Welcome to December... already?!

Seriously, where has this year gone???

I should be working on my final portfolio for English, but my brain decided I need to take a break. Good idea, brain. Now just be sure to make with the other good ideas that need to go on paper this afternoon...

I have houseguests: There are two young men sleeping in my living room, and I'm being quiet so as not to disturb them. My online friend Steve and his roommate Andy, on their way back to Notre Dame from Thanksgiving break, drove in from Philadelphia and arrived here around 2:30 AM. After some chatting and whatnot, they crashed out on the futons around 3 or 3:30, while DH and I went to bed. DH got up at 6 AM to go to work, and I slept in until around 11 AM, when my friend Jeff called me. Steve and Andy are still asleep, however. Long drives are tiring!

So I'm sitting at the dining room table, drinking my second cup of coffee and trying to get my brain back into academic mode. I think I'll take Latin next semester so I can concentrate most of my personal creativity on the writing I choose to do, and have something more cut-and-dried on the academic front for a change. No, I don't technically need it for my degree, but I've always wanted to study it, and although part of me balks at spending money on a course I don't completely need, the other part of me justifies it by pointing out that 1) I can probably make it fit some elective requirement I still haven't filled, and 2) it is one of the few courses remotely connected with my academic goals that is offered in a format that won't require me to either be in class until 8PM or 10PM two nights a week next semester or else have to try to arrange with an employer (I really need a job) to allow me to work nonstandard hours in order to take a day class at least two days a week. Flex Latin is something I can do mostly on my own, with only a one-hour tutoring session each week with my prof, so that makes it extremely attractive to me right now. I think I can probably get an employer to agree to my taking a long lunch one day per week, provided I make up the time. (ETA: Or, I could take an Urban Studies course online to get one of those pesky Social Diversity requirements out of the way. Of course, what I really want is to do an Independent Study course on some aspect of writing in my chosen genre. Sigh... I wonder if I can make that happen?)

One thing I've definitely noticed is that going back to school, even part-time as I have done, is turning out to be more of an adjustment than I expected. I think I started with the wrong course to some extent, but on the plus side, I have made some great new friends in this class (including my friend Tim whom you Cleftlanders reading this may remember for his Katharine Hepburn impressions at Muldoon's), and some of us are starting our own writers' group together. So the frustration I've been feeling is worth it, I think. Now if I can just get a decent grade for this course.