Semester One Comes to an End

Well, somehow the semester is almost over, and a week from today I'll be back in Boston for winter break. I have two finals, a quiz and a paper to write before the week ends, so I clearly have some work yet ahead of me, but the end is certainly in sight. I'll be home for almost a month, which is longer than I've been home for in years, and I'd be worried about it but I will have a lot of work to do. In addition to studying for my comprehensive exam, I'm going to try to get more work done on the disaster insurance literature I've been working on. I'm enjoying the work -- it's satisfying. I continue to have doubts about, well, a number of things, but I'm going to press on, and my plan right now is to stay here and get my PhD. To that end, I'm taking four courses next semester, one more than people normally do, to try to get through all the required classes more quickly. If anyone wants to chat about my existential and practical concerns, give me a call! I love whining about them.

This weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday night John, Lauren, Jared, Laura and I went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant, then we picked Sam up and watched Silver Linings Playbook at John and Lauren's apartment. Yesterday morning I drove down to Minneapolis for a holiday party. This one was at Emily and Julia's apartment, and obviously it's always lovely seeing them. Dan, Teddy and Morgan were also there, plus a few people I haven't seen in years, like Allie and Brent, Dan and Teddy's friends from high school. After a few hours, all the married people and other folks in relationships ended up playing catch phrase, and the four of us who are single sat around in a circle working on drinking the huge bottle of wine that Teddy brought. It was really funny and also a little bit embarrassing. It's funny to think that I won't be back there until the new year! I tried to get on the road before the snow started this morning, but ended up driving through snow almost the whole way. If I don't drive into a snow bank, I think I'll be able to make it through the winter fairly comfortably.