Snow!

I'm just taking a study break and eating my lunch, listening to James Taylor's Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. It finally snowed, so now I can listen to my Christmas music without feeling bitter ('cause that's how Christmas music is supposed to make you feel - bitter).

It snowed once before, but only a little bit. Not enough to last through the next day. It was a magical time when it snowed before, though. It snowed the day of the Tree Trimming party, just 30 minutes before it started. The Tree Trimming party is where YDS takes off for the afternoon and comes together to decorate the (locally-bought) tree, and our dean of students, Dale Peterson, hangs the first ornament. It was a lot of fun and made me realize how much I've come to enjoy and appreciate the community YDS has. I mean, I wrote on my application that I wanted a strong community feel as a part of my education, but it was one of those things you wrote because it sounded good and I knew YDS was all about community. Oh, the irony. Jaded woman says she wants to join school because of the community and then truly comes to appreciate the very thing she exploited in order to gain admission. Sounds like a Christmas miracle! Watch for the 3 night mini-series on your local channel.

It's reading week right now, so classes finished on Tuesday and next week is finals. I wrote out a schedule of things I wanted to accomplish each day, and surprisingly I've stayed mostly on task. True, I've done things not on the schedule, like my laundry, but I was hitting rock bottom in my clothes choices. I wore my super holey socks - more holes than socks! But otherwise, I've been really productive. I did write myself inspirational notes and put them all over my apartment (by my desk, over the sink, in the bathroom mirror). Who isn't inspired by "BE PRODUCTIVE STOP MESSING AROUND"? I am, that's for sure.

I'm already finished with two classes - Political Economy of Misery and Iconography of Christian Art. I had a group presentation in my Misery class, so that was over on Tuesday. For my iconography class I went down to the Yale Art Gallery and wrote about a painting they had there - you know, symbolism and possible uses in the future. So those are done. The only classes I have left are Ruth and Esther and New Testament. I have a paper for Ruth and Esther and I started writing it yesterday. I'm already over half done, so I feel really encouraged by that. I want to finish before I start studying for New Testament, which I've planned out for tomorrow and Sunday. The NT test looks to be the devil incarnate, so I'm either going to A. Study and not sleep for three days, or B. Feign pregnancy and go into labor right before the test. Maybe fake my own death, too. We'll see.

The test really is hazing. We have three essay questions to answer and have to outline one of the Gospels or Acts (minus Mark). It's just a big kick to the ovaries because I know I won't need to know that much detail in my future career. Whatevs.

I'm going to go work on my paper some more before I go Christmas shopping with Olivia (whoo!). I'm also going to Tartuffe tonight with Becca, so that's exciting. I enjoy both of their company greatly. Tuesday my friends and I are celebrating the end of OT/NT by going over to Mike, Caleb and Marshall's house and I'm making Chicago style pizza. Whoo! More on that when it goes down. Paper now. Christmas music too.