On top of reading two speeches by Cicero and 167 pages of an economic history book, on Wednesday, I had to lead discussion in my seminar class... That was not as scary as I would have previously thought it would be. My Latin class has gone a long way in making me more comfortable with talking in front of a group of people. And it's gone even further in making me more comfortable with the thought that I might make a fool of myself in front of other people. Leading up to Wednesday, I just kept telling myself "I can do this, I can do this," over, and convincing myself that I was completely in charge (even though, technically, I wasn't) helped a lot too. It seemed to work. This may seem like a little thing, but considering that just six months ago the very thought of speaking in a room full of people would have plunged me into a panic attack, and even the thought of being called on in class was not the most comfortable thing in the world. I'm really quite proud of how I handled myself. And in a week and a half, I get to do it again... and then that will be that for leading discussions this semester... Even with all the progress I've made, I can't say I won't be glad to have it over with.
This weekend, I'm already being bad. Four weeks of no time for anything not school related has gotten to me. Thursday and today, I have spun a little bit with my tiny drop spindle - super lace weight Shetland wool. Wish I had pictures of it, but I don't... It's the first time I've had time to spin since I can't remember when and it was not really time I had for it, but I did it anyway... Part of the econ history book was able the wool cloth trade and how the cloth was produced, which obviously included info about spinning and weaving in brief... I couldn't take it. I had to spin. It was required... Today, I also finished my Latin homework for Monday.
Last night, I was up and finding sources for my seminar histiographical paper until 3am. Thank goodness I have access to the library sources from my home computer now that USF has updated its computer system or else I would have been at the library until it closed last night. And just a few minutes ago, I wrote my topic proposal. I'm writing on the role of the Vikings in European trade, 8th - 11th centuries. I feel they are under-represented in the field of medieval history and that their contributions are more often than not reduced to how they impacted other countries'/rulers'/people's policies/reigns/lives, and that even this is presented as having been almost exclusively through their raiding, rather than the things they did in, of and for themselves... Other entities get to tell their stories for their own sake... the Vikings should be able to do that too! So that's what I'm going to write on...
Saturday, I have to go buy a book of Catullus' poems. The USF bookstore website listed the wrong book title for the class, so I bought the wrong book (used from amazon.com, so I can't return it)... Now that I've discovered this, I have to run out to Borders tomorrow and get the correct book. I have almost 100 pages of poems to read for Monday... I also have 250 pages to read about economic history and a two-page paper to write on Cicero by Wednesday... Will I get it all done? Probably not... The pages are large and the print is tiny. But I will at least get all of my written work done. That much, I can do. I may skip Roman Lit on Monday though, even though I will have been in class for Latin an hour and a half before that class so my prof will know that I was at school at one point on Monday... But if I can't get everything done for it, I'm not going to go and get my prof pissed 'cause I'm unprepared. Far better to not be there than to have her not happy with me. She hates it when students come to class and waste her time by being unprepared for serious discussion of the assigned texts...
Sunday, I'm having some of my friends over. Don't know who's going to show up yet. Zinzi says she'll be there and Maria will be there until she has to go to work at 5pm. Haven't heard from anyone else who will be here though. Warm Up America! and the DIY Network want people to knit (or crochet) squares for charity on that day, so I've told everyone who is crafty to bring their tools with them and we can work on it together. Don't know if we'll watch the game or not... probably not... We will order pizza though, that much I can say for certain.
I also have good news concerning Dixie. She's gained yet another 2 ounces since starting her new health regimen.
She just waking up from a catnap in this picture... It was taken yesterday afternoon.
6 comments:
Catullus is lovely. I've only read him in English, and I have no idea how good the translation was, but he's lovely, if rather.. spicy.:P Do you get to read it in Latin?
Nope, just in English... But it looks pretty good so far although I've only glanced at the text. I look forward to the reading though. Everything I've heard about him certainly indicates that he was quite the character...
Yup. :)
And people weren't kidding about him! Good Lord! I finished the reading last night in just a few hours. My goodness, he could have written for HBO or Showtime! LOL! Occasionally, I had to just stop and howl, and other times, I was just struck dumb by the sheer nastiness of his verse... I'm not sure how I'm going to manage discussion in class tomorrow. I don't think I'm going to be able to articulate in mixed company what Catullus is really talking about half the time... I can just see Prof. M asking me what Catullus meant when he wrote such and such a line about whoever and whatever it might be, and I just know I'm going to totally loose it... I can talk about it among friends without batting an eye, but in a room full of strangers, I'll blush beet red and stammer like I've been hit in the head with a brick...
LOL. Yup. There's nothing new under the sun, is there? I'd probably have hot chocolate with a glurp of peppermint schnapps or something (glurp is something like two teaspoons...) and hope that helped! Let me know how it goes!
I got off easy... really easy! I got poems 49 and 53 to talk about. 49 is about how arrogant Catullus thought Cicero was and 53 is about something funny that happened in court... very tame poems for Catullus. The poor girl sitting next to me though... Oy! When she was talking about her poems, she turned so red I thought she would pop! I can't remember the number, but it was the one about the man who stole clothes from the public baths and his son who whored himself there.
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