Conference Days One and Two

Four of us - three colleagues and one colleague's husband - carpooled yesterday to the NCPH conference in Pensacola, Florida. Upon arrival, we discovered that we were literally ten seconds too late for registration (after getting to the Opening Reception first and mistaking it for registration)! The conference is being held at both the main conference hotel, the Crowne Plaza, and at the historic Pensacola village. Our opening reception took place in the garden of a beautiful historic home overlooking the lovely Pensacola bay. Unfortunately, since we didn't have our registration materials, we missed out on our complimentary drink! Posh food was provided by local Portobello cafe.

NCPH 2011 Opening Reception

View of the Pensacola Bay from the opening reception

After the reception, we got settled into our hotel room at the wonderful Crowne Plaza hotel, then headed out for dinner and drinks at the Atlas Oyster House. I had shrimp and grits, corn fritters, half a piece of chocolate cheesecake, and several delicious souvenir drinks!

MTSU graduate and Ole Miss PhD student DeWayne Moore,  MTSU MA student Katie Rosta, MTSU MA Candidate and Ohio State Civil War Sesquicentennial planner Amy Rohmiller

This morning we woke up bright and early to find our registration and to attend a colleague's session on blues tourism, cemetery preservation, and contested sites. We ate lunch at Nacho Daddies, a sister restaurant to Portobello. After lunch, I attended a wonderful session at the hotel on the interplay between public historian and constituent communities. One of the presenters is currently writing an article on a project similar to one I've been considering, so I got some great insight and had an exciting thesis breakthrough. After taking the conference shuttle back out to the historic village, I spent an hour and a half representing MTSU in the exhibitors' hall, then met Katie Stringer and walked over to the Happy Pig for barbecue. It was definitely not Memphis-style, but still delicious.

PhD student Zada Law and Dr. Tara White at the MTSU informational table

After eating, we all walked back to the hotel (hello, blisters!) for the Civil War Sesquicentennial Plenary Session headed by MTSU's own Dr. Carroll Van West from the Center for Historic Preservation and the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area. Panelists from a variety of institutions, including the National Parks Service, discussed the contentious issues with Civil War commemoration, including contested causes, negotiating a shared past across cultural boundaries, and battlefield preservation.

Civil War Sesquicentennial Panel

Finally, MTSU students, alumni, faculty and one future student met in the hotel bar for drinks and socializing.  After a full day, I'm ready for some sleep!

MTSU students, alumni and faculty (current and former) at Thursday night's mixer.  Missing is Dr. Martha Norkunas.

On conferences, wedding planning, losing weight and my mind

Tomorrow I leave with my friends and colleagues Rachael and Katie for the National Council on Public History Conference, to be held in Pensacola, Florida. I'm hoping to blog periodically during the conference, as well as network, network! I've signed up to work the MTSU informational table in the vendor room, so I'm looking forward to the opportunity of meeting alumni and public history professionals interested in the program. Check back here every so often to see our adventures!

In more personal news, I've been frantically planning the wedding for a couple of weeks and, in all of my excitement, Weight Watchers has gone by the wayside. I was not on plan last week and I didn't attend my meeting. I'm not sure where I'm going to go from here. I love Weight Watchers, I love the idea of losing weight, but it's starting to seem like just another chore in my sea of commitments. Thinking about it in the car yesterday, I realized that the only way this is going to work for me is if I see WW as a way to treat myself - an oasis from the daily grind that wears on me. If I see it as a commitment in my long list of commitments, it's easy to discount it as frivolous when compared with coursework, thesis research and writing, wedding & marriage planning, etc., and cut it out of my regimen.

I'm going to have to find a way to balance all of these competing forces in my life. I've been reading Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love for several weeks now, and I really love the way she approaches life. I wish that I could take a year off from work and school to travel, eat, pray, and make new friends. Knowing myself, I would end up seeing even this experience as a stressful commitment, particularly since Gilbert was able to travel only because she had already made the commitment to write the book about her travels. Finding balance is a difficult task that, paradoxically, stresses me out. I do find, however, that when I'm feeding my spirituality, working out, and eating more healthily, I do feel more at peace with myself. It's something I'm going to have to continue to work on but, fear not, dear friends and followers, I'm not giving up just yet!

On Lenten promises and activity stickers

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, the pre-Easter season. It is tradition for Christians who observe Lent to choose a Lenten sacrifice, most often manifested as giving up chocolate, soda, sugar, coffee, etc.

