Harden Head News Archive

I continue to work the AM front desk shift at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel and am excited by the addition of a new front desk manager and a new night auditor (who is a friend and former coworker from Howard Johnson's). I also continue to work out at a local gym, where we are finishing an incentive program that was a real boon to my attendance and diligence in working out. (And, on top of that, the team that I am on may just win the championship!) Newer activities of mine include visiting at an assisted-living facility and, together with Glenn, serving as webmaster for our church's web site (which, unfortunately, has led to my neglect of this site, but I hope to get back to this one now that the other site is almost done).

Glenn is wrapping up his second semester at James Madison and will then undertake a month-long practicum in May. Already, he has been working as a substitute teacher in the local middle and high schools--he is braver than I!--and so has gained much insight into the real-life world of teaching. Since we've moved, he's also been able to return to one of his favorite hobbies, astronomy, and, in fact, he recently joined a "Stargazers" club. The main burden he faces is giving the time and effort necessary to finish his thesis for George Mason, but he works on that when he can and hopes to complete the first draft this summer.

It's difficult for me to believe that winter is upon us, as the fall just seemed to fly by. Throughout October and November, I was preoccupied with changing jobs. After much uncertainty, I finally feel both competent and comfortable (most of the time!) in my current position as the 7 AM to 3 PM "guest services representative" at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel. (For those of you who know me well, it may seem miraculous that I am succeeding in a job that begins at 7 AM--and perhaps it is, as the members of our Mt. Sinai UMC discipleship group have been faithfully praying for me!) In the meantime, to remedy the fact that Glenn had way too much time on his hands, our friend Jonathon lent Glenn a PlayStation, which kept him entertained for several weeks. Since then, he finished his first semester at JMU and worked for three weeks at the local mall. The extra income will help pay for some dental work for Tobiyah, who remains wonderful and adorable, but who apparently has very bad teeth! Looking ahead, as the world welcomes the year 2000, we will also be celebrating a momentous occasion: Glenn's 30th birthday.

Life is good; several hopes that we had in moving to Harrisonburg have been realized. Glenn has begun his first semester of a two year teacher-licensure program at James Madison University (the very reason that we moved here in the first place). He is only taking two courses this semester and they've been a breeze. Indeed, now that he no longer works full-time, I think he hardly knows what to do with himself. He does still have to complete his thesis for his history M.A. from George Mason, but he is making slow but steady progress on that. Furthermore, one of his courses involves creating web pages, so I am no longer the only web designing fanatic in the family!

I am working as a front desk clerk at Howard Johnson's, which fulfilled my desire to have a low-stress evening job, although I continue to keep my eyes open for a position with better benefits. I wanted an evening job so that I could do some type of psychology research during the day. As such, I am happy to report that I hooked up with a research group at James Madison doing a study on children's perceptions of health. The one bane of my existence--besides fighting Glenn for time on the computer!--is a correspondence course in biology that I put off all summer, and which I have little interest in or time to finish now. (Ironically, it was a prerequisite for a course that I have already completed!) Once it's done, I look forward to devoting more time to pursuing my interests, which include becoming involved in the church that we have joined, Mt. Sinai UMC.

Isn't it awesome when God blesses us in ways that we never expected? A summer course in "Memory and Cognition" has proven to be my favorite of any of the psychology courses that I've taken--not because of the content per se, but rather because of the interaction with my instructors and classmates. I have two instructors, one for lecture and one for lab, both of whom are graduate students. They are much more responsive to their students than many professors are, and both have been particularly kind to me, answering my approximately 35,000 questions in and out of class, providing me with information that I've requested, and, best of all, giving me a ton of insights into applying to and surviving graduate school. I've also met some other terrific folks, particularly through lab, who have shared refreshments, put up with my questions, and listened to my stories on topics ranging from men's pants design, bird attacks, weird dreams, and car repair. In addition, two of my classmates are James Madison students, so I will actually know some people in Harrisonburg once we move. For all of these things, I am grateful to God, as well as to my instructors, Nate and Michael, and to my friends in the class.

