I am excited about my shiny new seminar on Monday, if not a little alarmed that there are only two of us registered in the class. This is also part of what makes me excited about it. Here is what else gives me that feeling: GF, the professor, sent us a pre-first class email at 3:58 am. This seems like an entirely professorial hour to me, especially combined with the fact that some say he’s rather dry and boring and tends to go on. To me, 3:58 am is not a boring hour, though it does indeed mark a going-on-ness. Also, I was waking up at 5, actually awake by P’s alarm at 4:30 when he gets up to make the coffee if I’m teaching the 6 am, and so I was feeling maybe a little tiny bit sorry for myself for having to get up so early and being sleep-deprived, though encouragingly shored up by the fact that I don’t have to make my own coffee due to my delicate nature that causes me to feel haunted if I wake up too early in the morning and have to move about the house by myself. So combining this attitude upon waking, as I turned off my iPhone alarm and consequently looked at my email without really meaning to, with the fact that it’s such a small number of class participants and a maybe actually eccentric professor, resulted in a rather intriguing start to the day. I had the butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling. Also it’s just that we’ll be reading lots of Restoration literature and starting with Milton, which of course brings me back to Dr. Grant. Speaking of butterflies. And then there’s the finish to the email:

“As we have a lot in the anthology, we might even, if you like, read (for example) _Samson Agonistes_ and read the post-9/11 exchanges as to whether Milton was recommending terrorism.

See you on Monday.”

Terrorism? I really hope L stays enrolled in the course. What if she drops? Will I have to be prepared to carry a 3-hour discussion by myself with this professor? Because if that happens I see myself potentially becoming confused about what I really want to focus on.

Here we go then, beginning with Milton’s Areopagitica (This is a pretty cool site, Project Gutenburg).

Shiny!