overgrown garden: Signs of Hope

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Little things that are keeping me happy, as I lurch toward finals:

The daffodils are starting to come up in the woods. We saw the first sprouts on Sunday, and Joe even found a crocus by the driveway.
My Dan Emmett paper is done and looking good, even if I would have liked to do more.
I have finally made some progress on the Carmen paper - a couple solid pages of good prose, plus several more pages of notes.
The final ethnomusicology project (40% of our grade - mine is on the Kenyon gamelan) isn't due until the 16th, the last day of exam week. Note that this is a new development as of today. My professor is not a big believer in setting deadlines.
The porch is coming along. Still no steps, but there's a roof and floor, with a foundation under it - all progress.
GusCat seems to have emerged from his heart failure. He is still sick, and there's little hope of another remission, but I've gotten him to eat a little bit and he fights me, which at least gives the illusion of normalcy.
Not only was it sunny when I left campus today, but it was still sunny when I got home.
Joe is, as we speak, making a casserole to leave me while he goes out to Maryland for the ACC tournament. (Alton Brown's trashy tater-tot casserole from Gear For Your Kitchen, if you're interested)
In one week from Thursday, come hell or high water, it will be break time, during which I have nothing scheduled but requesting hundreds of books for my thesis, catching up on some of my paying work, applying for assistantships, and cleaning out the garden.

Small victories.

At 7:30 PM, TeacherRefPoet held forth...: Hang tough, Alison.
At 11:51 AM, Alison held forth...: Thanks, TRP. I've requested a 3-day extension on one paper, which I hope will alleviate some of the stress without prolonging it.