Apologies.

I'm sorry for the unannounced hiatus. I figured absence would be better than forced whimsy or emosplosions, so I took some time out for starting grad school, continuing my efforts to learn Spanish, getting my stuff unpacked, quitting my job so I could go back to the former one, and, you know, completely undoing the last year and a half of my life. The last two weeks have been really rough, and I appreciate those of you who are out there reading for bearing with me. I really appreciate those of you who fielded all of the breakup and grad school-induced emosplosions. You're the best, and I owe you all some cookies.

Things have mostly settled down, at least for the time being. I've gotten everything unpacked, my schoolwork is organized, and I have less than two weeks left before I [Seriously Mean It This Time] Never Wait Tables Again. If it weren't for the never-ending pile of homework, I'd have oodles of free time!

Alas. I have a lot of homework. It's not that much more than my workload at Vanderbilt, all things considered, but it's still a little overwhelming. The reading is slightly less in quantity (but it makes up for it with serious density), and I have far fewer mini-papers to write. That, unfortunately, is linked to an exponential rise in my stress levels, because that means that more of my grade is riding on fewer assignments, and there is little to no room for error. The expectation that much of my learning (and work...) be self-directed is also a bit daunting given how long I've been out of school. I keep envisioning my brain as this cobwebby, rusted-out jalopy, all, "Didn't I used to be smart?"

Anyway. I'm going to keep updating, but I don't know if I'll be able to go back to daily content for a while (read: until I graduate, and maybe even later than that. Possibly when I retire). It's for the best; my pleasure reading has plummeted since I got my assignments, I don't have much time for knitting, either, and while I might find social work theory interesting, I doubt it's appealing to many of you. So, I guess we'll see. Story of my life, these days.