First weekend back in the game

Ten years ago today I walked into homeroom after Senior Assembly just in time to see the second tower fall. My memory of the scene is incredibly vivid - particularly Mr. Raymond watching, how he was standing, his complete fixation yet lack of visible outward emotional sign. (This incredibly vivid visual recall of the moment of realization is something I know is incredibly common, and is one of the things that fascinates me most about 9/11 from a public memory perspective - that despite the incredible attention paid in academic work to the visual impact of media images, for me and many others the most vivid and personally "iconic" image of the event is relatively banal.) I remember seeing the first crash on TV while in Bio and laughing, everyone thinking it must be some stupid lost pilot in a Cessna. I remember wanting to feel it more deeply/seriously than I did, but really just reacting to the drama. How little I knew. How young I was.
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I'm reading through my long rambly draft of my prelims question to prepare for my meeting with Christa tomorrow, and it's actually kind of encouraging. I had been dreading it, but it turns out there's really a lot of good stuff here. And it reminds me that I often am capable of being a pretty damn good writer. Which in a time where I'm feeling pretty insecure about my ability to finish this shit and pass, is a welcome feeling.

It was a remarkably full/eventful weekend. [Aside - I have *got* to kick this habit I've fallen into of using slashes rather than making relatively simple word choices. It started in late spring in an effort to facilitate faster drafting, but it's gotten out of control.] I did a very respectable amount of work while also having two major social nights (each of a very different flavor to boot). After an August of the same monotone lethargy-tinged shit over and over day in and day out this is a nice change, but also an adjustment. It's hard to wrap my head around the fact that tomorrow starts another whole week full of activity, obligations and social potential. But while it's a change it's one I welcome. I'm tired, sure. But I'm alive again. The rhythm of the semester is cutting through the paralyzing influence of anxiety and grief - and for that I'm thankful.

Even if such liveliness, both personally and professionally, can sometimes be a pain in the ass..

Madison All Over Again

I'm back! Today is the first day of the semester, and while I don't have class, I'm trying to get a strong start so I'm holed up in Memorial reading articles for this week's classes. Soon a gym trip will follow, then more reading, then digging my car out of the snow to run errands, then a bedtime of 11:30. 

School is back in session.

I had a phenomenal break, although I won't write about it in detail now...suffice to say I spent some incredible time with my family. It was the first vacation where Kitten and I were really bestest friends, and we talked until late in the night, visited Julio, watched Duck Tales and generally had a blast. I won 120 bucks at a casino while visiting my aunt, and I spent New Year's Eve in DC with Justin and his crew from home, which was loud and busy and drunken and fun.

I spent New Year's Day with Con. Phenomenal. And exciting. And I'm smiling just thinking about it.

Alright, back to my article. While I was feeling really unready to reenter academia after the month out of it, I'm finding that, while I don't *love* reading these things, I am still interested, and the passion I was feeling last term is still there, lurking under the surface, and I know it will be back soon.

It's going to be quite the semester.