When I was going to Catholic grade school, they encouraged us to be more proactive about our Lenten sacrifices, instead calling them "Lenten promises." That's been my MO in recent years - choosing to be more patient with friends, more hard-working, etc. This year, however, I waited until the last possible minute to choose a Lenten sacrifice - yet another side-effect of my crisis in faith over the last six or seven months. Yesterday, I tentatively decided to give up diet coke, one of my happy treats.

If you read this blog regularly, you know that I'm attempting to embark on a healthier lifestyle - 8.6 lbs lost in five weeks, by the way! My better half has lost 33 pounds since November by working out and following a somewhat strict diet plan. I promised Jordan I would go work out with him last night - something I've been planning to do for weeks. I got out of going on Tuesday because I had killer stomach pains, likely a lingering symptom from over-indulging on Saturday evening. As I waffled and pouted over going to work out, I was reminded of feelings I've had earlier in this process. Rather than pouting and feeling sorry for myself, I needed to really examine the reasons for continuing this process and to make a concrete commitment.

I decided to return to the premise of Lenten promises rather than trivial Lenten sacrifices. Motivated by the biblical principle of the body as a temple (a philosophy that fits well for all belief systems), I decided to love my body and to do something nice for it - I've made a commitment to work out on a regular basis. I'm not sure what form this will take - right now, my goal is working out enough to legitimately earn the activity bonus stickers at my Weight Watchers meetings. I made it through my first round with Weight Watchers (reference post linked above) without setting foot in a gym once. I can't help but feel like, if I had cultivated the habit of working out, I would have had a better time sustaining my weight loss. Since starting WW this time, I've made small, more-active changes in my schedule, such as only taking the stairs at work in the library, walking across campus instead of driving, and parking further away. I feel like these, while healthy habits, are cop-out activities. I've never raised my hand in a WW meeting this time for an activity sticker. If these middle-aged women in my meetings can join Zumba classes, hike around their neighborhood, or schedule sessions with a personal trainer, why can't I take advantage of my own gym-aficionado fiance (who is totally addicted to working out at this point)?

We started on the elliptical. I asked Jordan how I should program it - after a short consultation, we decided on 22 minutes, level three, calorie burner setting. I plugged in headphones borrowed from him, scoured the on-machine television guide for a workout-appropriate television show, and finally decided on Throwdown (Boston Cream Pie edition) with Bobby Flay. About six minutes in, I felt like I was in trouble - my heart rate was at 170 (a quick glance at Jordan's machine showed his HR in the 115-range), my chest felt tight, and I was terrified of a heart attack or stroke. I teared up some, and glanced at Jordan, who looked alarmed. I pulled off my headphones. "Is my heart rate normal? What's up with this?" He glanced down at my machine, looked at me with a bit of surprise, and said "well, maybe a bit..." I teared up some more and said "well, maybe I'll just go to fifteen minutes instead of twenty-two."

I decreased my pace - a couple of times, the machine told me to speed up - and powered through. My heart rate went into the 150s and I felt more in charge of the elliptical. Ten or fifteen minutes later, I had finished the complete 22 minute session. Jordan and I hightailed it to the target heart rate range posters across the gym - my HR was, as I suspected, in the high range of the target zone (hello, I'm significantly overweight and haven't been on the elliptical in about four years). I asked Jordan about his 115-heart rate. His reply? "Oh yeah, I don't know what's up with that. I think that machine's broken - my HR is usually in the 150s." I've had a lot of health-motivated freak-outs recently - last semester, I convinced myself I was having a heart attack every night and made the doctors at MTSU give me an EKG and run a full health panel. I'm filing this experience away as more of the same.

We continued with weights - I specifically wanted to focus on training my arms. I pulled Jordan away from his own workouts to show me the ropes - we couldn't decide what would work my arms better, so I did some preacher curls on a Nautilus (part of a circuit system), some free weights, and a rowing machine. At the last minute, I added some sit-ups (they are much easier to do on one of those sit-up bench thingies) and waited for Jordan to finish his weight-lifting regime. Seasoned work out vets, if you have any insight on best routine elements for me, let me know in the comments or through a private message via facebook!

I felt energized and accomplished afterward. While my body felt physically exhausted, my mind was alert. I went home and, craving veggies and protein, ate some low-fat cottage cheese on a bed of lettuce. I also had a small piece of pizza left over from the Sloans' dinner, but that's not really germane to this story.....

After the workout last night, I have no problem raising my hand for an activity sticker at meeting this week. I earned that little footprint.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Until now, this blog has been primarily personal, with the exception of a post or two, like this one. I've been toying with the idea of incorporating more of my professional life into this blog, in order to make it a better networking tool. Last week I ordered business cards with the website address printed on them, so there was no going back at that point.

