to work, but I'll adjust I suppose. Weeks like these just make it more difficult to get things done on the diss.

I do feel good that I did send another revision of my Methodology chapter on to my director. That makes the 5th draft of that beast. Hopefully, this one is getting closer to being ready. I'm analyzing data for the second part of my Results chapter and am still waiting to get any feedback on my first half. I don't think I'm going to make my goal of having a draft of every chapter by the end of the semester.

I guess I had a nice weekend. I had to go grocery shopping on Sat. Man, what a chore! That is certainly not my favorite activity. I'm trying to shop less, so I've taken to making out a menu at least a week in advance to cut down on the trips to the store (and also so Ken knows what to make on the nights I come home late). The best part about Saturday was that Matt & Lisa came to the Bollingbrook area to do some shopping and we got together that night for dinner. We ate at a Mongolian BBQ place, which was wonderful! We have to try out those places while Ken is gone because he wouldn't like eating there. It was a quick visit, but we had a lot of laughs as usual.

Not much else new. I need to get started on some work this morning. More later.

Welcome (or Not?) November

Here it is, November 1 already and so little of the dissertation to show for it. In my defense, October has been a horrendously busy month. With yet another Coal City workshop presentation, an IATE conference presentation, a birthday, another Iranian Studies issue to copyedit, and a 4-day work-related trip to Pittsburgh, it's a wonder I got anything done at all.

Today finds me working on yet another revision of the Methodology chapter. Yes, seven weeks later, I finally got director comments (only to wish I hadn't). The result: more work. Will it ever be finished, I wonder. Who knows. But here I am plugging away at it again. This time I've cut out almost half of what I put in last time, per director requests. I've sent the first 40 pages of my Results chapter on to him again...with very little hope of seeing comments before the end of November (ok, am I just being nasty here?) I know that chapter's in very rough shape, but at least it's something drafted, or so I tell myself. I'm sure that one wil come back as slaughtered as the others.

It'll just be me and the cats this weekend. Ken's off to play Army in WI, so I'm hoping for a productive work weekend at home. It would be nice to have visitors, but I guess I'm just too far away. I'll probably be back on here this weekend sometime as I search for a break from writing.

Galena 2007

We made it back safely from a wonderful birthday weekend in Galena. The weather couldn't have been more perfect as we wound our way through the Illinois countryside. We started our trip Friday night by heading to Matt & Lisa's. There we relaxed and slept in --something that doesn't happen very often for either of us. Ken spent some of Sat. morning working while I enjoyed cable TV, always a treat. As a note, I'd like you all to know that I actually refused to take any work with me this weekend! Here we are on Sat. morning as we left Matt & Lisa's to head out even further into the country.

We headed east toward Galena and took our time stopping in the town of Scales Mound, IL, a little place I've always wanted to visit. You see, when I was a kid, there was a book I always read that talked about the life of a real family that lived in Scales Mound. Ever since then, I've wanted to visit and see some of the sights mentioned in the book. Ken, bless his heart, indulged me in that this weekend, even though the book is over 30-some years old and many of the sights aren't as recognizable as they were before. Still, we were able to play detective and discover some of the sights shown and discussed in the books. Very cool for me!


We then made our way to our B&B which was actually in Hazel Green, WI, just 8 miles outside of Galena. Apparently, it's nearly impossible to get a B&B reservation inside of Galena in October (turning leaves, fall festivals, etc.). But we stayed in a really cool old Stagecoach building converted to a B&B in Hazel Green. We highly recommend it! This is a picture.


That night, we ate at Vinny Vanucci's Italian restaurant in Galena and then took part in 2 historical/ghost walking tours of Galena. This is something we like to do, and while waiting for our first tour to begin, we calculated that we've only done 2 such tours so far (St. Augustine, FL and Plymouth, MA). The second tour of Galena was much cooler than the first, taking us to some old houses, buildings, and a cemetery. Like all good ghost tour people, we took tons of pictures trying to capture spirits and orbs on our digital camera (something the tour guides swear can happen). I'm not sure if you can see all of the little white balls of light in the picture below. These are supposedly spirit orbs. This picture was taken next to an old abandoned Poor House/Mental Asylum in Galena. Click on the picture and maybe you'll see them better.


On Sunday, we enjoyed the second B (Breakfast) of our B&B weekend and then headed out to see a few more Galena attractions follolwed by getting back on the road headed west. We stopped at Apple Canyon Fort in Elizabeth, IL because there was some sort of re-enactment of the frontier days at the fort. It wasn't super exciting, let me tell you.


In all, a great weekend, one that went far too quickly. It's back to work today at home for me and at work for Ken. I'm heading to Pittsburg, PA for a conference with the CTLT people from Thursday-Sunday of this week. We're driving the 8+ hours. Though I'm lookig forward to seeing what this conference is like, that's one drive I'll be happy to have done with.

Thanks, again, everyone for the birthday wishes!

The Big 3-0 approaches!

Thank goodness it's Friday. That's the only thing on my mind right now. Well, that and all the work I have to get done today alone. It's been one busy week. Things at work are very busy right now. We're all about planning the annual Teaching & Learning Symposium in January, so I'm in many meetings to discuss correspondence, signage, presenters' gifts, and other details. I'm also getting a lot of "must do" emails coming through everyday, from symposium proposals to log or University Award portfolios to deal with. Yesterday alone I spent my first 6 hours at work just dealing with meetings and sending/responding to emails. I have other projects that have been sitting on my desk needing to be attended to--the monthly newsletter for one thing. So much work coupled with the fact that I'm leaving next Thursday-Sunday for a conference in Pittsburg has me a little worried about how I'll get that newsletter done on time.

