Wednesday, November 30, 2005

thanks for all the fish

At the risk of repeating myself… Things are crazy here!! No surprise… it’s that crunch time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when all the most important things have to happen.

So I spent a weekend with dear friends here in Grand Rapids, then left for home last Tuesday, spent a wonderful few days with family, came back on Sunday, left again yesterday for a field trip in Chicago, and today I’m checking the calendar and seeing that I only have a week and a half of classes left… then finals… then Christmas…

Enough to make my head spin, even though it happens every year. Same thing in the spring. You have spring break, then celebrate Easter, and before you know it, you’re handing in your last final. Only this year, I’ll also be getting a cap… and gown… and hopefully preparing for a job… oooh, let’s not think about that yet.

So Thanksgiving was wonderful, as usual. So good to see my sisters and the friends they brought home. What else? Plenty of turkey, pumpkin pie, no green bean casserole—but the spinach one was awesome so that’s okay, all my little cousins, catching up with my older cousins (I have a lot of cousins—huge families are great), outings to restaurants, a movie, a fierce Pictionary game, lots of talking, not enough lounging, and the barest whiff of homework. A very good time.

And then yesterday I reported at 6:45 a.m. to North Hall for our oceanography field trip. (Side note: Wow. I really am a morning person at heart… but that was pushing it. I had a quick cup of chai to try and wake up, but my eyes were definitely unfocused and crossing by eight. Long day.)

It was my first time to downtown Chicago, and definitely my first time to the Shedd Aquarium. So much to see! Finding Nemo was quoted a lot, and I overheard a lot of kids saying “Mommy! It’s Nemo!!” which was great. (Second side note: there were about 8000 fourth graders milling around—slight exaggeration—which made watching fish even more fun. Honest. Something about all that enthusiasm that keeps me from taking myself too seriously. Favorite part? When thirty kids rushed the moon jellies tank, and one little boy rounded the corner, fixed his eyes on the ghostly glowing things, and cried “GOOD GOSH!” His mouth stayed open in utter amazement. I laughed all the way to the sea anemones.)

We saw so much… I think we were there for about four and a half hours, maybe five. I loved the sharks, the anaconda, all those tropical fish, the sea turtles… anything else big and weird. (One fish had been there since 1933… and yes, it was still alive. Whoa.)

So today I’m back in the midst of things. Reading Virginia Woolf for my British novel class… Virginia is tricky for me. Half the time I’m amazed that her sentences are so beautiful. She never lets up, either… they all feel like she’s spent time refining each word. Rich, like too much whipping cream. But most of the time I haven’t a clue what is going on in the book. (Though we talked a lot today about how she wasn’t writing action but thought processes. Fair enough.) But even with that, I still dragged out my quote book twice to copy down brilliant paragraphs. She really is amazing. I just keep looking for something to happen, despite all warnings that not much will.

Then working through Peace Like a River for adolescent lit, which—no exaggeration—takes my breath away. Reading in my bed at twelve-thirty last night, and let me tell you—something huge happens on page 49, and I was wide-eyed and gasping. I won’t spoil it for you…though the back cover will try to, so don’t read that bit. Just pick it up and read the first two pages and see if you don’t like it.

And I need to be memorizing taxonomy for oceanography… which phylum belongs with certain creatures, who is in what family, a few odd genuses, etc. Not my forte, but I’ll persevere.

Wrapping up weight training… we’ve been pushing to improve and improve and improve all semester, and by now my muscle groups are all saying “Langefeld? We need to talk.” But if they can suck it up and improve for three more sessions, we’re home free.

And lastly, in my writing class, we’re each editing a favorite project to send out for publication. (I did this last year too, and was lucky enough to get published… and paid, which is a major bonus.) I’m cleaning up a very tongue-in-cheek piece that presents a twelve-step plan for (are you ready for this?) breaking up a dating couple. It’s ridiculously funny (I think, anyway), and working with it keeps these last days lighthearted for me. So I’m polishing it, and will submit it to Dialogue, the Calvin literary magazine.

Wow, this is a huge entry. Apologies. But I’ve been so negligent lately… running around like a mad woman… but it’s all almost over…—jl

Posted by Jenn Langefeld on 11/30 at 09:24 PM
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