Buford, Georgia for Kylie’s Wedding

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Okay, I know I’ve been so bad about posting lately.  I’ve been working as a nanny and teaching classes and picked up an online class and simultaneously staying sane and having fun with Joel, so blogging took a seat on the backburner.  But, don’t worry! I’ve been keeping track of other blogs in my spare time and I’m still bebopping around!

While it’s fresh in my mind, I wanted to write about our trip to Georgia for a wedding. I love weddings. Kylie is my big-big-big-big from my college sorority.  Both my big and my big-big-big (that’s Molly!) were in the bridal party and it was SO amazing to get to see them and other members of our sorority family.

Joel and I drove down on Friday– 9.5 hours from Ohio to Georgia.  We got into Atlanta late, picked up my little-little at the airport, and made it to Lake Lanier’s lodge.  It was dark so we couldn’t see much, but when I woke up on Saturday, I could see that the place was GORGEOUS.  Ky’s wedding wasn’t until 5:30pm, which gave us time to hike through the woods and sample some of the fun drinks at the bar.

IMG_20130615_121218Yeah, it was like my childhood called out to me, ICEE-drinks!

The wedding was so beautiful. I videotaped the vows and some of the ceremony.  One of the absolute best “presents” I got from my wedding was a few short videos that one of our friends took.  I got to see our first dance and my dad and I dancing– I honestly cried when they showed up in my email inbox.  The memory of my wedding is a total blur with all of the adrenaline and love, but having those videos was just so sweet.  I wish we’d hired a videographer for our wedding, but it was so expensive, so those blurry quick videos are PERFECT.  So, that was my goal for the wedding– now Ky and Matt can see themselves!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAJoel and I clean up nice sometimes…

994275_10151504752438995_1014890954_nOur beautiful family!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMolly, you are a gem.

Between the waterfront ceremony and perfect little details (sunflowers and tree stumps), the wedding was SO perfect for the couple.  Instead of a unity candle or sand ceremony, the two of them watered a tree together that they’re going to plant in front of their house. ADORABLE.  We got to ride a trolley and there was a sparkler exit, it was just a beautiful, magical night.

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Congrats, Kylie and Matt!! Can’t wait to hear about your honeymoon!

Marvelous in my Monday

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MiMM

  •  I made Sally’s brownies last night because I was craving something sweet.  They were everything I wanted! I didn’t use the peanut butter chips because we didn’t have any, but they were ridiculously good without them.

Screen shot 2013-06-09 at 9.53.58 PMI got to Sally’s blog because Molls always raving about her recipes.  Now I understand.

  • Today is my first day working at my nanny-job.  I’m nervous and excited.  I’m nervous because it’s been so long since I’ve babysat or hung out with little children, but excited because obviously it’s going to be so much fun.  The family added me to their zoo membership and their house is near a park and it’s going to be wonderful.  I need to get off the couch/computer more and playing with two adorable children is the perfect reason.  Plus, the pay isn’t bad! ;) We’re putting away the money into a separate checking account to use for vacations and house renovations– so now we can actually save up to replace the carpet and have a fund for trips without feeling like we are breaking the budget.

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  • Game of Thrones Finale Last Night: WOW.  I love this show.  Also, the end of GoT means the beginning of True Blood.

Screen shot 2013-06-09 at 10.05.27 PMSalem and Joel were digging the season finale. Ignore all the Corona bottles…

  • School starts this week!! I’m actually excited because I’m already ahead of the game in planning my class… it’s so much easier now that I’ve taught the course once.  In fact, I’m so confident that I’m showing this video to them on the first day.  (It’s when Maurice Sendak went on the Colbert Report. We’ll also be watching “Part 2″ as well.) I think the video is hilarious and I might as well show it on Day 1 so they all know what to expect!
  • Next weekend we are heading to a beautiful and glorious wedding and I am SO SO EXCITED.  For two main reasons: 1) This is the first wedding Joel and I have been to since our own wedding.  Now we get to be the “married couple” and look at food and decorations and it won’t be stressful.  When I was going to weddings while engaged, everything stressed me out a tiny bit.  Now it’s just a celebration of love!!  And 2) (more importantly) I get to see a ton of my college friends– my sorority family!  Fun Fact: Molly is my big-big-big in our sorority.  Her big is getting married.  So it’s a big family reunion for all of us.

