Well, I am now officially through 3 days of classes. I believe that I can schedule in time for a full night's sleep sometime in the middle of October and then not again until the term ends. Our history of the Ancient Near East professor has a patch over one eye - that took major amounts of self-control in class. ("Arr, me mateys, we'll be discussin' Mesopotamia, the cursed scurvy curs this quarter...) Someone wants to get him a stuffed parrot for Christmas. Apparently, he hasn't caught on to the concept of a 10 week quarter yet either - our reading list is hellacious. And while much of it is on e-reserve, whoever scanned the pages was on some seriously bad crack so lines are missing their ends, pages are cut off so the first or last few lines of text are gone. Add to that the reading list for my Predynastic class which is only slightly less hellacious. I also have a page and half of translating to do for each Middle Egyptian class (that's more than it sounds like, trust me...). And our freakin' required seminar is insane - we don't get a real grade (Pass/Fail) but we have a massive amount of reading to do along with getting our 2 Year Papers ready. We have to turn in our introduction at the end of this quarter and the next 2 sections over the course of the next quarter. This will encourage me to actually get it done, but man... Add to that the fact that the departmental rules have changed and our paper is due at the end of the Winter Quarter instead of 2 weeks into the Spring Quarter. Arghh!!!! At least I can enjoy my break. I am also auditing a class that will be ever so interesting, but also requires massive amounts of reading. Oh, and I need to study German so I can pass the damned reading exam. And work 15 hours a week. No sleep for me! Oreo is already starting the "If I drop my tennis ball directly onto your pile of books and papers while you translate, you'll play with me" strategy combined with the "If I go to sleep directly on top or your pile of books and papers while you translate, you'll pet me, or at least yell at me, and that's sort of like talking" strategy.
I've also decided that in the near future I need to write a paper, hopefully co-authored by Tom, entitled "Why the Fuck Did So Many People Think It Was a Good Idea to Bury Infants in Pots under Their Houses?"
I had a brief moment of panic on Monday afternoon when I discovered I had been shorted my $1000 stipend by the Bursar's Office. It turns out that we get stipend checks from our Dean - how I was supposed to know that is beyond me.
So that's my news. If I had time, I would count my existing gray hairs to see how many more appear by the end of this school year. We'll see.