Monday, January 15, 2007

End of break

My snowflake today is in the Voodoo stage:


Snowflake #16 of 99 Snowflakes from Leisure Arts

Classes officially begin tomorrow, but I don't have any until Wednesday. On the one hand, I think I may be ready to start a new semester and see if I can't alter my expectations so that I enjoy the process more. On the other hand, I dont' feel rejuvenated by my break and I'm not ready for the franticness of the semester. I will still have my creative time, it will just be less spontaneous and more limited. I'm still trying to keep an open mind, but I'm trying to be a little more practical about it, too. I don't have to love every aspect of graduate school. I just have to love one or two. I just have to love my research. I have to love learning. I don't have to love all my classes. I am allowed to think some aspects of classwork are as crappy as I did in undergrad without feeling ungrateful for the opportunity to be here. I can dread required classes that are outside my field of interest. Otherwise, perhaps that would be my field of interest. I'm letting myself just get through the last couple of weeks of this useless rotation without going above and beyond. This puts a lot of pressure on my next rotation, but I have faith. I really, really do.

I just reread that last paragraph and parts of it don't even make sense to me. Don't feel bad if you got lost. But I'm leaving it because it's so much cheaper than therapy. Even though, technically, I could get that for free through the school. But I would have to walk to the offices and it's cold. So I guess it's just warmer than therapy. Whatever works.

I'm going to put away at least part of the Christmas decorations now. Are anyone else's sinuses completely and utterly pissed off these days? Oy vey.

4 comments:

jmk said...

Hi Sus!
Thanks for visiting me. Nice to see someone else is still Snowflake Monday-ing. Yours is sweet (hmm, have I got that pattern? Nice thing about SF's is that most can be worked up from a decent picture). "Voodoo stage", LOL! Is it off-white or does it just look like that against the white paper? And what do you use for stiffening?
Love the All-Seeing Tissue Box Cover - creepy but fun.

Anonymous said...

Yes! Yes! My sinuses are trying to kill me. THey hate me with a blinding passion. They want to crawl out of my face through my eyes, rearrange my furniture and take over the planet.

I'm *totally* on the same page.

Sus said...

jmk - It's not off-white, it's antique. Truly. I'm currently using a ball of thread that I got from my sister who, in turn, got it from a great-aunt's attic and is older than anyone who will ever read this. I'm using it up. It may be a little discolored, though you can't tell unless you do something like put it directly on something bright white. I'm currently using Alene's Fabric Stiffener that I bought circa 1993. I'm cutting it with about two parts water. These are frugal snowflakes. :)

laura -- My sinuses have decided that their current quarters are insufficient, have purchased the adjoining compartment (my braincase), and are undergoing a major remodel. It apparently involves jackhammers, drills, and icepicks. They also apparently need my zygomatic arches for some architetural accent somewhere else, because they are surely chipping them out slowly. Can't wait to see what they do with the place.

Marguerite Kennedy said...

I love the idea of "Snowflake Mondays." Sounds kind of like it should be the name of some Scandinavian emo band ... It only takes a day to make a snowflake? For me it would be more like Snowflake Decades.

But the omniscient (all-seeing?) tissue box cover is possibly the coolest tissue-box cover EVER. And I have a degree in Tissue Box Cover Studies, so I should know.
This might sound crazy, but it reminds me of the many-eyed, feathered "cherubim" character in Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wind in the Door." That probably makes no sense, so you'll just have to trust me that it's a (granted, weird) compliment.