Happy Halloween!

Last year, I found a website with an easy to make Riddler costume. I couldn't use it though because I went as one of the Powder Puff girls with Amanda and Christina. I had a lot of fun as Buttercup but bookmarked the Riddler costume for future use.

Last month, I proposed that Residence Life dress up with a theme for Halloween. I suggested that the Director be Batman, my supervisor would be Robin, and before I could work in that I would be the Riddler, one of my coworkers said he was going to be the Riddler. Crap- another great plan foiled!

So I kept checking all month to insure that MP was definitely going to be the Riddler. I even played nice and sent him the link to the costume I found. I went shopping at Nick Nackery, the local costume shop. The other two females were going to be Catwoman and Poison Ivy so I needed a costume. I thought about going as Babydoll but she is so obscure that no one would really get who I was. I was hoping for a Joker or Scarecrow costume. No Joker and the Scarecrow was just ugly so I decided to be a Ninja. There were Ninjas in Batman Beyond and this was definitely a costume I could reuse in the future.

I got cool accessories - nunchucks (which I called ninchucks all my life and everyone let me do it till Jason, my RA, corrected me), foam ninja stars, and a samurai sword. I even got some nice Ninja like shoes at Walmart. All in all - a pretty cool costume.

Around 1230pm, the Director calls me to see what villain I am. Wouldn't you know it - Brian, another AC, was a ninja too. And MP - he didn't dress up at all.

As if that wasn't enough to ruin a day, one of my RAs and I got into an argument. Then I had to sit through a meeting with everyone in their Halloween costumes. I do have to say that Matt, who I went to Maine with, put in an excellent effort as Two Face.

Finally, the meeting ends and I come home to change out of my costume. While I am eating lunch/dinner, the top ball of my tongue ring falls off. I was so mad, I just took the bar out and finished eating. My tongue was so light. I felt giddy.

I got a new bar and went to class. After class, I apologized to my RA and went bowling with my intramural team (which happens to be three of my RAs). I did pretty well (100-80 something - 128) so luckily I got to end the night on a good note. We bowl again on Wednesday so hopefully the ol' broken up wrist will be able to hang in there for three more games this week.

The Media Sucks

Why are we not able to see continuous coverage on the Life of Rosa Parks? Every news station is still covering the Mier resignation and Cheney's problems but I have only seen less than a handful on Rosa Parks.

HELLO?! She was one of the most influential people this century! Famous actors have received better coverage. I guess Rosa Parks picked a bad week to die - too much other news to cover. Please!

In a month, no one will remember these other news stories but Rosa Parks' legacy will live on forever.

Thank you Rosa Parks!

Switchfoot

No, this is not my favorite song. I just am trying to improve my BLOG - I don't want it to be so close to the template. I copied someone's code and put this video in my BLOG. I still haven't figured out how to get another video in its place. Something Corporate, LIVE, Jack's Mannequin - those would be great! But this song isn't bad and it provides some nice background music while you read about my life ;)

Honeymoon baby

Get a lot of interesting facts about your birthday at http://www.paulsadowski.com/birthday.asp.

Your birthday: 8/4/1973

Your date of conception was on or about 11 November 1972. (He He - my parents were married on November 10th - but I think I was born late - tsk, tsk)

You were born on a Saturday under the astrological sign Leo.

You are 32 years old.

You are 386 months old. You are 1,682 weeks old. You are 11,773 days old. You are 282,574 hours old. You are 16,954,496 minutes old. You are 1,017,269,760 seconds old. You are 4.60782778864971 dog years old. (You're still chasing cats!)

There are 280 days till your next birthday (start shopping now :) y'all)on which your cake will have 33 candles. Those 33 candles produce 33 BTUs,or 8,316 calories of heat (that's only 8.3160 food Calories!) .You can boil 3.77 ounces of water with that many candles.

Your birthstone is Peridot - Peridot is used to help dreams become a reality. Your birth tree is the Cypress (but I really like Magnolias) - the Faithfulness - Strong, muscular, adaptable, takes what life has to give, happy,content,optimistic, needs enough money and acknowledgment, hates loneliness, passionate lover which cannot be satisfied (hmmmmmmmm), faithful, quick-tempered,unruly, pedantic and careless.

