Lately I have been feeling more like a student again.It's not just the impending law school, but also it's the activism I've gotten back into, and even this blog sometimes makes me feel like I'm writing my Vidette column again. (The blog, like the Vidette column, can be very cathartic.)
Also, I have been reading a lot more books. I have read about 10 books back to back in the last couple of months, including The Old Man and the Sea, Lolita, Memoirs of a Geisha, Freakonomics, Devil in the White City, and now Eats, Shoots & Leaves, a book that I have wanted to quote practically cover to cover.
Especially historical were Memoirs of a Geisha and Devil in the White City, both truth-oriented books in the guises of a period-accurate but fictional memoir and a much-researched true crime story, respectively.
As a Chicagoan, and especially as someone who prides herself in knowing bizarre (and at times macabre) historical trivia, I am surprised that I never have really known anything about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, or the man who would become one of America's first serial killers, preying on women at the fair itself.Reading Devil made me want to learn more about the fair, so of course, I bought a follow-up book, which includes photo essays on the White City. I also want to visit the grounds of the Museum of Science and Industry (formerly the fair's Palace of Fine Arts) and Jackson Park, where the fair took place, and where many markers of the fair can still be seen.
Dave and I are also planning a road trip to St. Louis in the coming weeks, during which we hope also to visit the Cahokia mounds site, one of 812 World Heritage Sites around the globe. (I have already been there, but the memory is so fuzzy I wouldn't mind refreshing it.) More history!
I also have a book, Weird Illinois, that I'd like to look through and pick out places to visit. Ironically, my company's building is in that book, right behind the Leaning Tower of Pisa in front of the YMCA building in Niles. There are other sites nearby that I'd like to see, or see again. Maybe we'll be able to visit something on our way to St. Louis, like the albino squirrel colony in Olney, IL; again, something I have been meaning to see since my undergrad days.
So, in my own way, I'm preparing to go back to school, both by sharpening my reading skills and trying to relax on fun excursions to intellectually stimulating places.
It's the Summer of Val! Anything is possible! (Including albino squirrels!)
P.S. Happy D-Day!
7 comments:
I agree, I've also been feeling more like a college student lately. I assumed it was mostly due to my friends (who shall remain nameless) who still act like high schoolers. But, maybe we both just reached a point where we realized we couldn't handle the monotony of work-housework-school. Go us, for keeping things interesting!
Oh and that CKCS is absolutely adorable!
Aww, isn't he? That's Jen's Milo, and this is her picture, which is a better one than any I took of us. I loved holding him, and he was soooo tired.
Boy, you don't even mention your weeklong fishing trip to Minnesota with your family!
Mom
The post was about intellectually stimulating trips & things I have been doing lately - I didn't mention our two weeklong family trips because they're RELAXING, they have nothing to do with me feeling like a student again! :o)
Oh, I was talking about the more social aspect of feeling like a college student. I definitely haven't had to do any theoretical or analytical stuff since graduation, which is sad considering I've taken two classes since then.
Well, the post was about the social aspect, too! (I meander around a lot.)
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