Autumn leaves...

Today, I looked outside the window and realized that the Autumn foliage has come, peaked, and is on its way out. Amazingly, I barely even noticed it was fall, save the cold running weather. I think this revelation was an indication that my life is a bit too full for comfort right now.

My school life is rockin' and rollin' - I'm chipping away at my program requirements, precariously dangling between the safety of the graduate school life I've come to know and love over the past 4 years and my desire to get the heck out of school. Knowing I'm so close to finishing the program is a scary acknowledgment; I've perfected the art of graduate school, molded myself to fit its demands, and trained my brain and body to endure and thrive on 14-15 hour workdays. Upon graduation, I think I'll either feel unbelievably free to explore the world like normal humans do with their 40 hour work weeks and their nights and weekends free, or I'll enter into some sort of PTSD-esk stupor in which I crave the painstaking graduate school life in all its sadistic nature.

On a lighter and more immediate note, Brad and I have definitely learned the art of maximizing time. We have spent lots of quality time together when we haven't been working - last weekend, we spent miles and miles of our weekend covering the Boston area and, this weekend, we've visited the Institute for Contemporary Art museum with Kit, enjoyed a festive night of tapas down the street, and danced our troubles away at Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge.

I'm now sitting down to a cup of tea and a historical text outlining the involvement of women in collegiate and professional sport over the past 100 years. Brad is lounging on the couch across from me, staring intently at his computer. I can't tell if he is reading the latest political updates, scouring the net for recent race results, or finding Christmas pressies for me. I'd like to think the last option.