Going to Graduate School for Children’s and Young Adult Literature

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As of this summer, I’ve officially been in my PhD program for a full year.  I earned my MA in English (focusing in Children’s Literature) from Fall 2010 to Spring 2012 at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and loved the program.  There, I had to be self-motivated and I presented at conferences as much as I could, trying to force myself into the field of children’s literature as an academic discipline.  I knew that I had a year to get as many presentations under my belt so I could apply to PhD programs with a full CV– I told myself I needed to look as impressive as possible to be accepted somewhere, because I needed full-funding and wanted to teach.

Ohio State accepted me into their PhD in Education program.  I was also wait-listed and then accepted into a really prestigious children’s literature program in an English department.  It was one of the most difficult decisions of my academic career because the second program was the “smart” choice.  It was in the middle-of-nowhere but in a field I knew.  It was a program that was graduating top scholars and where graduates got jobs in big schools.  My MA advisor told me to apply there and was pushing me to go there.  I felt guilty for loving Columbus and wanting to go to Ohio State for the name, even though I wasn’t sure I’d fit in with Education people.

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But as of today, with a year under my belt, I am so glad I came here. My advisor is phenomenal and emailed me recently, out of the blue, to ask if I’d want to review a book with her (and have my name listed first as an author).  She said she would walk me through the process and add a publication to my belt.  Obviously, I said yes, and that project is due in December for publication in 2014.  Also, she emailed me because the book is on werewolves, vampires, and popular culture… because she knows paranormal romance is my guilty pleasure and she found a way for me to turn that into an academic interest.  (Seriously, I keep waiting for someone to pinch me and say this is all a dream.)

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In one of my “required” courses this past semester, I worked on a paper with three other students.  Our professor was interested in our project and asked if she could join us as a co-author because she wanted to see the research published.  She sent the final paper off last week to a journal in Art Education, a field which I never thought I’d be published.  We’re exchanging emails and putting together drafts for two other academic journals– without that professor’s intervention, I would have probably wrapped up the paper and called it a day… but we’re constantly talking about new ways to take the research and turn it into future publications.

To get hired as a professor, you need academic publications.  You want to write articles for journals and occasionally chapters for books (but the journal articles, surprisingly, are “better”).  You want to teach different classes and have syllabi created– I’ve taught 2 sections of “Introduction to Children’s Literature” and am about to start my third this summer.  I’m teaching two sections of “Young Adult Literature” this fall, which is a dream come true for me.

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I took out a LOT of loans to get my MA.  It is not pretty and sometimes makes me upset to think about, but I told myself it would be worth it if I could get into a funded PhD program and crank out the publications… which I’m finally doing.  In 2013, I will have (hopefully) gone from 0 publications to 3.  I’ve been expanding from queer theory and gender studies to graphic novels and educational research.  Honestly, it’s ridiculously fun and I really enjoy it.  I love writing and I love learning and this is just a combination of the two.

When most people ask me what I’m studying, I say “I’m working on my PhD in Education, studying children’s literature and children’s literacy and stuff” because it sounds a little better than “I get paid to read young adult literature and write about it.”  But, I totally GET PAID TO READ YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE AND WRITE ABOUT IT.  I want to be a professor someday, though I also would be happy working in publishing or even potentially being a middle school English teacher, but I’m not worried about that yet.  For now, I love what I’m doing and, if you’re thinking about going to graduate school for children’s literature, you should totally do it.

Friday Five

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1. I spent the past two days chilling at the beach.  The first day was a glorious sunny day spent mostly on the balcony working on my teaching schedule (more on that later) and getting pizza and ice cream (vacation, hello!) We even found a really tiny Andrew WK concert a few blocks down from our hotel, and happened to meet up some friends from high school. The second day it got windy and chilly so I spent a little time out on the beach walking but had to wear a jacket! That tropical storm was heading towards us!