You may notice the spiffy new tabs at the top of this page - Home, which takes you to the blog; About Me, which takes you to a short bio similar to the ones I send to conferences and other professional development activities; and Curriculum Vitae, which houses my extended resume, without references. I will likely add more of these tabs in the coming weeks to reflect my research interests and graduate-level work so far.

This seems like a timely endeavor, considering that I will soon be finished with classwork and embarking upon those two dreaded tasks of graduating MA students: the job search and the thesis. I also hope to continue writing about my wedding and my life on this blog as well. I envision, somewhere down the line, utilizing this as a forum to discuss my growing family and my experiences as a wife and mother, but all in due time. :)

Fountain of Sadness

Meeting with the reception caterer tomorrow to discuss the menu. I went to a Bridal Show this past weekend and, overcome with the beautiful possibility of a nacho fountain (yes, dear friends, such a thing does exist), I resolved to discuss at this meeting my idea to have a second caterer (of nacho & chocolate fountain fame) to offer up her foods alongside our original caterer's spread. Happy and excited, I came home and shared the news with my business manager - I mean, fiance - who agreed to email the fountain caterer for price quotes.

After looking at her website, Jordan decided that, in addition to the nacho and chocolate fountains I had picked out, he also wanted to do a coffee bar to go alongside our cake and potential chocolate fountain. Jordan has several passions in life - peppers, cooking, guns, spanish, me, theology, and coffee. The fountain caterer responded quickly to our query - the total for these three items would be over $3,000. I couldn't believe it! That's more than either of the main caterers quoted us for an entire spread of heavy hors d'oeuvres.

My business manager also shot down my request for a $1300 videographer I had fallen in love with at the show. I'm convinced that bridal shows exist to convince the bride to spend more money, or perhaps to have her heart broken. What do you think? Ever wanted something frivolous very badly, only to have the budget and/ or reality come up and hit you hard in the face? I mean, really, a nacho fountain? Not simply unnecessary  - also ridiculously lavish and potentially health-hazardous. :)

Wedding Sweeps

I bought my wedding dress this past weekend! Can't wait to wear it on our big day. :)

Since the engagement, I've been entering into several different sweepstakes. I've already won a set of Lenox toasting flutes for our big day, lost a free engagement session, and, in the latest set of sweeps, entered to win a $100,000 wedding and wedding planner through Crate and Barrel. The entry (go vote for us) is here: http://www.ultimateweddingcontest.com/entry/103183

It's been kind of fun entering these sweepstakes, but it's also been a little strange - asking people to vote for you is difficult and feels a little smarmy! It's something fun to do, though, and it would be really nice to win a huge prize that makes planning just a little bit easier.

To enter into the contest, we had to create our first real wedding registry - you can view it from the link to the entry page I posted above. That was a lot of fun. Crate and Barrel had cute pre-made collections, i.e. "Everything You Need to Have a Fabulous Mantel." I chose a few of those that fit our personalities ("Everything You Need to Display a Personal Photograph Collection," "Everything You Need for a Fabulous Bar," "Everything You Need to Host a Cheese and Wine Party"). After adding these collections to the registry, I added a few settings of dinnerware that we liked and, voila, I had a qualifying registry!

I still can't wait to go to Target and use one of those awesome registry guns, though. :)

Speaking of wedding deals, my favorite store, Hobby Lobby, has 50% off of diy bridal supplies this week! I don't like a lot of their bridal merchandise (it's either too traditional or too tacky for my taste), but I was able to get 24-packs of wedding bubbles for $2 each, which is a steal! I also bought some ribbon on sale in the colors that I like and some stick-on gems (pearls, blue & purple gems, etc.) for the bubbles.

Wedding planning is stressful, but it's also a really great diversion from the horrors of graduate school, let me tell y'all.

Learning to Like Veggies Again...

...Green Giant helps.

Some of you (a select few) may know that I started Weight Watchers on Saturday. This is a big step for me, as I've done Weight Watchers in the past (with huge success - I lost a total of 61 pounds). I was nearly within twenty-five pounds of my goal weight, and looked like this:

I pre-paid for nine weeks. NINE WEEKS. That's a commitment. Over half a semester! It was a great deal - I would have had to pay a $10 joining fee, then $12 a week, but, on this plan, they waived the joining fee and I'm only paying $11/ week (and all at once, not spread out each week).

