Since I've Been Gone . . .

So, I know that my blog has been suffering lately from lack of posting, but life's been a little crazy. Crazy in a good way, but still busy enough to prevent me from blogging.

Last Wednesday, after French class, I got on a plane and went to Pittsburgh for the 70th CEA (College English Association) conference. I presented a paper entitled, "Home and Country: The Trauma of World War I, British Identity, and the English Home." My presentation was on Thursday. It went really well, I didn't make any horrible reading mistakes, and I was able to field the questions well. Beside my own paper, I went to hear papers read in five other session over the weekend and felt that I learned a lot about the professional academic conference experience.

I stayed with Shari for the week, and it was wonderful! I think we figured out that we hadn't spent so much time together since we were both at Union. We celebrated Christmas on Thursday night, complete with red applesauce, green potatoes, green beans, and red meatloaf. We also watched Christmas episodes of TV shows and listened to Christmas music. Friday night was our second annual dress-up-pretty and go out for dinner birthday night. Last year, we went to the historic part of Downtown Memphis, and this time, we went to La Mont, a really nice restaurant on Mt. Washington. Our table was next to a large window, and we had an amazing view of the city while we ate.

Saturday, we hung around Shari's house, eating pizza, watching TV, and taking a short walk. That night, we went line dancing with a bunch of Shari, Jess, and Crystal's friends. I was really worried I wouldn't be able to handle dancing physically since I'm still so fatigued, but because we did so much rest earlier in the day, I was able to really enjoy it. Sunday was church, lunch with Shari's family, and Sunday night church at Southside. I gave her my present to her that night. On Monday, we watched EMMA! Emma is probably my all-time favorite movie, and Shari's never seen it. So, we finally watched it, after three years anticipation. I hadn't seen it for at least two years, and I cried a lot. It's so sweet! I want a Mr. Knightly. Shari drove me to the airport, and I opened my present, which included all sorts of stuff she got for me in New York-including a Gucci bag! I'm pretty much in love with it. It's bronze with a sparkly buckle, and I wish I could carry it around with me everywhere!

So, this has gotten freakishly long, and all I've done is shortly summarize my past week. I will go now, and return at a time when I have interesting, non-summary kind of things to say.