A Most Productive and Wonderful Day

It was a snowy morning in Salt Lake City. I was up bright and early (Lucy and I are both morning people), and gobbled down oatmeal and fruit in pajama coziness while enjoying the view.

The morning: 6:00 a.m. - noon

*Finished a novel (House of Mirth --> for a honkin research paper)
*Started a novel (Invisible Man --> for a critical essay)
*Gulped down coffee
*Researched critical essays about Woolf for class; picked one to write about
*Read the article twice (it's by T.S. Eliot, Lord help me)
*Started Woolf critical essay
*Gulped down more coffee
*Registered for my spring class! (Critical Theory, kill me now, requirement)
*Got my teaching schedule for spring! (Two classes again! Yay!)
*Worked more on Woolf critical essay
*Did some conference prep texts/emails
*Got conference materials and planned out my sessions for tomorrow
*Realized that drinking an entire carafe of coffee was not a good idea
*Got increasingly jittery
*Worked on essay until too jittery to sit still
*Vowed not to drink this much coffee ever again in one sitting
*Got dressed for lunch

Too much coffee.

The Afternoon: 12:00 - 5:00 p.m.

*Lunch
*Explored downtown Salt Lake City!

I saw something I expected:

And I saw something I didn't expect:

Ha ha! I'm not gonna lie. I took this picture, texted it to G, and immediately walked inside to see if they had Starbucks Salt Lake City mugs. I was going to buy one for the simple pleasure of having reached the absolute height of irony that one can reach in a lifetime. But alas, they don't make those for Salt Lake. Not surprised.

The temple was smaller than I expected, but very beautiful. The grounds are pretty and they let visitors walk around for free. There's an area in the visitor's center where there is apparently a cut-out in a wall that lets the heathens see inside the temple (since we can't enter it) but I opted out of that in favor of walking around outside.

Shhhhhh! I drink coffee! Shhhhhhh! And wine!

G is the designated selfie photographer. I'm helpless without him, with my useless T-Rex arms. They're too weak to hold my over-sized phone.

*Leisurely walked back to hotel
*Read
*Napped
*Finished Woolf critical essay!

The Night: 6:00 - whenevs p.m.

*Keep on keepin' on with reading The Invisible Man (must get through at least half of it by tomorrow)
*Read two lengthy articles about The Invisible Man
*Ponder which of the two articles to incorporate into an essay that's due early next week
*Start last Virginia Woolf book (Between the Acts --> it's about a play! Very different!)
*Start research & annotated bibliography for Woolf research paper (due soon)
*Start research prospectus for American Novel research paper (due soon)
*Watch Big Bang Theory on the phone with G
*Repeat my new life mantra: "I will never take two literature courses at the same time again"

I'm seriously contemplating a "Sabbatical Weekend" every semester! It's kind of unbelievable how productive I am when I (1) don't have to grade, (2) don't have to teach or go to work, and (3) am not in my house and tempted to clean it and do a thousand errands and chores. Too bad room service is so dang expensive. Must eat a dinner of left over fruit from breakfast and the rest of last night's chocolate cake. The life of the mind and all that. So Dickensian and everything.