Eutropius of Orange

Saint of the Day: Eutropius of Orange was a bishop in France in the 5th century. That's pretty much all I could find about him except Wikipedia says his diocese was destroyed by the Visigoths. So, I researched a little bit about Visigoths, and found this amazing votive crown which was part of a treasure hoard discovered in 1858:

Obviously, I don't own anything like this, so I settled for an orange-ish tank top for Eutropius (of Orange, get it?) and some blue and gold jewelry. And the cutest dog in the world.

Reading:

Old English: "The Battle of Brunanburh," lines 1-25. This poem records the victory of the English king Aethelstan and his brother over those nasty Irish and Scotsmen around 937.

Middle English: Sir Orfeo and Sir Launfal. Sir Orfeo is a re-telling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, but instead of dying, Eurydice is kidnapped by fairies. And it has a much happier ending. Sir Launfal is about a poverty-stricken knight who is cast out of Arthur's court after being unable to afford a wedding present for Arthur and Guinevere. He meets up with two ladies who introduce to a fairy woman who agrees to help him and be his lover as long as he never tells anyone about her. His fortunes improve, but then he tells someone about her, and she abandons him, and he luck turns yet again. Guinevere, who hates him, trumps up some charges against him, and just as he is about to be executed, the fairy woman shows up, blinds Guinevere, and whisks Launfal off to fairyland to live happily ever after.

Contemporary American: The Things They Carried, pp. 117-161

Workout: Yes! 45 mins!

Food:

Breakfast: Cereal and fruit

Lunch: open-faced PBJ and fruit

Dinner: a blessed hamburger. Yes! V-8

Snacks: graham crackers and fruit

Augustine of Canterbury

Saint of the Day: Augustine of Canterbury, not to be confused with Augustine of Hippo. Augustine of Canterbury was sent by Pope Gregory I to evangelize England. Augustine landed in Kent, and luckily the queen there was a Germanic princess who was also already a Christian. Although her husband was a pagan at the time, out of courtesy to his wife's faith, he allowed Augustine to start a mission in Canterbury. He had great success in converting the English, but the Celts didn't like him because they accused him of being a suck-up to the pope. In any case, Augustine founded the abbey which eventually became Canterbury Cathedral. The seal of Canterbury Cathedral looks like this:

So, my outfit looks like this:

And my toes just happen to be painted to match!

Household Chores: My absolute failure to do the chores I've set for myself has resulted in me giving this goal up entirely. I think I'm going to have to dedicate a weekend day to doing all the chores I meant to do during the week. But right now, it's just my absolute last priority.

Reading:

Old English: Wulf and Eadwacer, a poem of 19 lines which has caused much confusion and argument among scholars of Anglo-Saxon. Basically it's a about a woman who is lamenting the absence of her husband or lover, or possibly both. The woman is anonymous. Her husband name is Wulf, and her lover's name is Eadwacer. Or maybe the other way around - it's not clear. Or it's possible that Eadwacer isn't actually anyone's name, but is a sarcastic term describing Wulf, so there's no second man. And they probably have a kid, but maybe not. Yeah. So, it might take me a while to translate this one due to the 1500 years or so of confusion it has caused.

Middle English: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Books 3 and 4.

Contemporary American: The Things They Carried, pp. 62-116.

Workout: Yes! 45 mins!

Food:

Breakfast: toast and cherries, coffee

Lunch: open-faced salami sandwich (aka a "Kolya" sandwich) and milk

Dinner: eating out with Erin! Looking forward to it!

Snack: kiwis

Aldhelm

Saint of the Day: Aldhelm. He was a prolific Anglo-Saxon writer. Although all of his extant works are in Latin, we know he wrote a significant amount in Old English. He is most famous for two works: "In praise of Virginity" and a compilation of 100 riddles, some of which are pretty ribald and form a nice irony with his other work.

To remember Anselm, I have these new earrings that I got from etsy. They are curly question marks with a pretty little stone at the bottom. The seller named them the "Everlasting Why" earrings which is a reference to the book/movie "A Room With a View" which is one of my all-time favorites. As soon as I saw the quote in the description, I pressed the "buy" button. How can I not support such a kindred spirit? They haven't arrived yet, so they're not in the outfit picture. I'm just pretending they are. There is a Toad in the outfit picture, though!