Well said...

Found this surfing BLOGS on "Songs of my Soul" http://songsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2005/06/am-i.html#comments

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Am I?
I clutch my purse closer to my body.
Why do I do this?
Based solely on his skin color?
I hope not.
Is this ingrained in my being?
Natural instinct, reflex?
I was not brought up this way.
My parents aren't prejudiced.
I am certainly not prejudiced.
I smile what I hope is a warm, friendly
"I am not a racist" smile...
As I clutch my purse closer to my body.
posted by Meredith 7:25 PM

Time Does Heal
Hope that had died
Now reborn
Heart that was broken
No longer torn
Tears that were cried
Finally dry
Spirits that were sunk
Soaring high
posted by Meredith 6:59 PM

A Res. Life Nightmare

The worst thing I can imagine happening at work would be a fire in a resident's building...think Seton Hall in New Jersey....not good. Last night, nightmare became reality.

At 6pm, I was driving back on campus having just purchased a Powerball ticket for my brother Bobby. (Powerball was $340 million. We didn't win.) As I was coming down University boulevard, Security is coming from the other direction. They throw on their lights and take off towards the apartments. 30 seconds later the ACOC phone rings (I am on call this week). It is not Security but rather one of my RAs who has a resident with a serious medical emergency.

I arrive at my building when the phone rings again. This time it is a coworker who says smoke is billowing out of one of the apartment buildings. I can't help her because I have to help this student who is having a seizure. Medical support arrives where I am and they reek of smoke from the fire. A real fire not the typical I burnt popcorn fire alarm!

I get the student with the medical emergency transported to the hospital and then head to the scene of the fire. We could not have had a luckier set of circumstances. The fire department was already in housing presenting a fire safety program to a group of residents. It took them 30 seconds to respond. My supervisor and the director of the department were on campus because they were planning to attend the Housing wide program my RAs were hosting later that evening.

No students were hurt and we only had three rooms that we had to move students out of. The fire itself (which was in the attic of the 2nd floor apartment) did not cause much damage but the firemen had to take apart several walls and there was water damage in the room below the fire.

All in all, we were pretty fortunate in this situation.

California Girl in an Indiana town NO MORE ;)

I am currently working on my MBA. The program requires ten classes. This semester I have three classes and will need to take four more in order to graduate. I want to complete my MBA by the end of this upcoming summer. It all hinged on if the classes I needed would be offered so I could take three in the Spring and one in the summer. I already knew that all four would be offered in the Spring and two would be offered in the Summer but my big fear was they would be offered all on the same day.

Well, I don't have to fear anymore! Class schedules for the Spring and Summer were posted online while I was in Maine. I will be taking three classes in the Spring (Decision Science, Economics, And Management) on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. During the Summer, I will be taking Business Law on Mondays. Now, I just have to register for classes which won't be until November 3rd but I shouldn't have a problem getting in. Classes here are in no way impacted like they were at Northridge.

The only thing that threw a wrench in my plans was that the Summer class goes from May 8 - July 14. I had hoped to be able to start my new job on July 1st. I might still let July 1st be my last day at work at USI and then have two weeks to pack up and move to my new location as soon as I finish the final in my BLAW class on the 14th. Or I might work through the 14th and plan to start my new position on August 1st. We shall see how this plays out.

New job, you ask? I don't have one yet. Now that I know I will be able to graduate, I will be starting my job search process pretty soon. I am not worried that I won't be able to find a position. I will be looking for a position that either supervises people in my current position or that works with student activities (like the job I applied for in Oregon). Location wise - I don't want to stay in Southern Indiana or return to California (though I would be okay with some places like Irvine, Long Beach, etc.).

I will be working on the resume in November and will attend a job placement conference or two in March (like the one I went to in Wisconsin to get this job).

Keep your fingers crossed :)

Well said...

I found this post (http://yippeeskip.blogspot.com/) while surfing BLOGS. Thought it was great and deserved to be posted here.

Yee Haw Cowboy.

10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong

1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

Re-post this if you believe love makes a marriage.

