Cue Hysterical Laughter

Listening: Everything is Alright - Motion City

I'm sick of the things that I do when I'm nervous
Like cleaning the oven or checking my tires
Or counting the number of tiles in the ceiling
Head for the hills, the kitchen's on fire.

So this is it; the official end of my first year in MUN. While I can certainly say that there will be some aspects I miss, I can assure you that I am very glad to have the next four months off with nothing but work and goodtimes ahead of me.

My Linguistics exam went pretty much as I expected, on Monday; I understood about a third of the material studied, but I believe I might be capable of passing the exam itself. Now, if the same can be said of course, I'll be very content. English also went as planned, only better; right after I walked out of writing what I thought was a wicked exam, I picked up a bunch of papers my prof had yet to hand back to me, to discover that I got a 90% on a term paper I'd written, giving me an 80 in the course prior to going in to write my exam. Apparently, I've also been recommended for the English Honor's program, which I may do.

Yesterday, me, Cole, Rae, Peach, and Cory wrote Roman Civilization, which for most of us was our last exam. It went really well, so for the most part we ended on a good note. Cole and I said goodbye to Rae (coming perilously close to tears as we did so) and then went to the UC to kill time, where we were contacted by Kathleen, who ordered us to come to Gonzaga to see her. We did, and one thing lead to another, and we ended the afternoon by going out to Tim Horton's with our friend Michele, who is pretty much a basket case over her sick little nephew. (I won't repeat all of what she told us yesterday; just let me say that it is a very, very bad situation.)

I bought her soup. She didn't look like she'd been eating since... I don't know, ever. That's bad when you're already the girth of a stick. Cole and I are getting concerned about her, but we did our best to cheer her up before she dropped us back home.

Eventually (through a very roundabout journey) I turned up at Ben's, where I got Chinese food and we all had a time. One thing to be said for Benji is that he knows how to throw a party. I meet enjoyable new people, including Ben's friend Steve, and his girlfriend Amanda. Cole and I didn't stay as long as we expected, leaving at about midnight or shortly thereafter, but that was probably for the best, because I haven't been sleeping well this week and I have been building up quite an impressive sleep debt. I woke up at various times this morning (somewhere I was having a dream about a woman in a terrycloth dress on a train, and another dream about dragon-mice) but I finally crawled out of bed at about quarter to one. I felt mighty accomplished.

I have work tonight, for the first time in several weeks, and sometime over the next couple of days I need to adjust my work schedule to accomodate my free hours. My mom is encouraging me to switch to a 40-hour work week, and doesn't seem to believe me when I try to explain to her that Wal-Mart isn't going to give me all those hours. Oh well. I think for now I'll change my hours to center mostly around weekdays, leaving my nights and weekends free. I think I've still got another two or three weeks of meagre hours, though, so that's good. I think that I'll be looking for another job this summer, as well. Wal-Mart is fine and dandy and all, but I would like to take a look around on the job market.

Adventures are planned for sometime later in the summer! I am planning to fly up to Ottawa to visit Rae for a weekend, hopefully to be accompanied by Colette (if whatever job she gets this summer allows her to take time off). Rae has already checked on the availability of her basement for our use (her parents said it's cool) and my folks seem fine with the idea, provided I pay for it myself, which I intended to do anyway. Now it's just a matter of finding out whether Cole will be able to go and setting a date, and we'll be able to book our flight and there will be dancing in the streets.

On that note, I should get back to prowling around the internet looking for a new job. Adieu.

Icarus notes that it still hasn't sunk in with her that she's off for four months.

Linguistsucks

Listening: So Long, Lonesome - Explosions in the Sky

Wow. Ten days shy of an entire month without blogging; and this one isn't even going to be a really long post. Apologies to anyone out there who actually reads. Things have been pretty crazy-hectic as of late, primarily because I am directly in the middle of exams. I'm up early to study for the two I have today: English, with Jammy, and Linguistics, which is sort of making my brain bleed a little bit.

English ought to be fine; I'm really not particularly worried about it. I loved my English class this term (even if Jam hated it, ha) and I do well on English exams in general. What scares the everloving holy hell out of me is this upcoming Linguistics exam half an hour after my English one. I don't know why, but I didn't really get a thing we covered this term. Note to self: no more Linguistics. You've learned your lesson.

I've spent most of the last 48 hours studying like a maniac, and I think I comprehend enough of the material to get me by, which is really all I want. The only unfortunate thing is that I can't collapse and freak out or anything after it's all done, because I still have an exam on Wednesday to write. Bah.

So I've been left home alone since about 6 a.m. on Thursday morning, while my family went galavanting off to Toronto. My mom and sister are returning today at about 2:10, so I'll be in the middle of my third exam and already freaking out about the fourth at that point. While they were gone, a metric ton of my relatives mysteriously called and invited me out for meals. Coincidence? I think not.

So last night, in between panicked studying, my Uncle Doug (my beatnick, witty great-uncle) ambushed me and dragged me back to the bungalow he shares with his significant other, Patricia. They fed me steak (amazing) and a cornmeal grits-type dish called palenta (not so amazing, but I didn't want to be rude) and I told them about my life. When I started the inevitable complaint about Wal-Mart, my Uncle made mention of trying to get me an actual, journalist-related summer job. Rapture. I would love to find another job aside from the one I have now. I will only survive so long in retail without killing someone or killing myself.

Mad, mad parties are planned for Benji's house on the night of the 18th (the last official day of exams; Cole, Rae, Cory, Peach and I all have our Roman Civ exam that day, at 9-11 a.m.). I'm insanely excited about it, despite having to work the following evening.

Okay, I actually have to run off and kind of get ready now. I need to get myself something to eat and clean the house prior to leaving, not to mention study as much material as is conceivably possible in the ensuing free period. Good luck to everyone on their marks this semester!

Icarus cannot for the life of her do a voiced alveolar rhotic trill, and it really, really bothers her.