Today is just incredibly beautiful here in Austin Texas. It's in the 70's, clear, crisp (low humidity), and spring is just bursting out all over the place. I spent a good part of my afternoon sitting outside on the deck, doing readings for class, but allowing myself to be distracted by just about everything. So, I'm not making alot progress through my readings on "machine learning" for my organizing and providing access class, but it's fantastic that I have the prerogative to while away an afternoon half-heartedly studying, and taking in all the sights, sounds and smells of spring at the same time. I love gardening and even with a full-time job I always managed to devote enough time to it to create a space where I feel like I'm in heaven on earth.
Spring break and the half-way mark for this semester arrive in just one week. This semester has been so completely different from last. I don't know why I expected them to all be more or less the same, but I did. This semester I don't have any papers to write. I found this somewhat disappointing at first, because I have lots of ideas for papers I want to write, but it gives me more time to reflect on the papers and hopefully, they'll be better for my having spent more time thinking about them and talking to others about them. The projects that have taken their place are of a practical nature, not particularly compelling, but I did come here to learn things that I don't necessarily know ahead of time that I need to learn, so I am into just doing these things and seeing what comes of it (digitization projects, classification projects).
But all that is fading from my thoughts as I contemplate 1 full week off starting in just 7 days, one full week of gardening, walking, hanging out at the coffee houses and reading, spending time with Dennis, who is getting his MFA in Houston while I pursue this degree here at UT. I could not ask for anything more than I have. It is so amazing.
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