White THANKSGIVING?!

That's right. There was a bit of winter weather in the area this year for Turkey Day. A friend of mine up in Portland said they were watching the Dallas/NY game and just assumed it was being played in NY. Nope. That really was snow falling. Or at least what amounts to snow in these parts anyway.
I had a pretty good Thanksgiving, chillin out at Aunt Marty and Uncle Bill's farm. Lots of turkey, lots of pie, a couple of beers and a bloody mary. What more could you ask for, really. Sigh. Thus ends my last Thanksgiving at home for a few years.

New hobbies

The impending arrival of finals week means it's time to find new ways in which to distract myself from all the work that needs to get done. What new hobbies have I taken up this year? Well, there was the mandolin I bought a couple of months ago. That's going well. My fingers no longer hurt when I'm done playing. Thanks to Erica and Stephen I have two new ways in which to occupy my time this year. After a semester on the St. Andrew's fencing team, Erica decided that UTD needed one too. Practiced started about a month ago and tonight was our first session with weapons. COOL! And yes, it is as fun as it sounds, and a tough workout. I'm glad I still have my sexy marching band legs.
What better way to cool off after a bout than to pick up a few tennis balls and start juggling? Stephen is the one I can thank for this latest addition to my list of skills. Of course, I can just barely do the basic three-ball juggling right now, but eventually Erica and I are gonna have the six-ball toss down. Yep. Right after we ace these finals....

Hannah's first solo turkey

Okay, we're discounting the 2.5 kg "fillet of turkey" that I cooked for Thanksgiving dinner in Irkutsk. This was a real, 17 POUND turkey that I volunteered to cook for the McDermott Social Committee's Pre-Thanksgiving Potluck. Remind me not to volunteer for such endeavors in the future. (As tasty as it was, I burnt the shit out of my hand).

Nickel Creek's performance this evening at the Dallas House of Blues was beyond words. One moment in particular caused such elation for this little nerd right here, that I had what might best be described as a "nerdgasm" (noun meaning "the result of the excitement of one's nerdy or geeky tendencies" or "the peak of nerdy pleasure"). During the encore, I was finally able to hear Nickel Creek play "Eveline" in concert. Not only was this exciting for the fact that they NEVER play it and that I actually understand what story it refers too (if you haven't read Joyce's The Dubliners, you need to), but the introduction included the utterance of the following words from the mouth of Chris Thile -
"Less Southpark - More James Joyce."
All I can say is wow. And I'm pretty sure that went right over the heads of 90% of the people in the room.
And on that note,
Adios.

Capitalist Pigs

I don't hate Tom Thumb - I loathe Tom Thumb. Purveyor of fine foods my arse. Not only is their selection far inferior to that of Central Market, they are shockingly overpriced. But as it is the only store I can ride my bike to I often find myself having to shop there. Oh how I miss the good old days of HEB and Albertson's. Now, in order to get food at a reasonable price I have to drive several miles.
Example - Tom Thumb's current price for avocados (a staple of my diet) is 2 for $3 or $1.59 each. Excuse me?! Even at Central Market, upscale grocer that it is, they are only $.79 each. And if I drive down to Fiesta, everyone's favorite Mexican store, they are 2 for $1. And they're higher quality avocados than the ones at Tom Thumb. Throw in all the cool veggies and spices that you can't get at Tom Thumb (not to mentioned the pickled pig lips) and I wonder why I'm still shopping in Richardson, or living in this country for that matter.
Thus ends the pissed off rantings of a poor college student in search of reasonably priced high quality produce.

New website and pictures from Carbondale

I got bored the other night whilst cleaning off my hard drive and ended up completely redoing my website. It was REALLY time for an update.
Therefore, without further ado ... http://web.mac.com/hannahefrank
Also, I posted pictures from Carbondale on the website instead of on flickr. Check them out here - http://homepage.mac.com/hannahefrank/carbondale/

And I think to myself, what a wonderful week...

It's true. I've had the most wonderful week. It started on Saturday, when I awoke to find an email in my inbox from the Peace Corps - "Your application status has been updated. Please log into your account for more information." A sure sign of good news! I logged in to find that I have officially been cleared by the Office of Medical Services. The medical clearance is by far the most difficult part of the application process for the Peace Corps. Lots of forms, lots of poking and prodding and shots, then requests for more forms and more poking and prodding and shots. Even so, it only took me a month and a half - I feel like that's pretty good time. The exciting thing is that the medical clearance is the last major step before placement. Woohoo! When I got up on Monday morning, I had another email, this one from a girl in the Placement Office. Double woohoo! Things are going well. I just submitted my resume updates (since it's been almost four months since I submitted it with my application). Who knows how long this next step will take. The only thing I know is that the person I'm in contact with is from the Africa placement team, so we're heading in the right direction.
So what else has happened this week to warrant such exuberance? Well, on Monday morning, the university posted class listings for the spring semester. While there is only one undergraduate course that I'm interested in taking (and it's a cool one - an entire class devoted to FILM NOIR!), there were a number of graduate courses that caught my eye. Namely, Dr. Redman is teaching a course on James Joyce. Yes, I'm going there - going out with a bang by taking a graduate-level Joyce class my final semester. At first I was bummed because it was at the same time as Dr. Hatfield's Latin American Short Story class, but then I realized that Dr. Hatfield is also teaching a cool graduate class - "Neruda, Vallejo, and Guillen". It should be pretty fantastic - I went to talk to him about it and he was more than happy to give me permission to take it. He also agreed to be my second reader for my honors thesis.
Which leads me to the other good news. Things are going really well for the thesis. I've been reading a lot and watching a lot of movies for it. During my meeting with Dr. Towner this morning to discuss my progress, she suggested that I visit the Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast Missouri State University - as they have a wonderful archive of scripts and notes. She's even trying to get me a catalog of it from her friend there! Woohoo! And I have enough money left in my McDermott travel fund to pay for the plane ticket.
Over all, things are going fabulously well. I have a lot of paperwork to fill out (surprise, surprise - that seems to be the theme of the semester), as all but one of my classes next semester require special permission. But it's worth it.
I've been walking around all day with a smile on my face. Wonderful weather. Soft grass and bare feet. Things falling into place all over the place. What more do I need right now?