"This semester feels very bite-size," Bethany said this morning. It's true. And it's a strange feeling. Generally, the days all start to blur together after a while. Failing that, one can at least appreciate the sweeping trajectory of the semester. But at least so far this semester, everything seems incremental, even discrete. Although it's never quite finished.

Maybe that's due to the enormous amount of reading I have to do - we are speeding through books at the rate of one a week, or one every two or three class sessions, in my lit classes. I feel as though we barely started Homo Faber in World Lit and we finished it up last time. And last night I struggled through 113 pages of Jose Saramago's Blindness - but I've got to turn around and read 125 pages tonight, for Latin American lit tomorrow. (After all, I've got to find out what happens to the title character in The Death of Artemio Cruz. Does he really die?) And I'm behind in the class I'm auditing (African American lit)...75 pages behind, in fact. Probably won't get that read by 1 p.m. today.

Sing Song is another big thing that feels like it's been chopped into bites. Get through half the music Monday. Finish it on Thursday. Start choreography on Sunday - this past Sunday, I mean. (Try to teach Kasey where an E is on the keyboard in the meantime.) Sing myself hoarse leading the alto section, having already spent an hour in choir trying to hit multiple high F's. I don't feel like the show is only 2 1/2 weeks away...all that seems real is the here and now. I think I'm generally having trouble realizing that this is already the third week of my last semester. Shouldn't that feel bigger than the everyday?

All that to say...this semester does feel like it's coming in pieces. They're big pieces, more like 10- or 12-oz ribeyes than nice 6-oz filet mignons. And somehow, I'm supposed to chew them all, and still have room for the next piece that's coming up as soon as I finish this one. To "clear my palate" between bites, I am clinging fiercely to my pleasure reading (even at a few pages a night) and talks with my roommate before we go to bed. (And time spent with Jeremiah, when we can snatch it.) And yesterday, I had one of those wonderful out-of-time talks with my best friend...standing in my kitchen, warmly lit by afternoon sunshine, trading stories about professors and classses and friends. Some things are meant to be savored, no matter how they come.

I'm off to work on my current "big bite." Wish me bon appetit!