Fall(ing).

I hear that back home it's starting to look like fall. Here in Chicago, it's starting to feel like fall, but we don't quite have the look down pat. We went on a class field trip to Graceland Cemetery this past Friday, and it definitely looked like fall there. I have been looking for fall a little closer to home (the Near North area of Chicago), these days. For example, I've been getting a kick out of the fire red leaves that climb the bricks that surround the huge windows on the second floor of the Newberry. That view has worked wonders for me this week. 

 

I think that we are experiencing the point in the semester where work is picking up, research is picking up, and everyone is missing home. I know that I've definitely reached that point. I've been worried that I would fall back into my bad habit of procrastinating (big time!). Just when things were starting to look bad, I decided to make some changes. Spice up my experience a bit. Make myself as excited as I was when I first got here. Get it? And so I did. I started going to Operas with my colleagues, experiencing more fine Chicago dining, and hanging out with the group more. 

Most importantly, I changed the way I saw my research. Literally. When I work in 2-West at the Newberry, I'm surrounded by what my colleagues consider my fort of books. I take notes in a new journal, *always* write with my super-pencil, and keep my focus rock in my field of vision at all times. These little things help. I'm now back into my research with renewed energy! My weapons of mass destruction were all made possible by the woman that, I think, cultivated my intellectual side more than anyone else. She's a super-professor, with a super-brain. And my weapons remind me that I, too, have super-qualities. And I am here in the Newberry's intellectual community to nurture them.

We are working hard, people. All of us.