Starting this blog from my Room with a View...

As my first entry, I'd like to do the grade-school protocol of who-what-where-why-when. As this blog will mostly cater to close family and friends, I believe there is an interest in why I am doing this, i.e. blogging. I got the idea driving back to Hillsdale after my weekend in DC for CN training fun, and decided to implement it into action before I over analyzed the pros and cons. Blogs are certainly popular nowadays, but that is certainly not why I am doing it (I think you all know me well enough for that to be a reason for me NOT to blog!). Also, this is mostly for Mom and Dad, who like to keep tabs on me, but never call me back.

And so, without further adieu!...

WHO
Your favorite Julie! Keeping y'all* updated on what I am doing during my ten-week internship in Washington, D.C. at The Washington Times.

WHAT
I'll be in the Books section of The Washington Times, so I'll keep you updated on books I'm reading for work, books floating around the office, what I am reading currently (on my own), favorite sections, discussions of favorite books, and, of course, all the shenanigans I plan to get into while in our nation's capital. (To paraphrase my darling sister Katie, it was a mistake to let me to turn 21.)

I will also feel free to post articles I like, pictures, post questions in order to elicit responses (i.e. "What is your favorite poem and why?" etc.), songs I am currently listening to, creative endeavors I am working on, sights I saw, and perhaps even an inside look at the day-to-day workings of moi. This is sure to make me a blog extraordinaire! haha or as Will likes to tell me, I'll be showing off the nerdiness.

As it shall be my first summer from home, that means it will be my first summer of not talking to my family and [home] friends on a fairly high and regular basis during the warm months. While I would like to think that I am an excellent communicator, I do admit that after one or two phone calls and explaining the same things over and over again, the incentive to call anyone else dwindles and many are left out of the loop until family parties and other social gatherings around the water-hole.

There are lots of people (and if you are reading this, I most likely would like to keep you in the loop, so You Are Loved) I intend to stay in contact with, but, due to time constraints, I simply do not. We all know about the loquacious natures of Robisons/Greiwes, but I think all I would do is talk on the phone, and that seems a horrid waste of a summer in DC. Therefore, this is my overreaching attempt to stay in contact with y'all, and for you to write me back your thoughts and opinions, which y'all should do frequently. Also, this range expands beyond my home friends, so it'll be fun to have more friend spheres overlapping.

WHERE
(mostly) Washington, DC. I'll be living with two favorites, Katie and Rachel, who are fellow Kappas. They were seniors when I was a sophomore, and graciously invited me to live with them over the summer even before I had an internship lined up. I am thinking there will be some Midwest action in there too, for sure, which is always fantastic.

WHY
Because I'll miss you all so, so, so much!!! I would like you all to know what I am doing, even if we cannot catch up frequently. This of course does not excuse me from writing hundreds of postcards, which I plan on doing (someone has to keep the Post Office functioning financially), but this blog should provide y'all a Julie fix when need-be.

WHEN
I am starting it during the end of junior year, but as I have plenty to keep me occupied for the next few months due in the next few weeks, the posts will be more regular during my ten-week stay in DC.

What about the title of your blog, Julie? Why did you call it "The Corner With A View"?
--Ah, excellent question, friend! I would be happy to oblige you with an answer. Three reasons, all literary:
1) E.M. Forester's A Room With A View: if you have not read it, you simply must. It is about Charlotte, a repressed English girl who goes to Italy, and meets an eclectic group of people while experiencing Italy, all of which change the course of her life. I am staying vague on purpose because I do not want to spoil anything. However, if you are completely lazy, you could also watch the movie, which is also phenomenal.

2) A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh and the House at Pooh Corner. The original Pooh books and stories are simply delightful. I got the collection (along with a stuffed Piglet) from my cousins one birthday, and have adored ever since.

3) St. Thomas a Kempis' The Imitation of Christ has a passage which reads "In omnibus requiem quaesivi et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro." Or, in translation: "I have searched for peace everywhere, but have not found it anywhere except for in a corner with a book."

To say that I am excited to have this opportunity to try my hand at reading and writing for a living is an understatement, and although I am very sad that most of the people who mean the world to me cannot experience this as well. Nonetheless, I anticipate great things to come from this summer, and I hope you want to share this with me as well as I sharing with you, my family, my friends, my friends who are practically family, and all those I am blessed to know and interact with on a personal and professional basis who grace me with their readership.

I shall leave you with a favorite line from Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall:
"To the durability of ideas!" said Paul as he got his pint.
"My word, what a mouthful!" said Grimes; "I can't say that. Cheerioh!"

*a note on the y'alls, as I have gotten wonderances about my usage of it, being from the North. No, I am not from the South, but I did spend a couple of summers with Bianca in South Carolina, if that gives me any credibility. I actually started truly using the y'alls when studying Latin, since for the 2nd person plural is technically "yous," so I often wrote "y'all" instead of "you (pl.)" to clarify my parsings better. Besides, it just seems grammatically correct to write, and I like it!