It's a glamorous day at the Robison house

Okay, so I didn't start out my morning with a mimosa, which would have been pretty terrific, but glamour comes in all shades. Since the little kids were lounging around, I had them help make the beds and put away the books in the library that they had scattered about, while I picked up around the upstairs as well. 

In the meantime, I found my favorite pair of heels on the steps and decided to wear them around the house. (I'm in a jersey knit dress, so I did not look completely ridiculous.) They are silver and pointy; I bought them for the Sigma Chi formal my sophomore year. They were my favorite part of that whole dance, to say the least. Meanwhile, my sister Meg, who just turned 10, came into the family room (where I am working) with a blue margarita glass filled with milk. How chic! It was one of the glasses left over from her mermaid/ tropical birthday party a little over a week ago. We are certainly living large here in the Midwest haha.

Today my friend Hunter had this as his gchat status: "This is America, pick a job and become the person who does it." He tells me it is a line from the show "Mad Men." I've never seen it, being completely out of the t.v./ pop culture loop, but with lines like that, there must be merit! 

Regardless of origin, I love that line. It reminds me of when Emerson said that the great thinkers people read about were too once young students in the library learning. It's exciting to me to think that people I know and work with will be the the minds shaping the future of our great country. Robert Novak died today; why do people take note? Hundreds of other people died today, more will die tomorrow. It matters because of what he accomplished in his lifetime. He wasn't always Robert Novak, to borrow and paraphrase a much more famous line. 

I wonder who will rise and fall in our lifetime. If we really want to make a change in this world, then we need to find our true vocation and do the best we can. If it's what we're meant to do, we'll thrive. We might not find it right away, but that's okay. Life is a journey, not a destination. Even if you're lucky enough to find your calling early in life, it's what you make of it. Plenty of people do what they love but don't capitalize on it. Could one even imagine a world where people fulfilled their potential?

I have ordered my books for senior year. It was very exciting to see my book list and remind myself what awesome classes I am going to be taken. My courses for Fall 2009 will be as follows:

--The American Founding with Birzer 

--Robert Frost with Sundahl and Willson

--honors seminar on the lost art of epistolary communication (i.e. letters through history!) with Wenzel

--CCA I: Abraham Lincoln , Alexis de Tocqueville and America

--CCA II: Modern and Traditional Western Architecture

--Major Figures in Journalism (i.e. reading plenty of Mencken, Buckley and Orwell!) with Simmons

--Art History: Prehistoric to Renaissance with Bushey

--senior thesis (the degradation of the family with the expansion of government in the 20th century) with Carlson

One of my reviewers and I have been going back and forth with her review. She sent me the final paragraph to look over (I had not liked the way she had ended the review in an earlier draft, although the overall review was extremely solid), and I am happy to say that we now have one review ready for the presses! I got a book in the mail last night I shall be giving to a reviewer and contacting another publisher to order a book I saw reviewed in the Financial Times called "Slumming: Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife, 1885-1940" by Chad Heap. I'm going to need to make up the calender of when the reviews are going to be published today so that I can better plan for the coming semester and have time to order the j-pegs from the publishers. They can have their own finicky time tables, which I would rather not have to deal with on top of everything else this semester.

Back to writing my review while listening to Copland's "Appalachian Spring." Heidi just left me to be with John, who is working on his summer reading report. Megan is most likely in her room, reading or writing on her typewriter (her favorite present from this past Christmas). Mike might be reading in his room as well, but more likely has popped out of the house to see friends. Marianne just got home from school. I still can't believe she's a freshman in high school! (I was in the 3rd grade when she was born, if that is any indication at how swiftly time wriggles away.)