How Time Flies...

So.

Is it glaringly obvious that I haven't had much time to devote to this blog of late?  Well, McMaster's server appears to be down right now, so I am unable to do any research, and I've had it pointed out to me that I haven't updated in a long while, so here I am.

So.

Fourth year is pretty intense.  I am currently taking full-year courses in Shakespeare, 19th Century Literature, and American Literature, and a half-year seminar called The Bible and Literature.  I'm kind of loving all of them, but the work load seems somewhat increased this year.  I know it's not, but it feels like it is.

Earlier this year I submitted applications for grad school grants.  That was kind of exciting.  I know that the work will become more intense, but I really feel ready to be in grad school.  Much as the material I'm reading now is interesting, I'm tired of the lecture setting.  My seminar is pretty good, though I'm only one of 4 or 5 people who actually talk in class.  There's about 15 of us.  I'm looking forward to being in a setting in which everyone talks, and everyone has interesting things to say.  I think it's so much easier to start synthesizing new ideas in that kind of setting.  It is for me, anyway.

I also got my graduation pictures in the mail today.  Tara said I looked like a man.  I chose to take that in the spirit it was intended, rather than that I look like a woman in general.  My beard is much fuller than most women I know.

It's still amongst the best things I've ever done.  I love the little nuggets of knowledge that I tuck away on a daily basis.  I love talking to people who are remarkably intelligent, and who are actually interested in what I have to say.  And I'm interested in what they have to say.  It's very cool that, for the most part, the points of view I come into contact with are well-thought out, and well-articulated.  I've made some very good friends, and that's something I wasn't at all sure I'd get around to doing again.  The people you work with are, if you're lucky, good to be around.  But I think it's hard to make friends at work because sometimes all you have in common is work, and who wants to talk about that while you're sitting around smoking a joint?  But school has such a large base of people to draw from that it's inevitable to find people who are compatible.  It's great.  I had really forgotten what it was like to be immersed in a social setting like this.  Really, it's been since high school, and that's a long while back now.

I'm finding that the greatest stress this year is coming from balancing school with everything else I have to do in my life.  I haven't done any housework for about a month now, and I'm feeling very guilty.  I also don't feel like I'm spending nearly enough time with my family.  They haven't complained, so maybe it's just me.  I just feel like I have so much to read, and so much to write, that I don't have time to do anything else.  I've missed the last two folk clubs that I usually attend, and that has now been cancelled indefinitely.  I feel bad about that too.  I know that the work I'm doing at school is important, that my keeping my grades at a particular level is vital for getting into grad school, but if all I'm doing is school, and not anything else in life, then what's the point?  There needs to be a balance, but I feel like the curriculum is aimed at people who don't have to have that balance.

Ah, that's probably just me being self-centered.  I'm sure other people have other things going on that they have to balance.  I'm tired.  My arm is sore (tendinitis or carpal tunnel syndrome).  I have two essays to write and two to edit this month.  And tons to read.

More later.