The View From Kalamazoo

Visited St. Louis last week/weekend. Had a great time staying with my friend, Laura, drank copious amounts of Guinness and ate way too much pub food (and loved every second of it!) I met with some folks in the St. Louis Univ. history dept. and they were very nice, straight-shootin’, and encouraging. (my biggest criteria might be, at this point, behind ‘fund me’ is ‘be normal-no bastards need apply’. I can’t see spending upwards of 5-7 years with people I hate who torture me at every turn) The Vatican film archive there is a definite bonus, the carefulness with which one must choose a housing area/neighborhood to find decent schools is not so exciting, and I don’t even want to discuss the world of hurt my sinuses were in from pretty much the moment I arrived…in short, I’m definitely planning to apply.

Also attended a Studies in Medievalism conference, and can only say that I am even more certain than before that conference that I am *not* into medievalism. A couple of the papers were really interesting, a couple made me cringe a bit, one I sat grinding my teeth through (I couldn’t even *begin* to figure out a polite way to make the comments that needed making, it was so very, VERY off the mark in one section) – I call it the ‘TMJ paper’ at this point. Ack.

The Basilica is gorgeous. No one in that city can drive. Fried ravioli is very strange. The Arch, lit by the bright light of the setting sun, is truly magnificent to behold. Fried chicken at Pat’s is a beautiful, beautiful thing.