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2. I’ve been writing a bunch– as of right now I’m at 3,500 words in the two days I’ve spend working, which is a pretty good start!  I’ve never been someone who can write with music but lately my “Damien Rice Radio” on Pandora has been doing me well, plus this English/Irish boy band that I found on YouTube:

So, in the very off chance that this book gets published and people ask me what I listened to while writing it, since that’s a thing people do now, I’m going to have to admit to loving boy bands.  Whoops.

3. One of my articles is FINALLY FINALLY getting published.  I wrote the original paper back in… 2008? It’s gone through so many iterations and will undoubtedly go through a million more, since it’s now just a short 1,200 word “letter” in an academic journal… but it totally counts.  I’ve been emailing the editor for the journal since January, worked on the paper through my Young Adult Literature class this semester and now we are finally done!  The last step is picking out my “author photo” that goes with my article… which is proving difficult.  Joel may have to play photographer for me this weekend so I can get a decent headshot.   But, now I can officially put a “Publications” section on my CV.

4. I also managed to get all of my stuff situated for the class I’m teaching this summer (hurray) and also got into a summer online class, which means I only have to take ONE class next spring to finish my doctorate classes.  I still need to meet with my advisor to double-check everything, but it’s looking like I can take my comprehensive exams next May, and start work on my thesis next Fall… meaning I could potentially graduate in May 2015?! My previous plan was to try to be done in December 2015… but by that point I had just resigned myself to taking my time and graduating in May 2016 (’cause I want to do the big graduation shindig).  We’ll see… I still can’t decide if I want to push everything up a full year, or if I can even do the dissertation in one academic year, but it’s exciting to think about!

5. And for #5- we arrived in Columbus!  We had Joel’s amazing cousin watch Salem while we were gone and he was living large with the house to himself.  I think he’s happy we’re home but I know he loved it more than the cat boarding place.  And the dogs did AMAZINGLY at Joel’s parents’ house– I am so glad, it’s such a relief.

IMG_20130601_173832Special thanks to Joel for driving, so that Martha and I could just take photos and read books for the whole ten hours.

What I Ate Wednesday: Saison

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Peas and Crayons

Right now I’m sitting on the balcony of Virginia Beach and my stomach is growling from looking at all of these food pictures.  This WIAW is going to be a little short– but I had to report in on the delicious food we ate this past weekend when visiting Saison in Richmond.  Joel’s brother and his wife accompanied us and it was just as good as I was hoping!  Saison describes itself as Southern gastropub  cooking with a Latin American influence.  AKA: delish.

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944397_582904608409695_1957063929_nAppetizers included: pozole rojo, oysters on the half shell, latin-inspired poutine, and the best scallops I’ve ever had.  For once, we all passed our plates around and sampled everything.  Joel isn’t much of a food-sharer (to my huge dismay) but he took one for the team and tried everything. Joel always lets other people have tastes of his meal but hates trying other dishes because he wants to eat whatever he picked. Go figure, because I love trying everything! The picture on the right is stolen from Saison’s Facebook– but our scallops looked just as good upon arrival.

Karma came to bite me when we got our main courses, though.  Joel got “chicken and waffles” with a Saison-twist– it’s actually fried duck and sweet potato waffles.  (Which is how I convinced Joel to come to this particular restaurant.)  But MY DISH was called The Rundown and it was heaven in a bowl.  All of my favorite kinds of seafood in a habañero coconut milk.  I want to go back right this second.  Crawfish, prawns, crab, mussels, squid.  Additionally, our other two diners got an amazing chicken dish and a pork chop which were damn good, too.  We sipped on choices from the extensive cocktail menu and it was just a great time.  Pictured below are the duck and waffles on the left and The Rundown on the right.

Screen shot 2013-06-05 at 5.01.37 PMAnd no good meal is complete without dessert.  We ordered all 3 desserts on the menu, to include avocado ice cream, bruleed banana bread, and chocolate ganache.  (The ganache was clearly the winner in my book!)  …speaking of dessert, I’m ending this post so I can go find myself an ice cream parlor on the boardwalk.  Bye!

 

Writing: How to pick character’s names?

