Regardless of what does or does not get accomplished within the next 3 weeks, I will be driving to Georgia on or around December 18th with Christmas and old friends on my mind. This is the only consultation as I constantly remind myself how much work has to be done in the next 11 days. I have to write 45 pages in 11 days. While this may seem impossible at first glance, I am fairly confident that I will be able to pull it off. I have re-arranged my entire office in order to provide the most pleasing writing environment, which of course includes the Mac as the main computer and the 24 inch display projecting my endless ramblings. So if you don’t hear from me for awhile, I am probably writing in my office or hunched over my desk in defeat. Feel free to stop by and give me some brief words of encouragement. I emphasize brevity, as I am planning on writing at least 6 to 7 hours a day. Pray for me….I am going to need it!

Last night I was sick of sitting around the house doing nothing, so I got dressed to go up to Panera bread and work on nothing in particular (basically use the free internet to kill time). In my hopes of striking some chord of understand with my readers, I am divulging the seemingly pathetic confession that I actually got somewhat dressed up to go to Panera Bread for no particular reason. If that isn’t pathetic enough, I was soon forced into an even more embarrassing situation as I drove into their parking lot and realized that Panera Bread closes very early on Sunday night. So now I have absolutely nothing to do, and I’m hungry and dressed quite nicely for no reason. I ran through the drive-through at Arby’s and went back home. This is a very good example of 2 interesting facts. First, it really sucks to be living in a small town when there is nothing to do. Secondly, as some doctors have suggested, Sunday night is the most depressing and anxious time of the week. Doctors have suggested that the pressures of starting a new week become reality sometime mid-day through Sunday, and that people become stressed, anxious, or simply depressed at the thought of going to work or school in the morning.

This is why a very small social gathering that was embraced in Tallahassee should be praised for its brilliance. The weekly Sunday night dinners that were held at the Schley in Tallahassee were by far the most successful therapy that any doctor could hope for. At the end of our week, a small group of 6 or 7 close friends would get together, cook dinner, and share our most enjoyable and forgettable moments of the week. We sat around a second-hand table that was too small to hold all of us. The plates were a combination of 4 or 5 different sets of dishes, and we barely had enough $9.95 Wal-Mart silverware to go around. We fixed the dinner in a dimly lit kitchen, and cooked the meal in an oven that was made in the 1800s. The house was not quite what one would call extravagant, complete with wood paneling walls, a single bare light bulb in living room, and several holes in the wall courtesy of a certain roommate who enjoyed holding competitive wrestling matches that ended with limbs going through sheetrock. But, it was the Schley, and one could never criticize the house for not having character.

I’m waiting for my clothes to dry. Jeans take a very long time to completely dry, and when they aren’t completely dry you put them on and the pockets are slightly damp, which then translates into a cold and wet feeling on your legs. I don’t like it, so I will wait for my jeans to dry. I am heading down to Cobden once my clothes dry to put up posters for the small town documentary exhibition. The opening is this Monday, November 13 at 5-7pm on the second floor of the Student Center at SIUC. I encourage all of you who read this blog…(all 3 of you) to come out to the opening. It will be a festive atmosphere, complete with overpriced cheeseballs and some sort of colored punch. Oh, and there will a lot of photographs too. We have 12 people in the class this semester, and each person will be display 10 - 12 photographs, so it will be a pretty big show. Come out and see some of the work that I’ve been doing this semester. I would also like to thank my good friends from high school that have been reading my blog religiously to keep an eye on my saga in Illinois. Their devotion has been truly inspiring, and their readership has been what helps me wake up each morning and tackle the day. A special thanks goes out to my devoted readers in the lone star state, each of whom has been following my blog more closely than their own lives.

Small Town Documentary Exhibition Opening
SIU Student Center
November 13, 2006 5-7 PM

The show will be up until December 10, so if you can’t make the opening, come by and see the work at your convenience.