Finally home

After a nice 28 hour drive, I have finally made it back to USI. Maine was beautiful and I have lots of stories and pictures to share. I won't be doing it now because I must shower and start studying for my midterms next week (one on Monday and one on Tuesday) but here are a couple teaser pictures to get you to come back later. Peace Out!

"This is bullshit"

This morning we got up at 430 so we could climb the Beehive and watch the sunrise at the top. The Beehive is a mildly technical climb so Tina (who I called Lisa the whole trip for some reason and even now still want to call her Lisa) decided to skip out because she was not feeling well. It ended up being a good decision because I do not think she would have been able to make it.

Matt, Layla, Tony and I started the climb armed with flashlights. The picture to the left is how dark it was at the beginning. The one to the right is about an hour or so into the climb. The climb had lots of small ledges and several metal rung ladders. During one of the small ledge areas, Tony dropped his flashlight. Matt said he was going to go get it. Tony all serious like said "Matthew" (Tony always called him Matthew when he thought Matt was doing something risky). "Matthew, it wasn't that good of a flashlight, just leave it". Matt looks down and realizes that it is his flashlight! Matt (who is an experienced climber) gets the flashlight. Just a few minutes later, Tony mentions that he sure is glad he has the flashlight and that Matt didn't die.

During the climb, Tony exclaims "This is bullshit" every time we arrive at a difficult element. That soon becomes the theme for our climb. At the top of the peak, I take pictures (of course) and everyone else takes a little cat nap.

Since this is our last day at Acadia, we have a Maine lobster lunch. The lobster industry in Maine is highly regulated and we learn a lot about the lobster which is really a spider that lives in the ocean. After lunch, we load up the van and start our 24 hour return drive to USI.

Overall, the trip was a blast. Maine is beautiful and it was a good opportunity to expose our students to some different elements they might not have seen before. I hope that the love for nature is instilled in them and I hope I can go back some time soon!

Girls can't do that

Today we took a ferry to Cranberry Island - a small island off Mount Desert Island that houses a museum. Our task today was to pack up the museum so the artifacts would be protected during the winter season. When we arrived at the museum, Tony and Matt were taken outside and given manly tasks to complete - mowing the lawn and cutting tree branches.

Inside, Layla, Tina and I were told that there was a variety of tasks that needed to be completed indoors - taking down some signage, vacuuming dead bugs, etc. The curator for the museum said that when the boys were finished working outside, they could come in and help us by climbing up the ladder to remove the signs. Yes, she was as serious as it gets!

Of course, telling me that I can't do something because I am a girl is the fastest way to get me to do it.

To the top of Norumbega

Today we hiked to the top of Norumbega with a trail guide named Don. Don has salt and pepper gray hair and was very funny and intelligent. (CHRISTINA - If he wasn't married, he'd be perfect for you! She loves the ol' guys!) Our mission today was to insure that the trail was clear of debris, repair the trail markers, and destroy rock piles.

In Acadia, the trails are marked with Bates Cairens - a four rock formation consisting of two bases, a alter, and a pointer rock. The park uses these markers instead of signs or paint because it is more natural. To the untrained eye, the cairens look like a pile of rock. A lot of people add a rock to the pile thinking that is what you do a so an unobtrusive marker soon becomes a pile of rock (like the pile we are sitting on in the picture above).

The view from Norumbega was beautiful. Norumbega is really a hill but for our students who are used to the flat Indiana landscape, this was a mountain! The trail back down the hill was called the Goat Trail - which I am still unsure of the reasoning. It was slick, steep, and rocky - what an adventure! On the trek back to the car, we passed the gatehouses, Rockefeller built as the entrance in to the park.

On the way back to the cabins, we stop and play tourist. Every day, we passed this bridge and there were pople paininting it and taking pictures. It seemed like something that we had to do too! After getting cleaned up, we headed to Bar Harbor (a touristy town on the island). We ate dinner at the West Side Cafe and then went shopping. There were lots of good bargains in the stores because it was the end of the tourist season. Matt and I tried Lobster ice cream at the local parlor. It tasted like cold butter with chunks of frozen lobster. Not good!

