Turkey time!

I've arbitrarily decided that it is now appropriate to turn ON my Christmas music playlist. 99 wonderfully holiday terrific songs to get in the spirit. Oooh, that means holiday shows are going to be on soon. (I'll confess that I watched Merry Madagascar last week. It was pretty bad actually.)

But before I jump the gun, Thanksgiving is coming first. So excited to be getting away for a few days. Heading to Atlanta to see my mama and her new place. She has also not hidden at all the fact that I will be going through the "boxes and boxes and boxes of books" among other stuff that she has in storage. Since I've been in Philly, she's been sneakily adding random stuff to care packages, things that I usually have no desire to have anymore or even remembered I owned. Such as a pink winter hat that barely touches the tops of my ears, a Monopoly shoe paperweight, and my collection of cds. On that last one, I called my mom and I was like I have iTunes with all of those on there.. but I fibbed and said I would put them in my car to make her feel better. They have since sat forlornly in my closet, gathering dust. So hopefully me going through it will stem the random mail flow. Plus, maybe a few goodies will be uncovered. :)

I was also reminded about traveling during this time of year, and I am so thankful not to be making the Gainesville-Boca-Gainesville drive. Stressful, harrowing, boring, long, frustrating, uggh. The Sunday after Thanksgiving and the one after Spring Break are the two WORST days to make that drive, hands down. I always felt so bad (and nervous) about all the college kids in those clustered pileups. A group of 3 cars, another 2 like a quarter of a mile later, on and on and on. ::Shudder:: I'm not even going to keep talking about this. Oh! But I am reminded of the endless drive with Ali and Dana freshman year. Classic 8 hour drive for what should have been 4 hours, but lots of fun nonetheless. (Ali, I still have those Thanksgiving drive mix cds you made in my car.)

And since this is going reverse chronologically apparently, this weekend was super lowkey. Read (and read and read). Watched Up! which was really cute but also somewhat sad. The little wilderness scout kid was cute. Love animated movies. Got pho from the Vietnamese place down the block. Amaaaazing. I had been there once with Pancho when I first moved in and at the time we were ravenous and just devoured it because we'd been moving and unpacking all day so I guess I hadn't noticed just how big the serving was. Yesterday I got it take out and so brought it home and realized I didn't have any bowls big enough. I used my Pyrex casserole dish and it just barely contained it. Insane! But made for yummy lunch leftovers today.

Has anyone seen the new Target commercial about "Nancy" who is planning for her first Thanksgiving? I've seen it more than a few times, and I love it every time. Although it terrifies me for the distant future when I will probably need to cook a Thanksgiving dinner. yikes. But its really cute how she practices serving the table and has like paper cut-out drumsticks. Just watch it.
It also triggered some sort of holiday shopping switch in me, but then I realized that not only do I not have any money, but I also just shouldn't buy anything for holiday decorating. a) I have so much crap as it is and b)all the moving around --of which I will be doing again next year--- has me hyper-aware of all the stuff I have. Feeling very conflicted about consumption. I also just read The Consumers' Republic for a class about how post-WWII basically the American Dream was now to be able to buy all the middle-class goods (refrigerators, tvs, cars, toys) that hadn't been in production during the war years. and it all essentially was wrapped up in this language of citizenship and democracy all benefiting the economy and making the U.S. prosperous. It has warped my thinking about why we buy things. and this is deeply saddening seeing as I love(d) to shop. lol.

Some things I like this week/lately...

• Cobra Starship- Good Girls Go Bad. Pancho has liked this band for awhile and I suppose they're okaay, but I just really like this new song. Leighton Meester shamelessly plugged it on Gossip Girl a few weeks ago AND it was on Greek as a dance skit. Very catchy.
• Speaking of Greek, Cappy and Casey are back together. I finally got to catch up on the episodes and I was sitting here smiling at the computer. Oh, I love good romantic-y tv.
  
• NPR podcasts make my walks to/from school so happy (and funny/liberal/informed). Wait...Wait..Don't Tell Me literally has me laughing out loud as I'm walking, grinning from ear to ear and probably looking like an idiot. Sometimes I wish I had a real commute so that I could listen to more.
  
