Troilus and Criseyde

I really do love Chaucer. I'm trying to convince myself of this while I'm writing a paper about why Criseyde is a victim of circumstances, and not a whore. However, this is not as easy as it may seem - the Middle English, of course, will give me headaches and there has always been my huge mental block against poetry of any kind. That is neither here nor there - I want the damn thing to be ten pages long (at least), I want to relate it to the Wife of Bath's Tale, and I want the English department to wish that I was one of them.

But I'm not greedy.

I'm home now - Pennsylvania is nice. I ended up driving home through inclement weather conditions. It was snowing when I left Staunton and it just got worse as the day went on. I've taken today to sort of regroup and feel better before I get down to the difficult stuff. However, this paper needs to be finished by tomorrow at the very latest, so I am working slowly at it. I have reached the over six-pages mark and I still have material to work with... it's just feeling inclined to work with the material available to me.

Before too much longer, I'm going to shower and put on some decent clothes, then throw in a load of laundry before heading on to work again. But for now, I'm happy lounging in my living room with Troilus and Criseyde, listening to Callanish in the background and cuddling with my kitty.

Dad has taken quite a liking to Emmeline since she came here last week to stay during my exams - and since she may need to live here next semester due to an environment change, that's perhaps a good thing. He refuses to call her "Emmeline" however, because that is his mother's name and it just feels wrong to him. He calls her "Emmy", which is endearing and she seems to like it - I think Dad has supplanted me in Emmy's affections. He's tickled pink, since no cat in existence has ever liked my dad and he has a certain affinity for them.

I'm extremely sorry not to be traveling to Vienna for May Term now more than ever - we had a guest masterclass a few weeks ago, led by an opera singer who is especially prominent in Vienna. Her name is Donna Ellen and she came as a favor to Dr. A. Well, for some reason, she took a liking to me and asked if I would be traveling to Vienna with the rest of the music students, since she knew that she would be in Vienna at that time. I had to say how sorry I was, but I couldn't due to lack of time and funds. I WANT TO GO TO VIENNA.

There. That's done. I shan't complain now. But still...

Right then. On to Criseyde and the negative male influence on her life.