9:07 AM:

Okay, first the bad news: my New Romanticism paper? It's bad. Manifestly so. Very obviously a last-minute scramble to fill the requisite number of pages, and never mind the quality. And that was my assessment even before I realized that I'd misunderstood one sentence that about a third of the essay rested on.

Admittedly, I had one really bad paper last semester also, but there are two significant differences here: (1) this time around, I wasn't trying to write a bad paper, and (2) this time around, I give the professor enough credit to believe she's gonna call me on it.

The good news? It's been turned in, and I don't have to worry about it anymore.

For that matter, I finally, finally turned in several homework assignments and my final exam for last semester's Theory class, which should take care of that thrice-damned "incomplete" from last semester. Again, not the best-quality work (although not actively bad in this case), but at least it's done.

To celebrate, I got some sleep, had some pizza, and watched "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood." And I'm currently back in the computer lab, watching the musical episode of Buffy on a largish window on this computer, fulfilling a promise I made to myself yesterday.

Of course, I'm not out of the woods yet. Despite all the official deadlines having passed, I've only completed two out of four of this semester's courses. The good news, such as it is, is that I've arranged for firm deadlines in both. I have until Tuesday for the Masochism paper, and until the Ides of May for the one on Black Marxism. I need to rework my thesis on the former, and figure out what my topic is on the latter, but this should be workable.

5:23 AM:

Oh, screw it.

With four hours, forty minutes, and sixteen pages to go, there is no way I'm going to come up with anything coherent for my "Masochism and Little Women" paper in time for the deadline. I'm gonna cut my losses and get some sleep, so I'll have a fighting chance of coming up with something for my New Romanticisms class by the Wednesday deadline.

With any luck, the Masochism professor will be inclined to grant an incomplete, bringing this semester's total to two, and my overall total for the year to five; otherwise, I'll flunk. My overall track record is toast either way, and such is life.

Dammit.

7:43 AM:

In the past couple of weeks, we've gone straight from winter to summer, and now right back to winter. For, lo, the rains have come, and with them has come a cold front. So we've gone from too-hot-for-a-light-sweater right back to winter-coat-required. And, strangely enough, despite being a person who prefers heat to cold, I am happy about this, for entirely selfish reasons. The sudden pervasiveness of tank tops and shorts on the female half of the student body was having unpleasant effects on my libido, and, frankly, I have quite enough to worry about right now without adding sexual frustration to the list.

It can go to 100 degrees Farenheit on Thursday if it so desires. Just grant me three more days of miserable weather, okay?

3:38 AM:

That this nearly caused me to fall out of my chair laughing probably has a lot to do with my having spent too much time in an English grad program.