Playing pranks and flossing teeth

Early this morning, while Matt was asleep (yes, he is sleeping while hugging his book and with the light on. He has fallen asleep with the light on every night so far and Tina turns it off for him), the students stole these horrid jeans that he wears. The pants are in serious disregard and need to go in the trash. Holes all over and long gashes on both legs that a friend of his stitched. We told him the pants need to stay in Maine.

No rain at all today so we head out to the carriage trails to floss Rockefeller's Teeth. Acadia is the oldest national park east of the Mississippi and largely exists because of land donations from the Rockefellers. Inside the park, 45 miles of trails are maintained for hikers, bicycle riders, and horse drawn carriages - no cars. Along the sides of the carriage trails, John D. Rockefeller placed large granite blocks to mark the trail so people stay on it. On the left is a before we flossed and on the right is an after our work is done picture.

The blocks are called coping stones but most people refer to them as Rockefeller's Teeth. Our job today is to floss the teeth - remove the vegetation and debris around 70 coping stones to make sure water could flow between them when it rains or when the snow melts in the Spring.

Matt and I have brought a great group of students with us. They are hard working, haven't complained at all, and appreciate the opportunity to be in Maine. The group has become really familiar with each other and I laugh all the time - my legs and arms are getting a good workout with all the work, hiking, and rock climbing while my abs get a good workout from laughing so hard. During lunch there is a drastic drop in the temperature so we are sitting in the van trying to warm up. When I say I am cold. Tony says, "Do you want me to hold you?" LMAO!

There aren't any bathrooms at this worksite which isn't a problem for anyone except for Tina (pictured in the pink shirt) who has never used a facili-tree. Poor girl, we give her such a hard time till she finally decides to pee outside. She says it is hard to pee when a cold breeze is blowing on your butt! Later that evening when Tina calls home and tells her mom we made her pee outside, her mom says "Oh my!" This group is too funny!

Some of the teeth have fallen out of place, so Matt works to place them back where they belong. Granite weighs about 18 pounds per square foot and these rocks are rather large.

While we work, our conversations provide much humor. Somehow, the students start talking about the fees paid for prostitutes ($2000 an hour in case you were wondering) in Vegas (got to love HBO - which our residents all get for free on campus). We are working under the guidance of Maria today. She is an interesting character. After every idea is voiced by someone else, she says, "I was just thinking about that."

After we finish working, we head to another beach. We were hoping to find some starfish or other sea life washed up on the beach but we don't find anything. We spend some time rock climbing again. Matt decides to climb a pretty sheer face rock with some nice natural hand and foot rests. While he is climbing, Tony says "Matthew, be careful. Matthew, come this way, it's safer". It's too funny - who are the leaders again on this trip?

I am so tired when we get home that I barely make it through a shower and dinner. I am in bed by 830pm. Around midnight, I wake up to hear the students planning to shaving cream me in my sleep. I jump out of bed where I catch them in the bathroom. Sometimes it is such a blessing to be a light sleeper (though most of the time it sucks!). After threatening them, I head back to my room. Now that I am up, I figure I should squeeze in some reading while I listen to the group talking about whether they should prank Matt instead. Tony says, "I don't think we should. Tracy is less sophisticated than Matt. Think about how often you laugh during conversations with him." Is that supposed to be a compliment?!

First Day of Work in Acadia

It's still raining (well, it is just drizzle really) but we show up at the park at 830am. We watch a short video about the park and learn about Friends of Acadia (FOA) - a nonprofit organization created to work with the National Park System to keep the park open and beautiful for all people to enjoy. Acadia was the first national park opened east of the Mississippi. FOA employees, Mike and Cliff, and another volunteer, Maria, take us for a drive around the park.

Because of the rain, the site where they had planned to have us work is under a couple feet of water. We were going to build up trails but this work site is a definite no go. Instead we travel to a place in the park where they have just built a new picnic area and wood steps leading down to the beach. Our first job is to move the left over wood up to the top of the hill.