• I've gotten some class papers back. and I'm feeling a little more secure. Don't think they're gonna change their minds and kick me out. at least not yet anyways. !
• Pancho was here last weekend. It was awesome and really made me eager for when we're living together again. Turns out I do like sharing meals with another human being. and snuggling. I miss that, too. Although I get absolutely no work done when he's around so... perhaps its a good thing right now.
• Yay, Gators! (Enough said.)
• Although I think its too early to have the red cups out, I thoroughly enjoyed my Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks today. Officially become an espresso fiend. Occasionally the thought occurs to me that my grad student habits are probably taking time off my life. but then, there will be time to deal with that later, right?
• Tomorrow is Friday! but seriously, it was JUST Friday. Time is going too too fast. I'm planning on having some girls from my class over on Sunday to have waffles. I haven't made any in awhile and I figured it'd be sort of piggy to eat them all myself so.. good reason to be social. The gift that keeps on giving. Thanks, Ali & Walfies! :)
  

JSTOR should be my default webpage

I have been a verry delinquent blogger. Frankly, I can't remember what has happened in the last 3 weeks except that I went to Baltimore for a long weekend. We had a Fall Break, but this is sort of misleading, it was really just a single day off. Although fortunately, its a day that I have class so hallelujah for saving those 3 hours PLUS the 10, 11, usually 13 hours that would have gone towards reading. Spent a very enjoyable weekend watching an absolute ton of college football and the season premiere of Ugly Betty! And seeing Pancho, too, of course.

And, big news, I finally got a new phone. After 4 years and 2 months of that awful awful heavy and brick-like phone (Walf & Ali, remember those struggles of fitting it in my wristlet with my keys, walking over to the Gator games?), I made the leap. Nothing fancy. I told the sales person "I just want to make calls. No photos, no email, just calling." Turns out, they don't even make basic phones anymore. I've got a camera now and all sorts of cool things. I especially like the tip calculator, no more consulting my little faded tip sheet in my wallet. and no more flip phone, this one slides to cover the number pad. Everything works great, except that my apartment is like a black hole. Calls just don't go through, I don't get missed call alerts either, so Pancho has taken to calling several times in a row, incrementally spaced in hopes that something goes through. I just worry about other people calling that I'm never aware of. egh. technology. and big buildings.

So, in the 8th week of classes now. This is a crunch week for me. and I'm just beginning to feel like I'm figuring it out. Which is nice of course but also somewhat frustrating to look back at how I was spending my time before. It has become painfully obvious that I need to be getting up earlier so as to start working, how much stricter I have to be about leisure time, and the need to balance the work I do for each class rather than do everything for one which leads me to skimp on another. Good lessons, now I just need to follow through. and try to remain sane.

Random other things so that I don't keep talking about school:

• I bought tights! I've spoken at length about my anxiety for dressing in the North, and I feel like I'm making progress. I got both grey and black and I've worn them both already under skirts. I'm already sick of wearing pants (which is not good considering its not even winter yet) and any day above 60 is basically fair game to do tights. Which is another thing I've noticed, I can already get away with much lighter layers than I could in Florida for a given temperature.
• The leaves are gorgeous here. and falling like crazy. Its been raining though so they're all a big soggy mess that stick to everything. but a very pretty mess.
• I've been reading The Omnivore's Dilemma (very slowly. basically the only time I allow myself not to read for school is when I eat. which is sort of ironic in this case.) and I'm only about 35 pages in but it's good. I don't know how or even if it will affect what I eat, but I'm curious to learn more about this whole local/organic/follow the path of corn trend that has been going on.
  

Fall

Fall is officially here, with all of its obvious signs: Cool weather, leaves just beginning to turn color, I can leave the windows open all day, seems acceptable now to make hot chocolate, and butternut squash is back in season! I'm a little sad about it not being summer anymore, feel as though I hardly got to experience it and the chance to wear shorts, but fall just seems so much more cozy.

I had my first presentation today. The first thing I've had to actually do, that wasn't just read and discuss books. I had to give a "state of the field" report on the historiography of immigration. Basically identify and look at the major works that historians have done in immigration history, give their thesis, what argument they made, and how it affected historians writing after them. Discuss trends (like looking at Irish, Jewish, women, ethnic groups etc etc) and the new theoretical frameworks that came into play over the years. I of course got myself all worked up over it, As I am wont to do. Had lots of notes, probably talked a little more than I should have, but hey at least I was thorough. I think it went fine, my perspective is still a little skewed at this point. Afterwards I asked the prof if he had any feedback and he seemed to think it was fine so I guess I should just move on. :) Its very new this whole attitude I sense about grades just not really mattering anymore. Like, you do the reading, come to class and discuss, and thats it for most of the time. Never going to be tested on it or need to write about it (at least in my case, not the PhDs so much because they have General Exams) so its very much a learning for your own knowledge type of thing. It is taking some getting used to.

