Fall Semester

So it's that time of year again where a new school year is beginning, and I'm looking forward to my classes, and then the first day goes by and the second day and I'm looking forward to the weekend, and then I realize I need to take another class this semester if I want to graduate by May, and then I take on a few jobs to make money for gas and the occasional off-campus dinner, and then I come down with a case of faux enthusiasm during which volunteer for too many things, half of which I might follow through with, and I'm left wondering where all my video game time went.

But seriously, I do think this will be a good semester. I started my first teaching practicum where I go to schools and work with middle and high school students, which is very exciting. I felt lucky to have such a good first day of class-- I was actually able to help some of the students with their English questions, which made me feel pretty cool. I never thought the day would come where I feel validated by successfully defining "simile."

And in case, god forbid, I'm getting too over-confident in the English department, the practicum is balanced by my course on Chaucer. After spending two and a half hours reading about ten pages of The Canterbury Tales, I realized several things:

1. I love reading textbooks
2. I love reading scholarly essays, provided they were written in the last hundred years
3. I love reading James Joyce, Thomas Pynchon, Gertrude Stein, and all of those pretentious authors who choose to write in modern English (barely) (except for the part where they write in other languages, but at least I can skip those parts with the excuse that they are not English and therefore I am not obliged to read them, unlike Chaucer, who wrote at a time when spelling was arbitrary and jokes about the Black Plague were fashionable)
1. But don't hold me to that-- I'm not really going to pick up Joyce or Pynchon or Stein and read them. I don't love them that much.
2. Please don't hold me to that
4. I have no idea how to spell "Canterbury"

And if Chaucer wasn't humbling enough, I'm taking Music Theory III (for fun) two years late. I have never been the oldest person in a class before, but now I know that feeling, and I kind of want to start a club. "Delayed Seniors" or something. But I do enjoy theory.  Along with history, it's one of the two aspects of music that I don't think I will grow tired of anytime soon. 

Oh, well. Here's to the beginning of the year. 

Since I like video games, video game music, and Skyrim these days, I'm going to close this post by posting a Skyrim piece that I've really been enjoying. 

Ceci n'est pas une pipe; c'est un gateau

So I had this dream last night where I was going to take a Shakespeare course in the fall, as well as piano, both taught by the same professor. I had not had this professor before, but I talked to her a few times about my courses, and I thought we would get along very well. She taught a summer course on Shakespeare, too, which was how I was able to meet her, since I work at Trinity. (it was a very elaborate dream) At the end of every course she taught, she had this "Shakespeare party" in which everybody would come to class and she would bring food and cake and we would watch films of Shakepeare plays. She told me about it, and apparently several of my friends were in her class over the summer, so I thought I would drop by during the party and get some cake and talk to people. We'll call this professor Dr. T.

(n.b., if I know these professors in real life, I didn't remember it in the dream, nor did I remember it when I woke up. So I'm just giving them random initials, but don't read into them or anything)

Well, in this dream, I was taking another course over the summer about Shakespeare from another professor (Dr. D), and when I went to the party, she was there as well. I was talking to a dear friend who is a Shakespearephile and was taking this Shakespeare course from Dr. T over the summer at Trinity, and Dr. D suddenly stood up and said very coldly, "Were you invited to this party, Emily?" I shook my head no, and she said, "Did you even let Dr. T know that you were coming?"
"Yes," I said, "I sent an email last Friday. I thought she was okay with it." Down at the other end of the table, Dr. T nodded.
"Get out." Dr. D replied calmly. She pointed to the door. "Now. Out."

So I left the Shakespeare party, and my dream sort of turned into this thing where I was Maria from The Sound of Music.


However, I digress. The point is, I sadly left the Shakespeare party, and I didn't get any cake.

I read this other blog recently that had lots of blogging ideas, and one of them was to write down all of your dreams and analyze them. That would get kind of boring for this blog, because I don't really dream that often. But I thought that maybe since this dream was so vivid, I should analyze it. So here's what I came up with:

1. There was a pink cake in the dream. Pink means girls, so I came to the conclusion that I am a girl.
2. I also came to the conclusion that I really want cake, because the cake looked so delicious in the dream.
3. I learned that I am an English major. This is because the dream was centered around Shakespeare parties, and lots of English majors read Shakespeare.
4. I think I also has some sort of prophetic ability, because today at work, I learned of a party that I'm supposed to go to, which is for the University Communications office. University Communications = TU press = writing = English major. Clearly the two parties are related. I will be most pleasantly surprised if there is pink cake at the party this evening.

Let me know if any of you guys want your dream analyzed. I may start charging, but the first couple of weeks will be free.

Also, I will edit pictures for a small fee if anybody needs that, either.