january 15, 2001. Buh. I hate homework. I especially hate "first homework of the term" homework. Tonight I worked for 2 ½ hours, which admittedly doesn't sound like much...but stacked up against my vacation work ethic of zero hours a night, it sure seems like a long time. Tonight I wrote a paper on what art means to me (?) and answered questions about a psychology text. Altogether, it's some of the most intellectually stimulating work I've done here...but it's also been a long time since I've done anything intellectually stimulating for a university course, so I'm out of practise. And it's not like riding a bicycle. Academia has a way of structuring vocabulary in a unique way so that deciphering the meaning takes concentration. Fortunately, I have no choice. Still. My brain hurts. What else did I do with my day off? Well, besides spending an hour folding laundry in front of "Sesame Park" (I learned about dulse), I also managed to be horrendously late for an appointment with my Centres-based Interdisciplinary Unit partner. (Don't even ask. The explanation is better than the jargon, but not by much.) Although we spent half the time socializing, we also brainstormed ideas to fit in our interdisciplinary topic, which is - wait for it - the Middle Ages. This is a really intense, complicated project but I'm pretty pleased with the way the whole thing is going right now, mostly because I've already figured out two centres based on Aristotle and Chaucer respectively. There's nothing better than having some idea of what you're doing. Go me. I woke up today from dreams of arguing with Q. I've been worrying about Pixie & him a fair bit lately. But I can't do anything more productive than worry before they move to Chicago. As with all things, it's useful to explore how much my anxiety has to do with me...and I find that I'm not terribly worried that they'll survive in the United Snakes. They've done it before. Rather, I'm apprehensive that their move will make me that much more unhappy. Of course, I'm a great one to talk ain't? Picking up stakes & moving to rural Nova Scotia on 6 months notice differs from joining the U.S. Army only in the amount of push-ups one is required to perform.