I can't believe that I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. Nine weeks ago I thought that I had an eternity to wait until my one week of vacation. Now I see that I only have one more short week left to go. I am so ready to relax by the emerald green ocean, sunning on the sugar white sand.

Well I decided that week 9 was a fine week to get my booty in gear concerning polishing my MRP, especially my genres. I'm really glad I had this revelation.....:) My goal was to finish the assignments for the week early on, and then work on my genres for the rest of the week. I have finished all of my assignments for the week, except for my draft of references. I have most of them already done, except for a few. I have been working very diligently on my genres the past few days. Andrea and I are really figuring out what it means to share this week. We both can't be online at the same time, so that means working on our projects can't happen at the same time. I have been going over to the Rushtons' a few hours before I have to keep Fiona and working on my project. That has worked out really well because Andrea and I don't have to fight over the phone line. Fiona's mom was a lifesaver for me. She gave me her laptop to use, which has Powerpoint 2000. It has been great because here again Andrea and I were having to share because I don't have PP on my computer. So needless to say, I have gotten quite a bit of work done this week.

Honestly, there are two things that I regret. One is that I haven't worked this hard on my genres during the previous weeks. I did work on them, but probably not as much as I should have. So it wasn't my best effort that was peer reviewed. Now that I have really put time and effort into my genres, I realized that I wasted my peer reviews on 2nd class work out of myself. I guess the heat got the better of me. It's funny though, I always remember Flannery telling me that he thought I did my best work "under pressure." Maybe he was right.....

Another wild thing has been reading my peer reviews. My group has been so kind and sincere with my genres. Everyone had mostly good things to say, with an occasional address comment. This was both a good thing, and a bad thing. Good because they liked my work, but bad because now I am paranoid that maybe *ALL* of us are missing something essential in my work. I was thinking tonight...."If they thought my other genres were good, these new and improved genres ought to be first class...." We'll see about that. But like I said, my first effort at the genres weren't my best effort (with the exception of my guest editorial....honestly I was pretty proud of that piece of work!! :) It has definitely been an interesting week. I keep looking back on what I could/should have done. You know what they say: "Hindsight is 20/20" I'll go with that. Part of me wishes I could go back a few weeks and redo them... I guess that's the insane part of me. Right now my goal is to make my genres look like I spent 7 weeks on them, not 3. :) I want to be really proud of my work, but I'm not sure I can until I see that grade! That will be the "tell all" part of the class for me.

Pretty crazy week on the West Side....... Like Andrea, I'm sorry we never had the class over for a party. But at least we got to bond at the Marshall Cafe the other day!! It won't be long until we are bonding again in SH 108!!! But let's not think about that right now!

Oh, this ought to be a laugh for everyone. You guys will never guess who I saw today......our long lost pal STEVE!! Now that boy gives Buckhannon a good name!! We didn't really chat, but it was hilarious anyway. I don't think that I have seen him since he left the CD program. I was wondering what ever happened to that boy.......

~Lots of encouragement going out to everyone as they work on their projects!! I know its nice to get encouragement during this stressful time. What happened to the weeks that seemed to crawl by.... now you blink and they are over!~