Two Days of Hell

Indeed the past two days have been just awful. There were bright random happy moments, but for the most part it was hell.  As I've mentioned in several posts :P  I finally woke up this morning without a migraine!!! I was so very excited. It almost came back when I was sitting at work and realized my vision was incredibly blurry. I took pills and then ate lunch (even though I wasn't hungry) and Ta da! It went away.  For the moment.

So, Miley Cyrus is engaged with a 3.5K Diamond Ring. And all I could think was geez... that could probably pay for my house.  I need to be famous. Or win the lottery.  Or have some great relative I barely know leave me money. :( It's just depressing, when I think of having to go in debt to earn my degrees or pay for my house.  Maybe I could start one of those website were random people give me money. And yes, I saw one for a couple who wished to buy their dream home but needed money for a down payment. You could donate through paypal. Really? I would feel terrible asking for it.  Yet, the world sometimes just feels so very unfair when you work your butt off, manage your money, and try so hard to do what's right, and others get money though such simple things or lucky breaks.  Or just being a terrible actress *ahem Kristen Stewart*

That's my depressing rant for the day.  On the plus side, I loved that yesterday I finished my Mary Boleyn book.  I also started and made it about halfway through, The Good, The Bad and The Undead which is second in the Rachel Morgan Series.  I love reading, and it was so crazy today when I saw an article on financial mistakes young people make today. One of those was buying books when most you can get at the library or download for free.  I'm sorry, but I LOVE books. I often buy them secondhand through libraries or on sale, and it is something I will never stop doing.  On the better side it was the only mistake I was apparently making :P   -- http://www.momseveryday.com/home/money/headlines/money-mistakes_156337625.html

Not an Infamous Whore

So, I have just finished my fifth book of the summer: Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings. This is the first full biography of Alison Weir, and I must say it emphasizes my belief that the little people of the world need to have more importance in history. Mary has been given a complete false representation in many historical fiction writings as well as in historical writings.  Alison Weir effectively goes through the primary documents and tries to understand where certain comments came from. Most of the comments so many have taken as truth were rumors spread across whole countries, and therefore unreliable. In many instances claims are made without anything whatsoever to base them on, or writers from the 18th century who did not cite their sources.

It is understood that many things are lost to us. There are plenty of documents that might be floating around in the universe lost in a drawer or in a box in an attic.  Of course, many have been destroyed by accident or entirely on purpose.  We cannot account for this lost knowledge.  Historians have to take what facts they can find and make logical conclusions.  These conclusions often vary but Alison Weir does a very good job of presenting the facts and then giving her conclusion based on that evidence. Sadly we don't even have an identified portrait of Mary Boleyn, just a few that have been credited to portray her.

The picture on the cover is often said to be of Mary Boleyn.  There are several others.  All in all, I love Alison Weir's writing and have read many things by her, including Henry VIII and his Six Wives. I think that it proposes many things that historians need to take a step back and think about.  Where do your facts come from and did you double check them?  I think much of the myths surrounding Mary Boleyn have come from unreliable sources that were just taken at face value.  It is sad that though she managed a much better life than her sister, Anne, she has such a horrible reputation and Anne is given pity.

Mary Boleyn married for love and lived into middle age, learning what her siblings did not.  She did not strive to be famous, royal, or to even benefit from her affair with Henry.  She simply lived, and did so with a much happier ending.  Perhaps Anne's motto of "The Most Happy" was applied to the wrong sister.

Overall, this book reaffirmed something I was thinking about.  We often become obsessed with the well known figures of history.  Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, The Borgias, and others.  Yet, the characters who were behind them, who knew them best, are left in shadow or given a completely inadequate often false representation. In my Civil War class last semester we discussed the fact that though there are counts of how many soldiers died (over 700k) there are no overall counts for civilians.  A project could be put together, and it could be figured out, but no one has done it. Why not? Why do we not care for the normal people who were affected by the war? The mothers, sisters, fathers and brothers of soldiers whose homes were raided, orchards chopped down, and who may have even been beaten, raped or murdered.  These people deserve their own historical importance.

