Reason #127 why it's fun to date a fellow English Major! 

Can I just say... I love being referred to "the English major" at work. 

The other day, the head of the Tax department called me just to ask where an apostrophe went.  haha!  Kind of feels like I have a magic power... so much for English being a "useless degree" =P

So excited to be reading Marilyn Butler's Jane Austen and the War of Ideas.

I have been wanting to read her literary criticism for almost two years. But I finally get to read it for a paper I'm doing.

I had this amazing God-moment this afternoon. I was sitting doing homework and my mind was going through all the things I needed to get done. All of this was while I was reading this book. Then all of a sudden I realized I was in one of those moments... one of those moments when you are startled with the realization that you are fulfilling your destiny. I mean, obviously, we are always living in our destiny. But there are times when we find ourselves in the midst of doing what we have dreamed of. For me that's Austen literary critique--but it doesn't matter what the specifics are. I am just amazed that I get to live this dream with my Father :)

Good thing I got some quality friend time in at the prayer meetings, this last weekend, and today at school because I just realized that I have 2 weeks to read 3 books and do a book review = me locked away reading for the next 2 weeks!

Oh, plus I have a phonetics midterm the next day, which should be a breeze.

As hard as it is, I really am LOVING school. The three books I'm reading: Caleb Williams by William Godwin and then 2 literary criticisms of the novel: The Godwinian Novel and, the one I'm most excited for, Romantics, Rebels, and Reactionaries.

"It's gonna be great.

It's gonna be wild.

It's gonna be full of me..." =)

Classes are in full swing and I already feel busy...

But in the midst of all the craziness, Jesus has been so faithful to remind me that He is with me, in it all. The first day of class afforded crystal clear views of the Olympics, Cascades, and my beloved Rainier. Even the first day of fasting was alright. His presence is just enveloping. Today, despite the clouds and the grey, the bald eagle (I've decided to name him Reginald :) had perched himself on the fountain on the westside of 520.

These little things are just reminders of His promises...

Not only that, but today, as I was waiting outside my linguistics classroom, one of my best friends showed up. We had both signed up for this class and were afraid it was going to be really boring. But seeing one another was so uplifting. Helen and I have taken 3 English classes before and I'm looking forward to being with her again.

All that to say, His faithfulness has been so obvious and His goodness is just overwhelming at times!

*Sigh... this has been a very long and very stretching week.

But I can breathe easy for a few hours :)

So, thoughts on this week:

- I may be dropping my communication major and focusing all on English. There's an opportunity that I could take a graduate seminar next quarter. This would be an enormous privilege but would also be very challenging. I can only take it though if I am not pursuing com. I need to know by monday :-/ I'm leaning towards dropping com. It would open up a lot of opportunities. If I dropped com I would be able to apply for Honors English, take more Lit classes (including a grad seminar), take a few more electives, and I could even apply teach a Freshman Interest Group (FIG). It would be pretty incredible. I just need to hear a definitive from the Lord and from my parents.

- I took my first step this week in turning Inception into a topic scholarly study. We had to write a media critique for my com class. In nearly all my classes I've been seeing "Inception links." (If you flip through my copy of Heart of Darkness you will find multiple notes referencing Inception--there are SO many connections between that book and that movie). After bringing the film up a couple of times in my literature class (it DID apply), my professor made a brilliant point: "Inception is your generation's Matrix." It's very, very true. In my dreams of being a professor, I would make my students watch the film and use it as a critical theory. (PS - so excited for it to come out on tuesday, but i have to wait to watch it till my finals are over):

- Because I had to read such a horrible book last weekend for my lit class, I decided to buy some new worship music to play in the background. This was fun, but challenging because 3 of my favorites all came out with albums this month ("Joy" by forerunner music, "Live at the Banks House" by Will Reagan and the United Pursuit Band, and "Come Away" by Jesus Culture--which the title track of is a beautiful cover of two UPB songs :). Well, I bought a couple of songs from each album. But I had to inform you that my favorite, and the one I've had on repeat most of this week, is "One Thing Remains" by Chris Quilala of off "Come Away." Such a good one. [I just have to insert something here that some of you may be helpful... so, more and more songs on iTunes seem to be "album only." Well, I found a way around them. Amazon MP3 sells them as individual songs... sometimes they're 1.99 instead of .99, but if you're like me and not likely to buy the entire album, it's a steal... just an fyi :]

