My Return

Yep, I'm back from Chicago. It was a whirlwind trip and I didn't see much of the city, but a lot of comical things did happen (i.e. becoming best friends with all the locals in a pub near the hotel). The conference was pretty good, but also crazy with 5,000 people there. Some panels were worthwhile and the time spent there was definitely worthwhile. Especially since I got to meet the scholar whose literature I am using to write my thesis.

The meeting with her was a great affirmation that I'm headed in the right direction. She even offfered to talk to me on the phone about it as I'm writing if I need to bounce ideas off of someone. So I was excited about that.

But on the way home yesterday (9 hour drive!) I started feeling sick and now I think the flu has officially set in. Damn flu shots we never got. Ugh.

I have been having these horrible anxiety dreams and not sleeping well. But I think that is largely due to the stress at this time in the semester.

There are lots of happy things going on though. First, Dave finished his marathon in an amazing 3 hours and 57 minutes. Awesome!

Jenn quit her sucky job and told her boss exactly how she felt about him and the *real* reasons why she quit.

Court and Suse kicked butt on their GREs.

Meghan is back from Europe.

Other friends are moving on and starting new chapters in their lives.

I have two days to finish my theory paper, a week till GRE's, and two weeks till my NSF application is due. But that's okay. Because today is a gorgeous day. Jesse has been so supportive and my mom even offered to drive up for a day sometime this week to take care of my sick self.

So, more funny stories later. For now, I'm taking lots of meds and pushing onward in theory land!