Bit of Ivory

You know, I really need to get back in the habit of blogging again. ‘Cause I’ve got time. I’m just so used to not having time, that I don’t. Hmph.

I’ve had an interesting couple of weeks. Watched my brother graduate. Helped my uncle serve a supboena (and got paid for it! Hee!). Painted at my grandparent’s new house, which is also my uncle’s (different uncle, though) old house. Helped grandparents move to said house. Found out my best friend (Nicole, not Jen) is moving to California. Spent two weeks knitting felted bags for Nicole and her daughter. Got cramps in my hands from said knitting. Forgot to take a pic of ‘s bag before I gave it to her, so she’ll have to take a pic and send it to me. Will post a pic of Rosie’s bag when it’s done. Learned how to needle felt (so. much. fun). Celebrated with my sister, Lisa, when she got a job at our favorite movie theatre (Wahleeconners will remember it. :P). Helped ‘s best friend figure out the pattern for the felted bag I made for Nicole, so she can make one of her own.

In news that’s not so easy to encapsulate in one sentence, I e-mailed a friend from WGU yesterday and asked if there might be any grader positions open, since I don’t want a regular job until I get my thesis done. I have enough distractions. Anyway, she e-mailed back and said that they might have just the thing for me, and to send my resume, and when can I start, and when can she set me up with that friend of hers she’s wanted to set me up with forever? I responded, but haven’t heard back. And yes, I said that she could set me up.

Last Saturday Jen was taking her PRAXIS test down in Orem, so Lisa and I drove down, picked up my sister Laura from her apartment in Provo, and played. We had dinner and did some shopping, which was way fun. I bought some sandals at Famous Footwear (the exact same style as my current favorite sandals, which means that I don’t have to get them re-soled) and had some very nice amaretto ice cream. Brought my sandals home and didn’t think too much about them, as it was late on Saturday night and they’re not Sunday-type shoes. But when I got them out on Monday to wear them– there was only one shoe. The left one. I’ve spent the last week and a half checking everywhere I could have lost the right one– my car, my room, the stairway, the family room– but no dice. I finally called the store today and asked if they had a stray shoe around, and they did! Yay! So now I’m driving down to Provo tonight. I’ll probably stop at the BYU library to drop off books from previous semesters and get my mom some more Nero Wolfes. I’m SO GLAD I don’t have to buy another pair.

Did any of you watch the What Not to Wear last Friday, where they made over a Mormon girl from Provo? I want to get my hair cut like hers. Anyone know where I can get screencaps? If not, I’ll take a picture of our DVR’d episode with my digital camera.

*allows blog readers to get over the shock of Emily posting TWICE in the SAME DAY*

Just got this e-mail:

Dear Emily,

Lumos Programming is pleased to inform you that programming space has
become available for your presentation entitled, “The Sorting Hat,
Ideology, and Free Will”. We estimate that we can provide
approximately 25 minutes of programming time.

This offer is only valid if you are currently registered for Lumos.
We request your response accepting this offer no later than 23 April
2006. We look forward to hearing from you.

*does happy presenting dance of joy*

*plots ways to make BYU help pay for my vacation*

Yesterday was an almost perfect Easter Sunday. It was a bit windy, but I wore a mid-calf skirt and sandals, no jacket, and no nylons. The tulips and daffodils and hyacinths in our front yard looked lovely, and the newly-planted pansies had recovered nicely from the trauma of being planted. I taught about the Passover in Sunday School, made rolls (half regular, half orange), ate too many potatoes au gratin (or “all-rotten taters, precious” as we called them last night) and watched Ben-Hur with the fam. All in all, a good day.

Then I woke up this morning to see several inches of snow.

*sigh*

It’s almost completely melted by now, but still. It’s just not right.

Anyway, my classes are done (CRAZY!!), and I’m ostensibly working on a paper for the whole of this week, although I doubt it will take me that long to write. Tomorrow I’ll pick up a stack of essays from the class I’m TA-ing for. Dr. Walker wants me to have them graded by Wednesday. So tomorrow night will be fun.

