Gone to Africa

Chris has begun his very long trip to Tanzania - I just dropped him off at the airport. I didn't know how I would react because he'll be gone for a month, and I already miss him, corny as it may sound. After the nervousness of simply getting there, I'm sure that he'll have an amazing experience, and will hopefully come back the the States in one piece.

As for me, I'll keep myself occupied with exploring the trails in Elm Creek Park Reserve, reading a ton of books (the stack of books to read continues to grow), spending some time with friends, and hopefully climbing at V.E. It will definitely be a big change in routine for me since I've spent so much time with Chris over the past how many months.

I am excited for this coming weekend though since I will finally be going home to see my parents and Pokey. It will be good to spend time with them without having to worry about studies. I'm sure I'll miss school someday, but I don't expect myself to begin glorifying the experience for at least a few years.

Iowa Track & Field

In order to start off the already three-day weekend right, I took Friday off work and headed down to Des Moines with Chris to help him photograph the Big Ten Regional Track Meet at Drake University. Although I was primarily along for the ride, I was put straight to work (after I offered of course). I ended up running errands for Chris, but also attempting to take a lot of pictures. It was a chance for me to see Chris in action as well as figure out some more about how to take good pictures. He ended up using a couple of my pictures, one of which is this:


The main reason that I skipped out on work is because we wanted to spend some time together before Chris left for Tanzania for a month. His plane takes off tomorrow morning, and then it's a great long flight for him...you can read more about it on his blog.

The U set us up in a suite (super nice!) with a king-size bed, which we lost each other in. It was as if we were on opposite ends of the world - very comfortable. We drove back Saturday night after two days of shooting in both sun and clouds/drizzle. It was a good experience and tiring. I have an even greater respect for the work Chris does.

Christopher Moore, Comedic Genius

In an effort to keep some sanity over the last part of the week, I was reading Christopher Moore's first book Practical Demonkeeping. If you are unfamiliar with the author as I was when I read his Christmas classic The Stupidest Angel, all you have to know is that he is crazy hilarious. His twisted novels are the kind of books you read when you feel particularly silly or have had a really bad day, or any kind of day in between.

I really hesitate to provide a synopsis because it's one of those books that you just have to read for yourself. If you have even the slightest twisted sense of humor, you will find the books funny. Ok, I know you're dying to at least get a glimpse, and here is one of my favorite parts:

The demon had been wired since he had eaten the hitchhiker the night before. The guy must have been on cocaine or speed. Why did drugs affect the demon when poisons did not phase him? It was a mystery.

The demon tapped Travis on the shoulder with a long reptilian claw. "I want to ride on the hood," he said. His voice was like rusty rails rattling in a can.

"Enjoy," Travis said, waving across the dashboard.

The demon climbed out the window and across the front, where he perched like a hood ornament from hell, his forked tongue flying in the wind like a storm-swept pennon, spattering the windshield with saliva. Travis turned on the wipers and was grateful to find that the Chevy was equipped with an interval delay feature.

Ha ha ha...I enjoyed the book a lot, and have several of his other books to read, including Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. I am excited :)

The Myths of War

I just finished reading War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges in which he delves into our fascination and intoxication with war. As a war correspondent, he describes his addiction to bloody conflicts in depressing detail. He describes some of the scenes and tells some of the stories he has heard. The book is an eye-opening look into the myths we use to justify the killing of millions of people.

The author's brutal honesty provides the proper basis to examine war's appeal and that no one is safe from it's destructive power. The true power of the book can only be experienced by reading it yourself - it may be difficult to get through but it is a good read and highly relevant because it sheds light on the blindfold that national leaders and citizens themselves have used throughout history to justify and often cover up the atrocities that occur.

After finishing, I couldn't help crying because of the images and the stories Hedges brought forward. It made me think of all of the people in my life that have fought in the military and how the experience changed them. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is searching to understand a little bit more about our, as in human civilization's, bloody past and present.

Graduation Pics

Chris put up a really great picture of us from yesterday on his blog.

Graduation - check!

Yesterday was our graduation ceremony, and it was busy and tiring but an overall great ceremony. It lasted about two hours with two great speakers: the student speaker, a former English teacher (correction: former tenured English professor), brought some wonderful insights from literature to discuss the different ways of viewing the world and that we have to decide for ourselves the path we want to go down, at least that is what I took away from the speech. Our commencement speaker was Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute. He opened up his speech with quite a bit of comedy - made me laugh - and then got into a discussion of policy initiatives that need to be worked on. Good speech, but unfortunately I was really warm in the gown and hood which caused me to get a little sleepy. Perhaps if you want to know more about what was said, you should ask someone who was a little more awake.

