the midst of.

Journalism Ira Glass, presenter of This American Life, gives a fascinating interview about his craft to Slate. Um, ah, the following quote is out of context, but he describes how I feel much of the time:

"But there's a really fascinating instance of what you're talking about in Chuck Klosterman's new book [Eating the Dinosaur]. I feel like this is a really weird example to bring up, but he interviews me and Errol Morris about interviewing. It's a really funny chapter because I give all of these totally Pollyanna answers—I mean, things I really believe, but I'm like [here he goes into an earnest falsetto, like a very sincere Chipmunk] "I just think that people open up because they sense that somebody's really interested. It's just a natural human thing." And Errol is like "I DOUBT WHETHER WE KNOW OURSELVES, AND THE ACT OF BEING INTERVIEWED IS AN ACT OF ASSERTING A SELF WHICH WE HOPE IS TRUE." Seriously, every answer is like this. I'm like, "I just think it's really swell being interviewed!" And he's like "THERE IS NO SELF.""

I'm in the midst of listening to my fifth production of Hamlet this week (in a desperate attempt to catch up for the project) and I know I'm no further down the line in understanding the play or being able to talk intelligently about it out loud.