Blushing Bardians
Talking Turkey Hands
It's that time of year again - Turkey Hands! While you trace your own hand this Thanksgiving, remember all the little and big things you have to be thankful for this year. I will. It almost seems that tracing one turkey hand is not enough either since there is so many things to b
e grateful for this year. Here is a small sample:
Hell is Full of Mismatched Socks
If you're a Facebook friend of mine (and you should be, just look for me by name), it's no secret that I have been working on a paper about Dante's Inferno this week, and probably next week since we got an extension on the due date. I am particularly writing about the punishment for the sin in a few select circles of Hell and if the punishment itself is contrapasso - showing how the sin itself involves opposites and similarities to the original sin. Really, if the punishment fits the "eye for an eye" mentality. I won't bore you with details, but all this talk of hell and why people are at certain levels certainly got me thinking.

| That thou hast her, it is not all my grief, |
| And yet it may be said I loved her dearly; |
| That she hath thee, is of my wailing chief, |
| A loss in love that touches me more nearly. |
| Loving offenders, thus I will excuse ye: |
| Thou dost love her, because thou knowst I love her; |
| And for my sake even so doth she abuse me, |
| Suffering my friend for my sake to approve her. |
| If I lose thee, my loss is my love's gain, |
| And losing her, my friend hath found that loss; |
| Both find each other, and I lose both twain, |
| And both for my sake lay on me this cross: |
| But here's the joy; my friend and I are one; |
| Sweet flattery! then she loves but me alone. |
Metamorphoses

Friday the 13th Comes Early
Is the calendar right today? I would have sworn yesterday was Friday the 13th and not today.
where I have my first class of the day. Aaaah, it was all planned. A big steaming cup of coffee, a comfy sweater, a quiet chair with a view of the campus out the window, and then I entered the building and WHHOOOOPS! As soon as my heel hit the stone floor it slid causing me to fall on my knees and send my coffee flying. The mittens I had on didn't do much to stop the coffee from spreading and spreading quick on the gray floor.Is the Flue One of the Seven Liberal Arts?
Aaaarrrrghhh! Another science test today, and that means more hours of trying to memorize names and events - a task that I am all too willing to admit becomes harder with each passing year. I am at the time of my life where memories are carefully being screened for retention purposes due to limited disk space, and sometimes my mind will chose to forget Paracelsus, an alchemist who thought that everything was poisonous if not taken in moderation. Sure, I remember that now, but ask me about 2:30 or so. I am sure to say Para-who?