But, there is so much interesting stuff that I have been reading. I started a pile of those books that maybe some day I will go back to and actually get to read from cover to cover and soak it all up. Such a wide mixture of things-- the Progressive era, Japanese American immigrants, British missionaries in Jamaica. My brain is sort of on overload.

Grad school is kicking my butt. I am trying to keep up on the reading, on class discussions, on research, well.. everything really. It's difficult. I have very little to add to discussions which is rough when its a 3 hour seminar and basically your entire grade depends on it. Its still the first couple weeks though so I'm telling myself I'm still adjusting and will pick up speed. Rather soon though I hope.

Although Pancho was visiting this weekend and I have to say it really reminded me of what life outside of the school bubble is like. We went to the history grad happy hour, out for dinner with CJ in Center City, did errands, watched football and the Gators win!, and hung out. It was so nice to just relax a bit. He won't be able to visit again for 25 days (of course I counted) but it is more often than we visited before so I guess I can deal with it. I realized though how much I already miss having another person to eat dinner with. I've gotten lazy by myself. Stouffer's french bread pizza and some strawberries on the side? Yep, thats what I tossed together tonight.

Finally bought all my books. Spent awhile tracking down the best prices online and in bookstores. Feeling quite accomplished now that I won't be chasing things down during the semester. The grand total was $677.13. And to think that I ever complained as an undergrad. Only bright side is that I had budgeted to spend more, so technically I didn't do too bad. I guess. Just a little shocking to have actually spent that much although its 30-odd books. Some interesting looking titles, too, so I will be sure to share once I get to them. in my frenetic, speed-reading pace that I'm still learning how to do effectively.

Today was actually kind of nice. Got to watch new start of season of How I Met Your Mother and enjoyed another Gossip Girl. Curious to see how them at college is going to turn out. And since I no longer have cable nor DVR, I'll be hitting Hulu to catch up on House and Greek. I'm really hoping that somehow I can keep up on my shows, but I recognize that I might finally have reached a point where my academic career really can't take an hour break to watch. Sad.

And. After an 8 month hiatus, I now subscribe again to Time. I was giddy when my first issue arrived. Its like catching up with an old friend. Except I don't have anyone to casually leave it for on the kitchen table anymore....

Grad School

I have negative time to post about Penn/grad school/Philly because I'm already behind on the reading schedule I've set up for myself. But I will fill in with a few details until I can devote a really awesome post (sometime. eventually. probably by the time I graduate).

I've been here exactly a week. My apartment is fantastic, very cozy, I'm finally unpacked and will post pictures once I've actually taken some. I currently do not have internet which is a long and vexing situation that better be fixed by Thursday. so I am utilizing both the library's WiFi and someone's wireless in my building in the meantime. shhh.

My classes this semester are The Nature of Sex (feminist/gender/sexuality theory), 20th Century US History, and a foundations sort of course on theory and methods in history which I have for the whole year. Haven't been to the 20th Century one yet because its on Mondays so will check it out tomorrow. I'm really not quite sure what to make of things yet. The reading is daunting but it seems like that is all I will be doing. The Nature of Sex class is heavy reading with only 2 3-page response papers and the foundations thing is like one big paper similar to my senior thesis and that 30-pager isn't due until April. Neither of those classes is straight up history, its all theory and analyzing frameworks and methods and things that I don't understand yet. We had to read a book for the first class for one of them and I seriously could not understand what people were saying in discussion. People name drop historians and Diderot and talk about deconstruction and basically make me wonder at what point in my academic career I was supposed to have picked up on a lot of this. I'm really ready for the adjustment period to be over as quickly as possible so I can be right along with everyone making interesting points.

ANYWAYS. The other first-years are very nice and I've made some friends. There was a history grad student happy hour on Friday so I ventured across town on the subway to Old City. It was nice getting to meet other people in the department and be more social with people that I do have classes with. Figured out the bus system to ride back because apparently its not safe to ride the subway alone at night. So that was fine. I hung out with CJ for a long while on Saturday night. He is just done with his first week in law school and seems to be doing fine and reading a lot, we caught up on the last 3 years since Hume pretty much and then went exploring my neighborhood. Ended up at The Greek Lady for dinner. Really good lamb gyro.
Then I went to a picnic today for the department as a back to school thing. Gorgeous weather, nice and sunny and got to meet even more people.

more on Penn and Philly to come....