Slow Motion Carnival

To the approximately three people who even know about this blog, I refuse to apologize for two months without updates. So there.

This last semester was a bitch. I didn't really realize it at the time (at least not until the vomit-inducing final stretch), but there was an enormous amount to be done essentially all the time. And I wasn't even teaching. My goal for this semester is to take my time management skills to a new level, which will be an interesting assignment with a new baby in the house. We're due at the end of the month and the apartment is slowly but inexorably expressing its anticipation of the new arrival by accumulating furniture and tiny, pastel-colored clothes. At any rate, I got through last semester with only a pair of minuses to mar the unbroken line of As. Given my woeful unpreparedness for the final projects/papers in several of my courses, I'll take it.

In case you're wondering, 20 page research papers require research and time. Especially if you get through 15 pages and realize you still have eight or nine pages of points left to make. (That realization is most painful when you discover you have approximately 90 minutes left to get through those pages or pretend that a simple breaking-off of your argument will be a worthwhile conclusion.)

This is the first time I can remember feeling that I needed all of my winter break. Part of that probably has to do with various baby-related things, but I remember getting bored ten days in to most of my previous breaks. This go-round, it took me a good week to recover simple physical equilibrium, and the subsequent two weeks have been very nice to unwind and prepare.

So classes start up next week, and perhaps there will be more regular updates with them. I'm sure I'll find things to rant about easily enough.