It's made from VEGANS! It's VEGAAAAANS!

Well, Thanksgiving passed with a minimum of food-preparation panicking and social awkwardness. The Boyfriend made mashed potatoes and stuffing, and I made the tofurky and green bean casserole (I also microwaved the gravy, but I don't want to consider that "cooking"). I had a moment of panic when I realized that I should have thawed the tofurky 24 hours prior to cooking, so we had to cook it for an hour longer than we thought. This meant that our dinner guest arrived and we had to sit around for 45 minutes waiting for the food. All in all, however, it was a success: This weekend has subsequently been spent reading about Walt Whitman and finally finishing Sister Carrie. I just want this quarter to be over with so I can get on with important things, like PhD applications, knitting, and sleeping. Speaking of knitting, I am working on several things right now, but they are all for people who might possibly see this. So, no pictures for now. But rest assured that I am making things.

And so on.

Last night, The Boyfriend and I went out to get coat hooks and came home with a tiny Christmas tree. I doubt that we'll be putting up any other decorations, but I like having it around. Makes me feel like a grown-up, what with our own tree and all. But I start collecting those little snow-bound Christmas villages, you all have permission to put me out of my misery. I think we might be having people over for dinner on Thursday. Gah. This is scarily adult. I think I might counter the maturity of "having some friends of our over for Thanksgiving" (and what might be considered a "dinner party") by insisting everyone play with our Legos.

And the winners are:

I've narrowed down the PhD application list to six schools. In order of preference they are: 1. OSU -- I'd love to stay here and work with our brilliant Anglo-Saxonist, Drew Jones. 2. University of Massachusetts at Amherst -- Dr Jones knows the A-S there, and it would get me back to the East coast. I miss rude people, cold winters, and assumed liberalism. 3. University of Washington (Seattle) -- again, famous A-S there. And I've heard Seattle is a wonderful city. Seattle and Amherst frequently trade places on the list. 4. University of Wisconsin at Madison -- Well-known A-S here, too. Having someone well-known to guide my dissertation was the top priority in choosing most of these, as you can see. 5. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign -- Yep. The Anglo-Saxonist in residence is a good one. 6. University of Tennessee -- Ok, so I really have no desire to go to TN. I've heard it's in the middle of beautiful countryside, but I've also heard its in the middle of nowhere. This is more or less my safety school, since they were foolish enough to admit me for an MA. And that's it. My life for the next four years has presented itself in a neat little list to my advisors, and I'm damn near being overwhelmed with it all. I've just got to keep thinking about the office I'll have someday. It'll have a carpet, armchair, electric tea kettle, my lovely Medieval painting by Dottie, and hopefully a large stuffed raven looming over my desk, like the professor I met with yesterday. Off to teach and learn. And not worry about the applications. At all.

Quick!

Someone buy me one of everything! Click for expensive 60's clothing

This is what I've been knitting lately. A Christmas present for someone who shall remain nameless. Aside from that, I'm very busy with school work. I think I'm writing a paper on Walt Whitman, and another on Shelley. And also getting those PhD applications sent out. This is going to be an expensive and frantic November.

Conclusion: inconclusive

I handed out some mid-quarter surveys to my English class last week. I like to do this just to see how the course is going, make sure the students don't hate it, and defend anything they do hate. Anyway, I thought I'd share some of the better responses here. The question (one of them) was: What do you think (so far) of the Nature theme? And the answers: "I'm not a huge fan of the nature theme but it could definitely be worse." "I <3 nature." "I hate Nature. Its too abstract." "I enjoy the Nature theme. I am a Liberal Environmentalist." And my favorite, the kid who read my mind: "Nature is what all the cool kids are doing, so I'm cool, and it's what I do. We could spice it up a bit by ... well... come to think of it, nature is kind of a bland subject... let's talk about space!"

We have leaves!

My first really busy week is over, and now leading into the first really busy weekend. I wrote a paper for my Romantics seminar and did a presentation on Emily Dickinson's critical reception in the 1890s for my American Lit class. The latter would have gone better if I hadn't accidently titled the handout "Emily Dickinson's Critical Reception in the 1980's." And if my terrifyingly brilliant professor hadn't stared at me over the tops of her glasses the whole time. The Boyfriend's at a show, I'm sitting here eating frozen blueberries, having a beer, and watching a MST3K episode. Things are good for now. Tomorrow brings: a talk on Constantinople in 1204, picking up books, grading papers, and doing lots of reading. I hope to FINALLY finish this spacehopper hat tonight. I'm itching to knit something that isn't hat shaped.