Friends, Books, Wine and Future Travels

This was the happiest weekend I can remember in a very long time.

Not necessarily the most exciting, or productive, or novel, but just happiest. I saw friends, I met new people, I did some work, I spent some great time with Andy, I cooked a tasty dinner, and I just felt...happy. I'm happy. After a year spent waffling between depression, denial and exhaustion, it's a wonderful feeling. I love reading again. I love my work. I am fulfilling one of my deepest personal passions - travel - in less than three weeks. And of course, there's Andy.

Friday - friends, baking, and entertaining. Saturday - relaxation, reading, productivity and a birthday party. Sunday - napping, more reading and rehearsal. And I've got a good lesson planned for tomorrow, and all (okay, most) (ok, way more than usual) of my reading done.

I'll take it. I'll definitely take it.

Columbia

I hate toll roads.

But I love babies.

Content Despite Obstacles

I love my apartment.

And I think I'm going to make. After all, I always manage too.

Also, I've got so much to look forward to. And that make it so much easier.

Settling In

Well, the grind is here. Every semester I manage to forget that there's no easing into things in grad school - you start full steam and it just keeps going up. But I'm pretty content, actually.

My mixer continues to get far more exercise than me. I made white chocolate and oatmeal cookie for my class, and today I made my first attempt at bread. I'm not particularly optimistic about how it will turn out, but I know bread's tough. It'll take practice. And in the meantime, Andy can eat my imperfect loafs for breakfast.

I hate to say it, but it's true - I really miss my students from last semester. I was so lucky with that class, they were a great mix. Not that my class now is bad - the conferences I had to get to know them all a bit went pretty well. It's fascinating to me how some students display a totally different personality in informal conferences than they do in class. People who never talk in class, rarely smile, turn into these chatty, interesting characters. The most dramatic example of this was last semester - I had a student who would speak occasionally in class but generally was very reserved, but in small groups and conferences...he was completely different. Our conferences would sometimes run over time, he was so forthcoming. That's probably the thing I love most about teaching 100 - the chance to get to know my students that way. If I'd had that student in a Lit section, I might never have known how much he had to say.

I turned in my lease today. It's official - I am living here next year. I am NOT MOVING. This is like, monumental. I haven't lived in one place for more than 10 months in 6 years. It's such a nice feeling...and now I'm really going to trick the place out. Plant on the hook in the kitchen, curtains in the main room, a new stand for the TV...it's going to be a real home. I love my apartment so much.

I'm going to Columbia to meet Andy's family next weekend. I'm a little nervous, naturally, but that feeling is more or less lost under my excitement about seeing his niece. Goodness I love babies. She's a great age too, about 3 months - young enough to give you that "wow, what a tiny tiny person," but old enough to be a little fun.

I've also been chatting with the Marauders a fair bit about our upcoming reunion, which is exciting. I love planning and anticipating big trips. So fun. Looks like we might be doing some camping, actually, which I'm strangely excited about. Camping in England! Maybe near Tintern Abbey! Maybe we'll get stolen by elves or something!

This semester's going to be crazy. Bring it on.