And breathe…

irst term of the semester is over, and I handed my first big assignment in yesterday, so I can pause and relax – well, for a couple of days, at least.  I’ve got another assignment due in three weeks, so I’ll have to work on that over the break.  And of course, I’ll still be work working (which is still incredibly busy), so yeah, about the only thing that changes is that I don’t have any classes to attend for the next two weeks.  But I’m at least trying to have a break this weekend – I’ve purposely left all my books and notes at work, and am so far avoiding the temptation to just pop into the office for an hour to check that one thing (Harvestbird threatened to call security and have them cut off my door access for the weekend, to make absolutely sure I didn’t do any work 🙂 ), so maybe I’ll get a chance to actually relax a bit.  Of course, given how intensely I’ve been working for the past few weeks (I stay late at work (because it’s easier to access the linguistics software I need from there) to study for an hour or two most evenings, plus at least one full working day at the weekend (the rest of the weekend is usually devoted to essentials like cleaning the house, buying groceries, and sometimes even finding an hour or two to catch up with friends)), it’s going to take me most of the weekend to get myself out of total panic I-have-so-much-to-do-and-no-time mode, so I should start feeling semi-relaxed around Sunday night, I reckon, just in time to go back to work on Monday and be right back into it.
But in the meantime, a couple of days of freedom! 🙂
And to make the weekend even nicer, it’s a lovely sunny day after a couple of weeks of rain.  It’s not really warm enough yet to have all the windows open, but I have anyway, just to make the most of that tiny hint of spring in the air.
Talking of tiny hints of spring, look what I spotted in my (rather messy – must give the lawnmower guy a call) lawn yesterday:

Yep, those are tulip leaves!  The lawn may not be the usual place to grow tulips, but that’s because that part used to be a flower bed, but some years ago I gave up on pretending I would ever manage proper gardening and let it all convert to lawn.  I obviously missed a few bulbs when I dug out the plants, because every couple of years something will pop up unexpectedly.  They don’t always survive as far as actually flowering (generally because I forget to warn the lawnmower guy so he mows over the top of them…), but just seeing the leaves is like a promise of spring.