I'm at home with my parents in Nashville tonight and Mom decided to cook dinner - she had a frozen pasta and veggie mix (7 points on new WW PointsPlus, 4 points on the old Points system - we figured it up, just out of curiosity) and a Green Giant veggie package. I had a cup of pasta and vegetables, and a cup of the vegetable mix - around three servings of vegetables, total. My meal was over half vegetables.

I had a sort of break-through while eating that meal. I was feeling sorry for myself last night, wailing and weeping (literally) over my perceived misfortune at choosing to commit myself to relearning how to live and eat at this point in my life. I went out to Taco Bell and got a beef taco and pintos and cheese just because I could. This is not necessarily a bad thing - It was only a seven point meal, but it was the defiance that I really enjoyed. Hell yeah, I'm gonna eat Taco Bell. Screw you, Weight Watchers!

While eating my meal tonight, I realized that this is LITERALLY the first time since I quit weight Watchers that I've had a meal that was over 50% vegetables, let alone nearing 75%. And, let me tell you, I was full afterwards.

I had lunch today with a prospective caterer at the City Cafe in Nashville. I ate delicious tilapia, mashed potatoes, and a corn cake. After tonight's dinner, I still have 18 points left. 18 points! That's enough for dessert several times over, if I decide I want it. I am super pleased and remembered why I lost sixty pounds on WW back in 2005. Their plan works and, with commitment from me (as with anything in life), I almost never felt like I was denying myself. I hope I'm good enough to remember how good WW has been to me and can leave the "feeling sorry for myself" antics behind.

Wedding Gab

It's been a month since Jordan proposed and I accepted. Since then, we've researched venues, attended bridal shows (overwhelming), refined our vision, rethought our vision, redefined it, and returned.

The one thing that's been amazing is how much everybody wants to help! My mom's cousin Caryn has been sending me links to various contests. We've already won a beautiful set of toasting flutes from Lenox! My aunt Teresa has really been helping us articulate what we want and my sweet neighbor has taken it upon himself to give us free reign over his gay-rage of decor, give us amazing ideas, and even offer himself as an amateur caterer.

We're still waiting to hear back from the church so that we can set a date, but we're looking at mid-October. We found an awesome photographer that we're going to meet with this Sunday, have already started a contract for a cake with a bakery in Dickson, and have picked out Save the Dates (waiting on the deacon at church to get back with us so we can actually buy them). We even bought placecard favors that are amazing. :)

We have ideas about what we want. Decor and details should reflect who we are as a couple. Mom has been advocating that Jordan and I sit down and write out our vision for the wedding so that we aren't forced into compromise by well-meaning people who only want to help, and so that we can better articulate our wants. I've found that I have a lot of difficulty articulating what I want. Like I said, we have strong ideas, but I hate the feeling I get when I put one of my ideas out there and get a less-than-excited reaction from well-intentioned but outspoken folk.

The thing that's most overwhelming to me (of all things) is table linens and chair covers! Table linens are ridiculously priced, both to rent and to purchase. Should we get linen napkins as well? The cost is astounding. We found a place in Memphis that rented covers for $1 a chair (plus set up fees), but none that we've seen in Nashville have been that inexpensive! Am I being ridiculous for wanting chair covers? Should I just suck it up and go with the uncovered reinforced plastic folding chairs that come stock with the reception hall? Is it really that big of a deal? I bet chair covers will look crazy anyway. At least the plastic folding chairs are aerodynamic and simple. 

The wedding, when it finally arrives in October, will reflect who Jordan and I are as a couple. It won't be perfect, but it will be amazing because not only will it be the culmination of ten months of preparation, but because it will also mark the beginning of our forever. That's all that will really matter when we look back on our wedding album in ten, twenty, thirty or more years. 

Loved this - The Mermaid and the Whale

I am not usually one to spread dumb internet forwards, but I liked this one. Let's make goals to appreciate ourselves - bodily, psychologically and intellectually. <3

Whether it means losing some extra pounds that keep us unhealthy or appreciating the body and mind nature has graced us with, we should all embrace our inner whale. :)

Recently, in a large city in France , a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym.

It said, "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

A middle-aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.

To Whom It May Concern,
Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans.) They have an active sex life, get pregnant and have adorable baby whales. They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp.They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia, the Bering Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia.Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs. They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans. They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don't exist. If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of Argentinean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis. Fish or human? They don't have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them, not to mention how could they have sex? Just look at them ... where is IT? Therefore, they don't have kids either. Not to mention, who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store? The choice is perfectly clear to me: I want to be a whale.

P.S. We are in an age when media puts into our heads the idea that only skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver, and a piece of chocolate with my friends.

With time, we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies.

So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy. Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, ¨Good grief, look how smart I am!¨