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Okay, I mentioned to you all that I’ve started writing something.  Here’s my brief rundown of the book:

dystopian, love triangle, environmental disasters, sassy female protagonist, corrupt government, renegades, storms, lightning

Yes, it sounds almost like every book out there that I read.  But… write what you know, right? And I’m really writing to have fun and to get back into writing as a hobby. I don’t know nearly enough science for most of this, but the Wikipedia page on lightning helped me a little bit. ;)  I’m one of those people who will probably be in school for the rest of my life and I can totally see myself getting an MFA one day just for funzies.

I not really character-driven the way a lot of writers are– I always hear about authors who feel like their characters speak to them or they just know what their character would do in a situation.  Instead, I write individual scenes.  Inspiration strikes me and I can visualize a really cool idea or outfit or conversation and I write it down.  It’s great for particular ideas and pitching the book-idea to friends, but it’s really hard to put scenes together.

I’ve finally gotten over that hurdle and have told myself I’m just going to keep writing no matter what… but I still have trouble starting because I can’t think of the simplest thing: character names.  I can’t even write a sentence without using a name!  I’m torn because the book is dystopian and fantasy, so I want interesting/fun names… but nothing too out there.  I’ve been looking at websites and baby-name ideas (hah) and have settled on a handful of names that I want to include somewhere.

Main Character: Cora, Lucy, Cassia, Senna, Tess

Best Male Friend: Sam, Jonah, Owen

Love Interest: Silas, Cass

Other Characters: Gilly, Audra, Dell/Della, Hollis, Evie, Enny, Bee, Ruth, Quinton, Kanene, Vida, Toshi, Mina

I feel like I’ve got wayyyy too many one-syllable names. Or just four-letter names? I’m so bad at deciding on boys’ names.  Do any of you have any suggestions? I tried to put the main character names in the order that I liked them, but I can’t have Sam and Silas be the two major male characters… right? Too many S’s? Also are there already major books out there that use these names? Help!

Marvelous in My Monday

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MiMMThis Monday is extra-marvelous because I am writing this post from my parents’ couch.  I love being home.

1770-Colonial-Williamsburg-CourthouseI lived in the same town from the day I was born until my 22nd year of life, when I moved 5 hours away for graduate school.  For the two years of my Master’s degree, I visited home at least once a month, sometimes up to 3 times.  (Lucky for me, Joel lived in our hometown during those years.) I moved back home right before our wedding, then we moved 10 hours away to Ohio.  And suddenly, I see my parents and home every couple of months.  It’s a HUGE change for me.   I miss home.  I miss my favorite bars.  I miss the river. Don’t get me wrong, Joel and my house is totally “home” to me, too.  I love every bit of our little green house and I’m still learning all of it’s quirks– by the end of the week, I’m going to be homesick for that home!  But, for now, it’s just so, so nice to sleep in my home-bed every now and then.  And we don’t have cable in our house in Ohio, so I am on a huge Bravo binge right now.

The next-most-marvelous thing is that I’m heading to Virginia Beach on Tuesday night.  Joel is working in Virginia and has a hotel right on the waterfront so on Tuesday night we’re going to eat seafood and walk on the beach.  Then I’m going to finish some prep for my summer class while I’m sitting on the balcony.  The hotel room even has a whirlpool tub, which I’ve been begging Joel to book for as long as we’ve been dating.  I feel totally blessed and spoiled this summer, after Hawaii and now more beach-time.  I think I’m just at home by the water and waves.

fountain_penAlso marvelous, and related to sitting on the balcony with my computer, is that I started writing again. I used to write for fun all the time, and I’ve always enjoyed making up stories.  Joel and my mom are the “pushers” who are always telling me I need to write a book and make millions and then we can retire to the beach for good.  I know that’s not going to happen, because it feels like everyone wants to write a book (especially since I read a lot of book-blogs) but I finally have a story and a bit of momentum so I think I’m going to put the effort in on this one.  I don’t want to be another person trying to publish a novel, trying to find an agent and writing query letters… but I’m not going to think about that yet.  We’ll see how it goes!

Also today is my Dad’s birthday! So I’m going out with my parents for dinner tonight which is awesome.  Happy Monday, chickadees! Hope yours is as awesome as mine is!