I’m ready for this week to end. For a while I feel like I’ve been about an hour short on sleep each night and I think it’s starting to catch up to me. As I write this my head is spinning with French which I studied (a) this morning before the exam, (b) this afternoon during the exam, and (c) tonight as I learn the next chapter’s vocabulary for tomorrow’s quiz. I love the class but hate how much time it’s taking up.
I’ve also had a few research disappointments this week… ASCE Journal of Transportation rejected my DTA paper with prejudice. I knew it wasn’t the best, but I wasn’t expecting a “below average” and two “poor”s from the reviewers. And the Bayesian paper I submitted to TRB was accepted for presentation, but not publication even though I thought that work was quite good. My ability to write well and communicate poorly never ceases to amaze me, as all the reviewers said the paper was well written but their comments indicated they missed the point entirely. And then there was my presentation at the research group yesterday, where I tried to offer something for everyone but, due to my lack of time to practice, probably ended up teaching everybody nothing except that I can’t speak well. Sometimes I wonder if this is really what I was meant to do.
Even with church I feel like I’m always doing things at the last moment, planning worship Sunday afternoon at 5:30 before heading to practice at 6. I’ve got free time tomorrow but it’s filled with errands I’ve been putting off the last few weeks.
But I can do it. I can do it. I can submit papers and do well in classes and learn French and do research and work on TxDOT projects and plan worship and sing in church and learn the Haydn sonata and stay in shape and eat well and get enough sleep and finish The Possessed and St. Patrick’s Breastplate and stay close to God and my friends and have the best semester of my life. I can do it… right?
