Everything is Better with Tea

I fully intended to make up for my missed Sunday post by writing an extra-long post today, to talk about hitting (and missing) last week's goals and to review my most recent book-of-the-week, Kirsten Hubbard's Like Mandarin, but the fact is I'm tired. Exhausted even. Wedding planning is taking over my life, even though I feel like I've gotten so little accomplished. I spent all day Saturday dress shopping with my mom, aunt, cousin, and sister, and although I now have an excellent idea of what kinds of dresses I don't like, I'm no closer to finding "the one." The good news is that I've booked my venues and officiant, and I'm signing the contract with my photographer this week, but the bad news is I have to go wedding dress shopping again next week. :-(  (The good news is I'm going with one of my best friends/college roommate, though, and I haven't seen her in awhile, so yay for reunions!)

On top of all the wedding drama, the end of the semester is close at hand, and I spent the last two days conferencing with students. Conferencing always takes a lot out of me, even when I'm really engaged with my students' projects, and I've come home the past two days just wanting to crash into bed and sleep the evening away. So instead of boring you with a recap of last week's ROWing and talking about all the writing I haven't done lately, I'm going to leave you today with a promise of posts to look forward to between now and the next ROW80 check-in:

• A review of Emma Donoghue's Room
• A review of the Winter 2011 issue of Southern Humanities Review (my journal/magazine pick-of-the-week)
• A post on the importance of setting to fiction, with bonus pictures from my recent trip to Forks, Washington. No, I didn't go there because of Twilight, but I did see lots of Twilight-related places (that's unavoidable; it's a small town), so if you're interested in that sort of thing, stay tuned. 

That, along with my writing goals, should be enough to keep me very busy between now and Sunday. Oh, and then there are the sixty World Lit papers I have to grade this weekend. :-P  A very busy weekend, indeed.

For now, though, I'm going to curl up on the couch with my Kindle and my cup of cinnamon-orange tea. A little escapism is always good for the (exhausted) soul.