Scallops

Today was a long but very eventful day. Class at 9:30 (walked in this time, took about a half hour) in which we discussed the work read for Tuesday. Suffice it to say that although I lack the historiography to support my points, I had some idea of what I was talking about. Unfortunately, this didn't get me very far. So, after class (and grabbing coffee with some classmates) I headed over to the library and charged out* a few books on the topic I was arguing with others over, plus about fifteen more on slavery and the law. I haven't read them yet, but they are on my shelf!

* The great thing about being a grad student is the charge out policy. I have a shelf in the history reading room in the stacks of the library. I can grab books from the stacks, put a little slip in them with the call number written on it, and place them on my shelf. Then, a little library elf comes and notes which books I have and does some library magic in the computer system so the book is logged, but mine. I'd have to actually check it out to leave the library (and they Inspect. Every. Book. that leaves the library, so they could prove it) but I can read them whenever I want in the reading room or anywhere else in the library.

After loading up but not reading those books, I read the most recent work by the guy who spoke at the lecture today. It was amazing. (This presents a weird conundrum for me - do I say the title and risk showing up on a random Google? I think I'll keep things anonymous for now.) The lecture was also really interesting, and the dinner that followed (!) was very intimate - about 10 of us total - and I got to participate in some very interesting conversations with these really awesome people. I mean, the historians out there would pee their pants if they knew who I was at the table with tonight. It really revived me after a frustrating week, and I will now redouble my efforts to get some context for the next readings. I am also going to make a concerted effort to keep an open mind and try to approach things from different angles rather than my usual postmodern critical race theory self. Not that that's bad - but why would I want to limit myself? That's not why I'm here.

One thing I learned from dinner, though: I still don't like scallops. We went to a very fancy Latino-fusion-seafood restaurant and I figured, well, I kind of liked scallops the last time I had them and this is the place to do it (free and fancy.) Well, they were very tasty - melt in your mouth buttery, excellent light sauce, delicious black bean and asparagus ravioli. But I cannot stand the texture of seafood. I tried shrimp. Scallops. Tasty, unbelievable flavor. Nasty, nasty, gag me texture. Wish I'd gotten the steak.

Tomorrow I am off to Ann Arbor to visit Aaron, cheer on the Wolverines vs Penn State, do some wedding planning, and do a lot of reading. Wheee!