I was reminded by a friend that I needed to update my blog. The truth is, it's been on my mind, but I've been extremely busy with classes starting back, teaching English and guitar lessons, and lazying about the apartment with Scott after all the busy Christmas festivities (and yes, this was a priority!).
Since my last post, Scott and I celebrated our one-year anniversary together, and I have to say, I can't believe it's been a year already! "2010" seems to have flown by, and our first year of marriage was 12 months of laughing, learning to live in the same space, traveling, and growing as a couple! We've had so much fun together and I love knowing that at the end of the day I get to come home to him (and our two cats of course).
We had a little scare with our sweet Sammy - who has now become quite a diva, I'm afraid. He started squatting different places in the apartment and acting irritated when he urinated. As we had suspected, when we took him to the Emergency Vet Hospital they said he had a serious urinary tract blockage. Nearly 6 overnight stays at the vet and $800 later, we had him back in our apartment with a new, strict diet and a newly-acquired sensitive disposition. His blockage had been our fault, (apparently!) for making him suffer long rides in the car traveling from OH to VA. Needless to say, we won't be taking them home with us anymore and all our traveling will be less stressful for us and the cats. So no real complaints here, except that he now pouts and meows if we're not paying him enough attention (especially Scott!)
The new quarter of classes started a couple weeks ago and I'm taking "Feminist Memoir" and "Virginia Woolf/Elizabeth Bowen." For the memoir class we will get to meet and have lunch with one of the authors and we'll be writing our own feminist memoirs - which I've been so excited about I already started! Right now I'm having fun writing with no inhibitions, but I know when it comes time to turn it in, some of it will change and be deleted. It's interesting to think about as we are reading other women's memoirs - they're so courageous in revealing all their personal secrets with complete strangers. Our class discussions have been both analytic and therapeutic as we discuss the different literary elements of the memoirs, as well as our own differences and similarities with the narrators.
It's equally interesting to be reading these feminist memoirs for class, in addition to the collection of stories Scott got me for Christmas called, Jesus Girls: True Stories of Growing Up Female and Evangelical. The book had been recommended to me sometime ago by a friend here in Ohio. There are so many complexities and issues that arise when you grow up "female and evangelical," and it's been interesting to be able to hear echoes of my childhood in the voices of these women - nights spent at prayer meetings, AWANA, church politics, etc. And it's not necessarily a glorification of that kind of childhood, either - it's very much a critique and critical reflection, which I love! Similar to the feminist memoirs we're reading in class, the authors push you to reflect and ponder your own personal experiences.
I'm equally excited about the Woolf/Bowen class, but we've only had one meeting because of snow. I'd never previously heard about Elizabeth Bowen in any of my Lit. classes, but I've enjoyed reading her novels based in London during WWII.
Along with my literary studies, I am a part of a small team of grad students researching developmental reading and writing students and trying to develop a new curriculum that would help them to be better prepared for success in college. It has been an eye-opening experience as I'm learning so many pedagogical theories - it can be quite overwhelming at times wondering what kind of teacher you want to be. Just when you have it figured out in a neat purposeful statement, you read something else that leaves you stumped! But I'm thankful for this opportunity to learn so much about developmental students and classes. It would quite a challenge to be able to teach one someday and I'm hoping I get the chance.
Well that's what's been going in my life lately! I'm afraid I won't be as faithful about updating as I was this time last year, but hopefully I can update every now and then.
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