As for news of the other two members of the family, Glenn left his naval procurement job earlier this month after seven years of working there. Although the job was sometimes burdensome for him, I know that he had a positive influence on many of the people who worked there. This was demonstrated on the day of his farewell luncheon, when I came home to find our living room filled with balloons, flowers, and other gifts from his workmates. Tobiyah, meanwhile, continues to merit the title "World's Cutest Dog," but I often think that he is also the world's nuttiest dog. His many idiosyncrasies include sneezing when he's excited, hiding in the corner of Glenn's closet when he's scared--and he's scared of things like balls and helium balloons--and crying when he's happy. Although sometimes completely perplexing, he remains a daily blessing in our lives.

It's official: Glenn and I are moving to Harrisonburg, VA this summer. In fact, our move has been in the works for some time now, but I've been too busy with preparations to actually sit down and share that news here. (Indeed, I've been referring people to my site in the meantime--as I remain proud of my efforts, dated or not--but I know it's annoying to go to a site that contains old news.) So, finally, here's the latest: The purpose of this move is to enable Glenn to obtain his teaching certification at James Madison University. We had thought that he could complete the program in one year so were initially disappointed when we found out that it will take two; still, I suspect that these two years may prove a pleasant interlude for us. As for our new home, although we've been very pleased with our current apartment and doubtless will miss many aspects of it, there's at least one thing that I love about our new place: it comes with a washer and dryer in the unit! (That's right, for the first time since I moved out of my parents' house ten years ago, I can do my laundry in the privacy of my own home.) Prior to moving, both Glenn and I are taking a number of summer classes, so things are currently hectic and promise to become more so over the next few months...

In January, I reported our hope that Glenn could earn his teaching certification over the upcoming school year. That plan suffered a setback when we learned that George Mason, which is where we had assumed that he would attend, is in the process of overhauling their teacher education program and so is not accepting applicants this year. The most promising alternative at present appears to be James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, the advantages of which include being cheaper than GMU and enabling us to finally leave the area as we have long desired. We still need to get more information before we can make any final decisions, but it's nice to have at least a tentative plan. I hope to have a more definitive update soon.

Our dog, Tobiyah, suffered an attack of medical care this week. It all started innocently enough: On Monday night, I was petting him and detected something unusual on the inner tip of his ear; it seemed like dirt but would not come off. Since I was going to the vet's the next day to pick up a new supply of heart worm pills, I figured I'd call and see if I could have the dog examined. As it turns out, he has some problems--if measured by the amount of medicine I brought home from the vet's with me! For the next several days, he will be taking five pills a day, not including his monthly heart worm pill, and we also have a solution to put in his ears once the medication the vet applied wears off.

Tobiyah has taken to all this quite well, as I lifted my usual ban on feeding him canned dog food to make the administration of all these pills a little easier on both of us. (What he doesn't seem able to understand is why I keep getting upset with him whenever he undertakes the very typical act of scratching his ears.) I'm just glad we caught the problem. The timing was fortunate in that I happened to be going to the vet's anyway and so had Tobiyah checked out right away. On the other hand, the timing was also unfortunate, because Glenn and I had to change plans to be out of town this weekend and next in order to care for the dog. Such are the obligations of being a dog owner--but, despite the hassles, it's worth it!

At Christmastime, I shared that I was planning to apply to graduate psychology programs for the upcoming school year. At present, I am still taking classes and interning at NIMH in preparation for applying to grad school, but change is afoot. Rather than applying now, I decided to wait to apply until the 2000-2001 school year. In the intervening year, we hope that Glenn can leave his job and return to school full-time to earn his teaching certification. To enable that, I am looking for a job, and also for a cheaper apartment, since our standard of living will most assuredly go down.

Meanwhile, I have been reading Teach Yourself HTML 3.2 in 24 Hours and, after a week or so (definitely more than twenty-four hours!) of intense effort, I hope to go on-line with my initial pages today--so if you're reading this on-line, then that's a good sign! I am proud to report that I wrote every bit of code myself (except for a few lines for my counter and guest book); learning HTML has been fun and I hope perhaps ultimately useful. Regardless, I hope that you enjoy my site and will come back often.

This page was last updated on 9/7/00.

1999, 2000 by Elizabeth Drain Harden
[do not copy any material from this page without first obtaining my permission]