Last night I found myself making Boh’s face wrinkle (like this) and asking him, “Boh, what do you think about modernity?” For his sake, I’m glad my exams are over, and that I passed!
Here’s how we both feel about that: happy, relieved, and exhausted. More soon!
I’m working on the border of my stripe study shawl now, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to find enough time to finish it before next Friday. (Note how Boh is making a point of ignoring the camera.) So much to do between now and then. Thank you for all of your encouragement! It makes such a big difference, whether it is in the form of sweet emails and blog comments, Easter bread (see picture), or Vladimir the petite lap giraffe’s web cam.
Ethel Louise baked this amazing Easter bread for me, and it sustained me during the last 12 hours of my final written exam. I can’t believe I had the self-control to take this picture before inhaling it. So good.
More soon — knitting and otherwise. Happy almost weekend!
Or “three, already” in Lao. As in, three comprehensive exams written, and only the oral to go. Let’s celebrate with a Boh photo series, shall we?
More knitting soon.
My mom sent me an Easter care package: just what I needed. (Seriously. I would not be surviving without EmergenC, especially with all of the germs circulating on campus.)
Boh wants you all to know that he’s tired of reading and writing. We’re almost there, big dog, almost there.
This is how Boh subtly suggests he might like a belly rub: he lays on the ground near me with a leg up.
And here’s what he thinks (a) of all this rain and (b) of all this writing. I know, Boh. We are almost there.
Yesterday was windy, rainy, and grey. When it became clear that the wind was blowing at speeds that could easily overturn trash cans, I dashed outside and cut a mason jar’s worth of the daffodils which have just begun to bloom. These flowers helped me to get through most of the pile of grading I’ve been hiding from all week.
Boh is struggling to keep his eyes open this morning, which is pretty much how I feel. It has been a long semester, and I am so close to the other side of these exams. One more.
My last exam begins tomorrow, so today I’ll be doing my best to feel ready, by reading more, reviewing my notes, and organizing my thoughts. I’m also going to knit a few more rows on my stripe study shawl. Another row and a half and it will be time to begin the border. I should be able to finish the shawl before the oral part of my exams in a few weeks, and I think I’ll bring this with me as a tangible representation of all of the energy I’ve put into this process.
Onward.
You know what else (besides turning in exam #2) made Thursday a great day? It was a great mail day. Which reminds me of the excitement surrounding the mail — sent ahead, general delivery, to post offices in small towns we’d be riding through every ten days or so — on a cross-country bike trip I participated in nine (whoa!) years ago. The joke was that “mail” day was actually “male” day, a celebration of all things male. There was a long (tongue-in-cheek) list of the kinds of things that were acceptable on male days (I’m pretty sure trampolines were on the list). I hadn’t thought about that in years, but typing out “mail day” brought it back and made me laugh, almost a decade later.
Anyway, I had ordered — and then forgotten about — Heidi Swanson’s latest cookbook, Super Natural Every Day. I intend to cook out of this ALL SUMMER, and I have big dreams of modeling my lake house kitchen on much of what Heidi describes about her pantry, kitchen tools, and emphasis on a range of grains and better-for-me flours. I know I’m only moving across town, but I am trying to use up extras hiding in my kitchen cabinets before the end of May. This book is beautiful and incredibly practical. I want to eat everything in it.
This guy got his own “male” day of sorts yesterday. Instead of working last night, I cleaned out a kitchen cupboard, and found a bone I’d been saving (and then totally forgot about) for Boh. He watched it intently (pictured here), tossed it around a bit, and then ran away from it/came back to it several times before settling down to eat it. Male day, indeed.
I really need to get back into reading (and grading) mode this week in order to feel ready for my third exam, which starts a week from Monday. Here’s hoping for a productive day!
I have no idea what Boh was thinking — except that it must have had something to do with that Rihanna song from a few years ago. To this day, when I hear it, I think of a friend of mine who made it his goal of the summer of 2007 to turn that into a campfire song. I love my silly dog.
The good news? Yesterday I needed the umbrella (-ella, -ella), but today I was in flip-flops! I knit these legwarmers back in 2007, and I wear them all the time — to yoga, when I get out of bed in the morning, when I just need a little extra warmth. They might get more use than all of my other knitwear combined, come to think of it.
Also, I turned in exam #2 this morning! One to go. I’m taking the night off.
I turned in my first exam yesterday morning: 44 pages in 7 days. I’ve never written so much, so quickly, in the whole of my academic life. (And honestly, I’m hoping I’ll never need to top that.) Thank you for all of your encouragement this week; it means so much. I’m not done, but I’m more than a third of the way there.
Brokeknits recommended The Improvised Life a few months back, which means she is to thank for last night’s celebration. A small group of my favorite grad school women came over last night for a laid-back evening of conversation and caramel porter and chocolate stout floats. Boh was loving it: a whole house full of women to pay attention to him! After they left, I made one more float with the leftovers from the bottle of chocolate stout and the bottom of the ice cream carton and put a dent in my grading. Time to pour the coffee and grade the rest before class!
All I can conclude from Boh’s behavior is that he feels very strongly about Progressive Era historiography. Me too, Boh. Me too.
Time to pour the coffee and begin day 5.
barefoot rooster 