I'm really pretty pleased with the history paper I finished off this morning. I mean, in some ways, the structure's still a bit awkward -- it starts with some biographic stuff, moves through a lot of historical stuff, and ends with some biographic stuff, and I'm not sure it works all that well. And none of it is very dense. And yet, what it does do is provide a decent introduction to Sri Lankan history and politics for those who aren't familiar with it, and really helped me organize and make sense of all the reading I did this summer. So, it may not be exactly what the professor would like, but I've got a lot out of it, which is at least part of what grad school is about, no? :-)
I'm in Denver now, waiting for my connecting flight to take off (when you wait 'til the last minute to make your travel plans, you must settle for whatever miserable connection you can get, unless you are far more rich than either Kevin or I). It's snowing a little here, oddly enough -- it was very cold in Salt Lake yesterday and today, though not quite snow weather. Highs of 50 degrees (F). Last night was particularly windy, with winds getting up to 75 mph; lots of big tree branches on the ground today. My flowers appear to have survived so far, though the tulips are looking a little battered. The pansies are still determinedly cheerful.
The wind really became interesting when we were taking off from Salt Lake. I'm flying Frontier this time, and it's a smaller plane than I've been on in a while -- but not that small, at least twenty rows. This is relevant because the first ten minutes of our flight, as we climbed up over the cloud layer, were the most turbulent I've ever experienced on any real size plane. In fact, the only other time I've experienced more turbulence was when I went to visit Kevin for New Year's in Sun Valley, Idaho, and for the last hop, I was on this teeny tiny little plan that seated all of six (!) passengers. That one bobbled the whole way, but somehow it felt like it was supposed to. Whereas it was actually a little scary having a big Boeing 737 bounce around like that. A couple of times the plane dropped sharply enough that I actually flew a little bit up out of my seat. I was holding a half-full venti chai from Starbucks, and it's a good thing that I had drunk half of it, or it would have bee sloshing all over me. Sticky chai on your clothes -- ick!
I really ought to be working on my paper now, but I can't seem to concentrate. So I think I'll try to nap for a bit -- if I'm going to be up late working, I should get as much rest now as I can. G'night!