Jonathan Swift is officially invited to bite me.

I quit Excel today. Well, not really quit, I just told my professor that I had finished up all my work and that I'd rather just be finished than get more. And he was fine with that. I was relieved. Anyway, I'm done with researching Jonathan Swift poetry... forever!! yaaay!
I also ran into my thesis advisor today, we talked a bit for the first time since June. I had been avoiding him since I wasn't getting all the work done that I needed to. But lately (thanks to lots of stressing out, missing out on fun times and a significant lack of sleep) I've been getting a lot more work done. So when I saw him today, I didn't panic. That's always a good thing. And now that I have two free days thanks to no more Excel research, I'll be able to dedicate a lot more time to Shakespearean film.

I hope that in this year to come, I can remain focused on my goals but have fun while doing it. These past three years have been the best of my life, and I want to leave here with lots of happy memories of my senior year, not just a diploma and an ulcer.

I drink Newman's Own lemonade straight from the carton

I spent this past weekend in Laporte, drove up there with all sorts of glowing intentions to get some serious work done on my thesis.
Well, the first night there was shot, because I got to playing around with my webcam, trying to get the blasted thing installed on my computer. Then a bat got in our house, probably when I was unloaded my car of all my crap. The bat was a small little bugger when it landed, but when it was flying around, it seemed significantly bigger (read: scarier) because of the wings. After much shrieking and falling off of furniture (this is how a klutz like me gets designated Bat Catcher: mom's only capable of emiting high-pitched shrieks whenever it gets near her, waving her hands over her head and running away... and dad sits in his chair, reading, ignoring our melodrama) I finally managed to catch it in a clear plastic container. After a teeny bit of close up inspection as it was freaking out inside of its oxygen-deprived prison, I set it free outdoors and it flew off into the woods.
I spent all of Friday working for Professor Woolley, it was quite boring, as usual. That night I watched "Much Ado About Nothing" with mom, but couldn't find anything really to take notes on, so I'm thinking I won't be using that film for my thesis...
Saturday I accomplished some mad sleeping in, read a book called "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage," which is on my reading list for my contemporary fiction class this semester. I'm trying to get ahead of the reading because of the whole thesis thing. After dinner I wrote some preliminary research stuff for my thesis, then got sucked into creative writing and wrote late into the night. Nighttime seems to be my peak time for writing stuff like that. I'm working on three pieces at the moment, "the photograph album," the beginning of which is an earlier entry in this blog, a piece about a teenage girl called "summer" and another one that is untitled at the moment. In the last one, I'm trying out stream of consciousness a little bit. Nothing extraordinary, but amusing for me anyway.
Sunday we went to church and there was this great musical group of about six guys called "Delaware Rag," and they played fun music during the service. The mandolin player was sort of dressed like he just stepped off the set of "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," but he was kinda cute so it was charming. They were good, too. http://www.delawarerag.com
Oh yeah! sometime during the past week, I sent an email to JE to try to establish contact. On Saturday, I got a response! I wasn't even sure he'd reply. When Carrie found out, she told me "Ok, don't get too excited about JE," and I was like "What? No! I'm just planning out the details of our wedding...." Puh-leaze. I mean seriously. It's just email. I'd like to get to know him better, that's all.

I'm a "I'm not Drunk" drunk... apparently...

What kind of drunk are you?

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A Case of the August Blahs

The wedding is over, the dresses are at the cleaners, the desserts from the bon voyage party still linger, but all the pictures are taken, the love songs have all been heard (or at least played, anyway), all that remains of my Italian adventures is three tee-shirts, a plethora of pictures, and a smattering of some Italian phrases that I'm trying to not forget. Now, all that's left is to research for my thesis, finish up my summer EXCEL research, study for the GRE, work on applications for scholarships for next year....

Take nose, press firmly against grindstone.

I wandered into the bookstore and chanced upon the books I'll need to buy for the James Baldwin course this fall. Easily several thousand pages of reading. Hm, an add/drop sheet may come in handy soon enough.... :-/