Amazingly, of the nine Wilcox siblings, only Nathan and Benjamin don't write fantasy and/or poetry. Both of them, however, are just as into reading as the rest of the family. Yel, we're bookish bunch. ^_^

I really shouldn't have the tv on while I'm writing. I just totally lost my train of thought (a commercial about an elephant who is married to a centipede--where do they come up with these things?--distracted me). Anyway, off to homework land I go, when I'll emerge nobody knows.

Now Announcing Another Brilliant Idea from ME (Mary & Elizabeth . . . maybe EM would sound less egotistical . . .) : The Wilcox Writers

Basically, Mary and I (Mary, mostly, she being the brilliant one) realized that many of our siblings (us included, of course) write. This naturally led to the idea of gathering every so often (weekly, preferrably) with those who are in Utah to talk about writing, read each others work, share ideas, etc. Of course, once we thought of that it was only a small step to the idea of a newsletter--that way even those who live out-of-state could be involved. This is really very exciting to me. I both love writing and know how talented my siblings are. Knowing how much encouragement and help I need to keep working on my novel-in-progress, Tetiana, I am thrilled that we will all be encouraging each other to write more often and helping each other improve. Anyway, I hope this all makes sense. It's after my bedtime and it has been a long week. (Don't worry, I'm still lucid enough to know it's only Tuesday. It's still been a long week.) I should probably sleep now . . .

My first class of fall semester begins in two hours. And counting. (I can't get ready yet because I'm not scheduled to shower until 7:15--at least five people will be using my bathroom instead of four, because the shower in the other bathroom will only give "scalding hot" water. It better be fixed soon!) Maybe I can eat breakfast . . . just hope I don't throw up. *Repeat after me: you are not nervous; you are excited. You are not nervous; you are excited.*

Here I am, all moved in (well, minus the list of things I inevitably forgot to bring). My house is really great--I have tons of space. I'm determined to be extra positive this week. Classes start in two days and if I'm not extremely optimistic, I may just explode.

Yesterday was an adventure: I attempted to attend my new student ward (the University Sixth Stake 35th ward). Even though I arrived at the Institute twenty minutes early, I still ended up attending sacrament meeting in the Second Stake's 32nd ward. I managed to visit two different stake offices and go up and down three flights of stairs twice in time to be a bit late to Sunday School. After Relief Society, I got to walk uphill for twenty minutes at high noon. At least next week I'll know where to go . . . kind of (the stake clerk said the SW chapel, but I think they said SE in RS . . . or was it NE? NW? Oh dear).

PANIC!!

Er, I mean . . .

Yay, I get to go back to school!

I move into my housing Friday & Saturday and classes start on Wednesday the 23rd.

It's official: my brain has died.

I can't even remember what I was going to write here anymore . . . The advent of Fall Semester has increased my level of chronic anxiety to the point that I can hardly function. (The textbook fiasco, which I may divulge here at some point, really helped boost the worry level, too.) I also had a great scare when all but one page of my 141-page long novel-in-progress Tetiana disappeared. Thankfully, it wasn't too hard to copy and paste things together from my back-up files, but the initial scare was nearly heart-stopping.

I'm trying to think of what "quality of life" means to me so that I can share in the "go-around" scheduled for the first day my Think Tank meets. I'm also supposed to share my hopes for the course. Any ideas/tips? My definition of "quality of life" is still kind of hazy and I have no idea what we hope to accomplish by devoting an Honors Think Tank to the subject. I'd love any input (before August 23rd would be best!).

Anyway, I'll let you know if I ever remember what I was going to say here. Until then, fare-thee-well! TTFN! Shalom! and all that.