New Stakes

Well, the stakes are higher.

First of all, let me proudly say that my papers for my Research class are going a lot better than I thought: 7/8, 8/8, 8/8. I turned in number 4 today, and hopefully will get a 7 or 8 on it, and then the last one is due next week. I stand a very good chance at earning an "A" in the class, so I'm quite pleased!

The next two weeks, however, might challenge my optimism. I have the usual 50-page reading and 2 page essay for my Thursday night class. For my Wednesday night class, we have to read a book this week and write a 3-5 page critique on it. Usually we get two weeks, but since it's a smaller book, he gave us one. That sucks because R, Mom, my sister and I are going to a wine festival outside of the city Saturday... and then Saturday night I'm working the box office at the theatre, so my Saturday is shot. I'll have to do some heavy duty reading Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with two papers in there.

The following week, however is just as challenging. We have our last book in my Wednesday night class and he's only giving us a week to read that one (even though it's longer) and write the 3-5 page critique. The positive is that my Thursday night class will be done with the weekly readings (we'll then be focusing on the 20 page paper), but the negative is that I'm going to Baton Rouge that weekend, so my reading time will be severely limited. I'm attending a party Friday night (the purpose of the visit) and I was planning on staying until Sunday, giving me plenty of time to take R to all of my favorite BR places (the Chimes and LSU, mainly) and have him meet the important BR people (like my college buddies and my godfather) as well as going into New Orleans for a Port-of-Call stop, but I think I'll have to cut the trip short. Now I think I'll go up Friday afternoon, go to the party then, and go to my favorite places before 3pm Saturday and come back Saturday night so that I can get my reading done. New Orleans will have to wait until I don't have a major assignment due. A good friend is running the New Orleans marathon... maybe I'll sign up for the half and then go up there with her then, and I know R will come cheer me on (unless I can get him to walk it with me).

Anyway, I digress. The point of today's title is that my paper for my Research class has a whole new meaning. He asked for 3 volunteers to form a panel and present our papers to the Southwestern Historical Association's 2010 conference. It's a conference for professional historians, but they do allow grad school students to submit papers. I volunteered, bravely I might add, and stood alone. No one else wants to present their papers. Why the heck not??!! It's great experience, something I can put on my CV, I'll meet historians and professors who might be able to help me in the future and I'll get to have professionals weigh in on my paper. Now, the question-and-answer segment scares me, but I can play it cool.

So basically I'm writing my paper not only for getting an A, but to keep myself from looking like a fool. This paper has to be good.

Cheers!

Book Review

I just finished one of the best books I've read in years - Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.

The bf and I were at Cosco a couple of weeks ago and I picked it up - I'd never heard of it before, but it looked interesting. I put it aside, however, because I needed to read other books first. I finally started reading it Sunday and I couldn't put it down. I carried it with me EVERYWHERE. I read it at red lights, in line at the bank, in the morning before school, and I read it for 5 straight hours last night and 2 straight hours this evening.

I feel the same way I felt after "The Time Traveler's Wife" or "The Count of Monte Cristo" or "A Tale of Two Cities." I felt saddest when I finished it - I didn't want it to end. I wanted to know more. The author has such a wonderful voice and vivid descriptions, and it's historical fiction (which I'm quite fond of). In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I'm going to recommend it for school.

The story is about two females - Sarah, a 10-year old French Jewish girl who, in 1942, is arrested and sent with thousands of other French Jews to camps with the final goal of the gas chambers at Auschwitz. When she's arrested, she doesn't understand what's happening and she thinks she'll be coming home shortly - so she hid her 4 year old brother in a hidden compartment in the wall. She locked him in and took the key with her. The other female, Julia, is a 45-year old American who is a journalist researching the Jewish sweeps. Their stories intertwine and I can't put into words how moving the story is.

Read it - this book will change you.

Cheers!

Triumph! Cough-cough

As I type this, I am armed with tissues, Nye-Quil (or however it's spelled), Dan Brown's newest book and season 7 of Law and Order SVU.

Yep, I'm sick. My illness began Wednesday night, in which my professor looked at me sneezing and coughing and dismissed us early on account of the plague (me). I went to work yesterday because I had to - I'm a teacher leader and we had a long professional development meeting that I was supposed to lead, but towards the end of school I started making plans to be absent. Last night, my other professor sent me home early - he didn't want me to contaminate anyone else. Fine by me - I was miserable.

So today I stayed home. I briefly went to work this morning to meet with the substitute and show her everything, warn her against cheating kids and their methods of getting away with stuff. Then I went back home and promptly fell back asleep. In between medicine-induced naps and lunch (brought by the BF, who risked infection himself), I read Dan Brown's newest book. I probably could've read grad school stuff, but I logically analyzed that if I was working, I wouldn't be reading grad school stuff (I'd be working... duh).

