There are days when being a graduate student seems like the stupidest decision in the world. Then there are days when you find yourself reading a book about the relationship between politics, plague, and Shakespeare and come across a lengthy section dedicated to the life cycle of rat fleas and the bubonic plague and you think to yourself, “this is why I am where I am: so I can spend afternoons reading this kind of thing.”

Of course there are bad days, but this day? This day was a good day.

"Politics, Plague, and Shakespeare’s Theater: The Stuart Years" (Leeds Barroll)