Today is supposed to be a big work at home day for me. I have IS editing to finish and get out to the authors for review. I also need to respond to emails pertaining to a workshop I'm doing the first Wed in Nov. All that to do (maybe even think about the Diss at some point...) and Ken and I are leaving tonight for a birthday weekend in the country. Yes, it's October, which means its time for me to turn the big 3-0 at last. I really don't feel any different. The only thing I wish I had accomplished by this time in my life is school. I really wish I had finshed my PhD before turning 30. It would be so nice to be done and have a job (and money) about now. All in good time, I suppose. At least I'll get it while I'm 30, if all goes according to plan.

We're headed to Matt & Lisa's tonight to break our stay on our way to Galena for a fine time at a B&B, eating at my fav Galena restaurant, Vinni Vanucci's, and then two walking ghost tours of Galena on Sat night. Matt & Lisa will be in NYC this weekend so unfortunately we won't get to see them as we use their house for rest. They are off enjoying Lisa's anniversary gift to Matt: tickets to a Giants game at Giant's Stadium in NYC. If you know anything about M&L, you know this is HUGE! You should have seen Matt's face when she surprised him with those tickets. There may have been tears, I can't remember.

That's all I have for now. Will return with fun Galena pics, I hope!

Military Formal

Hello again. We've returned from a super fast, lightening-speed Iowa weekend. On Friday, we drove to Peoria where I presented at the Illinois Associsation of Teachers of English (IATE) conference. After much technological difficulty at the conference (no computer projector as requested and troubles getting the laptop to connect to the hotel's wireless), I am pleased to say that the session went about as well as it could have. I only had about 6 ISU English Ed majors attend my session, but that was perfectly fine. They were a good group--very talkative and friendly. Jan N. was my session chair/recorder, and she also helped keep the session lively. That's my only major conference presentation this year. After last year's trips to San Francisco and NYC for CPTSC and ATTW, not only am I strapped for traveling cash, but I'm also completely worn out. I thought presenting at a regional conference would be a good plan for this year.

While in Iowa, we attended Ken's military "Dining Out" formal. I was not super excited about the prospect of buying (and wearing) a formal dress again given that I'm experiences less-than-happy body image time right now, but I managed to find a good one a month or so ago that was relatively inexpensive and that fit (comfortably). It was fun night, overall. Because of Ken's promotion, we had to sit at the head table (insert here any and every possible bad memory of having to sit at a head table for numerous weddings, etc.). I was not super excited about this prospect either as I don't like the attention to be focused on me (and especially not during an event where people are eating). But it went fine. The entertainment was lively and had us laughing; the entertainment included a roast of one of the long-time soldiers and even a couple of plastic sword and laser nerfgun duels. The evening ran a bit long, however, and we were not able to partake of the DJ as we'd hoped. By 10 pm, we were beat. Most of Ken and my time was spent talking to people and helping everyone feel welcome.


In other news, we're now considering Iowa as a possible future residence. If job situations and the timing work out as we'd like, we may once again be heading back that way -- this time for good. Nothing major yet though. There's still so much up in the air. I hate not knowing what's going on. We'll keep you posted if anything happens.

Expanding Family

It's been a while since I've written, and with good reason. Things are just too busy! The diss is coming along, but I've reached a point in my Results chapter where I'm just sick of writing. My advisor still hasn't given me comments on my Methodology chapter revision, which has me believing what I wrote was crap and has affected my ability to write my Results chapter.

Anyway, work at the CTLT, doing presentations, diss writing, editing for IS, and taking part in writing some lessons for ReadWriteThink are keeping me busy. I'm also in the midst of looking for jobs which has me completely stressed. But I won't go into that here.

In other news of being busy, we've expanded our family by one cat. A person at the Tutoring Center was about to send her cat up the river (i.e., Humane Society) due to some family troubles. Not wanting a cat to suffer, Ken and I agreed to take on Artemas for a trial period to see if he and Tucker would get along. After a hellish week of Artie hiding under the bed, hissing and swatting at the three of us, and then the relentless hours of cat fighting in the evenings, we've finally reached a point where we all seem to tolerate each other. There were numerous days/nights when we were ready to send him up the river ourselves (even after we were greatly assured that he was a very affectionate cat). Artie is now doing much better. He's almost completely out from under the bed and is letting us pet him without the incessant swatting and hissing. We think this may actually work out. Ken took this picture today of Tucker and Artie enjoying some Sunday morning lounging. You'd never know it was WW3 only a few hours before. Artie is the one at the top of the picture.

The evenings are still the worst times, however. If we let Tucker and Artie stay together, we are always awaken by the sounds of cat fighting. We have to lock one in a bedroom for the evening if we are to get any sleep. Ken and I have decided that we don't like being awoken in the night, and thus the idea of having children in the future is unappealing. Once I'm awake, it takes me 1-2 hours to get back to sleep, and you don't want to know me in the morning. (Seriously. Ask Ken.)

So that's what's been going on here.