How much is too much?

I pushed myself super hard this week, and if the deadlines that I thought were true were real, I would have failed in my tasks anyway.

Feature Writing: 2,000 words ("How-To") due last tuesday, 2,000 words ("Participation") due on tuesday.

Peace and Conflict in Lit.: start and finish Unbowed, write the next installment of my story (usually between seven and ten pages).

Arabic: Memorize another ridiculously unusable monologue.

Micro Economics: online homework (easy but time consuming)

On monday I missed my bus three times. I know! Right!?! So I didn't go to Lit or Arabic, instead I knuckled down and I wrote a how-to for my writing class. I hated it. I thought it was piss poor, and it didn't have an audience, or anything interesting. For about two weeks I've been excited about Dalia Mogahed coming to town, and how I'd been blessed with not just being able to attend her evening lecture/presentation on her work with Gallup Polls and the book she co-authored, "Who Speaks for Islam?" but also to attend a round-table discussion with her, quite a few experienced Madison journalists and some Christian religious leaders in the community. I think there were 15 of us. I was by far the least "experienced." That was tuesday afternoon after Econ.

I then pounded out a how-to that was not what it was supposed to be, but was full of informative facts and quotes from Mogahed, her book and the panel. I wrote about how Islam is being misrepresented in the American media (a how not to), and then I ended with a little about how to improve that (a how to? not really). This class is so frustrating, but it really does give the feel of what I think "reporting" might be like. I just wish the articles didn't have to be so long.

So except for the reading, monday was a wash, tuesday was too full for anything to slip in, and wednesday was coming fast. I ended tuesday dehydrated and full of Glass Nickel Artichoke heart pizza and apprehension.

Wednesday: Lit and Arabic (and taxes!) I waited for an hour at H&R block for my appointment, I read the whole time without complaint. I Still haven't finished the book, I haven't written my paper, I haven't memorized the dialogue. Turns out he book isn't due until next wednesday (apparently we are deviating from the syllabus again...), the paper isn't due until monday. We're watching a movie. Really?

Arabic went smoothly, we focused on learning and grammar instead of the memorization. There's a quiz on monday. الحمد الله

guess I'll be ok. Another whole weekend to pound through this.