$375 later . . .

Guess what? The archivist from Minneapolis called me today to talk about my research. We agreed that a week should cover things, though of course it's difficult to know before you actually do the research. But I felt confident enough about it that I just booked flights for my research trips to Minneapolis and Urbana-Champaign. I'm happy with the costs (so far), but still need to book a train or bus ride from Chicago to inner Illinois. Oh, and find places to stay. So there's lots more money still to be spent!

I've planned it so that I'll have a few hours on a Friday and Saturday to hang out in Chicago. Perhaps I'll try and hit a museum or art gallery, or so something else equally touristy.

I was a good grad student yesterday, and actually ventured to the library to look at some of the microfilms I need to go through. I also attended a TA training session in the hopes of learning something I didn't know . . . but alas, the session mostly annoyed me. Invariably these kind of multi-disciplinary information/training sessions just reinforce my belief that grad students are incredibly stupid. My goodness. The extent of the stupidity is astounding. The assistant to the chair of my department and I were complaining to each other about this yesterday. She is stupefied by the dumbness of administrative staff and faculty. Sigh. And then my friend MLH told us about the geniousnesses he's been dealing with who may be incredibly academically talented, but who have zero common sense or ability to function in the world.

The Massey people at lunch yesterday did not strike me as dumb, however. Yay! It was nice to have a good meal---even if it wasn't free---so I could head off to stare at microfilm on a full stomach. I should do that more often. Yes, it will cost me, but I think it's worth it. It's better than lazing around at home and not really working anyways.