Good Feedback, Good Feelings

I'm feeling pretty good today despite the horrific dreams I was having only a few hours ago - dreams that made me cry out and whimper so much that Hannah had to shake me awake.  Well, I'm awake now and drinking coffee and I just got done checking my emails and was delighted to find a very positive and uplifting assessment from my MFA mentor.  It has kind of made my day and I am making brain stew (putting in all his suggestions and questions and letting them mix with what my friends and I have talked about concerning the story) and thinking that later today I might try my hand at peeking inside the brain of Eugene Cartwright.  He was conjured into being by the fact that I needed a 'bad guy' and as his essence formed, it became clear that he is not all that bad.  He's tragic and frustrated and, as Sterling points out, he's one of the most interesting characters in the novel synopsis.  And he very well may be the protagonist, or at least a co-protagonist.

I'm also feeling pretty good because this weekend is the family Christmas party (the big one for the entire clan) and I was able to get time off from work so that I can attend.  On a Christmas note, I do need to get on my Christmas letter and get some cards sent out.  Today will be a 'finish up the last bit of the semester day' as well as a 'get rolling on Christmas stuff' day.  Hannah and I want to have a little date, just some lunch out together, but we're both slugging through the morning with a decided lack of zeal and ambition.  That's okay, though.  We'll wake up and get to business soon enough.  Right now I'm still kind of dazed and contemplative.  My dreams were really upsetting and Sterling's email was really exciting and with both of those mixing inside I feel anxious and eager.  I'm so ready for the third residency.  I hope that it goes smoothly and that I am able to reboot all of my creative and literary efforts.

This next semester will see me working on my critical thesis.  I'm nervous about it, but not all that nervous.  I'm waiting to hear back what my mentor thought of the critical thesis ideas I sent him, but even if he decides they are all a bust (and I usually go with his suggestions/decisions because, for the most part, they are solid gold) I won't worry too much.  There will always be other options.  In other news I still need to get my little computer sent in, but I do think it's too late to be able to have Vignette at the residency, which is a shame because she made the in class writings go so much better and also allowed for me to take notes that *gasp* I was able to read later since there's no preset font on Microsoft Word called 'Amanda's excruciatingly undecipherable handwriting.'  My friend has a small computer that she says I am welcome to borrow and I might take her up on that.