We take a break and walk down to the beach. Layla finds a jellyfish washed up on the beach and proceeds to do some dissecting. Most students in Indiana have not ever left the state. While the students with us have done some traveling, it has been mostly limited to nearby states. This trip is a great opportunity to show them the great big world that exists out of the Indiana borders.
Back to the wood pile...a group of Asian tourists ask us what we are doing. I tell them and they are excited to know if they are the first group to use the new picnic tables. I don't have the heart to tell them probably not so I let them believe they are. They really were excited!

Around 3pm, we stop working for the day. We head to Sand Beach to walk along the shore. The 'sand' is not really sand but rather crushed shell. I can't be so close to the ocean and not put my feet in, so what if it is only about 60 degrees outside. Layla follows suite and we (as Tony described it) frolic up and down the beach. Matt snapped this picture of a couple enjoying the site.

Yes we worked real hard lifting all that wood but since the rain has subsided we need to see as much of the park as we can since no one is sure if the rain will stay away for very long. We head to Thunder Hole - a formation in the rocks that makes a large thunderous sound when the tide comes in. We do some rock climbing and exploring before heading back to the apartment.

At the apartment, we watch Crash on my computer. I try hard not to cry in front of people I just met but the movie is so sad. It is difficult to watch because it is so real.

Stalking Stephen King

We started out today by meeting the Acadia park ranger, Jonathan, who told us about what we would be doing the rest of the week. It's still raining and a lot of roads on the island are flooded. So far, we've had three inches of rain and are expecting three more inches.

Since we aren't scheduled to work for the park, Jonathan gives us directions to Stephen King's house in Bangor (about an hour from the park) and we decided to go and stalk the man.

His house is red and rather large. The gate is opened but I cannot convince the students to go inside and sit on the porch (I am such a good advisor!) I am able to convince Layla that the raven perched on the roof is actually a camera. Really! I asked her how many birds she knew that sat in the rain and moved their head from side to side. He He He...I am so bad!

While we are taking pictures, a nice car with tinted windows drives by real slow. We know it was Stephen! He didn't get out and shake our hands! What a bum!

I have read a few Stephen King books but am not a big fan of scary stuff. I loved Needful Things until the end and thought it was too much when we went walking around downtown Bangor and they had a thift store that was actually called Needful Things. There is no way I would ever shop there!

Happy Birthday!

Aqui es mi amiga Christina. Le gusta frijoles. Feliz cumpleanos Christina!

Welcome to Acadia

Our first stop in Maine was in Wells- "The Friendliest Town in Maine". I will give them that they are friendly since oncoming traffic on the one major road in the town stopped so we could make a left hand turn but they sure weren't very accommodating to weary travelers that needed to pee. The town gas station did not have a restroom and neither did Dairy Queen. We ended up finding one in a grocery store that we could use as long as we bought something. I was going to buy a banana but they were all green.

We stopped in Ellsworth and bought all the food we would need for the week. The plan is to have continental type breakfasts each morning, to pack sandwiches for lunch, and to have a nice cooked meal for dinner. Part of the $150 that each student had to pay for the trip was used to cover the costs of food.

We finally arrive at Acadia. The apartment we are staying in is nice but a little dirty. The apartments are used by the park's seasonal employees so they are now empty. Everyone can have their own room but Layla decides to room with me. She says she isn't used to not having to share a room. I tell her it will be okay because I haven't shared a room in a very long time. It will be a new adventure for me to share a room with one of the students that live in my buildings. The shower in my bathroom is black with soap scum so I set Layla to scrubbing with some Tilex I find in the kitchen. I set to cleaning up the mouse droppings in the kitchen and worry about the symptoms of the Hunta Virus.

Tonight, we had pasta with a couple different sauces including Matt's specialty Creamy Alfredo for dinner. It never thickened so it was more like hot milk with flavor but he tried. I brought a box of pots and things to help us prepare the food. We don't have a microwave so in order to make the dessert for dinner tomorrow night Matt has to get a little creative with his butter melting skills.

On the road to Maine

And we are off...three students (we were supposed to have four but one was a no show) and two advisors loaded into a 10 passenger van with 27 hours of driving to get to Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island off the coast of Maine.

