The Countdown Begins

The big day approaches--the day on which my intrepid travel pal, Yvette, and I will board an east-bound plane, rocket over the whole of the United States, cross the wide Atlantic Ocean, and land smack-dab in one of my all-time favorite cities, Paris!

The ubiquitous green bag on what may
have been its last big trip, to Stone Mountain,
Georgia, in 2013 

The weeks leading up to an actual planned trip provide some fun on their own.  I've downloaded a spiffy travel app on my iPad, making lists of places to see, a budget, a packing list, and so on and so forth.  I've been listening to an audiobook on the Middle Ages, gearing up to see sights from that era, especially some cool Gothic cathedrals.  I've bought travel clothes, my parents bought me a new travel shoulder bag (goodbye to the familiar green bag that I've taken on every trip since Reiner and I first went to Europe in 1990), and, of course, I have a copy of Rick Steves' Paris at hand at all times.  As he was when Yvette and I first ventured to "the continent" back in 1999, Rick will be my constant companion and guide.

This trip is coming at a crossroads in my life.  I'm about to make yet another significant change in the making of a livelihood.  After my lay-off from the Sacramento Superior Court, I've worked as a consultant for the Pacific McGeorge Housing Mediation Center.  Unfortunately, funding for this work has dried up, and I will be seeking other employment.  In addition, the time has come for me to look at applying to doctoral programs, an undertaking that seems so cumbersome, complicated, and daunting that I often doubt my ability to see it through.  But see it through I must.  Applications are due around the first of December, although I hope to get all my done and submitted by Thanksgiving (this may be fantastically wishful thinking).

Don't leave Elk Grove
without it

Once before, a trip to Europe served as a catalyst for great change for me.  When Yvette and I returned from Europe in 1999, we both reflected back on the trip as an eye-opening experience that forever changed the way we understood our lives and our futures.  From that trip, I received a greater insight into myself, what I needed and wanted to make me happy.  That discovery led directly to American River College and the classroom of Dr. Christopher Padgett in the summer of 2000.  From then until this past May, I have pursued my education with enthusiasm and verve,understanding only too well that the challenge of learning fulfilled the very needs I had identified when I returned from Europe in 1999.

And now I'm ready to venture still further in my education pursuits.  What better time to again wander the streets of Paris, to look at art and absorb history, to people-watch, to learn new things and to remember things I've forgotten.  While my chances of actually being accepted into a doctoral program are slim, I will use this trip to Paris to begin the transition into a new phase of life--a new job, new educational opportunities, new me.

So, I'm counting down the days.

Oh, and I'm going to try frogs' legs and escargot while I'm gone.  Just FYI....

Georgia on my Mind

It has been far too long since I've traveled--really traveled, not like a quick jaunt to LA to visit the father-in-law and lay on the beach.  On Wednesday, I journey to the wilds of....

wait for it....

The Deep South!

Yes, I'm bound for the Land of Dixie, the home of "you-all" and "fiddle-dee-dee," and the world's largest bastion of believers in the Myth of the Lost Cause.

There are several reasons for this trip, all of which are very positive.  First, I've finally got enough money set aside to allow me to make such an excursion.  After struggling just to pay the bills and meet the demands of pursuing both undergrad and graduate degrees, I have finally been able to set a little aside to do what I love so much, which is travel.  Second, my favorite traveling companions are on board, my BFF Yvette and my beautiful daughters, Maddie and Heidi.  And, finally, there is a school component to be considered as a reason to take this trip.  Over the course of the spring 2013 semester, I finally found a niche in history that I want to explore--and I'll be exploring it in Dixie in just a few days.

I have struggled for quite a while to determine what I want my specific field of study to be within the larger framework of the study of history.  Originally, I had my heart set on California history.  Then, the beloved Dr. Pitti retired, and CSUS did not replace him with another California specialist until just recently.  Add to that the fact that I want to do my doctoral program outside of California, and the subject of California history dropped from the list of desirable topics.

So, I floundered.  I tried European history and Medieval history--both are great and would be fascinating to study.  Yet neither of those subjects really grabbed me (I think I've always been an Americanist at heart).  Then I took a class entitled "History and Memory" from the amazing Kirstin Harjes.  This class focused on the intersection between history and memory, both personal and public.  Dr. Harjes assigned David W. Blight's Race and Reunion, a wonderful look at the way in which the causes of emancipation and racial equality following the Civil War were subordinated to a need for sectional reconcilation, allowing white supremacy to forestall any possible political gains that may have been made by the newly freed slaves.  When Blight wrote about the Lost Cause, he sparked for me an interest in that theory, an interest originally developed in a class entitled "Civil War and Reconstruction" taught by Dr. Richard Cooper.  Suddenly, I was off to the races.  Dr. Harjes required a research project on some form of memorial site, and I jumped at the chance to look at the Lost Cause themes at Georgia's Stone Mountain Park. 

While my paper on Stone Mountain turned out well--and helped garner me an A in the class--I have very much wanted to see the site myself.  Hence, when all the stars aligned, the opportunity to go to Atlanta, to see Stone Mountain for myself, proved too great to pass up. 

But wait!  There's more!

My very favorite book of all time also contains themes from the Lost Cause.  And my very favorite novelist of all time wrote said book in a small apartment in Atlanta, Georgia.  At some point in the next week, I'll be standing in the same physical space as the great Margaret Mitchell once stood and where she wrote her epic masterpiece, Gone with the Wind.  After visiting the tomb of Clark Gable last month in Hollywood, this will be the culminating GWTW adventure of my life.

Our trip to Georgia will include not just Atlanta and Stone Mountain but also a little side trip to Savannah before we head back to sunny California.  To say that I'm a bundle of nervous energy right now would be downplaying the situation.  Even though I've got packing to do, more studying for the upcoming GRE test, and a myriad of little details to see to before I leave, I'm so very much ready to go. 

Can't wait!!!