Yesterday, Yale Alum and UofL professor John Hale took us to the Falls of the Ohio. Though some people were expecting a gorgeous waterfall like Niagra Falls, the Falls of the Ohio are rather less scenic, rather less touristy, and rather more important. The falls are the only point on the entire length of the Ohio that isn't navigable, and so ships had to portage around it (before they built a big canal there in the 19th century). So three towns grew up on each side of the river (on above, one at, and one below the falls themselves). The three in Indiana stayed three cities, while Louisville grew together after the canal was built to become the major city it is today.
Geologically, archaeologically, and anthropologically speaking, the Falls are pretty darn cool. The rock is all young limestone, which was a coral bed in the shallow, equatorial sea that most of the heartland was before continental drift went into high gear. So, we found a lot of neat coral and other marine fossils there, and a ton of species have been identified from those rocks.
It was a cool perspective; the geological and ancient history of the land we've been living on. As we're all looking back on the Louisville experience, it was a nice (if slightly corny) way to look way, way, way back into the Jurassic.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Haiku
coughcough
Cop Brutality
Kill the calf and eat it all
BUTTERMILK RANCH LAUGH
A composition by Andy Blieden, my...um..."adult" mentor
-cy
Cop Brutality
Kill the calf and eat it all
BUTTERMILK RANCH LAUGH
A composition by Andy Blieden, my...um..."adult" mentor
-cy
A Reflection on Louisville
If you see an out-of-service bus in NYC, the implication is "Out of Service, Screw You".
If you see an out-of-service bus in Chicago, the implication is "Out of Serivice. Oh Well."
And when you see an out-of-service bus in Louisville, it says "Out of Service. Sorry!"
If you see an out-of-service bus in Chicago, the implication is "Out of Serivice. Oh Well."
And when you see an out-of-service bus in Louisville, it says "Out of Service. Sorry!"
Monday, July 28, 2008
How To Rediscover My Southern Accent
Drink three glasses of white wine, add a southern man or two with a thick accent, and stir. I was laying it on pretty thick tonight, buddy.
48 Hours
Friday, July 25th
4:30 - duck out of work early (Shhhhh!!!)
5:45 - leave for camping trip
6:45 - REALLY leave for camping trip
8:00 (now in Central Time) - arrive at campsite
9:00 - finish pitching tents (and a tarp lean-to for Nick, Becca, and myself because there weren't enough tents for everyone)
9:01-1:00 am - (s'mores + ghost stories + bonding) x a helluva lot of booze
Saturday, July 26th
1:01 - bedtime underneath tarp because it's starting to rain
1:02 - Me: "I feel the rain hitting the bottom of my sleeping bag."
Becca: "Curl up in the fetal position."
1:04 - Nick: "I can feel some drops on my face."
*Commence HEAVY downpour*
1:05 - Becca: "OH MY GOD! THERE'S A HUGE HOLE IN THE TARP! ABANDON SHIP - GO GO GO!!"
*Commence scrambling out of the tarp - Nick without pants on - and running through the mud field to other tents*
1:07 - scrambled into tent with Becca, Ben, and Heather.
1:08 - Me: "Where's Nick?"
Becca: "He's gone - forget him."
1:10 - Me: "Wait...is this tent waterproof?"
*Commence freaking out because water is seeping into the tent from all sides, pooling on the ground. Nick can be heard in the distance pleading to be let into tents that have no more room*
1:11-1:40 - wait in the doomed tent, waiting for the rain to subside
1:41 - GO GO GO! Sprint out of the tent, through muddied fields and to the parked cars
1:45 - 8:00 - "sleep" in uncomfortable (but dry) backseat. Becca is in another car. Nick's whereabouts are unknown.
8:01 - awake to light rain and absolutely soaked camping ground. All tents (borrowed) are soaked through, sleeping bags saturated, people drenched to the bone. Cleaning up the mess is fun. Nick is found in another car (alone), but the windows are all steamed up...
9:30 - 12:30 pm - 3-hour Mammoth Cave tour with only handheld lanterns for light (read: complete awesomeness)
1:00 - stop at Big Mike's Rock Shop (note: the road leading up to Mammoth Cave has the most impressive collection of absolutely crappy tourist shops ever known to man. Sadly, we didn't get a chance to stop by Knife & Gift Shop or The Haunted Maze)
4:30 - 6:00 - arrive home, spread everything out on grass to dry, shower
6:01 - 8:00 - dinner
8:01 - leave restaurant
8:20 - pull over to discover a flat tire
8:21 - 9:15 - hilarious attempt to fix a flat tire with Nick, Emma, and Katie trying to find a car jack (the fifth house down the street had one). We discover that Diane Sawyer from Good Morning America lives on the street.
10:00-11:15 - drinking and beer pong with the Teach Kentucky peeps
11:30 - dress-up at the dorm for the midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show
Note: Chris in a form-fitting dress and pink dog collar is an image I do not wish upon my worse enemies.
