Early America is consuming my soul

I've decided that this is far more appropriate/useful than Tumblr. While many may find this blog boring, I plan to keep track of my weekly assignments, progress in my research, professional accomplishments, etc. I just passed back my students' midterms and I was actually pretty pleased with their performance. One class averaged 85 and the other averaged 80. My mid-quarter evaluations were also fairly positive overall. Many of the concerns addressed were actually out of my control (as in problems with the lecturer, format of the course, etc). But I have a busy week ahead of me. For my Colonial American readings course I have to complete Jon Butler's Becoming America as well as T.H. Breen's article "Baubles of Britain: The American and Consumer Revolutions of the 18th Century" (which I read last quarter for my Early American survey) and Harry S. Stout's "Religion, Communication, and the Ideological Origins of the American Revolution." This gets followed up by the readings of my Early Modern Violence survey: Stuart Carroll's Blood and Violence in Early Modern France, Bob Davis' "The Renaissance goes up in Smoke" and "Better Occasional Murders than Frequent Adulteries" by Paul Sant Cassia. Luckily all I have to do for my Early American writing seminar is print an article, the table of contents from the journal it's contained in, and the publishing guidelines for submissions to the journal.

My research hasn't gotten very far lately. I've checked out a number of books that I think will be useful, but I haven't had the time to read through them yet. Although I have submitted my application for the Arts & Humanities small travel grant to fund my conference trip to New Paltz. Now I just have to complete my Bradley Fellowship application as well as get my materials together for the various department award applications. With enough funding, hopefully I can make a trip to Europe for a few days this summer.

I also still have to figure out a way to get my car back to Columbus from Cambridge, put together my desk, unpack, rearrange my room, and make football shaped cookies for this weekend's Super Bowl party. And right now I have a headache. All I want to do is go to bed.