Off and Running

Sometimes not only can you not win, you can't even lose decently.

But that's just how my week's been going.

My new class is off to a roaring start and even though I feel behind
already, it's just the nature of the beast when there's so much reading
to do and only three hours a week in class to discuss it.

Tonight's class was, alas, a bit of a disappointment for me - I was
supposed to present (10-15 minutes) on the Impressionists and
Post-Impressionists, probably my favourite art period in what led into
the Avant Garde, but the prof spoke at length about art history up to
and including the Impressionists and then we were out of time and we
moved on to William James and his discussion of stream of
consciousness.

So, I suppose in some sense it's not so bad since I'm off the hook, so
to speak, for the rest of the semester since everyone else has
something to present on or about. I at least still have all my
presentation notes handy and did learn a lot in the preparation of
them.

The class on the Avant Garde has a nice tight focus - art and
literature. The Avant Garde encompasses so many facets of the first
half of the 20th century that it would be a poor effort to try and get
through it all in a one semester seminar.

The rest of the evening whooshed by for me too, as it seemed I never
had the mot juste at the right time, or when I did, someone else had
something else to say and I couldn't get a word in edgewise. There's
always next week.

Besides, now I can focus on writing my two papers.