My brother and sister-in-law have decided to name my future niece Anna, as long as she looks like an Anna when she’s born. At the moment she’s due on July 22. Pam will be coming in for Lumos the day before, and I’ll be leaving for the Utah Shakefest with her and Jen the next day. Here’s hoping Anna’s born a bit early. I’ve finished her hat (except for sewing on the buttons) and have started on the sweater. Oh, and I finished my bag, too! Here’s a couple of pics (click on the thumbnails for bigger pics):

Here’s the bag from the outside. It’s nice and big, so it makes a great knitting bag. I’ve already gotten several compliments on it.

The inside of the bag, which I lined with various-sized pockets to hold things like yarn needles, scissors, stitch counters, straight needles, circular needles, and other fun stuff. Took me forever to find the magnetic snap. You can see the back of Anna’s sweater peeking out in there.

Anna’s not the only baby on the way– my sister Laura, who got married at the end of February, is also expecting! She’s due the end of November. Yes, a honeymoon baby. She and my brother-in-law are very excited, although Laura’s quite sick already, poor thing. My aunt Becky is also expecting, due mid-October. That last one was quite a shock, I’m telling you– Becky described it as having an “Abraham and Sarah experience.” There’ll be twelve (maybe thirteen– I’m not exactly sure) years between the new baby and the next closest sibling, and Perry’s got grandkids (from the children of his first marriage) older than the new little one. Becky’s still in shock, I think, but we’re all very excited. Our family loves babies.

New 24 tonight (I’m surprised more of you aren’t into 24, actually), and new Gilmore Girls and House tomorrow night! Yay!

*feels guilty*

Umm. Hi?

I am alive, really. Just very, very busy. I’m gearing up my thesis big-time, and working on my semester paper for my romanticism class, and trying to decide if the Prozac is doing any good or not. And I’m waay into finding cute patterns for baby stuff to knit, because we now know that my sister-in-law is having a GIRL!! So I bought this pattern and this yarn in purple (number 6287), and I hope to start it soon. I must finish my bag first, which is THIS CLOSE to being ready to felt.

My family watched Howl’s Moving Castle the other day, which I really enjoyed, and which prompted me to read the book. They’re very different, and yet also the same. I like them both very much. As a rule, I’m not much into anime, but I’d say Miyasaki stuff is an exception, mainly because it’s not as anime as, well, most anime. I liked the people they got to do the dubbing (like Christian Bale and Billy Crystal), although I do like it with the subtitles as well.

Hmm, anything else to say? Sorry for not acknowledging your package, Lou– it came on the day of the wedding, and so I kind of forgot to mention it. Thanks for the book and the pumpkin butter (I haven’t had the guts to try it yet :P) and the Orlando Bloom driver’s license thingy. The book makes me want to come visit!

Erm. Anything else you guys want to know?

So, let’s see. Anything fun and interesting going on in my life?

I had a doctor’s appointment t’other day to determine if my lack-of-concentration thing is depression-related. I filled out one of those depression questionnaire thingies, and the doctor said I’m borderline, and there’s no real way to tell if I’m depressed or not except to give me medication and see if it helps. So, in true Dr. House style, I’m now taking a low dosage of Prozac. Joy. No real difference noticed so far. Hmm. At least the first 30 days were free.

At the same appointment, the doc ordered a blood test for thyroid and cholesterol. Thryoid checks out okay. Cholesterol, on the other hand, is a bit high. Diet and exercise for me. Double joy. It’s a good reason for me to get my butt into gear, though.

Today I got a letter from my credit union saying that an ATM — somewhere — had been hacked and debit card information may have been stolen, so they’re issuing me a new debit card. This SUX for numerous reasons, not the least of which is having to memorize a new number and a new PIN. Bah. I don’t use ATMs all that often– maybe twice a year at most– so it’s just my bad luck, I guess.

School-wise, we’ve finished up Edgeworth and have now moved on to Sir Walter “Why Use 2 Words When You Can Use 87?” Scott’s The Heart of Mid-Lothian. I am enduring, albiet impatiently. My family can attest to my loud complaining. However, as a reward for getting through this book, we’re reading Persuasion next. Whee!

In the meantime, we have research conferences to talk over our proposed semester paper topics. I have very little idea of what I want to write about, unless I can sell the idea of a paper on how Tolkien is actually a Romantic (it’s my PhD application justficiation as for why I wrote my thesis on Tolkien when I’m most interested in Romanticism) to my teacher. Do you think that’ll work? No? Well, there’s the fallback of absent parenthood in Austen and Edgeworth. Not that it hasn’t been done to death, I bet.

