I have often told myself that February is my least favorite month of the year, with March as a close second. Mostly, this is because the weather (at least on the Northern half of the Atlantic coast of the United States) is generally unpleasant, and seems to drag on forever. However, around this time every year, I am forced to reconsider this. I think I would gladly move to a place that was constantly raining or sleeting, in order to avoid temperature norms of 80-90 F at
any point in the year.
Anyway. It's been a good few weeks. My internship at the New Castle Historical Society has been fantastic, but I'll talk more about that later. I saw
Hamlet in early July, as the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival is putting it on this year. I went with Rebz and Sam, and for the first time, without my parents, or theirs. It was a little odd to have that break with tradition, but of course, it was enjoyable as ever.
I've also managed to get some hiking in... Sam and I went (again, in early July) with Susie, and it was really lovely as always. Towards the end, we stopped by a lake, and for once, I went swimming. Sam and I swam/walked out to an island, and were a bit disappointed when we couldn't actually get
onto the island, but ah well.
And, of course, as I was saying before, the Historical Society has been fantastic. I now know that I never, ever want to work with anybody under the age of 14 (at the very least), that I'm quite good at putting together power-points, and that I can decipher handwriting that my superiors deem "impossible." I've been helping the archivist put together a slide show for a gala in September, transcribing Horace Greeley's letters (so much more fun than it sounds), and doing research for an exhibition on former farms in New Castle (which has basically consisted of me making copies of maps and circling names, and is also a lot more fun than it sounds). I also just finished working on a joint project with the Chappaqua Library, which I won't bother going into detail with... it was a kids' program, and I'm very glad to be done with it.
The Story of A Summer, by Cecilia Cleveland (a niece of Horace Greeley's) tells us quite a lot of what we know the Horace Greeley House was like in the 1870s. It was his summer residence-- much of New Castle was still "countryside" at the time. The house is now a museum, as well as the home of the New Castle Historical Society.
Thomas Nast cartoons!
Supposedly, this was Horace Greeley's crib...
The research room (aka: Tasha's new lair).
Some samples of what I've been transcribing.
Anyway. In other news, I now have only 2 1/2 books left to read before getting to Cambridge. So that's something like... 1, 400-odd pages left? So... I need to read 117-ish pages per day? Something like that. In any case. I'm planning on finishing the two shorter ones by the middle of next week, and then getting started on the 700 page one, and hopefully finishing it on the plane.
...we'll see how well that plan goes.
But really, though. I'm very excited about Cambridge. I'll be at Clare College, by the way. Daria is currently at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and though we haven't heard much from her, she seems to be happy enough. I don't dare make a more strongly-worded guess.
I don't really have much more to say at this point... more to come.
My love to all,
Tasha
