Settled In, Mostly

This past week has seemed very long in some ways and very short in others, but it still surprised me that it's been a whole week since my last post. I'm about 95% unpacked now, and seem to be down to those last few boxes of stuff that makes you think to yourself, "What the hell am I going to do with this?" The answer, in a lot of cases, probably really should be "throw it away" but that's a little harder to do now on my present income! Anyway, getting most of the unpacking done has allowed me to get caught up on other stuff around the house and feel like things are a bit more under control. I had a guest over the weekend who seemed to feel the place looks pretty good, so that's a happy thing. The less happy thing is that I have mice. Well, a mouse at least. I saw one in the kitchen once a day for about four days in a row. The last time, I even screamed. Yeah, I know... what a stereotypically girly thing to do. So sue me. I have glue traps down now, courtesy of the building manager, but thus far I don't appear to have any, er, guests. I'm not really looking forward to disposing of the traps if and when they do catch something. However, I now hate going into the kitchen after dark, and it even makes me nervous to go out there during the day, so I really need to get rid of those mice.

I had a pretty nice weekend, all in all. I took my daughter as my guest to a performance by the Second City improv troupe (sponsored by the grad school) on Friday night. It wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped it might be, but it was still pretty funny. I have only the greatest admiration for people who do improv since I am terrible at being put on the spot. Hell, I couldn't even think of good suggestions to yell out when the performers were asking for things from the audience. I'd think of really good things like ten minutes later... Figures. I had a visit from someone very special to me and, though it was shorter than I might have wished, it definitely lifted my spirits. I did some homework and watched a couple movies while I translated a bit of Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae.

Classes are shaping up to be interesting. I have this class that's basically on book studies, examined through the lens of the relationship between literacy/books and late medieval English heresy/rebellion. I'm finding the reading interesting and, considering that it's taught through the English Department, a bit less jargon-laden than I'd feared. I nonetheless keep my Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory handy for when the lit crit stuff starts to get out of hand. Thank goodness I had a little theory in my translation class a couple years ago or I would definitely be up a creek without a paddle, I suspect. The real bear, though, has been getting hold of all the books for my classes. It really creates a problem when you're not allowed to register until two business days before your freaking classes start. I'm supposed to be doing an oral presentation Wednesday on two books, one of which I don't have! Hopefully I will get it pretty damned soon... Anyway, the first class in there involved going to the Special Collections and getting the super-condensed version of the history of the book. Largely old hat for me, but I got to handle some really great manuscripts including the early printed book bound in a leaf from a ninth-century Carolingian manuscript featured in this article. I also looked in depth at a beautiful Italian humanist manuscript of Latin poetry. There are still two classes I haven't even been to yet, one today and one Friday. I'm looking forward to them a lot.