We left late - one is always late if Matt is going with you :) He is worse than a teenage girl. He is always in the shower and claims that it is because he used to be a swimmer. I used to swim. I don't spend so much time in the shower. Plus his hair is always dry after his showers.

So strange but I digress...

We picked up rain in Ohio and it stayed with us the entire drive to Maine. Even with the rain, the drive wasn't bad at all. Matt, Tony (one of the students), and I take turns driving. I only drove for about 6 hours which was nice since I stayed up till 530am getting things ready so I could leave work and school for a week.

In New York (which is very hilly Amanda!), we stop for a bathroom break at - get this name- Betty Beavers Gas Station. The bathroom does not have toilet paper or paper towels. One of the students asks the cashier if she can restock the bathroom because it is out of paper supplies and the cashier tells her to deal with it. Deal with it?! What exactly does that mean? Then she yells at us to turn out the bathroom light. We bring in our box of Kleeenex from the van. Look at the sign. Do not go to Betty Beavers!

During the drive, one state had road signs that flashed

"You are speeding. Slow Down NOW".

What I am reading

I had my first meeting with my book club this past Thursday. We met at Starbucks and discussed the book we had finished reading ("A Son Called Gabriel"). Starbucks was freezing cold. Guess all those coffee machines make the baristas very warm. The book club consists of older women (though not as old as the book club at Willard Library that I tried to join when I first moved out here); most of them have a connection to GE Plastics (either they work their or their husband does); quite a few of them are from other countries (France, Australia, India, and Turkey - to name a few); they are all new transplants to Indiana and talked freely about the closed minded-ness they have encountered as well as the lack of thing to do in E-ville.

The discussion about the book itself was okay; nothing profound or life changing - but then again, neither was the book.

Our next book is "The Bondswoman's Narrative" by Hannah Crafts and Henry Louis Gates Jr. How nice for me since this is one of the books sitting on my bookshelf that I wanted to read but just never got around to it.

Here is a review of the book from Publishers Weekly:
Nothing intrigues quite the way an old manuscript does: there's the story told in its pages, but there's also the story of the pages. In this volume's lively, provocative introduction, Gates, Harvard chair of African-American studies, describes his discovery of a handwritten manuscript from the collection of Dorothy Porter Wesley, the famous Howard University librarian, in an auction. Identified in the auction catalogue as a "fictionalized biography... of the early life and escape of one Hannah Crafts," the manuscript, Gates thought, might be the "first novel written by a woman who had been a slave." After purchasing it, he undertook the painstaking work of authenticating it and determining its author. Though Dr. Joe Nickell (the sleuth who proved the Jack the Ripper diaries fraudulent) firmly limits the manuscript's composition to 1853 to 1861 and Gates locates a few candidates for authorship, the historical Hannah Crafts remains elusive. Whoever Hannah Crafts was--and about that there is sure to be some discussion--she was a talented storyteller. Though Crafts appears self-taught and borrows from many sources--influences include other slave narratives, 19th-century sentimental and gothic novels and, as Gates noted in a letter to the New Yorker, Charles Dickens--she propels her story along, vividly describing the heroes and villains she entangles in her multiple plots. A mulatto, Hannah grows up a house slave in Virginia, learning to read in secret. When her master at last marries, Hannah becomes a maid to the new mistress, a woman who seems haunted. In fact, she is hunted: someone who holds proof that her mother is a slave is blackmailing her. Knowing her mistress will be sold if exposed, Hannah encourages her to flee, and flees with her. Thus begins Hannah's journey, as she passes through the hands of prison guard, slave trader, benevolent caretaker, mean and petty masters and finally to freedom. The style is sentimental and effusive, but it is also winning. Crafts's portrayal of the Wheelers--a small-minded but ambitious couple who prefer to "live at the public expense"--is incisive and utterly familiar. Though Gates chose to touch up Crafts's punctuation, he left her spelling as is and included her revisions, which were remarkably few. Crafts clearly understood the needs of her narrative and the conventions of the 19th-century novel in a way that many first novelists (of any century) don't. While scholars will have to decide whether this is "the unadulterated `voice' of the fugitive slave herself," lay readers can simply enjoy Crafts's remarkable story and Gates's own story of discovering her.
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