Category Archives: student life

It's really official. I have a masters degree

Posted on March 28, 2008 by Marisa

I ran home during lunch today, and waiting for me at the front desk of my building was a large, flat package.  Seeing Bud bring it to the counter, my brain raced, trying to figure out what it was.  A … Continue reading →

Posted in student life | 6 Comments

My first book

Posted on January 28, 2008 by Marisa

Last Friday afternoon, I got a call from the Library at St. Joe’s.  They were calling to say that the bound copies of my thesis were in.  This afternoon I drove over to pick them up.  It was strange to … Continue reading →

Posted in student life | Tagged | 17 Comments

How I regained my ability to cope

Posted on December 11, 2007 by Marisa

Around 2:30 pm yesterday, I suddenly stumbled into a period where I couldn’t cope.  Where everything converged and I truly felt like I might fall apart.  Within half an hour I found out that my great-aunt was in the hospital … Continue reading →

Posted in Day to Day, Family, student life | 5 Comments

Last class of grad school

Posted on December 5, 2007 by Marisa

Tonight I attended the very last class of my grad school career.  It was sort of anticlimactic, being that I haven’t really loved this class and have been anxiously awaiting it’s end.  I still have one more paper to write … Continue reading →

Posted in student life | 7 Comments

The soothing mindlessness of a pomander ball

Posted on November 29, 2007 by Marisa

Apartment 2024 is smelling appealingly of cloves and orange oils right at the moment because I took a brief break this morning from the nearly-finished thesis to make a pomander ball.  There was something soothingly mindless about making rows with … Continue reading →

Posted in Day to Day, student life | 3 Comments

Back from 2 1/2 days with the nuns

Posted on October 27, 2007 by Marisa

I spent Thursday evening and all of Friday writing, holed up in a little cabin out in Aston, PA, at a retreat center run by an order of Franciscan nuns.  I wrote recipes and stories and managed to chug out … Continue reading →

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Meeting with my thesis adviser

Posted on September 24, 2007 by Marisa

I met with my thesis adviser on Friday morning.  She invited me to come to her new house in Fishtown, but I sorely underestimated the time it would take to get up there and so was nearly half an hour … Continue reading →

Posted in Day to Day, student life | 1 Comment

Inner dioramas, paying attention and Thanksgiving 50 years ago

Posted on September 14, 2007 by Marisa

I’ve discovered something about my writing process lately which is that if I can’t see it, I can’t write it.  So much of my writing is about evoking a feeling of time and place, of creating moments that are described … Continue reading →

Posted in Family, student life | 2 Comments

The words are flowing

Posted on September 11, 2007 by Marisa

I had a thesis deadline last week and when it came around, I was unprepared.  For some reason I have been wholy unable to connect with the creative detail-aware side of myself from which most of my writing comes from.  … Continue reading →

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A 21-year-old wooden spoon

Posted on August 22, 2007 by Marisa

I’m in the midst of writing my masters thesis right now.  It’s a rambling collection of essays about one of my great loves, cooking paraphernalia.  I’ve always been attracted to the tools of cooking, even before I was allowed to … Continue reading →

Posted in Family, Food, student life | Leave a comment