this week is crazypants

I'm neck-deep in end-of-semester grad school assignments over here, which is why I'm not posting much. For the past week or two, I've been slowly and begrudgingly compiling the research for my first graduate-level research paper EVER. Gah. It's due on Sunday and I really should probably already have started writing it, but I'm just so DISTRACTED. Why does the last week of the semester always have to be smack in the middle of the best part of the holiday season? How can they expect me to focus on how teens construct their consumer identities when I could be watching Christmas movies or baking cookies or participating in Reverb 10 or lighting 39 menorahs? (I actually did this. It was 39 kinds of awesome. I'll post pictures next time.) On top of all of that, I got sick for the first time since college and I'm kind of pathetic when I'm sick. I basically revert to my 6-year-old self: helpless and whiny. But I chugged some Theraflu today and I'm hoping to charge through my research so I can get the actual writing part started some time before Sunday.

Needless to say, I'll be a little scarce around these parts until the 19th, when the semester is officially over for me. But I'll be back with a vengeance after that!

See you on the other side :D

P.S. In case any of you were wondering how I did on my first weigh-in of the 10-lb challenge, I'm currently down to

160.0

Four pounds down, six to go! Wahoooooo!