Distracted

It's the last week of classes in this, the very weird Spring 2020 semester at the University of Iowa. I’ve been trying to work on a paper due this Friday for my Medieval literature class. Trying to convince myself not to worry about writing for my 500 Words Blog right now. Trying to not think about the dishes that I haven’t done yet or the laundry that’s piling up, or the various other chores awaiting my undivided attention. I have class work and papers due, and I need to be thinking about and working on those assignments. Instead I’m thinking about how much I miss my grand baby and how much I wish we could visit my mom and my mother-in-law this weekend.

Typically, around Mother’s Day, my husband and I go out to dinner with his sister, our moms, and our children to celebrate the mom’s and the grandma’s, but also to celebrate Scott’s birthday, which is on Monday. But the quarantine is still in effect due to the pandemic. Even if we felt okay about going out to dinner, nothing is open. This makes it impossible to spend time with our family this weekend like we normally would do. Wishing things were different is obviously not going to change anything. But if I don’t get my paper written and turned in this Friday, I won’t graduate. If I don’t work on my final week of Spanish homework, I won’t be ready for the test next week, and my grade will drop. I can’t cook in my kitchen because I haven’t found the time to clean the kitchen from last night. (I struggled with a migraine yesterday so normal after-dinner clean-up didn’t happen.) I’m running out of clean clothes to wear, and I still only have two paragraphs written for this 5-page paper due on Friday.

I’m also trying to finish reading a novel for my Transnational literature class – a novel that was written by the instructor of this class. I’m really trying to find it an interesting read, because it was written by the teacher and he wants to talk about it during our Zoom class on Thursday, but, well, in an effort to avoid offending anybody, I’ll say no more about that. However, an 8-page paper based on this current book in comparison with the previous novel will be due next week. I kind of need to keep reading it. Only about 55 pages left to read. That should be easy enough to finish tomorrow night before I go to bed. 

So, I really should be reviewing notes and marked pages of Dante’s The Inferno and Sir John Mandeville’s The Book of Marvels and Travels for my paper due on Friday. I’m writing about how reading Mandeville’s travel book could help provide the framework for reading and understanding Dante’s journey through hell. But I’m distracted by the fact that I haven’t been able to hold my grand baby in over a month, and I’ve already missed two days writing my daily 500 words. I’ll work on the kitchen tonight before I go to bed. My paper will be done by Friday - I have until midnight.