Perhaps I am slowly finding my own road that I want to follow as a historian.  I wonder what could be accomplished.  It is amazing to find out smaller details of the lives of those we want to know more about, and by understanding the people, we can better understand the time period. Of course, there is always the trouble that documents most often detail only those who are the most famous, but it is always worth a shot.

Oh. My. Lord.

So, what I'm trying to not do is just to crawl into bed and sleep until tomorrow. Though it's really really really tempting. Sadly instead of a blog about how GREAT yesterday was, I first have to rant about today.  It's what I do.  Good anger management and all that. 

So I barely slept last night even though I was exhausted because I accidentally fell asleep at 8 pm yesterday for about an hour and a half because my head hurt sooo very bad.  So, I woke up, arranged my AWESOME room, talked to Sean for a bit when he got home and attempted to sleep. HA! I remember 1 am and 2 am and then 4 am and then dozed off to wake up late.  Managed to get to work on time - was happy about that.  Then spent hours fixing my iTunes - or so I thought - so that there was not too many songs to fit on my iPod. Instead it tells me there's  about 4.68 gb of OTHER on my iPod and the music can't fit. I only have about 5.8 gb of music... iPod has 7.67 gb of room total.... not syncing anything else... WHAT THE HELL?  Well, I can't start all over again because my laptop has to be on the net for that and I could NOT get the internet to work on my ancient eight year old 19 in laptop... -sighs-  So, we shall see how that lovely little thing goes.  OH! And (my boss is going to shoot me for ranting about this yet again, but it angers me!) I went to McDonald's to pick up our lunch today.  Get in my car, turn it on, look behind me and a stupid GO bus is there.  Wait for it to move.  Women gets out and shuts the door with her purse in her hand. SHE WAS GOING TO PARK THERE! IN THE LANE WHERE IT GOES THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION!!!!  I have to get out, and say nicely (I'm proud of that) "Ma'am? I need to leave!"  "Oh I'm sorry."  Five minutes later, she finally manages to get back in and move it. Further down the lane. Behind three other cars. She almost hit mine and the car on the other side trying to move it. Really?  And she blocks in three other cars! I almost called and complained.

Then, excited I go to my sister's and watch the Finale of Game of Thrones - that was great. Proceed to eat homemade burritos, which while delicious my body has decided to hate.  Head home, find the dogs flipped over both their water bowls.  So, back story, yesterday Heather and I painted my bedroom (ITS BEAUTIFUL!!!!) .... and I am SO SORE! I also managed to somehow screw up my knee, and since this afternoon it has only gotten worse.  Well, since I'm hoping for a letter from my brother, I stumbled across the road to check my mail. Nothing.  Wait for about ten cars to pass and finally stumble back.  Take my stuff inside, grab some treats, and go to open the door to the dog pen. HA!  So, Moe who wasn't near the door, barreled me over. Big time.  The stupid female collie who visits the neighbors and used to steal Moe's food was in said neighbor's yard and he went after her. Scared me to death because first he went for the road. Ran after Moe, screamed at him, he flopped over.  Well! That's great at least.  So here I am in my neighbor's yard trying to convince this dog to please come back with me.  I wound up having to carry him back to the pen. Attempted to put him in the pen... puppy got out. Managed to grab puppy. Now holding two dogs.  Gave up. Fell down. Couldn't manage to get both in the dog pen and get the door shut... -sighs- Called father-in-law. He was on his way. Finally managed to get the leash I had on the puppy. Spend the entire time holding onto Moe's collar because he kept trying to bolt. Managed to get the chain attached to him.  Then I couldn't get both dogs in the pen and get it shut. Finally my savior arrives and we get them both in because Moe knows not to mess with him. So I walk out and discover I've hurt the ankle on the leg that didn't hurt before.  My wrist is killing me and I just want to crawl into bed.  Sad aren't I? I'm usually so much happier than this. -sighs-

