I'm not always emo. I promise. Here's an almost non-emo post.

I love the beginning of the month; it means I get to change my calendar. For some reason, I find it so exciting to flip the page and find out what image awaits me next. Currently, I have a New Moon calendar. I spent all of July looking at the humans from the film, and now I get to spend August looking at a contemplative Edward. Sigh. He looks as deep in thought as I've been for the past week. That's why I've been on such a hot streak of lengthy blogging (sorry- I told you I tend to ramble). This will probably drop off once I get back to school, but oh well; it's definitely serving its purpose right now.

The great thing about flipping the calendar to Edward this month is that it puts August 22nd in clear view. I want to go back to school so badly. Things aren't nearly as fun around here as they should be. I love my family dearly, but without a lot of work to keep me busy and everyone else staying too busy with their work, I've had too much downtime to myself lately. It's nice every now and then, but after a while, thoughts I've pushed to the side start to creep in and take over, making life pretty much miserable. And I know I've complained about how much I hate the fact that SBC won't be the same because I keep losing people, but damn, I have some pretty flipping awesome people still with me. I would be lost without my Mary, depressed without my Seanne, and adventures and dinners would be sad affairs indeed without the cheer, giggles, and off-the-wall discussions brought about by Lindsay, Ebet, and Sierra. Not to mention we still have some freshmen friends who are no longer freshman, but will still be our minions nevertheless.

I'm terribly excited to get back to classes. I've always been a nerd and an academic over-achiever. I think I've finally found my niche in English lit, and I can't wait to explore it some more. I need to get a new adviser ASAP, and I need to be advised ASAP as well. My path to my degree seems to have been muddled a bit. I threw away a great chance to finish up my GenEds last semester because I thought I was going to have the film studies experience of a lifetime with Dr. Salotto, and... well, to put it lightly, that didn't happen. I put off my required lab for another year, and now, my spring semester is a bit tangled. The lab is at the same time as Models of Teaching, an education class I am required and very excited to take with one of my favorite education professors. All I can do now is go beg someone to shift the time of one of the classes.

As for my niche, I seem to be drawn to everything but modern and American literature... which is pretty much too big to be a niche. It's odd, I know, but I really, really, really love British literature from Victorian times all the way back to medieval times. I've recently discovered the joys of early English works like Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales, both of which I absolutely loathed in high school. They show what a revolution the English language has experienced in the past millennium, while showing that the power of storytelling is permanent and ever-relevant. At the same time, nothing will ever top the love I have for good ol' Billy Shakespeare. I just adore the wide variety of his works; I can read "Twelfth Night" and laugh until I cry, then read "Romeo and Juliet" and be moved to tears, then be thrown into deep contemplation about age and power and relationships in the midst of "King Lear." I'm still not the biggest fan of sonnets, but I have fun trying to put them into modern day terms. But to top it all off, I am completely in love with more recent (ha!) authors like Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy. I know it's pretty much a given that a female likes Austen, but it's not all about romantic heroes like Darcy and Brandon and Tilney for me; I get lost in Austen's prose, in the lovely way she words simple things like an afternoon walk or a trip to town.

I'm trying to open myself up to the idea of more modern literature, but I haven't been able to get past Edith Wharton yet. I'm very intrigued by Age of Innocence; I'm re-reading it again in order to analyze it, not just enjoy it, and I think I may need my own copy because I really, really like it. But I just cannot get into so-called American classics. I like Twain and Poe, but that's about it. I guess it's because American literature is so much younger that it hasn't had time to really broaden its horizons, but I don't see my interest growing anytime soon. And I still lovelovelove my "trashy" books, like Twilight and Harry Potter and Gossip Girl and It Girl, and stuff by Nicholas Sparks, Meg Cabot, and especially Sarah Dessen. But I can't make a living off that stuff because I definitely can't teach that to high schoolers :-)

I cannot believe I just rambled on for two full paragraphs about lit. Wow. I'm pretty lame. But these are the thought processes my brain goes through. Seriously. Scary, isn't it?

I puff-painted cups for my SBC friends today. It made me so happy. I love actually making things for my friends; I don't have a lot of money to buy gifts for people, so I buy basics and use my wealth of art supplies to give them a little sparkle. It's how I plan on doing Christmas gifts this year, in fact... I've already started! But back to the cups... I figured I can keep them in my room so that everyone can have a cup for Friday Family Dinners. They're really cute. I put the name on the front and a silly quote or two from the person on the back, and I'm starting to fill in the spaces with things that make me think of them. I'm not a very good puff-painter, but it's obvious I'm getting better.

I should go to bed. My friend Mary just began designing me a virtual adventure, which has been a blast so far. Hopefully plans are in motion for me to see some friends in the next few weeks before my return to school. Maybe things are getting better?