Ok, so certain parts of both of my previous blogs are now untrue: I have officially fallen behind in my readings. I guess it was an eventual and inevitable evil, but it feels crappy, I don't like it, and sadly, I doubt that I'll make much progress catching up this weekend. I have a paper due on Monday that I have done all of the necessary research for (mostly, I think...), but that's about as far as I've gotten; my ability to procrastinate astounds even me. I intentionally made my schedule so that I'd have every Friday off (which is fantastic, btw), and so my plan was to come to campus, do some additional research, and then get down to the nitty gritty "get this stuff on paper" thing. Yeah, that never really happened. It somehow morphed into doing some research (with intermittent gmail chats, of course), eating lunch with two school friends, and then walking down to the inner harbor and doing a little shopping with one of them. Quite far from productive, but most definitely enjoyable. It's difficult to focus--inside, at a computer--when it's as pretty out as it is today. I'd argue that it's a quality of life issue actually, and then I'd partially blame Peace Corps. Even though I've been back for over three years, I'm still struggling to adjust to the amount of time that we spend indoors. The only time I was inside in Zambia was while I was sleeping, and because my grass roof had so many bare spots and the mud walls had quite a few cracks, "outside" never felt so far away . Truth be told it wasn't, and often came in to find me, in the form of the rats and bats that felt it was their home just as much as it was mine. I digress.....

So, right...there's this paper that I'm dragging my feet on. Most likely I'll continue pushing it off until I no longer can, and Sunday evening I'll be scrambling to get the reference list in APA format. Being a student is a very good thing; my brain hasn't been this exercised in years, but believe the hype, friends: it's tough. My budding social life here in Baltimore doesn't exactly help with staying on top of my school work, but it's a must, and my hope is that once I'm fully in the groove of this new life I'll strike that delicate balance and manage it all effortlessly. I will also learn Spanish, familiarize myself with all of the medical jargon that's used at the hospital where I have my field placement, eat fish at least once a week, develop a taste for jazz, read for pleasure, and think of a really fun Halloween costume. Goal-setting, goal-setting. Reminds me of what my stepdad used to say, "Fail to plan, plan to fail". I always thought it sounded a little too rigid, and I'm actually not sure that I'll follow through with any of these plans, but they're good to have...and sometimes that just has to be enough.

Alright, so no one has emailed me begging for me to let loose with the details of my field placement, but that's not to say that I think you're all disinterested. I only state the obvious because I won't be getting to it today, either. Goes back to that whole planning thing....makes me think of my mom, and her opposing philosophy: "Man plans and God laughs" she'd say. Interesting....

More soon, friends. Time to head outside with my good intentions and my very, very heavy bookbag.

Enjoy the weekend!