Hi. My name is Stephanie, and I'm a bad blogger. I came to this realization when I noticed that my supposedly daily photo blog has turned into a once in a while when I have the time and I feel like it blog. So, from now on, that's what it will be. I wish I could remember to do it every night, but since I can't, I won't try. I will no longer feel remorse for being remiss in my recounts (or what I remember of them) of my life.

Anyway. I haven't had the greatest day. The online portion of my study abroad classes started yesterday, so I've been doing nothing but reading Shakespeare in preparation for the past week. Unfortunately, I didn't get ahead in my reading enough for life not to be stressful. Last night, I was up fairly late writing my two page response to the assignment on The Winter's Tale, which I finished up this morning. When I got the grade back... it was a C. I do not get C's. Ever. I've only ever made one B in a class in my life. My really crappy grade paired with the fact that I have another assignment (in the history class) due tomorrow, which, at the time, I hadn't even started on (for which I had to read an entire 300 page book as well as about 40 pages of online stuff), and I have to read The Tempest by tomorrow as well lead to my first academic breakdown. I've never had that feeling of "oh crap, I'm not going to get this done. I'm not going to get this right. I'm not going to get a good grade and there's nothing I can do about it." Let me tell you, it's really not a good feeling. At one point I actually considered withdrawing from both classes, getting over the loss of almost $3000, and not going.

After a couple of particularly bad hours, I calmed down enough to rationalize and make a plan. I contacted my Shakespeare professor and realized that the history assignment isn't that hard, as well as had some of my mom's homemade fried chicken and a bowl of ice cream, so I'm feeling a lot better about life now. I'm still stressed, more so now than I've ever been for finals or for any other class, or any other thing in my life, really. But as an optimist, there is a bright side: tomorrow, my neighbors are letting me use their pool to study by, so I can take a swim and get a tan, all while reading. Also, if I can get through this and not fail, there will never be another class as hard as this one. I just don't get Shakespeare. I don't think he wrote his plays with any kind of deep literary meaning in mind. I don't think he agonized over the subtleties of every single world. I think he just sat down, and he wrote it, because that was how he made his living. It was either write a pretty decent play that would sell out the theatres, because otherwise, all he'd have to eat is a couple of shoelaces. This opinion of mine makes it slightly difficult to analyze his work, because I'm making things up. I don't believe what I'm saying, I think it's a load of crap. And it probably is.

As for the pictures, I was taking a break last night around 2 when I decided to start playing with my webcam. The first one is my favorite because the book that's burning is Shakespeare. Too bad it wasn't a real fire...

I also just realized that this is my 100th post! So yay. I didn't do the 100 things about me... but oh well. I'll do them on the next post, and it'll be 101 things about me. Or maybe I'll save it for 111, so I can call it Eleventy-One things about me =]