stand up now, diggers all

    Dear Harriet Walter,

    So I've been trying to come up with a pet name for my English professor (with which to refer to her here) ever since I met her last semester and especially more now that I have two classes with her, and something finally clicked. She will henceforth be referred to as Professor-Madame King Arthur. Because she likes to teach in circles. (Forever rearranging tables and chairs to suit her geometrical purposes. Mumsy says it's a very English-professor sort of thing to do.) And because that is just what has stuck in my head lately. (Also because she teaches English and provides tea on Thursdays.)

    In other news, second week of classes is done and the workload has been very light so far, I have a cold again (my third in the space of about a month, I believe), I had a very brief and almost entirely painless walking-conversation with Professor Mine Enemy after chapel today, Dr Mac made us listen to the Diggers' Song as recreated by Chumbawamba in History class today because it was relevant and also cool, and my homework for the weekend looks actually kind of fun. For it I just have to read chapters of interesting history books and fascinating philosophy books and write a short descriptive essay for Lit and read things about writing for Writing class and read Psalms 1 through 72 and various other textbooky things. I like college right now. Liberal arts are fun.

Also the trees are pretty awesome lately.

    If didn't have a cold and had a tube of store-bought refrigerated cookie dough instead of a cold right now my life would be totally rad.

ocean goldfish headscarf dog

    Dear Harriet Walter,

    In lieu of words, here are some pictures from Christmas break.

Mumsy (right) and me.

Exceedingly fat goldfish thing we saw at our local pet store.

Mumsy decided that it would be funny to take a picture of me because I had fallen asleep on the couch with a scarf on my head.

Daddy with poodle Lucy.

    Now for an orange and homework. But not at the same time.

second semester

    Dear Harriet Walter,

    okay

    so

    It's Thursday today and I've been back on campus since Monday and classes started on Tuesday

    and I have my second session of history class tomorrow and my first time in writing class tomorrow

    and there was no second Bible class today because Professor Mine Enemy is out of town and there will be no philosophy class next Tuesday because Dr Mac will be out of town

    So the thing is that I have almost no homework to do over the weekend

    like at all

    I just need to read some poetry stuff for Intro to Lit and read the first 28 chapters of the book of Job for Bible and read a couple historical documents for history if I want to, and I might have something to do for writing class but I won't know 'til tomorrow

    I am like freaking out right now, what do I do with myself all weekend

     (maybe I should....get ahead in my work?)


    (woah)

we're a bit close, yes

    Dear Harriet Walter,

    Last day of vacation! I must pack tonight and tomorrow afternoon fly back to SoCal, where classes will start on Tuesday. This last stretch of break would have been better without an ugly cold knocking me flat, but at least I was on my own bed once again (laid out on the kitchen floor every night for lack of space in the apartment, the plastic mattress-protecting case betraying itself underneath the sheets every time I moved).

    Here is a short and incomplete list of things I have done with my mother lately, both from our time in Oregon and in Idaho.

•  watched movies (including two Thin Man movies, Lawrence of Arabia, and Tangled) and television shows (Sherlock Holmes starring our beloved Jeremy Brett, BBC Sherlock, Dorothy L Sayers Mysteries: Have His Carcase starring you, and Pride and Prejudice 1995, most of these with my father involved as well)
• had heartfelt Talks while snuggling
• shopped for clothes
• shopped for groceries
• shopped for shoes (because regrettable things have happened to my sneakers at college)
• played Scrabble
• made lovely collages on our new folders for school (while playing Scrabble)
• gone to church (both at our church in Oregon and at the church my parents have liked best in their Idaho town so far, which I was very interested to see, it's nondenominational and not very liturgical at all but is very entertaining and seems to be full of quality folks)
• taken dogs on walks (in Oregon, while Best Friend and family were gone for Christmas weekend and I had the care of my dog which they're fostering and their own dog)
• shopped for more clothes
• baked cookies
• baked more cookies
• looked at silly pictures of Dr Mac on Facebook (well, I made her sit with me)
• talked and talked and talked about everything

    And a short and incomplete list of things I have done independently of my mother:

• read books or parts of books (Persuasion by Jane Austen, and also A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett because I was sick and couldn't handle much)
• hung out with my Auntlet and also, too briefly, Friend Bethany
• slept in forever every day
• drawn nice, ugly pictures with my new highlighters

    And things my mother has done independently of me:

• mended my pants
• ???

    There was also a great deal of going over to my grandmother's place in her old folks' home to eat while it was Christmas and my parents and sister were staying with her and my uncles had come to visit for Christmas. And my parents and I went to see my aunt in the hills and her tween children and her horses and assorted animals. And also went to the beach (Oregon Coast!), where it was gloriously freezing and windy and homey.

    Now back to work until the summer, I suppose.