Now, at 7:49, I feel better than I did this morning but actually worse than I did an hour ago. An hour ago I felt good enough to get out of the house, go to the theatre, chat with people in the theatre office and then I decided I was tired again. So I'm back home and I'm sneezing again and my head feels over-pressurized. And as the moments tick, my throat hurts more. Yep. My body was psyching me out an hour ago.

But, on to the triumph in my title... I got 3 of my papers back.

Wednesday night (European history) came with the delight that I earned a 49/50 on my first paper. He had lots of positive comments and thought my writing was well-written. Score! I knew I was a good writer!

Thursday night (Research Methods) brought more delight - and a surprise. I resigned myself to the fact that I will probably end up with a B in the class. We have the 5 little papers, each worth 8 points, and a big paper worth 60. I realized that if I got a 6/8 on each of the little papers, I would end up with a B because I doubt I'd get all 60 points on my big paper. But no... on the one I thought was terrible, I earned a 7/8 and the other one (the one I knew was pretty good) I earned an 8/8! There's hope! I might come out with an A!

The thing that makes me laugh, though, is his comments on my paper - he says that while my word choice is vivid, I need to use less words - why use three when one will do?

Sigh. That's going to be tough for me. Me, who loves Shakespeare and Dickens and Dumas and Rowling - each of whom go great lengths into descriptions and wit and demonstrates their love of the English language.

But I can still get an A!!! Cough, cough. Achoo.

Cheers!

Still Writing...

Well, I spent almost 3 hours writing a 3-4 page prospectus on my paper (including a dreaded historiography, background, hypothesis and impact of my research). The part that took the longest was writing the bibliography - I had to cite every tiny thing - which meant every single primary source/letter I'm using. I thought I could bundle the letters into one citing since they were in the same folder in the archive. Nope. So I had almost 20 letters, 6-7 electronic journal articles, 4 books, 2 government websites and another website. Besides the sheer number of sources, I'm also not used to citing in the Chicago style. I miss MLA.

Now, onto essay #3 - What is the most significant impact of interdisciplinarity on the discipline of history? Thank goodness that after this essay, I only have 2 left. And then a 20 page paper, a 15 page paper and 2 more 3-5 page literary critiques.

That's going to be a doozy. I might leave that for tomorrow evening.

And a plague will be upon my house soon - I'm going to research the Plague of 1665 for my European Towns and Villages course. I had hoped to do the plague's influence on London theatre in the 1590s, but I'm having trouble locating an adequate number of sources. And since flying to London and digging around in archives there isn't possible this semester, I must use what I can find!

Cheers!

Still Reading...

Well, I changed my research paper topic (for my historical research and methods class). The first topic ended in a dead end, but I've found a much more fascinating topic. In fact, it's so interesting that I think it's going to be my next screenplay! I stumbled across these fascinating letters written to a fascinating woman. Her story is really interesting - basically because she did some things that weren't done by ladies in the late 19th century. I want to spend more time researching this woman because even the archivist said I've found something untapped!

But, in doing research for that class, I have totally neglected my other history class, and even put aside the normal reading for this class. So I have to get busy! I have about an hour before my brain shuts down, so I can get at least one chapter read, maybe two.

R's been great - he's been very supportive of the school thing, even when I break down from stress. Poor thing - he says he wants to fix things and make me better - but he can't do the reading for me. I snap out of it and he's right there, usually holding a cup of coffee or waving a DVD of "The Big Bang Theory" in front of me, knowing that either will cheer me up. And these days also holding a bottle of painkillers since I threw out my back yet again.

Yes, I'm happy. I'm happier than I've been in a very long time. No questions, no anxieties, no wondering if I'm saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing, no fear that he's going to be an ass and try to screw with me. He's my intellectual equal, has class and a totally cool job, dresses well, is optimistic, is confident without being an ass, isn't screwed up from past relationships and basically likes life. My mom likes him, my sisters like him, my friends like him. And, most importantly, I like him. A lot. :) We work well together, better than I've worked with any guy in the past.

Happy sigh.

Cheers!

Labor Day = More Time to Work on School!

Happy Labor Day, one and all. I appreciate Labor Day on two levels. First of all, as a teacher, I get the day off. Yay! And as a student, I get to use this day off to have more time to work on grad school.

So, as I said Saturday, I spent almost 4 hours in an archive. After discussing my findings with my mom and bf later that evening, I came up with a research topic. Go me. Later that night, I read two very boring chapters of a very boring histiography textbook.

Sunday, I stayed in my pajamas most of the day, alternating between playing games of Scrabble online, farming on facebook and reading the remaining two chapters of the very boring histiography. After the reading was complete, I sat down and wrote the 2 page analytical/reflective essay. I'm pretty sure this one is more like my professor is wanting, so that's done. Later that night, during Law and Order: SVU episodes (gotta love USA and their rerun marathons), I finished the other book for the other class.

