I’ve been immensely busy with school lately. It hasn’t been so bad to the point that I haven’t seen the light of day, but the last three weeks have been pretty intense. I don’t want this blog to be a place to complain (and even if I did, this isn’t a complaint), but I did have a lot of school work. First I had a week of papers being due. One was about the history of miniature golf, a project I had been slowly collecting information on all semester. Overall it wasn’t that large, but by the time it came down to it my enthusiasm was no where to be found, especially since I had other smaller papers to write at the same time. The next week I had four finals, three on Monday and Tuesday. Then on Saturday night we were supposed to present our completed papers at my professor’s house. This was a semester long research project that had become very consuming for me, mostly because I ended up picking a topic that I was interested in and spent a lot of time digging into. I wrote about Henry Houston, a free mixed-race barber in pre-Civil War Jacksonville. I was excited about it, too, because no one had looked into him before and it was clear that he deserved some attention. The paper ended up being due on Monday at noon, and I had to pull an all-nighter to get it done. I was exhausted. Everyone else was done with school and I looked forward to the prospect of gathering up a little sleep before plunging into a large paper about Jan van Eyck’s Jael and Sisera sketch. I finally got it done Friday late afternoon, after working for several days straight and almost pulling another all-nighter; I got two hours of sleep Thursday night. In the end though, it turns out I’m done for the semester! I’m happy about that because of all the hard work that I’ve done, but also because I feel like I’ve accomplished some real work this semester of substance. I feel like I made a lot of progress into the Jael research, and I also feel like the work done on Henry Houston was important. I had a lot of “you should make this your thesis” sort of encouragement, which was pleasant. I did get a C in one class. I just didn’t have time to focus on it. But otherwise I made three As and a B. Had I turned in one assignment I would have made a B or A in the C class, and had my miniature golf paper not been late, I would have made an A in the B class. Though those are just excuses really, I feel okay about it, because in the end I know I still learned the information and earned the grades that I did because I was focusing on some other work. The most important thing I did this semester though was learn how to research more effectively, how to write a lot better, and create work that I can be proud of. Usually for me a semester is just a series of grades on a sheet, but I feel like I have two papers I can show my husband and parents and grandfather and really feel good about. :) And who doesn’t want to smile about that? 
Even better, my professor that I did the Henry Houston (local history) research with wants me to do more research with him and my friend Carmen over the holidays. For the first time, I’m getting paid to do research! I think that in itself is one of the best compliments I’ve ever gotten. :) Plus I think what we’ll be researching will be useful to people in the future so that’s really a nice feeling. 
Aside from that, my house is a wreck and yet I’ve decided to have a party on Christmas night for my friends. I haven’t had hardly a moment to breathe so today was the first chance I really had to get started on it. I got the beginnings of my presents for Ed and my parents (its a secret… shhh), and I also enjoyed a rare burst of consumerism with mom today. We went out and bought a desperately-needed rug for my living room. The floor is terrible looking with tiles missing here and there and I thought it would do well to cover the holes up. I thought it would be good timing for the party. I also bought a new shower curtain and a new toilet seat. And, for the first time, Febreeze. It sounds lame but I grew up in a very clean house where we wouldn’t have needed something to “freshen” like that, and Ed and I are usually so poor I’ve never felt comfortable splurging on something that didn’t accomplish anything other than smelling pretty. But today I did, and after putting down the new big rug tonight and rolling around on it with the cats, I sprayed all our chairs and just smelled and smelled and smelled them. I think I’m going to go smell them some more. Tomorrow I’ll probably go to church, and then its a day of intensive cleaning. Though I’m going to be busy between now and Christmas, I’m glad that I’m done with school for a few days and that what I’m busy with now is focusing on being with my friends. :D
