Posting...Posting...

Whoops--I've missed almost a full week of posting. I guess I'll throw something out there, into the blogosphere.

Classes are going very well. I'm taking The American Picaresque:

The picaresque flowers in contemporary American prose narratives, openly fictional and ostensibly factual. In fact the descriptor is too loosely deployed in today's criticism; any narrative featuring travel is labeled picaresque.

We'll do better. Our picaresque will require rogue/outsider protagonists who may or may not travel extensively but who are invariably at odds with a surrounding social order viewed (at least by them) as at worst corrupt or evil and at best boring or stultifying. They'll live by their wits, often on the borders of the legal/illicit line.

and Introduction to Graduate Studies:

This course is designed to introduce students to the basic requirements of graduate study and of the profession of literary studies. It therefore seeks to achieve three goals: 1) To provide graduate students with the basic tools of literary research and analysis, including the use of research archives such as libraries and special collections (students will do original research in archives), and also computer research methods. 2) To teach students what is involved in producing publishable work. the course will teach students how to write sound, elegant, lively articles. 3) To teach students how to submit work to professional conferences, and how to present that work once they are at those conferences.

I like my class choices this semester; it is busy, but fun and challenging. Also, I really like the balance between a novel class and a research oriented one (even if the reading load is heavy for both). I'm learning lots, and my professors are great. I'll talk more about what I'm reading later.

Recently, I picked up swimming, and starting running again. I'm taking swimming lessons through the HPER, and I wriggle through the water like a wanna-be fish. I even got bumped up to the advanced beginner class (since I could already float and tread water--I just need help learning strokes and jumping in!) Each session finds me growing more confident in my abilities and desire to learn more.

I've also thrown myself anew into my running. I don't think until now I could really define myself as a runner, but on my 6-mile run Sunday, I found myself grinning--I just felt so full of energy and connected with my physical self (not to mention the weather was beautiful, and I was running around the park.) I've just about doubled my weekly mileage, and it feels great. If you look in my sidebar, I've added a little running thing. My goal is to run a marathon next year--a half-marathon for sure.

Coming up soon: discussions with my mother (where I acquit myself with grace), books I've been reading, and hopefully some thesis work accomplished!