So... got inside the house and finally flop on the couch in pj's, and my cat jumps up and claws my neck. NOoo clue why.  Yelled, and he jumped down. He never does that. Except every once in a great while he tries to grab my hair. -sighs-  Now I'm ranting on here.  But, on a great note, my room is beautiful.  Heather came over yesterday morning, and we moved all the furniture out. We then proceeded from 9:30 to 12:00 to paint my room and only had a coat left.  We cleaned all the brushes we used for trim, and headed to Bowling Green to pick up my absolutely adorable puppy.  Ate Sonic (surprisingly good, we had planned on Chic-fil-a... :( It was Sunday...), picked up said puppy, Arwen, who loooves me, and then went to DQ for ice cream and water for said puppy. Made it home, Arwen loved Moe, played with them some, then went inside and finished the walls. We even painted the trim and my closet door. It looks absolutely fantastic, and Heather seriously rocks. So does her dad for letting her borrow all his amazing painting gear.  I'm incredibly happy to wake up to a beautiful green room.  Or sleep in....
Heather and I bonded quite a bit yesterday.  We have plans next Sunday to paint my utility room, eat Mexican, and hike in Mammoth Cave (have to work off the Mexican :P ).  We had planned on taking Arwen, but my husband instructed me that puppies are extra susceptible to worms and infections when tiny and that would be a bad idea :( So no puppy on hike.

Ahem - So I apologize for my crazy rant but I feel a little bit better :P

Just... Bleh

So, I waited around this morning (while feeling horrible due to allergies acting insane) for my husband to wake up cause he said he would go yard saleing with me.  That didn't happen, and I wish I had known so I could have gone out at like 8 this morning and went to BG to hit up much better yard sales. Most of the ones I stopped at in town are the yard sales they have continuously with the exact same crap they couldn't sell to begin with (one yard sale literally had containers with stuff they just didn't feel like pulling out - I recognized it.  All the dishes were utterly filthy as well.) So yard saleing was mostly a bust.  I got a cute Halloween decoration, a tractor for a friend, and a pretty painting. Yep.

Waiting around to figure out what to do. I need a shovel to effectively clean out the shed. I need help to paint. I guess I could clean more. Or read.

I've been reading Mary Boleyn by Alison Weir and it is amazing. I'm about halfway through it, and it's crazy the assumptions people make based on the barest writings of others which were usually based on rumor.  It's inspiring to see Alison going through documents and setting out exactly what we know, what we have, the likelihood of that document being truth, and coming up with whole new conclusions. Poor Mary Boleyn wasn't an infamous whore.

Culprit of Random Staring

So, after work today I went and shopped for stuff to paint with. I did this with my friend Heather.  In Barnes and Noble I realized I was staring at a shelf thinking about a book I knew wasn't there.

Me: "Why am I staring at this shelf like the book is magically going to appear?"
Heather: "You do it alot actually. I just don't say anything."

Huh. Who knew? For our oh so funny cell phone tie convo see Heather's blog :)

So, on a different note, I now have green paint for the room, paint stirrers and rollers.  Heather's dad is being awesome and letting us borrow all the various tools I need to do the rest.  I also have a new bedroom light fixture (as I do not have one) which will be installed tomorrow and a plug thingamajig for the hole and wires in the wall.  Ah, after a year my bedroom will be BEAUTIFUL! (We are ignoring the poor ruined hardwood floors.) I'm buying wall art (you know, the awesome decals that can be removed?) of tree branches to go over my bed, and birds to fly on the opposite wall. Pictures will be posted. Heather is coming to help me paint. She's staying Saturday night and we are beginning early Sunday morning.  I'm also painting my utility room.  Ooooh I just can't wait!!!!!!!

Come to think of it... I should have named this blog: Historian in Progress: A story of a college girl with a house that needs lots of renovations.  I talked about that more than anything else.... hmmm...

