I posted final grades this evening. Amazingly(!) and miraculously(!) the semester has finally come to a close! This semester seemed to go so much more quickly than usual . . . I mean, they frequently zip by at the speed of light these days, but this one went by exceptionally quickly. I think all the autumnal travel, in which I went places and pretended to be my Author Function, may have had something to do with this.

At any rate, the semester sort of felt like a surreal horse race, in which I fell out of the saddle sometime around T-giving or so, at which point I was just being drug along with one foot stuck in the stirrup. At that juncture, excessive flailing around seemed unwise, as if it would just cause extraneous injury, so it just seemed best to say whatever, and steel myself for the inevitable roadburn.

But yay! I'm now officially on X-mas break!

My well-loved and well-used iBook began to crap out on me in various unnerving ways recently (including the advent of a backlight problem which had me pitifully attempting to work on the computer while it was precariously propped up and cracked open in increasingly smaller increments as I tilted and hunched and peered in at the screen). So in a fit of Appliance Betrayal Pique, I ordered up a refurbished MacBook from the Apple store, which arrived this morning. The new MacBook is delicious. There's a built-in webcam, nifty new applications and features, and it's exceedingly zippy and full of the za-za-zoo!

Mostly, I'm planning on a quiet break where I don't have to rush around here and there. I want to get a lot of writing done, read, and take long, long walks down by the river.

But there should be plenty of room for decadence as well, I think. I'm all in favor of a bit of decadence! Aren't you?

Congrats on being done! And yes, Decadence is always good.

Congratulations on finishing! You forgot to say whether or not the semester was a veritable clusterfuck of poetry goodness :). Sounds like you and your Author Function deserve a nice, restful, and (yes, but of course!) decadent break. Have a wonderful one.

Thank you, C. Dale and Dr. M.! And well . . . the semester was a veritable clusterfuck of something . . . I was certainly aspiring toward poetry goodness, yes . . . but may have only achieved the veritable clusterfuck, despite my best intentions! In the meantime, though, onward toward Decadence Achievement!

You're totally invited, Scott. And yes, the Decadence Achievement Awards ceremony will be quite the blowout!

Happy day! You're done!

I'm all for decadance. I'll vote for you when the ballots cross my desk.

Thanks, Oliver! And I just had a sneaking suspicion that you were an esteemed, voting member of DAG (Decadence Achievement Guild). Now I'm thinking I should go and look for a red-carpet-caliber dress and a(nother) pair of exceedingly frivolous shoes. Just in case, and all.