Sunday, July 27th
12:00 am - discover that the showing is sold out. People decide to go rent a movie (which apparently was unsuccessful). I decide to stay with Becca, KB, and Matt (none in drag) to watch Reservoir Dogs.
1:45- movie ends, lights turn on, everyone sees that I am in a tiny miniskirt. Leave very, very awkwardly.
2:00-3:30 - poker in my underwear. Chris still has his eye makeup on.
10:30-12 pm - fix Chris' flat tire with "SLIME." Don't ask.
2:00-5:00 - Louisville Zoo!!! I got to see penguins. Becca got attacked by a bird.
4:30 - duck out of work early (Shhhhh!!!)
5:45 - leave for camping trip
6:45 - REALLY leave for camping trip
8:00 (now in Central Time) - arrive at campsite
9:00 - finish pitching tents (and a tarp lean-to for Nick, Becca, and myself because there weren't enough tents for everyone)
9:01-1:00 am - (s'mores + ghost stories + bonding) x a helluva lot of booze
Saturday, July 26th
1:01 - bedtime underneath tarp because it's starting to rain
1:02 - Me: "I feel the rain hitting the bottom of my sleeping bag."
Becca: "Curl up in the fetal position."
1:04 - Nick: "I can feel some drops on my face."
*Commence HEAVY downpour*
1:05 - Becca: "OH MY GOD! THERE'S A HUGE HOLE IN THE TARP! ABANDON SHIP - GO GO GO!!"
*Commence scrambling out of the tarp - Nick without pants on - and running through the mud field to other tents*
1:07 - scrambled into tent with Becca, Ben, and Heather.
1:08 - Me: "Where's Nick?"
Becca: "He's gone - forget him."
1:10 - Me: "Wait...is this tent waterproof?"
*Commence freaking out because water is seeping into the tent from all sides, pooling on the ground. Nick can be heard in the distance pleading to be let into tents that have no more room*
1:11-1:40 - wait in the doomed tent, waiting for the rain to subside
1:41 - GO GO GO! Sprint out of the tent, through muddied fields and to the parked cars
1:45 - 8:00 - "sleep" in uncomfortable (but dry) backseat. Becca is in another car. Nick's whereabouts are unknown.
8:01 - awake to light rain and absolutely soaked camping ground. All tents (borrowed) are soaked through, sleeping bags saturated, people drenched to the bone. Cleaning up the mess is fun. Nick is found in another car (alone), but the windows are all steamed up...
9:30 - 12:30 pm - 3-hour Mammoth Cave tour with only handheld lanterns for light (read: complete awesomeness)
1:00 - stop at Big Mike's Rock Shop (note: the road leading up to Mammoth Cave has the most impressive collection of absolutely crappy tourist shops ever known to man. Sadly, we didn't get a chance to stop by Knife & Gift Shop or The Haunted Maze)
4:30 - 6:00 - arrive home, spread everything out on grass to dry, shower
6:01 - 8:00 - dinner
8:01 - leave restaurant
8:20 - pull over to discover a flat tire
8:21 - 9:15 - hilarious attempt to fix a flat tire with Nick, Emma, and Katie trying to find a car jack (the fifth house down the street had one). We discover that Diane Sawyer from Good Morning America lives on the street.
10:00-11:15 - drinking and beer pong with the Teach Kentucky peeps
11:30 - dress-up at the dorm for the midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show
Note: Chris in a form-fitting dress and pink dog collar is an image I do not wish upon my worse enemies.
Sunday, July 27th
12:00 am - discover that the showing is sold out. People decide to go rent a movie (which apparently was unsuccessful). I decide to stay with Becca, KB, and Matt (none in drag) to watch Reservoir Dogs.
1:45- movie ends, lights turn on, everyone sees that I am in a tiny miniskirt. Leave very, very awkwardly.
2:00-3:30 - poker in my underwear. Chris still has his eye makeup on.
10:30-12 pm - fix Chris' flat tire with "SLIME." Don't ask.
2:00-5:00 - Louisville Zoo!!! I got to see penguins. Becca got attacked by a bird.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
My Girl?
I was on the phone with dear old Dad, and he asked about my girlfriend...from Chicago...yeah, oops. I told him that Katie was a good friend and not really my type...I left out details.
-cy
-cy
Friday, July 25, 2008
Life Decisions
I've been meaning to write this post for a couple days but got caught up in the madness of planning the Bulldogs in the Bluegrass closing luncheon. But now that that is over I can write about some of the plans I've begun to make for the rest of my life.
At the beginning of this summer, I had no idea what I wanted to do long-term with my life. I was pretty sure I wanted to do Teach For America, truthfully in part because then I could delay for another two years finding a career for myself. However, as I've come to the realization that I am a senior and don't have a lot more time left before I have to enter the "real world," I knew that I would have to come up with a plan for at least the next couple years after graduation. I'm not exactly a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal, and I just can't allow myself to leave my future up to the hands of fate. So basically this has been a summer of introspection for me in trying to determine where I want the path of my life to take me.
