Spinning Plates

This is the part of the semester where I freak out. Not completely freak out, but I'm sort of treading water at the moment and the fear of drowning is choking me. But it's ok. This happens every semester and I'm still alive and on top. At the moment, I have homework that needs to be done, but I'm so stressed that I need to push pause, name the things freaking me out, and calm down.

Plate #1: School. I still have all A's, although I got an B+ on my last accounting test. I was pretty upset, but I should be able to bring my grade up by the end of the semester, if I work harder. Visual Media is going well. I have an A, but our last project hasn't been graded yet. The workload has been fairly light for that class. I'm learning the Adobe design programs, and those are fun. 314 hasn't been terrible so far. I wrote a four page paper, but it hasn't been graded yet. I'm a little bit nervous, since this is my first legit writing class. We have another four page paper due at the end of the month, and I don't even have a strong thesis yet. That needs to change. I need to write my thesis and form an outline today, and write 2-3 pages over the weekend. Brit Lit is easy. The midterm is coming up soon, but it shouldn't be too hard. We have a lot of reading, but no papers to write. Church History is great. Brother Huff is the best.

Plate #2: Work. Working for Brother Huff is really fun. I'm enjoying the class this semester, and I think we're organizing and planning it better. He's only teaching one section instead of two, so I'm only working about four hours a week for him. That's enough to buy groceries, so I'm happy. Teaching lessons is going well, although it's such a pain to drive 20 miles to my students. But I don't have anywhere to teach up here, and I probably couldn't get enough students anyway, and I need the income, so I make the drive. I have six students, and they're progressing well. It is tough to teach on a Friday afternoon when I'm exhausted and they want to have fun, but oh well. That's what my schedule dictates.

Plate #3: Music. I'm playing in the symphony still this month. That has been more of a time drain than I thought. And the music is really hard this concert. We're learning Rimsky-Korsakow's Scheherazade. It is psychotic. Remember when I learned Tchaik's 4th and nearly went crazy? Yeah. Harder than that. Faking and simplifying? Yes. And I'm playing a musical number in church next week. I should be practicing 60-90 minutes a day, but I'm lucky if I manage to fit in an hour a week. Blast. I'm having practicing withdrawals, but oh well. There's only 24 hours in a day.

Plate #4: English Academic Society. Two meetings a month, plus the work to do for the workshop. Not that big of a deal, but I still have to keep track of it and spend some time on it. I did get the speakers worked out, so now I just need to do the advertising.

Plate #5: Internship. I'm starting an internship tomorrow. No, not the one for the church. A lady I know from my hometown called me and asked if I could do one for her. I'll be rewriting all the manuals, project proposals, and web pages for her business. It'll be 10 hours a week, unpaid, but I'll get credit for it. I really wish it was paid, and I may be a little insane doing that on top of everything else, but that's ok. What I'm lacking at this point in my education is experience. I am a good writer, but a potential employer for a job or an internship won't care how well I can analyze poetry. They'll want to see that I can actually be a professional writer. So even though it's small and unpaid, it could give me the edge I need to get a serious internship this fall. And it fills a requirement for graduation, which is always nice.

Plate #6. Life. I need 7 hours of sleep. I've been going to bed at 10:30 and waking up at 6 every day. And I've been pretty good about exercising in the morning on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. I haven't starved, and I eat relatively healthy food. I haven't had a date for the past month, which is weird. I don't really know why. But, not dating has been fine. I obviously don't have a lot of spare time or energy, so in a way it's been a relief to not have one more thing to think about. But I tend to over-plan my life and function in accordance to a running to-do list, so I need someone push me out of the library to go do things and lighten up. So a date this weekend would be nice, but if not, then I'll have more time for homework.

Now I'm going to go home, eat some soup, write a thesis, do half of my accounting homework, and go to a ward activity. After the activity, I'll probably practice for an hour. Then I'll get some sleep, wake up, and start all over again.

So that's my life. Trying not to drop and break anything. So far, so good.