And so it goes.

This week's writing is not coming along AT ALL. Our twenty page draft is due this Friday, and I haven't even started writing my next ten pages. BUT we got our ten page drafts back today, and apparently I'm off to a good start! That's exciting. What's kind of frustrating is that I've slipped back into my dark habits. Those habits being late-night brainstorming and writing. Usually, I don't mind falling into my pattern. But it's hard to do that here, where most of our books are non-circulating, and the latest the library is open during the week is 7.45pm. So I'm going to have to be a little better about having disciplined writing. But that's not my style. At least it used to not be my style. So I'm going to have to pretend that it's me, this semester, for my sanity's sake! We'll see how it all works out. I'm sure that it will.

After we turn in our twenty page drafts this Friday, we will be presenting to the campus advisors from all of the ACM/GLCA  schools. Eek! By the time I leave here, I won't have a presentation-shy bone in my body. 

My schedule is going to be crazy demanding, from here on out. But in such great ways that I'm sure I'll find it hard to complain. Well, maybe not. I'm pretty good at complaining, when I need to be. Maybe I'll just tone it down a bit though. I don't generally complain aloud. So.

I'm getting excited for the Chicago Humanities Festival which kicks off this weekend. Because we're in this program, we get to participate in the Chicago Humanities Festival, and the ACM paid for us to attend some sessions. This year's Chicago Tribune Literary Prize goes to David McCullough. This weekend I'm attending a breakfast on Saturday, and a breakfast on Sunday, followed by McCullough's lecture, among the other sessions that I plan to hit up. I think that it actually lasts about two weeks, so I'll try to attend plenty of events. 

My research is changing and taking shape in ways that I hardly imagined it would. But the research is getting a lot more focused, now that I know what I'm looking for in each of my sources. And I'm learning the art of skimming. Skimming used to be virtually impossible for me to do. I never liked to skip over words, sentences, and paragraphs! I still don't like it, but I can appreciate having to do it a bit more!

 I'm about to watch a few episodes of Rome with some friends, after I  try to knock out at least two or three pages of this draft. I'm feeling super bad about not having started this draft. But all is well that ends well--I'm counting on that. Well, I'm going to end here, for fear that I won't have any words left when I try to start the next ten pages of my draft. :) That's not a real fear, but I thought that it would be an interesting way to end. Except that, apparently, I'm not ending there anymore. I'm ending here.