Up too late, with access to a computer

It turns out that I'm a lazier blogger than even I knew. I have had weeks off of school and haven't managed to write one stinkin' thing in all that time.

On a side note, the break has been wonderful. I enjoyed all our Christmas celebrations, although I have come to the conclusion that I am officially a disenchanted twenty-something type. I discovered this when, upon waking on Christmas morning, my first thought was not, "Ooooh! Presents!" or "Yay! We get to attend another beautiful church service." No, my first thought was more like, "Mmmphrrrrm. Still sleeping."

I worked every morning this last week. The library is finally moving to its amazing new home, and the process started in the Genealogy department on the day after Christmas. I spent 4 hours every morning shifting books from the original set of friendly, smooth, stable shelves to the vicious, nasty, cruel, unsanded-plywood moving shelves. For some reason, no one else seems to have had much of an issue with these beasts. I, however, don't seem to be able to approach them without my hands being savaged.
It could be worse. I am being paid for my trouble, after all.

In honor of the New Year, Patrick and I are watching our favorite Tivo-ed episodes from the past year. I discovered in the course of the evening that Patrick had missed the series finale of Alias last Spring, so we're in the middle of it right now. Jack is dying, Irina deserves to die, and Sark is awesome in his $500 shoes. That was one great show.

Long Day

I'll get the semi-depressing part out of the way first. It would appear that my Spring Break trip to Germany has been cancelled. I got a $250 refund check from the IPFW Continuing Studies dept. (the dept. that works with the travel programs) in the mail today with a note attached saying,"Full Refunds are given if the university cancels a program." Sniffle. Really, though, it is almost a relief. Funds were going to be very tight and I was a little stressed over the cost. Now that I won't be spending every penny I have, I feel quite well off. ;o) My mother is even talking about a family trip to Siesta Key for Spring Break.....That could definitely make up for any suffering.

Andrew and I started this morning much earlier than we would have wished. He and I had to be over at church for Christmas program practice (he's a Wise Guy and I'm the accompanist.) I like to moan and complain to my mother about taking part, but really I enjoy playing for it, even on the dreadful piano in the church basement.

After practice was over and I had wrapped some gifts, we headed down to Anderson for an (early) Christmas get-together with family. My grandparents, and maybe some aunts and uncles, are going to be gone for Christmas, so we had to celebrate a little early.
We got to my grandparent's house a few hours before the festivities were supposed to commence, so my mother and I helped out a little in the kitchen. I got to assist my grandpa in making the beef brisket for dinner... a VERY important job.

Back at Thanksgiving, all the cousins exchanged names to decide who was buying gifts for whom, and so "us kids" had our exchange this evening. Since I'm technically an adult I also got to take part in the adult's gift exchange (the sort where you can steal presents and everyone gets really wild.) I contributed a set of Starbucks demitasse cups and saucers which I fell in love with yesterday (nothing like waiting until the last minute.) My mother scooped them up and was able to hang on to them all evening. I got a gigantic, soft, fluffy, warm fleece blanket which is my new best friend. In fact, we're hanging out together right now.

Speaking of soft and warm, my grandparents got me a cashmere sweater which I am completely in love with. It's a pretty sort of sea-blue and oh-so-soft.

Tomorrow, after church and the Christmas Program, we have the Bach Collegium-sponsored Messiah sing-along, which should be fun.

Finals are OVER!

I am sitting in the library computer lab right now, heaving many sighs of relief. I just finshed my piano final, and before that completed my psychology final.

The piano one went fairly well. I flubbed my way through Mozart's Rondo alla Turca, but they judges decided not to hold my memory problems against me because, "it was a gutsy move to even try to play that piece." (I didn't know I was being gutsy. I just liked the music.) My other two pieces went off beautifully, and I got very high marks. Now I can go back to playing the piano for fun, and maybe even pull out some Christmas music sometime soon.

I now have a month of freedom before me.... a month to get excited about next semester and, most of all, a month to spend NOT thinking about when my next paper is due. Yesssssss.

Now I just have to wait for all of my grades to come back. ;o)

Saturday Photo Hunt

Today's theme is Red.

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code. Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

I just love taking pictures of the flowers at Foster Park, especially the tulips. They have so many "good sides" to get pictures of, and the colors are just fantastic! For some reason, this one always makes me think of a dragon.



I love this picture, which I took while staying in Australia. That's my aunt in the red coat, and my uncle is father up along the path in his red shirt. We were on our way to see some Aboriginal cave paintings (which, incidently, were also red.)

Last day of class!

I just thought that I would share some of my glee. This afternoon I had my last class for the semester. I still have to make it through a few days of finals next week, but actual classes are over. I think that when finals are over I'll throw myself a party.

On Monday I'm getting together with some friends from my honors 20th Century class for some pre-final studying time. We got together before the midterm and it was incredibly helpful. Our professor tends to talk very quickly, and it can be difficult to write down all the necessary points, so meeting to compare and compile notes helps to create a much more cohesive picture. We'll be meeting at a classmate's house and there will be food and coffee, plus a fire in the fireplace. Cozy.

Oooooh! Blog Update!

I just realized that my blog has been sitting there, gathering dust-bunnies since Thanksgiving. The poor thing. I'm sure it has been feeling incredibly neglected, but I do have a good excuse for my desertion. My perfect excuse is that I have had many long, disgusting, boring, school-related papers to write. When I have long, disgusting, boring, school-related papers to write, I find myself completely unable to even contemplate writing for fun.

Perhaps after finals are over next week I'll post more. In fact, I'll make myself post more.