Speaking of school, it’s the dreaded BYUSA election time again. Once again, campus has been invaded by cookie-cutter candidates and their friends, playing “Celebrate Good Times” over and over again– unless they’re playing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”– holding loud-colored signs, and trying to get the student body to give a care. It’s all so meaningless, worse than student-body officers in high school, ’cause at least they planned dances and stuff. Around here, the BYUSA president and vice president have practically zero authority to do anything, and their campaign promises always end up being out of their jurisdiction. Sheesh. No wonder election turnout is low. I refuse to vote on two principles, the first being that I’m not going to be here next year *crosses fingers*, and the second that they all bug me, and make me walk out of my way to avoid them. So there.

I am a Very Bad Harry Potter Fan in that I didn’t buy the GoF DVD until today. In my defense, I didn’t feel good yesterday. Still, though. I bought PoA the first day it came out, and I don’t even really like PoA.

Oh, and speaking of Harry Potter, I heard back about those presentations and Lumos. They’ve got our Defense of Ginny panel scheduled as a poster session, which I understand is something akin to a junior high science fair. I don’t know why they think that our idea would work in that format, but we’re trying to be creative. My individual presentation on ideology and the Sorting Hat was put on a waiting list, which means they liked it, but not that much. So we’ll see if I actually get to present that paper or not. If not, I’ll still write it and submit it to a pop-culture conference, which will look better on my C.V. anyway.

How’s that for a real update, dad?

The wedding went well, but we’re all exhausted. I didn’t take any pictures with my digital camera this year, so you’ll have to wait for pictures until we get them back from the professional photographer. Next time I use stephanotis, though, I’m going to wait until the very. last. minute. until I put them in. I’m also going to order more sterling roses than I think I’ll need, because they’re so tempermental.

Since we certainly don’t feel like doing anything active today, my siblings (minus Laura, of course) and L&L’s best friend Sarah (who’s playing surrogate twin for a bit) went to see Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which I hadn’t yet seen (not for lack of wanting, just for lack of time). Very good. I’d like to see it again. Mr. Tumnus and Peter can both sit by me.

I’ve started my Hermione & Ginny essay. I hope to work on it tomorrow. I need more brain power than I currently possess.

Back to Olympic watching. And I think I’ll eat a piece of wedding cake.

A lot. And yet, not much. I’ve been going to school, working, and playing a bit. Listening to HBP as I commute. JKR is a genius, and so is Stephen Fry. My sister gets married a week from today :O, so there’s been a bit of wedding planning as well. I’m glad for the long weekend to get things done, ’cause I don’t think I’ll want to do much next weekend.

School is good. We’ve finished with Byron, and most of the class agrees with me– he’s much better at the funny than at brooding. Now we’re reading Maria Edgeworth’s The Absentee, which I’m really enjoying. All of you Austen fans out there should give Edgeworth a shot. She’s not as good as Austen, by any means, but she’s pretty good. She was one of Austen’s favorite authors, you know.

I’m wanting to write an essay about Hermione’s character vs. Ginny’s character, and how people are much more willing to excuse bad behavior in a character they’re already disposed to like, and how all of these so-called “out of character” moments in HBP are perfectly consistent with Hermione’s behavior throughout the books, and how she’s done stuff just as bad as those things that supposedly make Ginny into a *itch. Maybe in the downtime after the wedding. I still have to finish a post I started about harmony and counterpoint, dangit.

I always get my best ideas when I don’t have time to do anything about them.

We’ve been watching the Olympics at my house, and reminiscing about having there here in Salt Lake in 2002. That was a heckuva thing. I think we’d host them again in a heartbeat. I also think that we did it better than Torino.

Watching the Olympics means we get to hear John William’s Olympic theme a lot. If you don’t want to have this lovely theme spoiled for you, don’t read the rest of this entry. Back in 1988, my aunt and uncle were watching the Olympics, and my aunt remarked on the theme (which I think had been written for that Olympics). Now, my uncle has a wicked sense of humor, and immediately told her that the song was called “Moon over Calgary.” She, being a bit wary of my uncle by now, scoffed and said “oh yeah? Then what are the lyrics?” So he sang the following: “Tuuuurn oooooon the winter Olympics and let me see the moon over Calgary. . .” I can’t hear the theme without hearing that in my head now.

