My heart is glad. I don't think that I have quite wrapped my brain around the fact that I now have 3 1/2 weeks – 25 blessed days – to do with as I please. And for once it's a gift that our profs take so long in grading our exams. I want no ugly news to dilute the pure joy I'm feeling right now.

It's true that I am pretty sure I did not distinguish myself this semester. At least not in the ways one hopes to. It may be grim indeed when those grades get reported. What I should remember, though, is that in 4 months I: weathered a VERY difficult 15 credit courseload, applied for (and made the shortlist for) my long-shot dream job, ran a journal with a staff of 90 and increased its output by 33%, attacked my longtime companion depression head on, and survived a bout of pneumonia. Small wonder that I'm fucking tired!

I hope to spend this time relaxing, catching up with friends, resuming my running and yoga practices, indulging my dogs, reading and writing purely for my own pleasure, drinking, cooking, cleaning my car (not that that'll take me 25 days, but it IS pretty dire. It looks like a homeless person's been living out of it), and so on. O, happy decadence!