Spring colds and other fun

So today I feel a little like Death--or a rusted leaky sink. Spring colds have hit campus full blast this week. My journalism professor was pretty sick last night but refused to cancel class out of pure stubbornness. He hasn't once canceled class due to illness in all his years of teaching so, by gum, he wasn't about to start. I woke up to mental fog and utter exhaustion this morning but popped two aspirins and dragged myself to class. I am also stubborn when it comes to skipping class--or work, especially since we are understaffed this evening. I am the only SOI on duty tonight so hopefully I can hold the fort together. Should be interesting anyway.

All I seem to do is warp looms. In weaving class I am beginning two projects simultaneously and as such have been consumed with the tedious process of warping two rickety harness looms. Warping involves working with thin strings and poking them through metal vents without tangling or otherwise harming them. In truth, not terribly exciting. Makes me wish I had an apprentice that I could assign to the task. Alas, in this class, I am the apprentice! As I bend over the loom, fiddling with thread, visions of Silas Marner dance in my head. That was not supposed to rhyme actually but I guess I'll keep it out of sheer laziness.

I am currently working on writing a delicious new essay about family vacations. I begin with my pink cowboy boots--emblematic of the era when I fancied myself a sheriff and occasional outlaw back in '93. This obsession with cowboys permeated childhood vacations because my father also loved the idealized West and so we practiced our own form of Manifest Destiny, eventually making it to Oregon in '98. Writing about travel is truly fascinating, which is why I love my creative nonfiction class. My professor has a personal interest in travel writing (like Bill Bryson!) and encourages the class to use writing as a path to discovery. Also, the fact that he bakes cookies for his students doesn't hurt.