Another Marvelous Monday

Here is where you roll your eyes like I did.

I have another midterm looming in the horizon. Tomorrow night to be specific. I'm not sure I've spoken about this class. It's American Literature after the Civil War. I had looked forward to reading Hemingway, Twain and Fitzgerald. And not because I particularly love those authors, but in order to teach them, I wanted to learn more about them and their masterworks. But alas, it was not meant to be.

The professor specializes in poetry, so instead of classics, we are reading American Modern Poetry. I'm not a fan of poems. I am not a snob, but sometimes, I just can't stand a poem that is hard to understand, that takes way more time to read than fifteen pages of a book.

So here I am, the weekend before my midterm, trying to memorize who wrote which poem and make sure I am able to even identify the poem without the title and author. (Part of the test). Then I need to compose an essay to write during the test, comparing two poems. I really hope my head doesn't explode from this. It would be messy and I'm sure it won't feel very good.

But the light at the end of the tunnel is near. Not the semester end (which is my favorite date right now), but once I get past tests and papers and have about a month until the next wave of tests and papers.

Should I do Nanowrimo? I'm not quite sure yet. It's possible that I would find it relaxing, but it's also possible that it could put me over the edge. What about Nanoedimo? That, I might be able to handle...

Graduate Record Exam

Have you ever had a goal that meant a lot to you? One that maybe you didn't accomplish? Well, today I took the GREs. I felt great on Thursday, on top of the world. Yesterday, I was a mess. Worried, scared, fighting anxiety. Today I felt good. I slept well, I ate well, I pampered myself some. Then I went to the testing center and started my test.

I took less time than each section needed (although math was cutting it very very close). I didn't take a break in between sections, not because I'm stupid, but because I was on a roll. I was focused and I was ready to move on. I thought I did okay. I knew I wasn't going to be brilliant based on the questions. I just didn't know some of the words. But I trucked through and got to the end. I decided to submit my scores and got to see them. They were average. I did way better on math than I had previously on practice tests, but verbal wasn't nearly as good as I hoped. My scores: 550 on verbal. 570-580 on math. (The range for math is because I can't honestly remember which one I got. I was so focused on the verbal). In the next few weeks I'll get my writing portion score (I'm not expecting anything fantastic). So, that's that.

Two months of work, thinking and wishing for 600 on each, and I didn't quite make it. Not enough to pay another $150 to retake and study and stress. So, I'm just going to accept those numbers and move on. Hopefully none of the schools will care if my tests are average (as long as my creative writing is not).