duck-shaped pain

23 January 2004
The things I did instead of being here.

Yes, it's been a while since I've updated. It's been a busy 82 days (that's the number of days it's been since I updated, according to Diaryland), though, so I don't feel entirely lame for not updating. Since my last update, I:

  • turned 30 (a week ago today)

  • went on two trips (Oklahoma! for Xmas [ick] and New Orleans for a conference [whee])

  • earned a bunch of vouchers for free flights due to difficulties with the aforementioned trips

  • finished one horrific semester, started what promises to be a slightly boring semester

  • wrote a senior-thesis-ish historiography paper that I never want to read again, even though I got an A on it

  • applied to two graduate schools, one of which I will almost assuredly not get into, the other which I probably won't get into (the applications for the ones I might get into are not due yet)

  • dated someone, briefly, which ended more or less badly

  • bought a bunch of CDs [1]

  • bought some shoes

  • gave up meat again

  • cooked a bunch of meals

  • worked a lot

  • didn't get enough sleep

Things are more or less okay. I am relieved, at the moment, because I am no longer in this one Spanish literature class which was giving me mini-heart attacks on a daily basis. The class had to be rescheduled due to a change in the professor's schedule, and since the new time conflicted with the time of a class I had to take, I ended up having to drop the Spanish class. I was glad about this because the work load for the class seemed excessive to me: there was a one- or two-page paper due for each class (it meets three times a week), plus everyone had to research and give oral presentation on some topic every class period, plus, there were three ten-page papers due, three hour-long in-class exams, three group oral projects, and a semester-long individual project that had to be given in class. This would be a big, if ultimately do-able, workload in English, but all the work had to be done in Spanish, and I am still a very slow reader and writer when dealing with things in Spanish. Eeeek.

The rest of my classes are pretty dull: history of the early American republic (my least favorite time period in U.S. history, but a decent class, anyway), political sociology (okay, except that it's full of sociologists), art history (a subject that I like, yet, this class is fairly dry so far, thanks to the instructor's monotone voice, lack of enthusiasm, and the lack of information given on anything so far. Example: "This is a hippo sculpture. It came from Egypt. It is made of limestone. We think it is meant to represent a hippo. Next slide.") And there is, finally, the required-for-everyone health class that I've been dreading taking for years. But, as this is my last semester at this school, I have to finally take it. Two hours, once a week, being told that Smoking Is Bad. Eating Vegetables Is Good. Things that I already know.

Other than that, there's work (bearable), other people (bearable), potential future trips to plan, and letters of acceptance (or non-acceptance, for me) to wait for.


[1] Luna, Penthouse, The Decemberists, Her Majesty the Decemberists, Erik Friedlander, Malodor, British Sea Power, The Decline of British Sea Power, Jolie Holland, Catalpa, and some others I can't recall at the moment...

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