checking in

Hello everyone,

it's that lovely time of year when the pale, sickly denizens of the university begin to peer through the windows of their cold, dark apartments and notice a change. The snow is fading, the sun is beginning to shine with confidence, the middle school students begin to smoke in the graveyard and run into pedestrians with skateboards instead of huddling in the doorways of the school or, heavens forbid, attend class. To the university dwellers, though, this thawing and rebirth is a cruel and ironic joke, as their workload first doubles, then triples, and they must bend their soft and squodgy frames to work throughout all daylight hours (and most non-daylight hours, too). Deliverance, such as it is, must wait until Last Class.
(Of course, this year is particularly confusing, because St. Thomas and UNB had very different holiday seasons this year, and the UNB calendar has a misprint in it that has made all professors plan for a semester that is a week short, but I digress.)
This week will be, simply put, hell. I have a massive group project meeting tomorrow to prepare for a massive group presentation in front of professional archaeologists on Monday; I have a meeting on Monday to go over my draft proposal with Christiane prior to my presentation Wednesday; and the translation of the Aeneid limps on. Don't even speak to me of my Augustus paper until after Last Class. My book for the book report for Christiane's class is embarrassingly overdue at the library.
All I want to do is walk around in the sunlight. I suppose there will be lots of time for that later, though. The upshot of all of this is that my posting will probably continue to be intermittent until at least a week from now, and maybe even longer while the last few things get worked out. I don't work constantly, but every moment I'm not ploughing through survey strategies or mock masters thesis proposal drafts I'll probably be sucking up sunlight. I'll post as possible, though.

Postscript: Michelle tells me that not all students are hard at work today.

mick says: its pail and shovel day
mick says: ewwwy
Stephanie says: ?
mick says: stupid TNT, they came by this morning and sprayed our hallways with shaving cream
mick says: screaming the whole way
mick says: they do it in every dorm
mick says: i don't know why, then they sit outside their rez and drink all day
mick says: out of plastic pails
Stephanie says: ...

Postpostscript: this dress is hilarious.