Back in the Saddle Again

I should be working on my prospectus for my honors thesis. It is 500 words long and basically just has to include my thesis statement and a survey of the literature on the topic. Of course, given that my thesis statement changes on a daily basis and a "survey of the literature"would require that there be actual "literature" on my topic, I'm finding this rather difficult. Therefore: blog post!

Apparently I think in video montages, because when I try to reflect on my past semester I get a series of images of myself baking, procrastinating, working late into the night because of my procrastination, making foolish online purchases, adventuring to Tennessee, baking, and generally acting a fool. Some highlights follow:

Between the four of us, the residents of Tower 1312 and 1313 have two balconies, which we have put to appropriate use over the course of the semester. Above, C and I gossip about how cute her asymmetrical haircut is.

Below, I spray paint the patio table that E's mom bought C and I, while A supervises and generally looks bored.

In a past life (high school) A just might have been a cheerleader. Below, she shows C and I the intricacies of a move that I believe has the word "doughnut" in it, though I can't be sure. I wasn't great, but I blame that more on the misplaced chair in front of me than any failing on my part. Anyway, this is all taking place in A and E's apartment, which you can tell because of the lack of fresca cans and haphazardly stacked books strewn about the place.

Over fall break C and I continued our tradition (two years now! that counts as a tradition, right?) of roadtripping the south and took off in the Mom Van for Nashville, Tenn. Apparently, it had been calling C's name. When we got there, of course, the city promptly shut up, but more on that later. Here I am on the most touristy street in Nashville, dancing with the King:

In the picture below I'm making a thumbs-down and a pouty face, but that was over the $16 admission price into the Country Music Hall of Fame and not over the museum itself, which was actually pretty awesome. I've been developing an appreciation for old country music - living next door to E can do that to a girl, and the American Studies major in me likes the way the music works to enshrine the myths and stories Americans tell themselves about their country. Plus the museum was full of outrageous fringed dresses, sparkly cowboy boots, and a convertible covered in silver dollars. What's not to like? Besides the outrageous admission price, of course.

We had planned to spend 24 hours in Nashville, cramming in all the sites, but we were actually only there for 10 or 12 hours. This is because a)Nashville was sort of boringly overwhelming (does that make sense?) and b) we kept on getting distracted by things we wanted to do while we were on the road, like visit the Civil War battlefield that you see below, or four Goodwills, or QTs, or Cracker Barrel.


Of course, the trip was ultimately all about lovin' on America, which y'all know I did in abandon:


We even ran into Abraham Lincoln at a bar! What he was doing in Nashville is nobody's guess, but I'll take what I can get when it comes to the Great Emancipator. We were sitting a few tables over and C kept yelling, "Abe! Abe! Come over here! I'm showing my friend the south, you need to come over here!" Lincoln ignored her, which just pissed her off. As I write this, C is telling me that at the time, getting Abraham Lincoln's attention seemed like the most important, vital thing she could be doing. Obviously, she was right.


Later in October A turned 22 and threw a joint birthday party with a friend. It was wine-and-cheese liberal themed, but we were pretty much the only people who dressed up at all. Also, I made bleeding-heart liberal cupcakes, but they were disgusting - I used tablespoons instead of teaspoons for the sugar, utterly destroying their flavor. They were real cool looking though, with jam in the middle to simulate the blood and frosting made to look like the ventricles of the heart. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken. Anyway, here we are:


From left to right, C, E, me and A.

Other than fall break trips and birthday parties, I've been trying to get my work done, hang out with friends, get out of my apartment occasionally, and do other, mundane college-y things. And thats where my life is at now. You can see now that I haven't been writing in the blog because my life hasn't been extraordinarily interesting - I'm basically going to classes, doing work, avoiding work, hanging out with friends, hanging out with friends in order to avoid doing work, and so forth. Y'all can blame this little nugget on Agi - she badgered over Thanskgiving, so I've delivered. I've procrastinated long enough, though... back to the prospectus!