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Oct 05, 2008 21:12

So, in other news, I still walk the Earth. It just so happens that by "walking the Earth," I mean "spending about half of the weekend curled up in bed under a mountain of blankets." It has been delightful, might I add. After a progressively more sleep-deprived week, two days in the middle of which involved being struck by a mild, unspecified, but energy-draining lurgy, and which culminated in four hours of sleep on Thursday night followed by my four back-to-back hours of discussion section on Friday, collapsing into bed on Friday night was about the most beautiful thing ever to happen to me. I dedicated yesterday to sleeping in and napping and generally recovering, and I must say, it's wonderful to have my brain back from the foggy netherworld it's been inhabiting since about Tuesday.

Anyway, discussion sections went pretty well on Friday - not as well as they have so far, and I ended up dismissing three of my sections early, but still better than anything last year. Since this week's book was more challenging than the readings so far have been and not as directly connected to the materials covered in lecture, and since it's starting to be midterm time, I'm not especially worried. We'll be back in two weeks with Martin Luther. If last year is anything to go by, my students will be all over the Reformation. I've already had to remind them several times this year that Peter Abelard, the Flagellants, Peter Waldo, and Saint Francis of Assisi aren't the Reformation yet.

You'd think that being at a Catholic school with a heavily Catholic student body, my students would be all "down with the Reformation!!!" but that doesn't seem to be the case at all. They seem collectively to think that late medieval Catholics were really bad Catholics and that the Church was all evil, all the time, and off plotting evil times in its evil corner of pure evil. Maybe the counter-reformation can explain this? I've never studied it in any detail, so I don't know. I think advisor R is going to cover it later on in the semester, so I'll be waiting eagerly to find out.

As far as my own work goes, hopefully in the week off from discussion sections and marking, I'll be able to get some of it done. Prof S has had to cancel my medieval Islam R&R meeting for tomorrow, which means that I now have two weeks before we meet again to discuss the book that I was supposed to read for this week. Since Prof S considerately let me know this yesterday morning, it meant I felt completely justified in taking the day off yesterday, and in spending my day today working on my stuff for Haskins. I'm still playing with my data, and probably will be for most of the week; I'm hoping to be in shape to start writing next weekend.

As for next weekend, I've been in touch with my aunt and uncle about going up to Quebec. They've invited me to come, but they're going to be having a very busy weekend and it really sounds like my presence (and my need for transportation to and from the bus station) would be a huge pain for them. At the moment I kind of feel like a tool for having broached the subject. I'm trying to decide if I should just back out, which seems like the obvious course, if only I could think of a way to do it gracefully. I'm planning to ask my parents when I talk to them tonight, and I'll see then. I'm unreasonably depressed at the prospect of spending Thanksgiving in Boston, when Cormac will be going home for the weekend and Marek will be celebrating with my aunt and uncle. I mean, it's completely ridiculous, given that everyone else except me has been home for Thanksgiving every year I've been away (although two of those I did go up to Quebec), but there you have it. I think it's because les frères get to go home (or home-ish), as opposed to already living at home.

Finally, it's really feeling like fall here all of a sudden. I've been adding blankets to my bed, and soon I'll probably have to change to my flannel sheets and start thinking seriously (again) about getting a proper comforter. Today I got the first of my sweaters out of my boxes of winter clothes, and made my first oven pancake of the season (with mushrooms, zucchini, and feta cheese). I'm also starting to get quite concerned that all the tomatoes I have coming on my tomato plants aren't going to get a chance to ripen before it freezes. I can bring the plants in onto the porch, but if it gets consistently cold, I don't know if there's much hope. There are about fifteen tomatoes in various stages of growing, so hopefully the weather will hold out. If not, anyone know any good recipes that call for green tomatoes?

Anyway, them's the news.

failing at life, and me one traveller, grad school with jesuits, special snowflakes

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