 

 As you know, we have been building my dog pen, and today I decided to work on cleaning out the shed. oh my god, I didn't realize how filthy it was.  On a worse note, I also managed to stab myself in the foot with a nail, through about five inches of crap and my favorite shoe :(  Luckily it barely hit.  Unluckily, THEY ARE MY FAVORITE SHOES!!!  Ahem... On a positive note, I found these absolutely beautiful handles for cabinets that the former owner bought a whole bucket of.  I called and he said I could have as many as I needed for whatever. They have scroll work... oh they look antique.  It started pouring rain, but I will take pictures.  I can't wait for those, even if they do need cleaning!!!

Anything else happen today?  Hmm... I made an awesome bulletin board for work.... Ate Chick-Fil-A... That stuff is awesome, I don't know why I don't eat more of it...

Well, I'm going to go back to playing around on the computer and listening to the rain :)

Books I Need! (Okay... want)

Okay, so I'm making a list of books I would like to read/buy this summer. Some I may check into getting at the library.

Rachel Morgan Series by Kim Harrison:
1. The Good, The Bad, and The Undead - #2
2. Every Which Way but Dead - #3
3. A Fistful of Charms - #4
4. For A Few Demons More - #5
5. The Outlaw Demon Wails - #6
6. Black Magic Sanction- #8
7. Pale Demon - #9
8. A Perfect Blood - #10
9.  The Hollows Insider

Historical Biographies:
10. The Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir
11. The Wars of the Roses by Alison Weir
12. Henry VIII: The King and His Court by Alison Weir
13. The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir

Historical Fiction:
14. A Dangerous Inheritance by Alison Weir
15. Captive Queen: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir
16. The Lady of the Rivers by Phillipa Gregory
17. The Other Queen by Phillipa Gregory

Random Fiction:
18. Dragon's Oath by P.C. Cast
19. Nyx in the House of Night by P.C. Cast
20. Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck

Okay, so that's it for now :P 

Kim Harrison's Website

"I'm gonna puke, I'm gonna die"

So, the title of this post is a quote from my friend Abbie after eating Mexican.  She says its her mantra for eating out, as every time we go to the Mexican restaurant she seems to eat too much. But, the food was great as always and it was fun.  So what more can you ask?  We are going to town shortly, as there are things I need at Wally-World, and I need to check on the cat I am babysitting.  Fun fun.

My dog pen is in progress of being built. It may be finished tomorrow, it may not. The concrete for the posts takes two days to set, so we will see.  Isn't my puppy adorable? I am naming her Arwen (unless that changes when I meet her).  I have her collar, toys and everything all ready.  I cannot wait to pick her up. I even have a back seat cover for the car for when she goes on trips with me.  Oh! I'm just so excited.

On another random note, I finished the first Rachel Morgan book, Dead Witch Walking. See earlier post Summer Reading, to read all about it.


Work has been going well. I have several texts that my teacher recommended reading on French Renaissance that I need to pick up from the library. My favorite has to come on interlibrary loan, so I'm waiting for it come in.  My house is slowly seeing improvements. I've done quite a bit to the Utility Room, and it is being painted this weekend (except for around the back door, because part of that wall has to be ripped out :( ). That will change it quite a bit, because right now it is just drywall.  The hole in my bedroom has finally been fixed with dry wall thanks to by brother-in-law, Chris.  I'm excited by that quite a bit.  He's coming tomorrow to finish it, then with a little more work I can paint my bedroom this weekend.

I have so many plans!  He is going to get the wooden pallets for me from work, and I am making a headboard out of them.  I'm also hoping to get the stuff to tile my bathroom soon, which my Father-in-law says he can do in the evenings when he gets off work.  Depending on how much that costs, will depend on if the Kitchen gets tiled or not. Wish me luck.

Well.... I'm not sure anything else of note has really occurred. I got a new swimsuit - it's purple and awesome.  I went swimming at a friend's house, and that was incredible. I didn't have to worry about being splashed, so my ear was safe.  Plus, it's fun to have a life and hang out with peeps.  My sister, Abbie and I watched Mr. Popper's Penguins today.  I love that movie :P  So... yep.   I'm out!