--Thomas Edison

As if I weren't already having trouble deciding how to arrange a sensible schedule for next semester, I have yet another course to consider now.

Not that I'm complaining, exactly. I know that it's actually something of a compliment that instructors keep asking me to take their courses. It's just that I'm trying to let myself take it easy next semester, and I'm finding it really hard to do so. Too many things I'd like to do. And the more options I'm presented with, the harder it gets.

The first sales pitch of the semester was for a course on Milton. My experience with the dude has been fairly limited, although I haven't felt much need to change that. I know enough about Paradise Lost to fulfill the requirements of cultural literacy, and I'm willing to take my time on getting to know it to the extent required of an English major.

On the other hand, I have good vibes about the professor, a new member of the department with whom I've had a pleasant conversation or two, and she plans to get into the way women are depicted in Milton's work, to the extent that the course is cross-listed with Women's Studies, so it could fill one of my requirements for the minor.

Anyway, once the schedule appeared, I found out that the class meets twice a week, and starts at 1:00 PM on Wednesdays. I'm trying avoid classes that meet more than once a week, to avoid having two courses on any given day, and I'm also trying to schedule my classes later, so I was able to forget this idea with a clear conscience.

Among all the courses I was and am considering, WS 310 remains the one I'm most likely to take. As I understand it, it's a research seminar in which I'd be spending pretty much the entire semester working on one giant paper. And it's being run by my WS 201 professor, who's also the head of the department, whose class is my favorite of this semester by a fairly wide margin. So, yeah, I can live with this. In fact, I'm kinda looking at it as my "English" course for next semester, as, for the first time ever, I'm not going to be taking a single real English course. Anyway, it meets Wednesday afternoons, 3-5:50 PM, and I'm almost certainly taking it.

WS 320 gets iffier. Basically, it requires 90 hours of field work, which can potentially be done on or off campus. I would definitely want the former. Now, given that the Women's Studies department has virtually no budget, they're kinda understaffed. So it recently occurred to the head of the department that perhaps she could get an intern to help out for free, in exchange for the three credits awarded for this course. She'd have to find a way of making it educational (they ain't awarding credit for nothing, and, besides, there's a paper to write about what one's learned, and "I learned how to file papers alphabetically" just won't cut it), but it seemed like a workable proposition.

And, indeed, I was interested. Despite the heavy time demand (six hours a week, by my math), I figured it would still count as something of a vacation, as it would probably be the least demanding of my obligations. The details hadn't been worked out, but I'd likely have kept the office open, answered questions, perhaps helped with the newsletter and the web page... nothing really taxing, and nothing I'd have to work on outside of the alloted time on campus.

As you might infer from the past tense in that last paragraph, I've swung around on this possibility in the past week, and now doubt I'll be going for it, strictly for reasons of time. I'm really trying to force myself not to pile on too much this coming semester. But I haven't ruled this out, so I may yet return to it.

It's one of my requirements, see. I need to take a science course with a lab, and I've settled on geology as the only one I'm remotely interested in taking. The problem is that we're talking six hours for four credits, which means it's going to wreak absolute havoc on my class schedule whenever I end up taking it. Which is why I thought it would be nice to take it this semester, when I wasn't planning on taking a full course load.

Looking at the schedule now, thought, I note that the professor who had been recommended to me isn't teaching the course this coming semester. And that all the sections of Geology 101 being offered are either too early, or are on Monday and Wednesday. And I'd rather not have two Wednesday courses, and I definitely want WS 310, so...

Umm, no, wait. There's one section being offered on Monday and Thursday nights, 6:30-9:20. Hmmmm. I'm not clear on whether this includes the lab, or whether I'd have to take that separately. Well, according to the web page, the printed course schedule comes out tomorrow, so I guess I'll look it up there. In the meantime, put this one back on the "maybe" list. Although I'm going to have to find out about the professor...

(Yes, you're getting my reactions in real time! Can't you just taste the excitement?!)

First, there's the FNES 11: Physical Conditioning course, which would fill the dreaded physical education requirement. It's the only such course to be offered in the evening (the classroom course in nutrition excepted). Two hours, one credit.

Looking at the course bulletin now, it seems that the only evening section of this is Mondays and Wednesdays, 6:30 to 7:20. Which would make it incompatible with Geology 101. It taking place after WS 310 would not be a problem, though; this isn't the sort of thing I'd need to study for, I'm sure.

It does, however, sort of conflict with the other possibility I was considering, which would be Music 254: Choral Society. Three hours, one credit. Wednesday nights, 7:30-10:20.

Now that deserves an entry of its own. And perhaps I'll write it tomorrow.

My professor told me about this tonight. She'd like me in the course, and I'm definitely tempted. On the other hand, this would shatter any remaining possibility of getting the Geology course out of the way next semester. And while it sounds like an interesting course, it'll require a lot of reading and a lot of work. Which, you'll recall, I'm trying to avoid next semester.

Or am I?

I mean, do I want to have more free time? Or am I trying to lighten the load of responsibilities and stress I have? Or both, or neither? Okay, I've accepted that I need a break of some sort, but I'm not sure just what that entails.

It has been strongly suggested, for instance, that I tend to commit myself to lots of obligations in order to avoid having time to worry about, well, life. Let's suppose that I'm starting to come around to that point of view. What, exactly, do I want to do about it? Will cutting back on courses just so I can sit around at home watching The Simpsons help me any? What am I hoping to accomplish?

I gather that I need time to heal, both physically and mentally, and that I haven't quite been making enough allowances for that. But, again... what should I be doing, if anything?

Taking the Field Work thing as an example, if I'm simply trying to cut down on my homework and course-related stress, this would be ideal, as I have the impression that it would be about as undemanding a course as I'm likely to find, without being frustratingly basic. On the other hand, it would take a heavy time commitment. Would it further my aims, or hinder them?

How about Choral Society? Three hours, but it could be as productive a use of that time as I'm likely to find anywhere for what I'm trying to do. Or not. Again, I'm not sure.

And I haven't even gotten into the question of how much I want to be involved with the English Club, a meeting of which I attended today, and will perhaps report on tomorrow. But it raises a similar set of questions.

I really have to figure all of this out by the time I register. Which according to the schedule will be... hey, wait. I'm still going to be an upper junior at the end of semester?! All this time, I thought I was going to cross the line into seniorhood! Hmmmph. Well, in that case, I can register on the 23rd. Rather than the 19th. Hmmmph again.

Of course, that assumes that Financial Aid will take the hold off my registration, but that's a third thing I'll have to save for a later entry. Maybe even tomorrow, but I think something will have to give, in that case. Stay tuned.

(Don't bother to try to analyze the above numbers for any significance. I let the computer pick them for me.)

Mind you, my recent irritability definitely shows through there...