Now Playing: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack by Howard Shore, "The Prophecy." I know, I know, but I just can't give it up. It's such good study music.

Right now I ought to be revising a short paper that's due tomorrow in my Cosmopolitanism in Medieval Literature class. The professor assigned it last Tuesday and gave us a week to complete it, but she also said she didn't want us to spend too much time on it. I feel sort of as though I cheated because all day Wednesday and Thursday, I had two documents open: this paper, and the poem I was writing for workshop tomorrow. I'd poke at them both by turns, but I'm not sure whether that approach helped or hindered.

Anyway, this past weekend was lovely: Laura, Mary, Cindy, and I drove up to Chicago. We stayed with Laura's grandparents overnight (they have a house by Lake Michigan, an hour's train ride east of Chicago) and took the train into the city the next morning. We ate brunch at the Bourgeois Pig, a restaurant about as delightful as its name would indicate. Some of the best waffles I've ever had.

We spent most of the day at the Art Institute. Balm to my soul: it's been a long, long time since I've been to a real art museum. Their collection of Impressionist paintings is fabulous. I stood for minutes on end, mesmerized by A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Seurat's famous pointillist painting, and was startled into delight by one of Monet's Waterlilies, by vivid blue and deep green. They had Corot, Constable, and Turner as well--like running into old friends. Toulouse-Lautrec lent his nightmare-like gargoyles to the Impressionist wing, and Degas a few restrained, delicate pastels.

For a late lunch we joined one of Laura's friends at a pizza place for Chicago pizza. Crust as flaky as pie dough, and an enormous wedge of sausage down the middle. Then we took the train back to Beverly Shores and drove to Bloomington. The moon rose in the southeast, very low, enormous, orange and lavender.

And now it's back to work: paper for class tomorrow, poem for workshop tomorrow, film screenings in W131 this week, a presentation on Thursday, and so on and so forth.