TWO AND A HALF WEEKS LATER, I'm awake and alert. Oh boy. But seriously, that's the kind of semester it's been. That's the kind of year it's been.
This is no complaint, actually. All the things taking up my time are things I love (well, besides math homework, that is).
Why am I posting now, you may ask? Why do I suddenly have time? Because I'm avoiding choosing my paper topic for my Colm Tóibín class. There's one paper worth 60% of the grade, and on the first day we were handed a sheet with thirty-seven possible paper topics, to which he added two just off the top of his head. I initially narrowed that list of thirty-nine down to fourteen, and then a bit more so now it stands at eight. Huzzah! By the end of tonight, though, I shall have to have it down to one because I foolishly agreed to present my idea first (i.e. on Monday) so as to not have to present a full-fledged paper, just a plan.
And this weekend I'm going to NYC, since Mom is visiting (yay!).
Thus: the paper topic choosing imperative and subsequent procrastination. Because it's not breathing down my neck per se. Yet.

Aside from the Dublin class (I call it that, but it really encompasses Ireland and ALL THAT IT STANDS FOR), Creative Writing with Jeffrey Eugenides is the best Creative Writing has ever been here (and that's saying a lot). It is my two-hour oasis in the middle of the week, where everyone is Midwestern-friendly and clever and offers amazing criticism. Plus his poodle came one time, so that was nice.

Religion in Film just hit its stride. Of course, we're talking about Hitchcock and Freud, which could be its own class really. I've decided I really like Jung, though, at least from the two-page cursory reading I did for class tomorrow. I'm also convinced that Frank Pembleton (or at least, let's face it, one of the Homicide writers) reads Jung. Example:
Pembleton: Listen, let me tell you something. We're all guilty of something, cruelty, or greed, or, or going 65 in a 55 mile per hour zone. But you know what? You wanna think about yourself as the fair-haired choir boy? You go ahead.
Bayliss: All right. Okay, so what are you saying, huh?
Pembleton: I'm saying you got a darkness, you, Tim Bayliss, you got a darkness inside of you. You gotta know the darker, uglier sides of yourself. You gotta recognize them, so that they're not constantly sneaking up on you. You gotta love them, 'cause they're part of you, because along with your virtues, they make you who you are. Virtue isn't virtue unless it slams up against vice. So consequently, your virtue's not real virtue. Until it's been tested. . . tempted.

English 205 the 14th through the 18th century is fine. It's the only class I am forced to take to become and English major, so I'm swallowing my daily dose of Chaucer like a champ. We just got to Thomas Wyatt, though, so things are looking up.

Which brings me to astrophysics (seriously.) This is a class called The Universe and lovingly nicknamed Stars for Stoners. (In reality, it seems to be filled mostly with jocks--did they miss the geology memo?) I love lectures. I love observation nights when we go to the campus telescope and look at points of interest and have them explained to them. I'll love going to the Planetarium in New York next week. The homework (as previously stated) I DO NOT LOVE. Ah well. C'est la vie, and after this the only math I'll have to do is taxes.


The roommates are all doing well, and tomorrow Roommate J and I are going out with (Ex)SoccerRoommate, which is always fun. The big news, of course, is that I recently learned I'll be working in Paris this summer! I've been given an internship after applying through a great French program here. I'm not sure about the dates (I'll likely find out next Friday when I have my meeting with the organizer), but I am very, very excited and Mom is already shopping online for apartments to rent.