Afterwards there was a reception where I got to see some of my friends and professors, and get a ton of pictures taken of me. Chris's sister took a lot of really fun pictures which I will pass on as soon as I get them. For now, here is a pic that Mom took:



After everything quieted down a little, my family and Chris's family went out to eat at Khan's, a really good and really neat restaurant in Roseville, which was basically a stir-fry that you put together with whatever ingredients you want and then you give it to the cooks to fry it up. The goofiest part in my opinion was me ordering hot tea when I was boiling all afternoon. In my defense, the tea was excellent.

So now I'm going to take this week to rest before I start my internship next Monday. I'm hopefully going to be doing a lot of reading, biking, crafty stuff, and good 'ole relaxing.

Done with classes!

Woohoo! I just finished my last final, meaning that I'm done with all of my classes! Woohoo! I still have to give a presentation of my professional paper, which I have scheduled for next Friday (the only time both of my committee members could meet). So I'll be completely done with everything after that happens. It will be great! I'm still nervous about the presentation, but it's good because I care.

I have next week off, which will be great because I'm going to relax and read stuff that I want to, and all I have to work on is my presentation. It will be fantastic! I'm planning on doing some more biking - the trails behind my aunt and uncle's house are really nice and it's possible to do some really great loops. Thus far I've seen three wild turkeys and a turtle - cool stuff. I sounded just like a little kid then...hahaha. My mind is already beginning to revert back after having to think so much.

Graduation is tomorrow! Luckily this ceremony will be shorter than any other graduation I think or at least I hope so. We have funny hoods now, but I really don't understand why they call them hoods because they are really like shawls, but whatever. The whole outfit looks goofy if you ask me, which I'm guessing you weren't.

Time for me to space out....

A little nervous

Oh boy. I just sent my committee member the final draft of my paper after getting the 'good enough' stamp from my paper adviser. I can't even describe how nervous I am right now, the reason being that hopefully next week, I will be presenting the defense of my paper. I am terrified. I have to convince myself that the fact that my paper adviser said it was good enough means that it is fine and that pending my presentation performance, I will get my diploma. I'm just worried that they are going to ask me really tough questions or that my committee member will completely disagree with my assessment or something else that will prevent me from tasting the sweetness of freedom.

This is me right now:


Or maybe I'm being a complete worry-wart for no apparent reason other than to freak myself out and making my stomach turn. I'm hoping for the latter.

Life at a slower pace

These past few days have been much more of a breeze. I still have one paper left, two finals, and my professional paper stuff (I'm still waiting to hear back once again). And then I'm done!

The past couple of days I've been taking things at a much slower pace. I finished the Woodward book State of Denial which deals with the Bush administration during the war (very depressing to know how little planning was involved - as if it wasn't already obvious).

A bunch of us just went to a Minnesota Thunder soccer game in St. Paul. It was ok, but the Thunder lost. And besides that, I've been reading In Retrospect by McNamara for research for the other paper I have to write. It's amazing how arrogant the man was/is.

Chris and I finally went climbing again after two weeks or more. Too long! I'm already out of shape and have to work my way back up. We're thinking about climbing outside soon (!).

Other than that, we've been relaxing a lot more, which is a huge switch from what it was!

I had my last day at OTC on Friday (the student job that I've had for a while). The office was really sweet and threw me a little party with cake and punch, and they got me flowers and a gift card to Circuit City. The staff were great and it was good working for them. They made me bring the rest of the cake back home with me, which all of us have been working on over the past couple of days. Mmm mmm.

So Close to Being Done!

My last week-and-a-half is shaping up, but I am lacking serious motivation. I was doing so good when I was writing the bulk of my professional paper, but now that steam is gone. The only thing that really keeps me going is the fact that I will be graduated in just a week-and-a-half.

I have turned in the second draft of my professional paper and still hope to be able to schedule the presentation before graduation. I don't know if I will be able to though because one of my committee members is extremely busy right now.

I do have some really exciting news: I got that foot-in-the-door internship! I am excited that I have a job for the summer. Money will look so nice in my bank account before it leaves a split second later :)

And to top it all off, I have started exercising again by stealing my aunt's bike and taking it for a ride through the park reserve. I haven't ridden a bike for a year, and so I still feel kind of wobbly, so I bought a helmet from the U (deeply discounted, which was great). I look like a total dork, and Connie has a picture to prove it. Why do we have to look so retarded to prevent ourselves from taking a fall and ending up retarded? (I borrowed that from Christopher btw). My lungs hate me since I haven't worked-out seriously for a really long time. But it will get better....I hope...