Friday, September 30, 2005

Thoughts while writing a paper

I forgot how much I love footnotes. MLA style calls for parenthetical citations: they have become almost second nature to me, but Turabian footnotes have a stately charm that parentheticals lack. Parentheticals force efficiency, but with a footnote, anything can happen.

It's depressing to discover that one gets more passionate about grammar than foreign aid. Probably then it is good I intend to go into English and literature rather than the State Department.

I must be getting old. Midnight comes and I conk out; I can't write papers till all hours like I used to be able to.

Green tea is a good blessing, but the night sky is a better one. There's something so utterly, happily, deeply joyful about going outside with three friends or so, and watching stars! It was a chill, clear, crisp night, dry and still, and there were as many stars as ever I've seen in Virginia. One friend made Charles Williams references, another recited "The Lay of Earendil" at my request, and the third located constellations and identified planets. And then, to come inside and make a cup of tea--

life is good. Even if it does require one to be up late.

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