My last post was chiefly concerned with the Way of the Cross. We performed the dramatic musical presentation of the traditional Stations seven times from Thursday to Sunday. Because of this, I got my week off to a great start by crucifying Jesus, played by Chris Fiano, a good friend of mine.  Emotionally, the show exhausted me, since I had a twice-difficult role to play. Through prayer, and apologizing to Chris after every show, I got through it though. And, upon finishing that battle, I was able to appreciate fully the sensation of looking forward to three midterms over the next two days.

Thankfully, Dr. Ernst emailed the class on Sunday. What was an unfortunate circumstance for him became a blessing for me and my midterm in German was put off until Wednesday. Fr. Tom had canceled class on Monday also because of the take-home midterm which was due Tuesday. With those circumstances, I didn't have to drag myself out of bed on Monday until past noon. I showered and joined President and Mrs. Towey at lunch. We were graced with the presence of Princess Marie (the affectionate title that students have given to the Towey's youngest child). After lunch, I spent the next few hours reading The Federalist, Numbers 47-51. In Principles of American Politics, I was blessed with even more good news. Due to family circumstances, Dr. Harrigan was forced to go to Connecticut that evening and wouldn't be returning for a week. That meant Wednesday class would be canceled.

Now, before you begin to think that life is all fun and games, remember that I still had three midterms to handle over the next 48 hours. And despite having slept in Monday morning, my body was still trying to figure out why I was treating it so poorly. And, having not done homework since the Tuesday previous, I was spending my free time catching up. I found myself in the Philosophy Tutoring Office at 1:00 AM staring at Fr. Tom's midterm with incomprehension on my face and in my soul. (By the way, I've practically taken up permanent residence in the Philo Tutoring Office. Every book and notebook is here. As am I, despite the fact that it's midnight on a Friday night.) Realizing that desperate times call for desperate measures, I emailed him for a 24-hour extension and barely made it back to my dorm room to collapse into bed.

The next morning brought bad news though. Since Fr. Tom was out of town, he hadn't checked his email. Luckily, I had woken up earlier than I had to with that possibility in mind. Unfortunately, Epistemology interrupted my furious exam-taking. However, I turned in the exam with 4 minutes to spare. (That's pretty good for me. I've submitted a final paper over email with only 13 seconds left before. It's not that I procrastinate...I just take my time very seriously and have a lot to get done.) The next few hours were spent refreshing my mind in a most unpleasant manner by studying for my Contemporary Philosophy midterm. And by "next few hours," I mean about 45 minutes. I turned in the midterm at noon, snagged some lunch, and studied until class at 1. After which was the mid-term. Ah, cie la vie. I felt pretty good about it though.

Wednesday morning found me deep in the German Konjunktiv (that's subjunctive to you English-speakers out there). Following that, I found myself in the remarkable position of having had only one class and yet being free at at only 12:20 in the afternoon. Of course, numerous other things took claim to my time as usual. I also had to make an emergency trip to Mancuso's Shoe Shop to have the front tap of my right tap shoe fixed. (Thankfully, the shoe is back safe on my desk at this point.)

Thursday followed as it tends to. Extremely densely philosophical and exhausting mentally. I had promised to call my mother, but wasn't able to because I had to catch up on my reading about a crazy Italian monk and a evil mother that forced a rebellious son into the hands of the Inquisition and a young girl into the power of that same sadistic monk. Sorry, Mom! But Dr. Snyder's explanation of the themes of Ann Radcliffe's "The Italian" made my glad I had done my reading.

There was a lecture in the Threshold Series last night, but I'll talk about that and another lecture we had a few weeks back in another blog on another day.