Freedom!!!

I'm back!!!!  Today was my first day without academic commitments.  I did not have to read, write, grade, or turn in any cheaters.  It was lovely.

I went shopping.  Stupid idea.  Getting a haircut was easy, but the traffic afterwards as I attempted to round up a few things was insanely slow.  I remembered why it's a bad idea to go shopping the Saturday before Christmas. 

Now I must ready myself, my stuff and my apartment for my departure tomorrow.  I am going to PA for Christmas, which will be awesome!  I've never spent time in PA.  Once I drove through the southwest tip, but I don't think that really counts.  I'm so excited to see Jimmy's family! (I am sad I won't see my family, though.)  Anyway, lots of presents to wrap, clothes to pack, dishes to wash, etc. 

Iowa

I took a week off and went to see my wonderful friends and family in Iowa for Thanksgiving.  It was lovely.  It was a fast trip, and my darling husband and I logged over twenty-five hours in our car in five days.  Yuck.  Still, I am glad I went.  It was somewhat surreal...I felt a bit like I hadn't really left.  However, when I got back to Fort Collins, I felt like I was 'at home.'  However, home means homework.  So back to the grindstone for three weeks, and then I'm off to Pennsylvania!

La

Today I missed my friend Laura. I really missed her. I don’t really know why I felt this way today as opposed to the myriad days we’ve spent apart, maybe it was because my eyes glanced on the gift she sent me this morning. Whatever it was, it made me remember that sometimes you don’t have to constantly be near to someone to love them dearly. Sometimes a single, powerful experience can forever bring two very different people together in a friendship and understanding that will remain even when you aren’t able to be an everyday presence in each other’s lives. Don’t get me wrong; I wish we didn’t live so far apart. Still, it’s nice to know there is someone out there who loves you that you see about once a year and has no intention of discontinuing your friendship for geographical reasons. A semester in Russia five years ago was enough to create this friendship. I feel blessed.
Probably because I was feeling nostalgic today, I reread a story I wrote about leaving Russia. Laura was there that day. I’m glad I didn’t have to go through that alone. I decided to post it here. Read it if you’re interested. (I think a few of you are already familiar with it.) Goodbye Nizhni

You know you have a problem when...

you have the urge to greet your 9 AM lecture class with "Happy Armistice Day!"  Yes, looking out at all of my students yesterday, I wanted to remind them of the importance, not just of Veterans Day, but of the celebration's beginnings--mostly becaus I'm a gigantic history nerd. But then I remembered that most of them would really not have cared.  Also, I am not the professor, and when I looked at him and said, "Happy Armistice Day," he, being hard of hearing, said, "What?"  So I repeated myself.  Three more times.  Then he thought I was saying something about missing someone and made a comment about that.  And then I said, "HAPPY ARMSTICE DAY" loudly.  And then I realized that wishing the same to the students was a very stupid idea.

Wild Things

Last night I took a break and went to a movie with my wonderful husband.  We watched "Where the Wild Things Are", and I really enjoyed it.  I'd pretty much forgotten the children's book, so I was pretty open to the story told on screen. Having been told I would laugh, I spent most of the movie fighting back tears.  Childhood is hard.  Growing up is harder.  Anyway, making the monsters embodiments of emotions was, I think, particularly effective.  Watching this with a husband who works with kids of about the same age and with the personalities of "Carol" probably affected my take on this even more.  Oh, and on a side note, I would like the mode city Carol created for myself.  Awesome!

The Semester Ends...

in a month (plus finals week)!  I have four  big papers to write, and about 10 more books to read (plus 20 others for one of the aforementioned papers).  I have two tests to grade and one to write.  I am not optimistic about my ability to complete the task before me.  However, at least my beginning of the semester grades are good.  :-) We'll see....

Melty

Colorado is melty.  Wednesday we received at least 14 inches of snow.  My husband got out of two days of work.  I had to go to school.  Everything looked marshmallowy.  I didn't get any pictures because I was doing homework and forgot.  Then the sun came out on Friday.  I looked for the camera.  It was hiding (and continues to hide) from me.  The snow began melting.

Saturday the temperature was in the high 60s or low 70s.  Everything began melting in earnest. I had decided to let the sun clean the mountain of snow off my car earlier in the week.  However, yesterday I needed it.  So I went outside to my car in a hoodie even though I'd worn my heavy winter coat two days before that.  All the snow had melted off of my car except for a foot of snow on my windshield.  So I scraped the snow off of my car.  It was too warm, so I had to take off my hoodie.  So yes, I scraped snow off of my car in a t-shirt.  Unfortunately, there are no pics to document this momentus occasion.

Also, I openned my apartment windows.  All day the sound of water cascading off of the building filtered into my home.  This is a melty place.