Important Life Event: Alex and I Broke Up
-This happened about two weeks ago. He came to visit me over his fall break, and I felt that it was time for us to stop doing what we have always, always, always done in our relations, even a year before they became at all technically romantic: tactfully avoiding discussion of the future. If we took our relationship to the next level, as it were, we would have gotten engaged. And although it is fabulous that we know so many people (read: ex Ultimate Frisbee people) who are marrying young, that is just not who I am. I haven't really been single for more than a month since some time in high school, and he hadn't ever been with anyone else, so we decided that now, being across the country from each other, would probably be the best time to have those experiences. And the future? Who knows, I guess. I'm trying not to think about it too much because it is really upsetting, to remember how hard I tried to make this relationship even happen in the first place, only to give it up in the name of needing more life experiences... and yet I know I am right, that we are right.
Classes
-As far as these go... I am at the place in the semester where I am devising paper topics. For my Modernism paper I am going to try to write about repetition in To the Lighthouse and Good Morning, Midnight and its relation to affect. For my Close-Reading paper I think I am going to return to Women in Love (egads!) and flesh out this idea of performativity of the reader using that which I was always taught to find warm-fuzzy: reader-response theory. And Theory? Who in the world knows. Perhaps I will do something where I relate different theorists' ideas of the limits of language from feminism to post-structuralism to psychoanalysis to... marxism? Oh I hope not.
The Life Social (as Opposed to Aquatic)
-Great. I have really made friends with my fellow first-year English students, I feel. We've gone apple-picking and thrift-store-shopping, dressed up for tea parties and gone out to restaurants and movies. On most days I spend the afternoon at a coffeehouse or two with my friend Jess (a post-colonialist who grew up in Austin and went to nearby Grinnell for undergrad), and nearly every weekend I go shopping with Annmarie (a Victorianist who took a year off after undergrad to get involved with community theatre). Annmarie and I, along with Gemma (who is interested in emigre literature and is learning Russian) are starting a fashion blog because we came to realize that we were always complimenting each other's outfits.
(Annmarie, myself, and Gemma being fashionable and enjoying fall colours)
-My Theory class, which is from 5:30-6:45, has taken to going out to dinner together after class on Thursdays. This is particularly cool because about half of the students who participate are not from English, but other departments. While I really do enjoy immersing myself in Englishness, it is nice to have some acquaintances in other areas of expertise, though related such as Film, Communication Studies, and Education.
(Theory Class Cook-Out, circa two weeks ago)
-I am co-chairing the Jackobsen Conference (the cross-discipline graduate conference here at Iowa in the spring) as a senator on the Graduate Student Senate. I have two co-chairs that I meet with who are not in English (Kyle is in Journalism and Netta is in Nursing) and I also attend Executive Council meetings with GSS higher-ups, none of whom hail from English. I am easily the youngest person on the Exec Council, by probably at least 3 or 4 years. They like my ebullience, I think (hope).
What else can I tell you all that is important? I think I have covered some of the major points and updates. Expect better and more regular posts from now on, hopefully with photos as I had originally planned.Cheers.
