Pushing Through

I suppose it's time for another April catch-up post, in the midst of the busy-ness.

On Friday, Kay and Brian were in town!  They came over and made dinner-- wonderful salmon quinoa cakes, sweet potato fries, and a mayo-sriracha sauce.  Zan and I provided salad and wine.  Yum!  After dinner, we headed into the city to see Mike and Josh in their operetta, Iolanthe.  I really enjoyed it-- Mike and Josh both stole scenes (so luckily, they were hardly ever in the same scene!).  It was really great to see a lot of people from GGSS, too, since I haven't been around much since February.  I guess that's what comes of not working on the spring show AND not being a law student!

I spent the weekend in Williamsburg.  My mom and I drove down on Saturday.  We hit heavy traffic, but we made it fun with a before 11:00 AM stop at a Dairy Queen for onion rings and an M&M blizzard.  Upon arriving, I visited the Shoe Attic to use the gift certificate that my dad gave me for Christmas.  I got a really fun pair of see-through Oxfords, a pair of basket-weave heels, and a new dress.  I'm very excited to wear them, now that spring has arrived!  After the shopping spree, my mom and I ate an early dinner at La Tolteca, stopped at Wawa for a vanilla coke, then returned home so I could write...and write... and attempt to write some more.  This paper for Tudor's has proven very difficult and demanding.  I really feel the labor involved in putting together paragraphs, constructing something from nothing.  I write a lot of papers, but for whatever reason, this one feels a million times more challenging than any paper I've written recently.  By midnight, I had finally churned out a solid page.  I tried to go to sleep, but my mind was churning with thoughts, brainstorms, worries... I got up, wrote a bit more, then finally fell asleep sometime after 2:00 AM.  Sunday was more devoted to writing.  For a break, my mom and I took a walk down DoG Street, got Cheese Shop sandwiches for lunch, and another vanilla coke.  Then I wrote some more.  I took a short late afternoon break, and we ran some errands, then I settled in for more writing.  I took my computer out to the screened porch to enjoy the warm air.  I drank sweet tea as I wrote.  I completed nine good, solid pages, and I managed to get direction for the rest of it. 

Sunday night and Monday I felt confident, but that confidence-- and my motivation--waned upon returning north.  The dreary weather today hurts, too, along with the added pressure to begin my paper for medieval literature in earnest.  Tomorrow I present what I've written so far for Tudors, then hopefully my mind will concentrate on medieval lit for a while without feeling guilty for not working more on my Tudor paper.  I know that once I finish it all, once I return home next Wednesday night, I'll feel a million times better.  But this is perhaps the toughest week I've had in this program so far.  I just need to find the will-power to push through, because a brilliant summer-- and a class I'm really looking forward to taking-- wait just around the corner!