Now Playing: Beethoven, Violin Concerto, "Allegro Non Troppo".

Currently I have an annoyingly peppy song stuck in my head, one of the ones we used to listen to all the time in N.I. because it was always on the radio. Last term one of my classmates in HON brought it up and explained the lyrics, which completely ruined the song for me.

Today was long. Rachel left early for her eight o'clock this morning, of course, and because I was meant to meet with Emily at ten o'clock to study for HIST, my usual Wednesday routine was rather rushed.

As I left for the gym, I surprised a pair of house finches sitting on the railings outside the apartment. There's a family of them that lives in the gutters above our windows, I think.

So at ten o'clock I went to the library. When Emily arrived, we went upstairs to the study lounge, where they just installed new trendy furniture. We studied until noon for our HIST midterm on Friday, checking each other's dates and so forth.

At noon, we both dashed off to our next engagements, me to a lunch in ACAC for ENGL 4863. Poet Carla Harryman was visiting today, and Dr. J had arranged lunch with her in one of the conference rooms upstairs. It turned out to be very relaxed.

After lunch, I went to Tyrrell to practice flute. Whitney and another girl from class were giving Ms. H a tour of campus, and they walked past and waved in the window at me as I was in the midst of Bach. After practice, I went to ENGL at two o'clock. (No HIST today.) The afternoon was spectacularly warm, even moist. I walked across the Commons, as the "new U" is officially called.

Sun on arms and face, smell of damp grass underfoot.... C.S. Lewis mentions in "The Weight of Glory" how at times we receive murmurs like "news of a far country we have never visited" that are echoes of Heaven slipping into our daily experience.

When I walked into The Collective, everyone was sitting round on the sofas in the second room, which was largely deserted except for class. And everyone was having a lively discussion about something. Ms. H has very definite ideas and likes to talk, it turns out. I spent three-quarters of class daydreaming as a result of being tired, on the brink of euphoria, and not liking her ideas very much.

She left at about four o'clock, at which point we took a break. I went for a walk down the side lane into the neighborhood. A saucer magnolia was blooming in front of an empty house. Heavy crown against a very high pale sky, a sky criss-crossed with contrails and thin high clouds. My feet almost didn't touch the ground after that.

The last half of class was spent revising our collaborative in-class exercise from last week. I paid attention then because I like editing. But when Dr. J started to talk about our etudes for this week, I began to daydream again, about Heaven and God's pleasure in His creatures. I almost wonder how knowing that sheer full satisfaction could not translate into flight.

Class ended at five o'clock. We sat around for awhile afterward, of course. I finally left, walked back to the apartment, dumped my flute and some of my books, lifted my Bible, and went to ACAC to meet Nicole and Kathryn to discuss Bible studies this week.

The Hut was ridiculously busy. Tonight is a game night, so loads of people were in. We found the only quiet booth we could. When Kathryn came, we ordered our food and spent most of the time discussing Hebrews 7-8, and some of the time discussing Psalm 139. I had to leave at a quarter to seven for Ms. H's poetry reading. Danielle and Claire (ENGL classmates) also happened to be in The Hut, so I walked over to the library with them. We had a ridiculous conversation about what Danielle was going to buy with her boyfriend's new high salary--a lion tamer, silk robes, kitties, dogs, a tiara, and a trampoline all made appearances at various points.

The reading was upstairs in the faculty study, where Will Alexander read last week. I sat at the back beside Laura and talked to her about "Stylus". I left at half seven and drove to Di's house for an RUF meeting.

When it was over at ten o'clock, Amy and I drove back to campus, talking about our respective days. Laughing shakily. RCS was studying in the apartment when I returned. I opened my laptop and discovered an amazing photo of EMM and CMAM making pancakes on Facebook. So now I'm drinking pomegranate juice and going to bed.