Then I checked out a John Grisham book from the library. Stupid me, I had forgotten that every time I read Grisham it always makes me want to be a lawyer, and here I find myself reading him just at the time when I'm trying to figure out my future. So a few days later when I drove my friend Matt to the bookstore to buy a GRE prep book, and I tried to determine whether I should buy an LSAT or GRE book or neither, I couldn't stop myself from buying Kaplan's LSAT prep book. I still hadn't decided whether or not I would take the test or if I even wanted to go to law school, but I figured it couldn't hurt to do a little preparation just in case. Plus many days I didn't have anything to do at work, so this was just as good a way to spend a day as any other.
I began to do a little studying during work. Read a chapter here, do some sample problems there. Then last Saturday I took a full length practice test for the first time. I absconded to the Bellarmine library and made myself do the whole damn thing. When I calculated my scores, I pleasantly discovered that I had done pretty well, especially considering that it was my first time taking the full length test.
Armed with the knowledge that I could do well on this test and several experiences from this summer confirming my hunch that the legal profession could be the one for me (meeting with judges, etc.), I registered on Tuesday to take the LSAT in February. Here follows my tentative life plan for the next five years:
Right after graduation: do TFA, Mississippi Teacher Corps, or Yale Admissions Office for two years. This plan is still hazy, and depends quite a bit on whether I'd be hired by any of these entities. Also, after working for Teach Kentucky I have my doubts as to how effective two-year teaching programs like TFA and MTC are, so I'm going to have to talk to some people about that.
After two-year hiatus from higher education: go to law school. Where? For what? I don't quite know yet. TBD.
After law school: who knows? But I am starting to consider JAG - the military's law branch. This is definitely still in the tentative phase, but I do come from a fairly military family (sister graduates from pilot training in three weeks!), so it wouldn't be unheard of for me to join the service. I just have to decide whether or not that's the path would be right for me.
Obviously, I don't quite have all the stops on my life journey completely mapped out yet, but I do have an outline, and for that reason I consider this summer a success. And now I can have a semblance of an answer when people ask me what I want to do after graduation, which makes me breathe a lot easier.
Whew, that was a long post.
At the beginning of this summer, I had no idea what I wanted to do long-term with my life. I was pretty sure I wanted to do Teach For America, truthfully in part because then I could delay for another two years finding a career for myself. However, as I've come to the realization that I am a senior and don't have a lot more time left before I have to enter the "real world," I knew that I would have to come up with a plan for at least the next couple years after graduation. I'm not exactly a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal, and I just can't allow myself to leave my future up to the hands of fate. So basically this has been a summer of introspection for me in trying to determine where I want the path of my life to take me.
Then I checked out a John Grisham book from the library. Stupid me, I had forgotten that every time I read Grisham it always makes me want to be a lawyer, and here I find myself reading him just at the time when I'm trying to figure out my future. So a few days later when I drove my friend Matt to the bookstore to buy a GRE prep book, and I tried to determine whether I should buy an LSAT or GRE book or neither, I couldn't stop myself from buying Kaplan's LSAT prep book. I still hadn't decided whether or not I would take the test or if I even wanted to go to law school, but I figured it couldn't hurt to do a little preparation just in case. Plus many days I didn't have anything to do at work, so this was just as good a way to spend a day as any other.
I began to do a little studying during work. Read a chapter here, do some sample problems there. Then last Saturday I took a full length practice test for the first time. I absconded to the Bellarmine library and made myself do the whole damn thing. When I calculated my scores, I pleasantly discovered that I had done pretty well, especially considering that it was my first time taking the full length test.
Armed with the knowledge that I could do well on this test and several experiences from this summer confirming my hunch that the legal profession could be the one for me (meeting with judges, etc.), I registered on Tuesday to take the LSAT in February. Here follows my tentative life plan for the next five years:
Right after graduation: do TFA, Mississippi Teacher Corps, or Yale Admissions Office for two years. This plan is still hazy, and depends quite a bit on whether I'd be hired by any of these entities. Also, after working for Teach Kentucky I have my doubts as to how effective two-year teaching programs like TFA and MTC are, so I'm going to have to talk to some people about that.
After two-year hiatus from higher education: go to law school. Where? For what? I don't quite know yet. TBD.
After law school: who knows? But I am starting to consider JAG - the military's law branch. This is definitely still in the tentative phase, but I do come from a fairly military family (sister graduates from pilot training in three weeks!), so it wouldn't be unheard of for me to join the service. I just have to decide whether or not that's the path would be right for me.
Obviously, I don't quite have all the stops on my life journey completely mapped out yet, but I do have an outline, and for that reason I consider this summer a success. And now I can have a semblance of an answer when people ask me what I want to do after graduation, which makes me breathe a lot easier.
Whew, that was a long post.
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