Hey Guy!
These days I wonder if my own husband has to read my blogs to find out what's going on with me lately. Then I started feeling guilty that I had only posted once this week and now he wouldn't know what's happening!
Okay, it's not quite that bad. We had a nice dinner at a local restaurant Tuesday night after we voted and before I stayed up way past his bedtime to read Othello for my Shakespeare class. I didn't have the heart to wake him up the next morning at 7:30 before I left for work either. He looked so peaceful and cozy. Last night was another late night. I stayed after classes at the library for a few hours reading and studying for an exam next week in History of Science. When I got home, two of his favorite television shows were on so I let him watch them in peace and only interrupted him during commericals. 
He probably doesn't miss me all that much anyway! There are plenty of reminders. Like the leaves that I've not been able to help rake, and the food shopping that he's been doing for me and the clean basket of laundry he finds at the bottom of the stairs that means I am asking him to carry it upstairs. There are those dust balls tumbling down our hallway too. Besides, I am sure he notices that my side of the bed is messy those days I go to bed after him and wake up before him. Doesn't he?
When I do suggest that maybe I am away from home just a little too much, or when I am home and I comment on how much I can't do around the house these days, he just reminds me that it's only temporary and to look at the big picture. A few dust balls are so worth the effort, and he admits that he can always tell when I finally come to bed. Besides, it's fun to tell him I haven't seen him in a while so why doesn't he meet me for lunch? It's like having a weekly date with handsome stranger!
So Guy, if you are reading this to find out what my plans are for the next few days, here they are: I have a paper to write for my Shakespeare class, study, study, study and them some reading, reading and more reading. Can't promise I'll get much done around the house, but at least I'll be home. Thanks for being so supportive.
It's quite possible I'll being having lunch with that handsome stranger today! Yay!
To Live or Not to Live on Campus, That is the Question
I really like my time on campus two full days a week. Bard is such a beautiful campus, the trees are all ablaze with fall color, and there is always something going on, but lately there seems to be more going on the days I am not there.
Let's see . . . Paper due Monday at noon in a basket on the professor's door? Sorry, can't do that. I work, but I can email a copy and drop a hard copy off later that night. Swine flu vaccine clinics Monday and Wednesday at lunch. Errrr, sorry. Can't do that either. Will you plan any for Tuesday or Thursday? Swing dance lessons on Friday nights from 7-10 p.m. Dang! I can't do that either, and I am surely way too tired by Friday to drive 45 minutes to dance for three hours.
Why, just today there is a lecture on Avicenna, a medieval philosopher that we just happen to be discussing now in my History of Science class. And look, there's a piano/cello concert this afternoon. And a Free Press writer's meeting (okay, I am not a writer on the Bard campus newspaper, but I would like to write a story about how different campus life is for non-traditional students not living on campus). Maybe I could email an idea for an article? I'll find out.
Bard Stone Row Dormitories
Needless to say, Bard does a great job of keeping the students who live on campus active, involved and far from bored. There are movie nights, pizza nights, craft nights, dancing nights, concerts . . . well, you get the idea. I take advantage of what I can, like leaving work early this past Monday to go to a lecture from a visiting Yale professor on Dante's Inferno, which we are reading in class. It was a great lecture, but made for a very long day.
I realize that by not living on campus I'll never have breakfast, lunch or dinner at Kline Commons. I'll never have to buy overpriced health and beauty aides at the bookstore. I'll never really get to take advantage of the on campus gym because when I am on campus, I am attending class or burning the midnight oil at the library trying to get something done.
Living at home sure at benefits too. My laundry is always clean AND ironed. I get to sleep next to a warm body every night. My family and my cat are always glad to see me when I get home. I don't have to share a bathroom with a teenager (not even the girl at home!). The mess in the kitchen is my own so I can't get angry for anyone for not cleaning it. The list goes on and on, but you get the idea.
I am sure as my time goes on at Bard, I'll find ways to be more involved in the on-campus events. Sheesh, it's only my first half a semester there so far. I'll meet more people and find out more about more things listed and not listed on the school's event calendar too.
Until then I'll enjoy the view, and my own bed.
Thrills and Chills
What to know what's spooooooky? I'll tell you! It's downright scary when you understand something in one class because you learned it in another. It's creepy that names you never heard of before September start sneaking their way into the literature you are reading for different reasons and you can nod and shake your head and say, "Hmpf. I've heard of that guy." And it's really frightening when you find yourself looking something up at the Bard library that was mentioned during a class that you didn't know about before.
Literate Literature
It sure has been a literate week, and not just because I am reading Hamlet for my Shakespeare class, The Bosnian Chronicles for my Slavic Lit class or Dante's Inferno for Comp Lit. You would think all those books in one week would be enough, butno - two amazing people visited two amazing schools this week and I was lucky enough to see both of these engaging, interesting men.


Nobel Noble Slavs
Just what is this class? It's easy to say Noble Slavs instead of Nobel Slavs, and I think most of us do a lot. Like the people who called Astronomy class Astrology class, but there is more truth in calling these noble instead of Nobel.
There are two criteria that each author must have to be taught in this class: the author must be Slavic and must have won the Nobel Prize for Literature. To win this prize for literature, your work must have some lasting literary value and benefit mankind. That is a tough call. A small group of people in Switzerland review the candidates for the year and make a decision, giving the winner a large cash prize. This prize is privately funded by the Estate of Alfred Nobel who at the turn of the century left most of his fortune just to fund the Nobel Prizes. What a guy! You can read more about the Nobel prize at www.nobelprize.org including this year's winner for Literature Herta Muller, another Slavic born author living in Germany.
Since this class is being taught by the professor that teaches Russian studies, I was afraid that this would turn into a class that dealt mostly with the history of the area and not the literature itself. It is listed as a Lit class, I am a Lit major and I love these authors from these cold, Slavic countries. I worried for nothing. Sure, with each new author there is some discussion about the area at the time that led the author to write such a book, but we discuss so much more. When we read Quo Vadis by Henyrk Sienkiewicz we discussed his talent of ending and beginning chapters and the literary tools he used to progress the story. When we read the story stories of Ivan Burnin, we discussed how he was brillant at telling instead of showing, often a big no-no in the world of literature. Boris Pasternak snuck his poetical style of writing into his narrative in Dr. Zhivago even including a book of poetry at the end written by the progrationist, Yuri Zhivago. Now we are reading The Bosnian Chronicles by Ivo Andric, and this man was able to share wonderful tales of Bosnian life during the Napoleonic wars but in such a way that you feel you are reading one fairy tale after another. He wrote stories as if he were reciting them aloud interwined in a novel about diplomats from other countries living in Bosnia.
Needless to say, I am just loving this class. It satisfies my craving for brilliant authors, close scrunity of style and just enough history of the area to make the story fascinating.
These Nobel Slavs are truly noble.
Will Mercury Collide with Mars?
I'll be the first to admit that the older I get the harder it is for me to memorize stuff and this is probably not the first time I am admitting this! I don't remember (that must be the second sign of old age). Where was I?