Just for fun, I'm including an English translation of one of Aldhelm's riddles:

The earth was my mother - I was raised

From her cold, wet womb. I know in my mind

I was not woven from hair or wool

By skillful hands. I have no winding

Weft or warp, no thread to sing

Its rushing song; no whirring shuttle

Slides through me, no weaver's sley

Strikes belly or back. No silkworms spin

With inborn skill their subtle gold

For my sides, yet warriors call me

A coat of joy. I do not fear

The quiver's gift, the deadly arrow flight.

If you are clever and quick with words,

Say what this strange coat is called.

Any guesses?

Chores: Straighten guest bedroom and change sheets

Reading:

Old English: Bede's account of the conversion of King Edwin, sentences 20-end; in which the king finally converts and burns all of the pagan altars to the ground

Middle English: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, books 1 and 2. In which the Green Knight ruins everyone's Christmas by beheading some folks and Gawain wanders around aimlessly for a while until he stumbles upon the Green Knight's castle.

Contemporary American: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, pp. 1-61

Workout: Yes! 35 mins

Food:

Breakfast: cheese toast and V-8

Lunch: fish sandwich

Dinner: Chicken Sorrentino with cauliflower and green beans

Snacks: blackberries and cherries

Donatian and Rogatian

Saints of the Day: Donatian and Rogatian. They were brothers from Nantes who were martyred together. I took my outfit idea from the coat of arms of the city of Nantes which is really pretty:

I took the red and green and made this:

I also wore my anchor necklace as a nod to the nautical theme. I've been wanting a higher quality nautically-themed necklace for while, and I was looking for them online this week when I saw a bunch of astrolabes for sale. Astrolabes are medieval navigational instruments for determining the positions of the heavenly bodies. They are usually pretty big and not suitable for making jewelry out of, but then I found this:

http://www.pocketsundials.com/miniatures-and-keychains/astrolabe-keychain-5-cm

WANT! I could totally make a necklace out of it. I wish it weren't so European and so expensive.

I've also discovered the timer button on my camera and my husband bought me a little tripod a while back, so I am experimenting with taking my own pictures. Here's me not quite making it in time:

Household Chore: I unloaded the dishwasher. Yay for me. It's pretty sad that I consider that a victory, but really I do.

Reading:

Old English: Bede's account of the Conversion of King Edwin, sentences 11-19, in which the king's advisors use a lot of strange similes to say they don't really have a problem with converting to Christianity

Middle English: Pearl. People love this poem. It's nice. I just really don't enjoy the super-religious subject matter.

Contemporary American: Beloved, pp. 210-end. So good, but sooooo sad.

Workout: Yes! 45 mins.

Food:

Breakfast: Oatmeal and fruit

Lunch: Amy's Non-Dairy Vegetable Pot Pie

Dinner: Creole Steak with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus

Snack: Cheddar bunnies and a glass of milk

Julia of Corsica

Saint of the Day: Julia of Corsica. She was a native of North Africa who was captured and enslaved. She was brought to Corsica where the pagans were throwing a big festival, but Julia refused to participate. As punishment, her hair was torn out of her head and she was crucified. Yikes. My outfit today is based on the Corsican flag which looks like this:
So, I'm wearing black sweatpants and a white tank top. So classy! And a black and white headband for flair.

Workout: Nope.

Writing: 30 mins

Household Chore: Clear off surface areas in living room and kitchen. I did this yesterday!

Reading:
Old English: Sentences 1-9 of Bede's account of the Conversion of King Edwin.

Middle English: Piers Plowman, Passus XVIII-XX. And it's over! Yay! No more Piers Plowman!

Contemporary American: Beloved, pp. 156-209

Criticism: Still no reading list

Food:
Breakfast: Cheese toast and coffee
Lunch: open-faced salami sandwich. We just watched the movie "Kolya" which is about Czech people in the 1980's. They ate a lot of open-faced salami sandwiches in that movie, and they looked so delicious. Mine was not as good as that, but it was good.
Dinner: Fish Curry and acorn squash
Snacks: Strawberries and 1 glass of milk

It's Been So Long

So, I didn't really blog this semester. It was a rough few months, and I didn't take pictures beforehand, so I fell behind. Then I was just too stressed out and unhappy to even think about posting anything. But, that's over. It's summer now, and I'm ready to write for fun again.

