Things are going pretty well now. I've finally come to an equilibrium in my own private life. A random spattering of friends, no one too close...Jack and I are on pretty good terms, and I don't get upset when I can't speak with him. I've become...understanding, or at least more patient. A good thing, I find.

On the scholastic side of things, I've been taking it relatively easy, but getting back a paper yesterday was a huge wake up call. I have tons of work to do. A PS paper, two English papers (a revision, and a general paper + the final), an English research paper (20 pages I have yet to start), and 10 pages of my honors thesis plus an annotated bibliography and 2nd reader form. All due in the next three weeks.

Mostly notes to myself up there. I can't forget anything. The problem with all the above work is that the due dates are rather in flux (read: due basically the last day of instruction), which, for a procrastinator means three straight nights of no sleep right around the due dates. Damn me.

***

On a completely separate note, I've realized how much more I appreciate views and nature in general. Appreciate being the key word here. When I was younger I liked being outside, sure, but I never really got how beautiful it all was. Walking down to class here and seeing the Bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, the sunset over the waters, and just the water in general, sometimes takes my breath away. I have such an appreciation for life now, and mortality, too. Life is a real wonder to me, and I appreciate it more than ever now. I mean, think about how ridiculously complex our bodies are, how if our heart just stops beating, for even one second, that's it. We are so fragile, and I don't mean to say that to sound trite, but it's true. Something can go wrong, not even our faults...and that's it. All those flimsy hopes and dreams, all the stuff we worked for...gone, poof, into nothingness. Then what?

That's life, and I don't know what it was that made me suddenly begin to really appreciate, but I'm glad I do...because I want to soak up as much as I can of it, every moment of the day.

Dreams, pain, problems, hopes, friends, everything comes and goes. But each day, everything starts all over, and you're still alive.