The long work-haul: insert triumphant music here

You know those movie scenes where the heroes struggle dramatically across some forsaken desolate landscape, clearly on their last legs, their clothes bloodstained, their faces dirt-smeared, their charge a last desperate attempt set to Swelling! Dramatic! Music!

Think Frodo and Sam on Mount Doom.

Now replace Frodo with the freshman class and the burden of the Ring of Power with tremendous amounts of math and physics homework, and you'll see why I'm getting rather worried. Meanwhile, the upperclassmen are busy hacking away at our own Orcs-o'-Work in front of the Black Gates and can't exactly rush to their aid as effectively as we'd like. (If we do, we'll get a nice arrow in our back, and then what happens to Middle Earth?)

But this will change. Oh, this will change. We're talking to Burt and Rebecca about the frosh workload, and I think - I have hope - that stuff will become Okay, or at the least, Better. So freshmen, hang in there! We're trying...

I'm feeling pretty Frodolike myself. My to-do list is running down the entire length of my monitor; one task per line, 8 point Arial font. And that's just for tonight. And I've already completed a good 1/8th of it (it used to not fit on my monitor). And I'm still reeling from the nasty round of strep - fever's gone, cough is diminishing, but my body's telling me it needs 10-12 hours a night of sleep right now as opposed to the 3-5 I'm used to needing - but I really can't get that hourage right now. I'll pay for it later. So be it.

My robotics team is saving my soul and sanity right now. Matt and Andrew are working in my room, all three of us on different things, but it's just really nice to know you're not alone. Plus Andrew brought a tub of cookie dough. It's past 3:30am, and life is good. Exhausting, but good; I think I'm getting somewhere.

Slowly, painfully, and set to Swelling! Dramatic! Music!, but somewhere.