Monday, March 21, 2011

Yay!

Straight As for the winter semester. I have NO idea how that happened to be honest, because by the end of it I was really struggling. But either I got my shit together or my teachers pitied me or some combination of the two, because my GPA as not nearly as ruined as I expected it to be. Maybe it's true what they say, that failing out of grad school is a feat in and of itself.

This semester is going to be better though. I can feel it in my toes, or that could be the itching from the hives I've managed to develop over the last few weeks. I also managed to pick up a head cold yesterday, and the rat is sniffling too which makes me nervous, but THIS WILL BE A GOOD SEMESTER.

Before I go off and do my homework to ensure that THIS WILL BE A GOOD SEMESTER I need to do a quick recap of my visit to the Murie Center up in Wyoming. I drove up on Tuesday, spend a brilliant Wednesday helping the people up there with a small project and otherwise lounging and napping, which was brilliant, and then drove down on Thursday. Everyone at the center was extremely hospitable and their enthusiasm for the Center's mission was contagious. The center itself was beautiful. The buildings themselves have existed for almost a century, iirc, but they've all been renovated on the inside so that even in winter they're warm, dry, and comfortable.

The archives themselves are very small, and already relatively organized. It looks like most of the work will be with a little policy and then developing reliable finding aids, and maybe cataloging the many books scattered all over the various buildings. I have homework ahead of me, but it shouldn't be too bad.

The bed I was given. There's like 4 comforters on that thing. It was heaven. The cabin itself is pretty big. There was another empty bed out of the frame, and a dresser behind me.

One of the spidery walkways between cabins. The building in the picture is the bath house, which is quite modern and very comfortable inside.

The door to my cabin. You can see the snow piled up past the window.
 Where it fell naturally it only came up to my thigh.

And a random photo of the rat that I will be adopting. 
She's a terror and I love her, but man has she given me grief. She's already tried to steal my homework to make herself a nest. 

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Today I dreamt that I had left the rat cage open and let the cat in. The cat immediately dove into the cage and started eating the rat.

I woke up when I had flung my hand out and ended up toppling a few books next to my bed.

Le sigh. Can't even get peace in dreams right now.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

I'm a Sucker

I only have one rat left. The other three were returned to DFL, but I wanted to give the one that didn't bite a chance. Well, now that she's alone and I can give her attention she's turned out to be ridiculously adorable and I've grown attached and sending her off to die is no longer an option. So I guess I'm adopting a rat. She hasn't shown any sign of infection, so I am crossing my fingers and hoping that all will be well.