This morning, after reading the paper, checking facebook and losing some online Scrabble game, I set to write my 3-5 page critique. Honestly, I was worried about filling up the space. Once I started writing, however, I got sucked in and wrote all 5 pages. In fact, I had to make my margins slightly smaller and lower the font size to 11 to get it all within 5 pages. Frankly, I think it's a pretty good critique, but I'm going to take it to my professor tomorrow after work for him to look at it.

Now it's noon on Monday and I'm caught up with grad school for the week. I'm leaving shortly for a barbeque with my theatre buddies and then later I'll work on high school stuff (I need to re-read "The Scarlet Ibis" and work on close reading questions). Tonight, after the bf drops his kids off at the ex-wife's house, we'll get to spend a little time together. The original plan was pizza and Monday Night Football, but I looked at the TV guide - no Monday Night Football on Labor Day. So maybe I can talk him into pizza and helping me grade literary term quizzes. Not sexy, but he abandoned me all weekend for his kids (not that I'm complaining since I got a LOT of stuff accomplished for grad school, stuff I wouldn't have been able to do if it was an "E" weekend) and I could convince him that if he helps me grade the simple quizzes, I could spend more direct time with him.

I wish I was completely caught up. The seemingly never-ending vicious cycle of 4 boring chapters and a 2 page analytical paper isn't over. I kind of don't want to get ahead in that reading because I want to read knowing what the paper will be about so that I can read with a purpose. I also need to look some stuff up at the library about my research methods research paper and I need to start reading book number two, "Renaissance Florence" for my European Towns and Villages course.

Tomorrow and Wednesday I'll focus on "Renaissance Florence" and read one boring chapter.

Thursday and Friday I'll do research and read one boring chapter.

Saturday I'll be at the archives. Saturday night I'll write my 4-page prospectus.

Sunday I'll read the last two boring chapters. Maybe I'll write the 2 page paper.

Monday I'll catch up with something.

Tuesday I'll research.

Wednesday I'll.... who knows.

Off to enjoy a few hours of Labor Day!

Cheers!

A Moment of Weakness

Yesterday afternoon, I felt like hiding in a deep, dark forest and denying my existence.

And then I ate sushi and all was better.

Classes started getting to me yesterday (well, the sense of overwhelming actually started Thursday night, but it continued into yesterday). I started thinking, "What the hell am I doing?" in terms of obtaining a master's degree in history. Thursday afternoon, before class, I proudly took my professor my little 2-page paper. Every teacher has their own writing style, grading style, etc. and I wanted the professor to tell me how to fix mine to make it what he's looking for. That said, I went in there still thinking that my paper is fantastic and I won't need to tweak much. Oh, I was wrong. He told me that my paper isn't bad (strike one - this is never a good sign because he's letting me down gently) and that it's too narrative. He says that I need to forget that I'm an English teacher and get back into the mode of writing history (which is blunter, I suppose). I felt deflated because I thought I did really well, but then I realized that if I just listen to him, I can work on my writing style. In fact, I'm glad I spoke to him because we have another 2 page paper due next week (one a week for 5 weeks) and since he told me what to fix with my writing, my next one will be great, whereas the others turned theirs in and will have to wait until next week to get it back with comments (and they would've already turned another in without his comments).

So, besides a hit on my writing ego, the sheer amount of work for that class hurts. Every week for 5 weeks we have about 100 pages of reading and then an analytical 2 page paper over the reading (as I mentioned). PLUS next week I also have to turn in a 4 page prospectus of a research paper that I haven't started. We have to go to a local archive (which sucks because most aren't open on Saturdays and close at 4:30 on the weekdays), dig around in the archives, find interesting things and create a paper based on our findings, using secondary sources for additional information. I'm not a big American/Texan history person, but the Civil War interests me, as does the Texan-Mexican war, so I'm heading to a local war museum's archives. I've already requested about 4 boxes of personal letters, correspondence, bills and other documents to be pulled so that I can start. It's strange to look without knowing what you're looking for, but that's the purpose.

SO, in addition to that class, I have to have a 3-5 page book critique written by Wednesday and another one in a month.

I'm swamped. Thank goodness this weekend is Labor Day weekend, and thank goodness the boyfriend's got his kids this weekend so that I'm all alone to work on my stuff.

Oh, and I need to grade and reread a short story for my day job.

So, here's the plan/goal.

Today: Read three chapters of the boring history textbook in the morning. Afternoon will be at the archives. Evening will be something... either writing the 3-5 page critique or more reading.

Tomorrow: Finish the chapters of the boring history textbook and write the 2 page paper. Also finish writing the critique if necessary.

Monday: Read!!! I'll work on my day job in the AM, and the PM will be reading the next book for class 2 (a boring-looking book on Renaissance Florence... since I get to choose a book not to do a critique on, I choose that one!).

Busy, busy, busy. But I am NOT going to give up. I'm not a quitter. I have endurance. Hell, reading doesn't hurt, not like any of the 3 marathons and 5 half marathons I've completed.