i should...

i really should be working on my research paper right now, but i just have gotten caught up in e-mails and checking out all my favorite webpages, incluiding a certain friend's blog who was talking about wasting time online. so, i guess i don't feel so bad. at least i am not the only one.

ooo-ooo, and i am listening to super-smooth music on launch (yes, i will find a way to praise it at every turn =)

so, basically, i am in that mellow mood that is not particularly conducive to writing anything stuffy and academic.

do you know what i did yesterday? (no, of course, you don't... but, it's okay, i would be more than happy to tell ya') i came to school to work and i ended up spending a large part of the afternoon reading the webpages of some of my favorite childhood authors (ahh... the nostalgia...). anyways, can you believe that in over a decade i have fallen completely out of the loop? who'da thunk? so, i have a new objective on my to do list: read up on the recent works of my old time favorites. in case you are wondering which author(s) (actually, i have only fully explored one, but i like to make it plural since i did quickly browse a few others... makes it seem like i was a bit more productive, you know?)... the links are below. i particularly recommend the second one... it is the one i got stuck on....
http://www.terabithia.com/library.html
http://www.loislowry.com

guess what else is super exciting... i registered for classes on monday... here is my schedule (doesn't it just make you salivate with joy?) oo-oo... i can't wait... photography... can you believe that? yummy.... the only class that i will enter with caution is the history class... after this semester i feel a little histori-ed out... i have taken three history classes!!!

1. basic photo 2200 - 002 MW 1:40 - 4:30
2. advanced compostition 3130 - 001 MWF 11:30 - 12:25
3. special topics 3128 - 001 TR 11:15 - 12:35
4. american lit. ii engl-2120 MWF 9:20 - 11:15
5. constructing and reconstructing nations (history) TR 9:45 - 11:05
6. spanish short story TR 3- 4:30
7. colloquium T 5 - 6

here's a nice poet recommended by lois lowry that i ran into yesterday: billy collins, poet laureate

Consolation

How agreeable it is not to be touring Italy this summer,
wandering her cities and ascending her torrid hilltowns.
How much better to cruise these local, familiar
streets,
fully grasping the meaning of every roadsign and
billboard
and all the sudden hand gestures of my
compatriots.

There are no abbeys here, no crumbling frescoes of
famous
domes and there is no need to memorize a
succession
of kings or tour the dripping corners of a dungeon.
No need to stand around a sarcophagus, see
Napoleon's
little bed on Elba, or view the bones of a saint
under glass.

How much better to command the simple precinct of
home
than be dwarfed by pillar, arch, and basilica.
Why hide my head in phrase books and wrinkled
maps?
Why feed scenery into a hungry, one-eyes camera
eager to eat the world one monument at a time?

Instead of slouching in a café ignorant of the
word for ice,
I will head down to the coffee shop and the
waitress
known as Dot.
I will slide into the flow of the morning
paper, all language barriers down,
rivers of idiom running freely, eggs over easy on
the way.

And after breakfast, I will not have to find
someone
willing to photograph me with my arm around the
owner.
I will not puzzle over the bill or record in a
journal
what I had to eat and how the sun came in the
window.
It is enough to climb back into the car

as if it were the great car of English itself
and sounding my loud vernacular horn, speed off
down a road that will never lead to Rome, not even
Bologna.

but, really, i should get to work.... love ya' all!!

p.s. **did you notice the font change... yeah, i'm smooth like that....**