End of semester crazyness

This week has been exhausting.  My school gets the entire week next week off for Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving, there are only two more weeks left in the semester! Since I will be at my vacation residence (my husband's apartment in The City) all next week, and two presentations immediately when I come back, I've been trying to cram finishing everything into this week. No such luck.  There is so much still to do.  I'm about to tear my hair out, and I've already given myself a stomachache.

I'm hoping to be able to work two good full days next Monday and Tuesday, and possibly part day Sunday, while my husband is at work. It would be *great* to have everything done. I hate end of the semester!

What else? I've finished watching the Assassin's Creed walkthrough. It was entertaining to watch, and I'm looking forward to when people start uploading playthroughs of the AC II game. From a watcher's perspective, I took issue with the main character killing his informants after beating them and interrogating them, and the fight sequences seemed repetitive. There's a copy of the game at the vacation residence, so hopefully I'll get to play it a bit. There's also been mention of sending me with a copy of the game (there's a Nintendo DS prequel), or a purchase of AC II so that I can play it over the break. Nifty!

I want to give a shout out to all those taking November to expand on your creativity. I know some of you are participating in National Novel Writing Month while others are creating scrapbooks, and others taking on art projects. I read once that we are made in the image of a Creator God...likewise we too, are creators. It believe that it is not just the "arts" that count as creativity, but any movement away from entropy should be considered an act of creation.

I've been feeling inspired, but I don't know where to begin. And I don't have time to begin until after the semester. I'd like to learn photography, and I'd like to learn to draw. They are both visual media, and there were be some overlap in learning, but I'd like to take things in different directions for the two media. For photography, at this point, I'm not interested in learning about lenses and settings and such. I want to know that given I had the most basic camera--single lens, non-adjustable, disposable--how would I take beautiful pics? Once I've mastered that, lenses and settings and such would just be icing on the cake, right? Perhaps I need to start my learning on art theory?

My desire to learn to draw takes the opposite direction. I can't draw a straight line without a straight edge, and my "circles" are a joke. I've had enough drafting classes to understand perspective and the idea of converting 3D to 2D. My deficiencies with drawing ARE technical.

Photography is capturing light in a box. Drawing, in my mind, requires physical skill, and the ability to convert shapes to lines, colors to shading. For example, the photo at the top of the post. I did nothing. I simply walked past the rosebush when the sunlight was at just the right angle.

Finally, as suggested by a reader, I will include an update on my penny. I found the penny on the sidewalk a month and a half ago. I picked it up, took it up the stairs, and instead of taking it inside, I placed it on my exterior window ledge, next to the door. Since there is a common walkway along all the upstairs apartments (think motel), I did not expect the penny to stay there for long, especially since some of the upstairs residents have young children, and the window is at their height. However, the penny remains.

I travel tomorrow morning, getting up at 3 am. I still need to pack.

A Talking Week

First, a few comments:
After snowing 8 inches over 2 days last week, the temps are back around 70, and it's a beautiful fall day. I plan to do some driving around town tomorrow and try to get a good photo of the colors. I'm a little disappointed: on Saturday one of the nearby towns is having a fall foliage tour on its historical railway, and but the tickets are sold out. Next year, I must remember to start keeping my eyes open for the ticket sales starting in September!


I've noticed my postings are now running late, a Thursday/Saturday schedule instead of Tues/Fri. I am still committed to 2 posts a week...I've just been busier now that it's later in the semester and things are getting pushed back later in the week.

And now:
I wanted to thank everyone who read my blog last week and e-mailed me comments. I promise to reply to everyone this weekend. It was really great to hear from people.

The theme this past week was social interaction. I haven't talked this much in weeks. I had two friends approach me to ask for my perspective on different issues. I gave two talks: one to a class, a practice talk to a prof (and I get to give it to the department on Friday!) And also on Friday the department is going out for happy hour. I know this might not seem like much, but my typical week has me sitting in class in the morning, then going home straight after class. It doesn't bother me. I don't have anything worthwhile to say, anyway.

