tiredness sets in

I'm coming to dislike Mondays. I don't mind having an 8 am class; in fact, it's the class I'm most "up" for. What I don't like is the interminable wait between the end of my 11 am class, lunch, and my 5 pm class.

I do not do well with "you have x hours of time and then you must be somewhere" for working on open-ended things like research. (For what it's worth, I finished a good draft of the tension zone paper - figures included - on Friday. And we got NO rain from "Rita" so the seed bank study may be momentarily on hold until we do get rain). I've typed most of a test for Thursday but now I'm just sitting, waiting. The good news is today is field trip day and we're leaving at 4. So not only do I not have to be "on" for class, but I don't have to wait so long.

Yesterday I took a rare Sunday shopping trip. I usually don't, preferring Sunday as a day of rest and non-materialistic activity. But I had a book that I had special-ordered in at the Books-a-Million and it looked as though Sunday would be the last good day for a while to pick it up. So I did. I also bought a copy of Jennifer Chiaverini's latest "Elm Creek Quilters" novel (they are WONDERFUL escape-reading if you like escape-reading; I read the first two or three of them in a matter of days when I was up visiting my parents). Also bought a copy of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" - I have never read it, saw most of a movie adaptation (which I think was not very faithful to the book - there was a female character, the daughter of Prof. Arronax, who was herself pretty knowledgable, in the movie and I don't think she's in the book. Don't know if it was a nod to feminism or to having a pretty girl to be the romantic interest for both Ned Land and Capt. Nemo.)

The book I went to get? Oh, yeah - called "A Catch of Circumstance." It's the November book-club book. It looks really good; it's a historical novel set in Revolutionary War times. I generally like historical novels (Although I have been disappointed; some of the medieval and Renaissance ones I've read have inserted, quite gratuitously, very graphic sex scenes. Maybe I'm weird, but I find gratuitously-inserted sex jarring. I have an imagination, folks - if you describe the male lead and the female lead as being "in each other's arms" or make some mention of them waking up in the same place at the same time I WILL GET IT. You don't need to paint me a picture.)

I also hit the Bath and Body Works, seeing as I had a coupon. (I am a coupon ho'. Offer me something for free, or 40% off something, and I will go and buy what is required to get that free thing). It was for a free bottle of the new fig-scented moisturizing body lotion. So of course, so it matched, I bought a bottle of the fig-scented body wash. (And a bar of soap, so as to fulfill the $10 requirement). I used it last night. I swan, B&BW recycles scents. I thought as much. This one definitely smells like the "sugarplum" scent that they used several Christmases ago. (But I'm not complaining; the scent was one of my favorites and was only available for a short while).

I also had a 40% off JoAnn's coupon. Got yet another quilt book, even though I've stalled out temporarily on quilts. (I think it's the continued hot weather). And I bought something I've been tempted by for a while - the big, fat, honking balls of ombre boucle yarn. Yes, it's totally synthetic. Yes, I'm sure I have far nicer stuff in my stash. But they're huuuuuuuuge....like 800 yards or something of roughly worsted-weight yarn. And they're cheeeeeeaaaaaaap...$8 a ball.

I'm going to make the simple garter-stitch Prairie Shawl from the Cheryl Oberle shawl book out of it. (That is, if the book doesn't jump off my table and crawl under my sofa in the sheer horror of being asked to provide a pattern to knit acrylic, craft-store yarn with, rather than the Wool Pak 8 Ply the pattern calls for. Sometimes I get the feeling my pattern books are a bit yarn-snobbish). I may not ever wear it out of the house - it's that odd, avocado green color - but I thought it would be nice to have for chilly fall evenings, to put over my shoulders while I read.