The TA thing is going good. I gave a presentation in the class on Tuesday on the Gothic novel (they’re reading Frankenstein). Keats is up next, yay! I like Keats.

We’re reading Byron in romantic lit. I’ve decided that I’m not particularly thrilled with Byron when he’s being sterotypically Byronic. I much prefer him in his satiric moods. Maybe it’s all the House I’ve been watching lately. Or not. I’ve always loved the snark. Anyway, Childe Harold’s Pilmgrimage? Meh. The Vision of Judgement? Oh yeah, baby.

I’ve been looking at the University of Colorado-Boulder as a possible place to do my doctorate. They’ve got a great romanticism program, apparently. And it wouldn’t be too far away, and the climate agrees with me (being pretty much comparable to where I am now). I wonder if I’ve got a chance at making it in? Hmm. In any case, I’m going to have to study for the GRE Literature subject test. Blah.

I got a phone call yesterday from the guy who heads the Center for the Study of Europe at BYU. Apparently my theory discourse prof from spring term recommended me to help them put out a newsletter. I’m seriously considering taking it on, even though I already have too darn much to do. It’d only be another 3-5 hours a week, and I think I’d like it better than the rewriting project, which probably won’t last much longer anyway. I think I could do it if I exercised more self-discipline than I am currently. I told him I’d let him know on Monday, though.

My fellow Mormons will understand this one: I’ve been asked to speak in Stake Conference in two weeks. The general session. As the first speaker. The topic is “Faith in Jesus Christ.” Gah.

I’m liking the new Leaky design, except for the extra clicks necessary to read the full news items. I suppose I’ll get used to that. In all other ways it’s beautiful and cool– although the Harry portrait in the corner creeps me out a bit.

I’m fully satisfied with the OoTP casting we’ve seen thus far. Isn’t Evanna Lynch absolutely perfect? And I adore the fact that she’s a die-hard HP fan. She’ll be a wonderful Luna. Can’t wait to see her in radish earrings. First glance on all the other roles gets me a thumbs-up, too. I like the girl they picked for Tonks, and Imelda Staunton is absolutley inspired.

I’m getting anxious about Lumos presentations, even though I know they’ll probably come out closer to the end of the month than the beginning. Grr. We need to get arrangements finalized for our Shakespeare trip, too. Anyone else want to accompany me, Jen, Pam, and maybe Katrina to the Utah Shakespearean Festival from July 24-26? It’ll be awesome!

On a related note, my sister-in-law’s due date is currently July 31. It would royally suck if she had the baby while I’m in Vegas. Hope for an early delivery!

So, a lot has happened since I last updated.

1) I’m now graduating in August. I talked to Dr. Walker, my thesis chair, and we both agreed that writing the thesis by April would be pushing it. The idea is to defend in spring term, then walk in August. This makes me happy, as life will be much less stressful. It also means that, should I get accepted for Lumos, I might actually qualify for the funding they give to grad students who present at conferences. And money for going to Vegas is good.

2) The job is okay, but not spectacular. My usual method of writing (write a few sentences, take a break, write a few more, check e-mail, write a few more, check LJ, write a few more, check TLC, etc.) doesn’t seem quite right when I’m on the clock and getting paid for it. So that’s taking a bit of adjusting.

2) I’m now an unofficial unpaid TA for Dr. Walker’s English 292 (second half of British lit) class. My first day is tommorrow. Hopefully this will give me a bit of experience that I’ve been lacking.

3) I also had a chat with Dr. Mason, the graduate coordinator and my romanticism prof this semester. He was pretty reassuring, gave me lots of good advice, explored options of where to go for a Ph.D, made offers to lean on various people to let me teach or write me letters of recommendation, and was generally everything I needed him to be. He told me that, as my romantic lit professor and one who is pretty darn familiar with my work, I should become an expert on romantic-era British fiction– not just Austen, but Scott, Burney, Radcliffe, Edgeworth, etc. Also that I should read Belinda. I am seriously considering this advice. In fact, I have already started reading Belinda on Project Gutenburg. Good so far.

24 is on! Whoot!

So, today two proposals with my name on them were submitted to Lumos today. One is a panel in defense of Ginny (which should be WAY fun, if it gets picked). The other is a serious literary presentation which would be me, myself, and I. *gulps*

Wanna see what I’m hoping to say? Click the link below!
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