Since it's summer, I don't have quite the stock of outfits planned that I do during the semester. I mostly just sit around the house in sweatpants and T-shirts unless I have something planned. And since everyone I know works, I rarely have anything planned. I have, however, planned a bunch of outfits for the summer and I'll post them when I wear them.

I'm mostly going to use this blog as a place to keep myself accountable for my work schedule this summer. Kind of Bridget Jones style. I actually just gave up my summer vacations plans (2 weeks in Ireland) so that I'll have time to study for my preliminary exams in September. So, I'm going to be posting my reading list for every day, my Healthy Summer Diet plans, and my workout schedule so that I'll be embarrassed when the handful of people who read this blog actually ask me about it. Or not be embarrassed because I will have actually done the things I said I was going to do. And so I won't feel bad about not taking a vacation this summer because I'm doing so many productive things with my time.

That reminds me of a Billy Collins poem: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/consolation/

The basic outline is as follows: I plan an outfit around a saint's life, do one household chore or other menial task, workout, eat healthy meals, read for prelims, and write for 30 mins a day. So far, I have been on this schedule for three days. I have not done any household chores, and I have only written once. Overall, I think I'm doing pretty good, though.

So, here's today's schedule:

Saint of the Day: Bernardino of Siena - he lived in the 14th century. The story I planned my outfit around is that when the plague hit Siena in 1400, he volunteered at the hospital. He contracted the plague himself, but survived although he had a weak constitution for the rest of his life. So, I'm wearing my skull and crossbones shirt with my "Memento Mori" earrings.

My friend Erin has these, and I LOVED them, so I bought a pair for myself. They are on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/74118475/memento-mori-earrings?ref=sr_list_14&ga_ref=auto&ga_search_query=memento+mori+earrings&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade

Household Chore: Take unwanted books to 1/2 price books. Not going to happen. Maybe Monday?

Workout: 45 mins; I'm not allowed to watch my "True Blood" DVDs unless I'm exercising, so that's pretty good incentive for me. I watch an episode a day.

Reading:

Old English: Translate sentences 32-45 of "The Story of Caedmon." I forgot how much I like old English! Fantastic!

Middle English: Piers Plowman, Passus XIII-XVII. Ugh. Piers Plowman is the total pits. I haven't read it since I was in undergrad, and I hated it then. Now I remember why.

Contemporary American: Beloved by Toni Morrison, pp. 100-155. This book breaks my heart every time I read it. I know it's supposed to, but seriously...

Criticism: Read one article or book chapter a day. I don't actually have this reading list yet. My professor is on vacation until June 1. Will update later.

Food:

Breakfast: Cereal, juice, coffee

Lunch: McDonald's Premium Bacon Ranch Salad with grilled chicken (no dressing)

Dinner: Tuna Kebabs

Snacks: Fruit, graham crackers, popsicle

Writing:

Nope.

St. Julian of Le Mans

This post is actually a week late! It was so nice and sunny last week, and I had planned this outfit which turned out to be so hot. Then, the arctic front came through and froze the entire city, and the outfit I had planned for this Tuesday was not adequate for the weather at all. Of course, I adjusted by adding tights, a warmer coat, etc., but that's one of the drawbacks of planning so far in advance. However, the lowered stress levels that come from not having to plan outfits day by day because I've already planned them in advance far outweigh the minor inconveniences of weather.

Anyway, last Thursday's outfit was inspired by St. Julian of Le Mans. The Golden Legend does not identify any of the St. Julians as being bishop of Le Mans, but it just kind of lists all the St. Julians and their miracles. So, I'm not sure if the St. Julian I modeled my outfit on is actually Julian of Le Mans, but the story goes that he was a missionary to Gaul. When he arrived to his post, the land was suffering from a water shortage. He placed his staff in the ground and prayed, then water came out of the ground.

Because the Golden Legend is so confusing about which St. Julian is which, I also took some inspiration from one of my favorite movie stars: Steve McQueen. He was in a movie called "Le Mans" which is about the famous car race. The girl in the movie is Elga Andersen, a very pretty German actress in a turtleneck:

So, I'm wearing a blue turtleneck - blue for the water miracle, and a turtleneck for Steve McQueen: