Hey guys!
So the new school year got off to a pretty busy start.
Both of my choirs started up again, so I had a
a two and a half hour rehearsal on Monday 
 and a two hour rehearsal on Tuesday.
The first week of rehearsal is always extra tiring, 
 because I've had three months off without choir.
I just get back into it and my voice 
 is completely dead by the end of Tuesday.
Besides that, my research also ramped up a lot this week.
My advisor and I are making a detailed outline for 
 a paper that we're trying to submit soon.
We're sort of in the final stages of this outline, 
 so it's this big final push at the end.
We actually had a bunch of late night meetings this week.
I think there were three? And there were like 
 hour or two hour long Skype calls.
It's funny to call it a Skype call, because neither 
 of us actually uses video when we do it.
It's basically just a phone call on Skype.
Anyway, I've been putting a lot of extra hours into work this week.
In the off time, I've been trying to relax and read a little bit.
Last weekend, I finished Demian by Hermann Hesse. It was actually really good.
It's a coming-of-age book, sort of existential, a little bit of self-discovery.
It was really nice! I quite enjoyed it.
And now I'm reading The Ocean at the 
 End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.
It's actually my *first* Neil Gaiman book.
I know a ton of you guys love Neil Gaiman,
and I know my bestie Vincent loves Neil Gaiman.
But. Yes. So. It's actually really good.
I'm only about… 45 pages in, but it's 
 actually really cool. I really enjoy it.
I actually didn't know anything about this book before I picked it up,
so I'm definitely in for a weird surprise treat thing.
Also, I was able to find a signed copy at the bookstore!
Oh, I almost forgot. If any of you follow me on Goodreads,
then you know that I had a reading 
 challenge this year of reading seven books.
Demian was actually my seventh book of the year.
So I've actually completed my Goodreads challenge for the year, which is really exciting!
Last year, my goal was five books, because those were the John Green books,
and I ended up reading nine books total.
This year, because there's still three months left and I've already read seven,
then it's possible that I can actually read 
 more books this year than last year.
I'm really excited to try that. I really hope I 
 can read more than nine books this year.
I know that Neil Gaiman has written a bunch of other books,
and so I might want to check those out.
If you're a big Neil Gaiman fan,
tell me in the comments what's your favorite Neil Gaiman book?
Anyway, that's it for now. I hope you guys are all doing super well,
and I'll see you guys next week.
You're amazing, you're wonderful, and you are loved.
I'm totally winning, bye.
