Mark's (one of my room mates) Mother has come from Illinois to stay with us for about a week. She has gone on a cleaning rampage, and I am not complaining. The place has never looked so good. I wonder how long it will stay that way...

Last week we studied the Famine. It was a long, hard, emotionally charged week that ended with presentations of our artistic responses to the famine. Ironically, (and this is horrible) I have turned to comfort food to cope with the graphic descriptions of starving children and the monstrous treatment of the Irish peasantry.
Now that I have survived famine week, and are now moving into the Celtic Twilight. I am excited, because that means Yeats poetry!

Lately I've been sewing, reading (LOTS of reading: Paddy's Lament, Thomas Gallagher; In Search of Ireland's Heros, Carmel McCaffrey; A Tomb with a View, Norman Robbins; Plays by J.M. Synge...), making music, staring out at rain, and trying to get myself out of the house.
I think I will feel much better after going home and getting together with some of my best (female) friends. I seem to be starved for female attention, and watching Jane Austen flicks alone just doesn't cut it.