- Ok... random quote I've had in my head today:

"One minute your saving the whole galaxy! And the next minute you find yourself suckin' down darjeeling ... with Marie Antoinette and her little sister."

hahahahaha... :)

Well, the next 12 days are going to be intense. I have a take home final next weekend, an in class that monday, and another one that wednesday. But I also have - sunday the 5th: CCK Christmas Party. monday the 6th: Piano Recital. friday the 10th: Future of Forestry Christmas Worship Concert (I've been waiting all year to go back to this!!!). saturday the 11th: Charlli's concert choir. tuesday the 14th: Beks gets home!!!!!! =)

All that to say, I'm going to be really busy. No movies or TV for me. I'm already off of FB and Tumblr :(

But it'll be ok. On the 15th, I'll be a free woman :)

Cheers!

Do you ever find yourself trying to write in, what I would call, an "intentional stream of consciousness" method? Like, you are trying to make a message, a facebook post, an email, or text seem very nonchalant and off the top of your head, but you find yourself editing and carefully considering each capitalization and punctuation? Do I capitalize i or not? Should I use a dash -- or an ellipse ...? Do I end my sentence with proper punctualization or an emoticon? But you're trying to sound young and hip and like you don't care--when you really do?

or is this just an English major problem? haha... i'm not sure. but i think there needs to be a word to describe this mental process because i think it's hilarious :)

update...

well, i just got hired on at a second job. this is seriously great news because I have so many things to be saving for. but, this also means i will probably be working like every day from now until i get out of school on june 9.

what did i sign myself up for?

I have quite a bit to get done between now and then and now I have even less time to do it. Jesus help! thank goodness He is able even when I am not.

so what's next for this little girl? Well, over the summer i'll be working both jobs and i'm taking a class online (it's one of the pre-req's for com). so, although i'll be super busy, i do have some amazing trips planned. I'm going to California for a cousin's wedding in June (maybe again in August for a friend's wedding). In July, I'm spending a weekend in Oregon for another cousin's wedding (yay for a growing family :). And, I also get to go to one of my favorite spots on earth! Yes, I'm weird, but i absolutely love Spokane! So i'm going there in July. Not to mention Family Camp (woot woot!) which, in the words of Christian McCuen, is "like 5 days of Christmas."

I also registered for classes in the fall. I'm taking four classes for a total of 16 credits. I'm taking the other com pre-req with the beautiful, talented, and hilarious Miss Jessica McKindley. So excited for that! I'm also taking Environmental Health, Art and Architecture of the Ancient World, and English 302-Critical Practice (hopefully with another English-major friend, Helen). The coolest part about the schedule--i only have school Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Haha! so excited. All my community college friends have talked about this for a long time, and now, finally, i won't have to go to school every day!

But, for another exciting announcement, I have decided to take the leap: I am now going to be majoring in English-Literature and Communications and minoring in Classical Studies.

Wow. haha... i am SUCH a nerd and i love it!

I added and re-added and planned, and i should be able to get all that done in the next two years. I should graduate with like 185 credits (just 5 over) in the normal 4 year period. Only draw-back, i won't really have any elective credits left. But that's ok.

so... in a nutshell that is me.

in the words of one of my favorite lines of any movie, there is "so much to enjoy and to be and to do."

for now, bon soir! :)

Do you ever find yourself trying to turn an adjective, which came from a noun, back into a noun by adding a suffix but finding you've made a colossal mess of the English language in the process? Or is that just me?

Most recently, while working on a paper addressing ambiguity in Wordsworth's "Strange Fits of Passion I have Known," Now, I have trouble pronouncing "ambiguity" and "ambiguous" because the stressed part of the word changes! But as I'm writing, I keep wanting to add a suffix onto "ambiguous" to make it something like "ambiguousness" or "ambiguousity." But then when my mind says it, I have to laugh at myself, yet again! I've done this so many times while tripping through this 8 page paper--which only had to be 5, but once you get me going, its hard for me to pull back. So, without a max, 8 it is! haha...

Do you have any words that you do that to? Or seem to always mispronounce?