This is the first week of grad school that I haven’t felt immensely stressed to do 900 things at once. Last week I had a major presentation on Monday, a major assignment due on Wednesday, and an exam on Thursday. And I gave my students an exam on Thursday. The result was an extremely busy, intensely stressful week. Another unintended consequence was that that left nothing to do this weekend. There were no outstanding assignments for me to complete or grade. There was no pressing need to study. There was actually NOTHING pressing at all. So I spent Thursday night out having fun, slept in on Friday, went out Friday night, then basically didn’t do much of anything except for lay around and watch TV on Saturday and Sunday. It was so weird, but it was like having a magical 3 day vacation that I didn’t expect. So that helped to refresh my mind quite a bit. Then today I got the exam that I took on Thursday back and I did much better than the first exam. And I spoke with the professor and he assured me that I am doing just fine in the course. Which alleviates so much worry I’ve had lately about my performance. I didn’t believe my grades were in any trouble in any of my classes, but it is SO nice to have that confirmed. Not that I can slack off at all. Now this week it’s back to grading and homework and studying and whatnot. But I know that the level of effort that I’m continuing to put in is working. And I will try to step it up and improve as time goes on, but I know that in at least four of the five major things going on in my life right now I am at least marginally succeeding. And that makes me happy.

Oh, and the Steelers won last night! 🙂