Listen to the Sound of the World, Then Watch it Turn

Wow, this is only my third post in October, and October is nearly done. From ten in September to three in October - I can only assume that all the people I've been told are readings this are worried about my health or think I'm really lazy. What's actually happened is a combination of a few factors has thrown off my previously established pattern of doing things, and it's ended up taking the full month to get back on track.

With back to back weekends filled with wonderful visits (first from my mom and then from Angus), I had three weeks of cramming all my work into the middle of the week. Additionally, my classes started to test me a bit more - a midterm presentation, weekly 2-3 page papers, and a 5-7 page paper that I am even now halfway through have all been dominating the landscape of my mind. Add to this that I am going to the Rally for Sanity on Saturday (!!!!), and that's another week with extra work in the middle of it. I have two more 5-7 page papers to write before Thanksgiving, and once I get back I will start work on a 12-15 page paper and another paper that I currently have no information about at all.

No one said grad school was going to be easy. In fact, they said the opposite. And, lo and behold, they were being honest. None of this should be taken as complaining. I'm enjoying my classes (mostly), I'm feeling about 20x more confident than I did in the first month I was here (as in, I am no longer concerned they will realize what a terrible mistake it was to let me in and ask me to leave quietly), and I'm definitely learning and growing in new directions. Some of it is stressful, but in a good way. It's good for me that my essays are challenging to write. It's good for me that I don't get all the readings right away. Because if it were easy right off the bat, what would be the point of paying so much money and spending so much time away from my fiance, family, and friends? No, I'm glad that I'm having to work hard and stay busy. But it does mean that I've been having fewer dazzling New York experiences to share with the internet.

Of course, that's not to say I'm not having any. I recently journeyed to Brooklyn with Michelle and Rachel to get what is widely reported as the best pizza in New York: Grimaldi's (the other main contender for the title, Lombardi's, is where Angus and I got pizza during his visit). The key to having these famous New York experiences, as I have said before, is to have them on week nights. I have been by Grimaldi's twice before - both times on a Saturday - and seen lines that stretched around the block. People waiting 3-4 hours to sit down and order pizza. Our wait? About ten minutes. And yes, the pizza was amazing. But it was not a pizza that I would stand in line for four hours to get. I haven't met that pizza yet.

Other news? No, that's pretty much it. School, and I was lucky enough to have some delicious pizza with lovely friends. Saturday is my whirlwind journey to DC for the Rally to Restore Sanity, which I expect will be thrilling, exhausting, and wonderful. And next week, being a new month, seems to hold the promise of classes settling back to a level where they are still my main concern but I have time for others. So expect to see more words from me in the coming month, and excuse an October of only four posts (I expect I'll get the one about the rally in under the wire).