What a wonderful break it's been so far!  This is definitely not March weather... are we maybe in early June all of a sudden?

I just looked over my evaluations from last semester, and it was very encouraging.  I hadn't felt entirely happy with any of my classes that semester: the theory class didn't seem interested and I felt stuck in a rut, the graduate review class didn't seem clear and simplified enough, and the aural skills class seemed like a lot of the same and I didn't yet feel comfortable with the curriculum.  But the aural skills evaluations--considering the size of the class--were some of the best I've ever received.  I feel very good about that, especially because I'd been warned that this is often "the worst aural skills class" for various structural reasons (it's heavily chromatic, and students who got remedial help their first year are suddenly thrown in with everyone else).

I'm also really happy with my current classes.  (Easy to say as I sit here in a t-shirt enjoying the weather on break!)  Aural skills feels much more comfortable than last semester, I'm really getting a kick out of the graduate post-tonal class, and the fundamentals class is a new challenge.

And I just today started to outline a new chapter of my dissertation.  The word "new" might be a bit misleading... I haven't actually written any of the actual dissertation, but I've written an article (and submitted it to a journal) that will probably end up, in highly changed form, as part of a chapter.  The dissertation timetable is a strange thing: at times like this, I think, I'll be done sometime next school year!  But most of the time I'm more realistic, and realize that this chapter will almost certainly take months to complete, and then there's the whole baby thing.  And who knows, maybe Sara will get a job for the following year, and all the stress of trying to get my dissertation done while working will feel unnecessary.

Anyway, mostly good stuff going on.  I don't always feel this good, but beautiful weather has a way of bringing on such feelings...