I'm a mess today. I can barely focus and my head hurts. I don't know what's wrong with me but I don't think it's the norovirus that has made hundreds of people sick on USC's campus lately. At least I hope it's not, for obvious reasons. I do think it may have to do with air quality though ... the fires 20 miles north of the city stoked by the notorious Santa Ana winds don't threaten us in any way, except for the smoke they are pouring into the air, which you can smell all the way downtown. Having lived here for a little over a year and seeing how dry it can get, I'm now amazed that the entire region doesn't go up in flames every Fall.

Mainly I think I'm just wiped out from the stress. My first half-semester class is coming to an end and I was putting the finishing touches on a group project when I realized ... my half-semester class is coming to an end - which means half the semester is gone! What have I done for the first 8 weeks!? Anything!?! Well, yes, but I've been researching and haven't translated much into tangible work yet. Also I've been distracted by the election, the stock market rolling off a cliff and jumping back on, and my cat being sick. I wish the election were held tomorrow so I could focus!

That said, I will leave you so I can try to get something done, because in the end, blogging is just another really great way of distracting myself. On the agenda for the rest of the week is finishing an abstract to submit to a conference that's happening next June; making some serious progress on the graphics for my web site; a meeting with the Dean; and the Project Runway season finale tomorrow! Also since I have no real photos from school to show you I will give you a picture of the beautiful new MacBook Pro that Apple announced today. This thing is like a Tesla electric car to my souped-up "Honda Hybrid" MacBook Pro of two years ago. Guess I know what my next upgrade will be...