I'm a day into Reading Period and I think I will survive. Working every waking hour is intense, so luckily diversions are in the offing. Today I'm having lunch with Downstairs Chatterer to discuss our mutually dreaded French paper (in a moment of insanity I took the most interesting of the four options, which is also the hardest and most daunting) and then studying biology all afternoon until dinner, which will be followed by seeing Atonement with HSClassmate in the evening.
Winter Break was great. We spent January 1st-3rd with the Ex-Neighbors in Iowa seeing candidates speak (Obama, Edwards, Richardson, and the now defunct Dodd) and going to their caucus. Obama blew me away. He is an amazing orator with great things to say, and I read an article yesterday about his speech writer, who is a quite young guy, and learned that, essentially, Obama writes the speech, the speechwriter rearranges and polishes it, hands it back, Obama polishes that draft and then gives the speech. Edwards left me cold. I was following him until he essentially said that he refused to even sit down with corporations and talk things through. Not so great. Richardson was fine; Dad liked him for Vice President, but I'm not sure.
I did manage to see three movies in theaters while I was home: Charlie Wilson's War, which was excellent, The Golden Compass, which I liked more than I thought I would--it was actually pretty good, although not as dark as the book--and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, which was completely unrelenting and miserable to watch, although well written, well acted and well directed. In the words of Dad, it was essentially a film about evil, and nothing else.
Plans for the Knox college production of The Play are still on target. I e-mailed the director and she said that my check (!) is in the mail, or will be soon, and although the theater department is underfunded and can't fly me out, someone might be taping it. Huzzah!
Yesterday I played a rollicking round of homemade Apples to Apples (we write down tons of nouns, and then make up our own adjectives on the spot) with 3/4 roommates after dinner. I miss home, but on some level it's nice to be back. There's even something soothing about my creaky bed, and the sound the toilets make just as they're about to flush.