Better Late Than Never . . .

I'm sitting at Starbucks, across from my decaf-drinking, novel-writing hubby, and I've finally (after saying for weeks and weeks that I was gonna get to this) begun revising the paper from my contemporary lit. class this past fall. Hence the title. Or at least, it's partially responsible for the title. 

This paper doesn't require a lot (and the little things it needed I did early in May), but it does require the thing that usually trips me up with papers: more. That is, it needs to be longer. Well, actually, first it needs to get shorter and then it needs to get longer. Shorter, b/c the teacher who has encouraged me to revise this paper vetoed the last 5 pages before the conclusion; she thinks they are part of a separate paper (which I will not be writing) and can be condensed into 2 paragraphs. So that's just great. 

Not sure at the current moment exactly how this paper is going to get shorter-but-longer, but I'm feeling refreshed after a month of absolutely no reading (well, 3 pages of Olive Kitteridge - was bored with it - and 20 of A Visit from the Goon Squad - which I've thoroughly enjoyed thus far) beyond magazines, blogs, and the ocassional glance at the German textbook and not an ounce of writing beyond this blog (and I've been enjoyably lax even with that). 

Other "better late than never"s are just some belated reports regarding the past semester. 

1.  The torturous theory paper turned out swimmingly. I got a 95% on it, which was delightful given that I didn't spend nearly as much time and effort as I might have had I, well, had the time to do so and been at all interested in writing the paper. And I didn't put nearly as much into it as I did into my modernist poetry paper. 

2.  Speaking of the modernist paper: A+! That's my first ever A+ on a paper in grad school! (Well, I technically got an A+ on my first theory paper of the semester, but he assigns points, not letter grades, so it doesn't feel nearly as thrilling.) I don't even know how many grad profs use A+s.

My modernist prof, who may end up being my dissertation director, had only lovely things to say about the paper, which was a total b to write, given the fact that I am anything but a theory guru and I had to teach myself some hard-*ss feminist theory to pull this paper off. (This might not mean anything to anyone but me, but nonethless: Luce Irigaray is NOT user-friendly, and theories of the male gaze ain't no picnic either.) 

*She did, however, correct three minor typos (one on the first page), for which I blame Bradley, who is my proofreader. Apparently, he and I need to have a performance review. And pronto.

3.  I got an awesome teaching schedule for the fall. In fact, the prof who does the scheduling gave me exactly what I asked for, day and time both! The same thing happened for this past spring, and I was really leery I would get screwed this time around to even out that good fortune (and he seems rather unpredictable with scheduling). Who says I'm a pessimist?! My teaching schedule has a major impact on my functioning and happiness during any given semester, especially since the morning commute into the city is so hateful. But no morning commute for me during Fall 2011. Yea! 

Now, better late than never, I'm going to post this post. :)