Hot Springs

Behold, steam!
The reason why the water is hot (140 degrees!) is because the porous rock of the region, sandstone, draws up the hot water from under the earth before it can cool as it would at other springs. And it was hot. I got the whole bath treatment at this old-timey bathhouse. First, the whirlpool bath, with super-hot water dripping in onto a board where your feet are, then a sitz bath (or the bootie-bath), then the steam cabinet (holy cow that was hot...I felt like a dumpling!), then they wrap you in steaming hot towels, then the needle shower...which was fantastic. That's the "bath" part. I got a massage too because, hey, I'm there already...so...you know...gotta do it. ;-)It was a nice break after hiking over the entire east part of the part. It was beautiful though. Very forested, green, pretty rock formations and views, like here from near the Mountain tower.
And no, Casey was not the only one who was silly during the trip (for him, see below!)

Where's Casey (not supposed to be)?

Some shots from our trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas.Actually in Hope, Arkansas. Casey on the front porch of Bill Clinton's first home, after crawling under the fence.
Casey, on the grenade statue which was totally out of place on historic Bathhouse Row.
Casey on the spitting frog...we were quick with this one.
Casey on the huge rock, during our 4-hour hike through the State Park. We saw lots of cool rocks, but this was by far the biggest.
And, last but not least, Casey on the huge tank at the far side of the park. It was also totally random...so Casey had to sit on top of the gun, of course.

I likes puppies.

My own private sanctuary

In grad school, I spend much more time in my head. Reading these studies where researchers observe people in chat rooms and forums without the people knowing that they’re being observed. Articles are being written over how many times they type “y a” instead of “il y a”, without their knowledge, permission or input.

So, I caught myself doing the same thing…watching this girl, sitting by alone, eating like a cat would, if it had a spoon. Dip, lick, dip, lick…each time, sticking her tongue out of her mouth. Why on earth is she doing that? As a pure intellectual, I can postulate, but it will be sans preuves, without proof.

As a kid, I spend a lot of time in my own head…heck, I was an only child…we do that. But now I remember it’s kinda a fun place...And it embarrasses me to show too much of it. I’ve actually deleted some of my comments off Facebook for sounding too smart, and therefore, for being off-putting, hard to relate to. The irony is, of course, it’s FACEBOOK. Whatever. Inane diversions keep me sane. That, Tyrone Wells and Twilight. I’m on the last book.

It’s a conflicting desire. To be myself and express the intellectual enjoyment I’m experiencing in school but not to offend or appear to be putting on airs. A desire, I recently learned, that is very American. A French person would certainly not be embarrassed to use big words, but their society values intellect as our values character, ethics. Both are good.

But I’d rather blog than study.

The analysis of insipidy

Three weeks into month of intensive immersion grad classes, my superego has been nearly slaughtered by the id and the ego. Id, because I'm tired of thinking...much rather eat! says the id. And the ego, because this purely intellectual, extraordinarily abstruse class cannot connect to any practical or useful understanding, even in an intellectual sense.

Allow me to illustrate. My current class is the linguistics of electronic language. My research topic is on the use of "I am" (Je suis) vs "I'm" (J'suis) in subject lines of posts and its subsequent use in the responses to those subjects in a forum for adolescent girls, "100% girls, No boys allowed."


The professor thought that was a great topic. Only the use of language, though, not the meaning that it conveys. Which begs the questions: What's the point of studying language without concern for its communicated meaning? That's linguistics, apparently. Let's just say that pure academia does not appeal to me.

A side note, my main distraction and means of remaining sane these week is the Twilight series. I have the audio books, which makes spending 2+ hours in the car commuting actually nice. I mean...what are Bella and Edward going to do next? These are important things.

Better than Ezra & a Wedding

Casey and I went to the Better than Ezra show last night at the House of Blues. It was great. They're pretty good showmen and played a nice mix of old favorites and new songs. Their new album, Paper Empire, is worth checking out.

My favorite still is "Lifetime," and Casey prefered "Desperately Wanting." And the opener, Tyrone Wells, was fun too, even the yodeling. Next time I go to a concert, though, I'm going to wear shoes like these:Because I'm apparently the shortest BTE fan in the world, the rest being the giants of Brobdingnag, including the striptease-dancing Miss Piggy lookalike that was in front of us. I'm sure she's a lovely person, though.

Also, Saturday, we went to the wedding of some friends from Baylor, Shawn and Heather. Now, how cool is this: instead of disappearing immediately after the wedding, the bride and groom decided to stick around and have a couple events for folks, bowling, dinner at Humperdinks, etc. It was really fun to get to spend time with my old roommate, Heather, and to see Josh and Ryan, some good buddies from Baylor. There's nothing like old friends. :-)

Downhill

Ah...all that's left of the teaching year is giving exams. Some paperwork, running around getting checked off for stuff and attending graduation, and that's it.

Wee!