on year three

Well, it's finally happened.  Ricky and I have finally reached our LAST YEAR OF LAW/GRAD SCHOOL, RESPECTIVELY!

I'll give you a minute to bask in that glorious news.



It's weird to think that it's been two years since we moved to Florida.  We miss the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia (and I, of course, am extremely fond of Charleston), but honestly, both of us love SW Florida more than any other place we've lived.  We love the heat, the beach, the 75-degree "winters," the afternoon storms, the fantastic county library system, the short(ish) drive to Disney World, the Everglades, the rich people that make sure our city looks really nice (no billboards, strip clubs, neon signs, etc.), the crime rate so low the local newspaper publishes front-page stories about the next town over, and the Publix on every corner.  I could do with more bookstores (everything here is chain stores--no cozy secondhand bookshops) and less 80-year-old drivers, but other than that, I'm completely enamored.  I'm not used to staying in one place for any extended period of time--my dad was in the Navy, so if we weren't moving, there was always the threat of moving--so the idea of living in Florida for years and years is a little scary.  But we're really hoping we'll get to stay anyway. 

I wish I had taken more time to blog about last semester (outside of my 99 list blog), but it was definitely one of those times in life that's so unbelievably chaotic that you're not sure how you managed to pull it off.  On top of my full-time job, I was teaching a three-hour college class, holding office hours for another four hours per week, and taking six credits--three of which were in Old English, which is a foreign language (Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.), and which resulted in a lot of faux-swearing and throwing of pens.  (In my 18 years of schooling, I've never struggled more with a class.  But I digress.)  I was "working" 53 hours a week, and that's not including church/church callings and the additional 10-15 hours a week spent on translations, reading entire Hemingway novels, writing weekly papers, and grading the assignments of 25 students.  On weeks when they had papers due, I would spent around 12 hours on grading alone.  It was exhausting.  I did a lot of not-sleeping.  There were many nights when Ricky decided to stay up with me to make sure I got my grading/papers done (bless him), because he knew I would fall asleep if he didn't.   

Since it's my blog and I can brag all I want, I'll say very smugly that I came out of that semester with A's in both classes, glowing teaching evaluations, and without losing a single client.   Gold star for me! Ricky gets two stars, because his schedule was just as hectic as mine (he handled his with a lot more grace) and he still emerged from the fray with A's and B's, even though his classes are a lot more difficult than mine are.

This summer, I've been adding to my collection of antique maps (I've been redecorating our living room: old maps framed in a gallery wall, old books, old brass bookends...you get the idea) and working on a research project in YA dystopian literature (think The Hunger Games).  Ricky was back in the Miami-Dade State Attorney's office in the misdemeanor division, living with my excellent grandparents and commuting home on the weekends.  We went to NYC in May, and Charleston in July, and got to see a lot of wonderful people. 

Now that we're back in the throes of schoolwork and never vacuuming enough, it feels like summer break (can you call it that when you still have to work?) was much too short.  Ricky's interning again with the Judicial Circuit Court for the fall (working closely with some judges!) and he's already started applying for jobs all over the state.  He's also President of two law societies (J. Reuben Clark and Criminal Justice) this year, which means I have to do much more socializing that I would like, and he's working on his blue belt in karate in his spare time.  I'm teaching a Composition I course and taking Earth Science Studies in Shakespeare (don't ask--it was the only class that worked with my schedule), which means I'll be doing a lot of Shakespeare/Milton/Spenser/Donne analysis, and I'm tossing around a thesis idea with one of my professors.  I'm also working with the girl half of my church's youth group, so my Wednesday nights are filled with pancakes and laughter and the occasional glow-in-the-dark volleyball game.  Neither Ricky nor myself is near as busy as last semester, but we're both so burned out that it feels harder.  I can't wait to be done!  I have every intention of eventually getting a doctoral degree, but I need a couple years to recover from my M.A., I think.

So that's where we are.  We do a lot of microwaved vegetables, pasta, and organic oven pizza--not much actual cooking.  (Truthfully, though, I'd rather spend two hours grading papers than I would making dinner.  I don't enjoy cooking in the slightest.)  We're planning trips to the Florida Keys and Harry Potter World (I think I have Ricky persuaded, Becky!) and Idaho and hopefully a lot of mini-adventures to fill in the gaps.  I'll probably be blogging about those a lot more on my 99 in 999 blog than I will here, because I'm not sure what to write in this one sometimes.  I certainly don't feel like I speak for Ricky when I write posts, and I don't have a lot of extended family I'm trying to keep "in the know," and nothing I have to say really falls into the cooking/homemaking/crafting/fashion/babies categories.  So...we'll see. :)