serenity now My advisor (the new and improved, informally-adopted one, not the evil old one from whom I have now fully divorced myself) stopped to say hi in the cafe today and said something like, "you must be doing well--you look totally serene!" No one has ever dared to make such an absurd claim about my state of mind around here before, including myself, but I feel pretty serene, actually. Things are good. I'm in pre-dissertation land with my research, which is all Very Exciting and is generating a lot of interest and support from people around here that I care about. Various strands of unfinished business from last year are all coming together, and I should be up to date on everything by the end of January. After that, I only have 2 more classes in the spring--a political theory class that I'm really looking forward to and an independent study to help me prep for generals--before the M.A. Holy crap!  ¶ 12:42 PM