Friday, January 10, 2003
 

The Ho has accused me of being "difficult." I protest; I thought I was awfully well-behaved at the meeting in question: I waited a whole 5 minutes before bringing up STDs, don't recall mentioning literary theory even once, and made no threats of any sort. Plus, we weren't even asked to leave the eating establishment! Hmmph.

In the meantime, the more recent past: The modernism seminar, which is being taught by an older and quite laid-back faculty member, was blessedly short. Also, I think I got my final paper topic for that class settled, woohoo! After that, I went across the street with a friend to grab some food (banana nut bagel) before the job candidate talk at 3:10. I thought she was rather mediocre, but she's coming from Yale, so the problem is most likely on my end. Quality of her ideas aside, she wasn't very polished. I went to the reception after that but didn't stick around too long. I got my Southern lit paper back, and he thinks it's publishable, YAY! This is incredibly good news, because we have to prepare and submit an article (that comes out of one of our seminar papers) at the end of this year, in lieu of the MA thesis. Of the papers I wrote this term, this one was nearest and dearest to my heart, so that's a relief for me.

I can't believe I'm in my second term. Recruitment will start in a month or so; that's where I was last year. Not to be trite, but it all seems so long ago. Pretty soon, I'll have someone sleeping on my futon, and I'll have to act cheery and upbeat for him or her. I don't even feel like I can plead newness anymore as an excuse, but is one term really enough to settle into a change like this? Not really. I feel like it should all be old hat now, but it isn't. Soon enough, I'll be patting first-years on the back and telling them it's all going to be ok. Will I actually believe that by then? Because I don't now. This isn't even meant to be sarcastic but will probably sound that way: I guess that, by then, I'll be on Prozac et al, like everyone else, and maybe then I'll be more calm. Not that anyone here is really particularly Zen. If I make it through this term, the first year is over . . .

This will be a tough term. It's a lot of reading and a lot of weekly writing assignments, which will probably mean that I'll have to schedule more rigidly than I usually do. To get off to a good start, I declined an invitation to go out tonight in favor of staying in and reading Madame Bovary; I have to get something accomplished today, anyway. The Jungle is also up for next week, but, thankfully, we only have to read 2/3 of it. The other reading is Sterne's A Sentimental Journey. In other words, there's one heckuva exciting weekend on my calander, people! If things get really crazy, I'll do laundry. Or maybe even take out the trash.

Elvisette philosophized at 6:47 PM