Travel musings

To step back in time about a week:

I'm glad to report that my suitcase survived the not at all arduous journey to the City and back. All the paint remained on the suitcase. No one walked off it, but then again, in the dozens of trips that I've taken before this last time, no had walked off with my suitcase, either.

My attempts to make my suitcase stand out actually heightened my fear that someone would mistakenly walk away with it. Would someone else, also with a painted suitcase, just quickly glance, "Oh, I see paint" and walk away with mine? Would they take the time to actually look at the pattern on the paint to make sure it was the right bag? When picking out my bag from the cart, I was terrified that I would pick out the wrong bag. I would keep looking down at the suitcase, checking and rechecking, as I walked through the terminal.

It wasn't until I was about to leave the the City and I caught a commercial on TV--a Southwest commercial showing workers putting luggage on a plane--and saw that none of the suitcases were painted with a design, that it hit me that painted suitcases were rare. I was not until I was in Dulles, sitting in one of their "Travelling lounges" next to a flight attendant that had a multicolored tassel on her suitcase, that I was fully at ease. It was that moment that I remembered that a colored ribbon or tie was what almost everyone used to identify their suitcases, just this little piece of fabric. And I had painted 5 sides of my suitcase--including painting my initials, in full spray paint glory, on the back. No, I think my suitcase was distinctive and hard to mistake.

The morning before I left the City, I went to the restaurant The Egg and I. I've been trying to find good breakfast places around the City. I'm convinced that one has not really experienced a town until one has searched out the best places to have breakfast there. One normally hears discussions about where to go for lunch or dinner, but people rarely have arguments over where to go for breakfast. The choices seem so limited: either the all-American egg/batter-based carb/salted meat or coffee/pastries. Where would you go for an Asian-fusion breakfast? Greek breakfast? Indian breakfast? Maybe those things don't exist in your town, but part of the adventure is finding that out.

The Egg and I is a suburban place, not a greasy spoon--its pancakes are whole wheat, the cheese on its omelets smelled chevre-ish--and the lunch-level prices reflected that as well. The particular restaurant I visited (it's a chain restaurant) was quite new, and the decor reflected a French countryside palette. There was a banquet area, and a group of about 1st grade girls were having a party. This was about 10am on a Saturday. Service was friendly and prompt. It was a good restaurant, but not outstanding, either. There was plenty of food, and breakfast held me until dinner. This would have been a good thing, except that I met with friends for a goodbye lunch right before I went to the airport, and I could only take about 3 bites of my lunch.

I arrived back in Dulles about 8:30pm. I rode in one of their travelling lounges, which was actually quite neat--it's much like a rail car in its size, about 1.5 - 2 times the width of a normal bus, with seats lining the side and lots of open room in the middle. It was very comfortable, and, yes, felt lounge-like. When I arrived in my terminal, it was a little before 9pm and the shops were all closing, pulling down grills across their entrances. I wanted to get Auntie Anne's pretzels, located at gate B76. I was at B3 or so. I started walking down the concourse, but only got to about the B40's before I accepted the fact that I was not going to make it in time. Did I mention that the concourse is one straight long line? It was neat, though, walking though this gigantic concourse, soaring ceilings, all glass, and having it be basically closed, all the waiting areas empty and dimmed. It was peaceful and grand. I imagine that this is what the architects wanted me to feel.

Once we landed in University Town, someone in the front of the plane announced the football game score, with our team was fairly far behind, and that there was only 11 minutes left in the game. There were groans of disappointment, but then, also a slight bit of tension. You see, there is only one main road out of the airport. This road leads directly to the stadium. From the stadium, one can then turn to get into town. In other words, we had to get off the plane and onto the road in 11 minutes, or else we would be stuck with the 100,000 people leaving the stadium. (And yes, the stadium holds 100,000 people. I think 107,280 to be more exact. This is a football town.)

I was lucky. I just beat the crowd. It was good to be home.