Accomplishment

I can now say I am free. I just finished revising my paper to the point where I am very happy with the result. I took my last French exam EVER a few hours ago, and tomorrow all I have to do is turn in the paper and sell a few books. I will finish up packing my belongings and drive back to my beloved Marinette. My Daddy came into town earlier this evening. It is great to see family again! I made dinner for us and my roommate, ran to my final, and came back here to write up a better thesis. Now I can sleep soundly knowing that for a couple weeks I will have no obligations to academic work. I can read whatever I want, whenever I want. I was also informed that I will be unable to work for the accounting department at Anchor, thanks to the GM. He doesn’t want to hire extra college kids during the break. Well that is lovely. I was counting on the money I would have made. This means things are gonna be tight next semester. I am already looking into finding a second job. Welcome to college, home of the broke, the overworked, and the exhausted. I am not taking a large amount of credits, so I think I can make it work. We’ll just have to wait and see how it goes. Maybe another loan wouldn’t be entirely terrible. I will worry about that another day. Right now, I am relaxing!!

Seriously? Three months?

Our apartments will be back to normal by the end of February. Lovely. Little did we all know on that night of November 30th how bad the damage really was. Building number one was broken, but is slowly being put back together. At least the heavy demolition is over, and the place is a little quieter. Plus, the restoration professionals seem to have a pretty regular 8 to 5 schedule going on. No more keeping us awake until the wee hours of the morning–or waking us up in the wee hours of the morning. The alarms have been quiet for about a week now, which is nice. That first week however…6 total! Yikes. We’ll have a concession on our rent too for a month, so at least it isn’t for nothing. It is a little annoying, yes, that we have next to no room in our bedroom thanks to the big plastic fort our friend Lenny made when he tore our exterior wall down. And that there is an air mover in our bathroom pointed right at the shower, which makes for interesting bathing experiences. (sigh) I do go home for a month on Tuesday afternoon. I have that to look forward to. My own bed, my own room, a car to drive, friends to catch up with, family to hug, Perkins to visit…

Certitude, at last.

The word “final” has a certain sense of conclusiveness to it, which is obvious of course. In some ways the word brings relief; in others it brings about dread. For the college student, finals mean the end is near, but at the same time, an unbounded amount of stress. Today was the final day of regular classes here at the University. It doesn’t feel like it really. I anticipate it has something to do with the odd warm weather patterns of late. Is it just me or did the semester literally fly by? Maybe we are getting older, and as they say, age speeds up life. Or something to that effect. I am two exams and one paper revision away from a month-long academic break and some much needed time with the family. I am beside myself in anticipation.

This afternoon my roommate and I went to see a movie. The Holiday, specifically. Neither of us has actually physically gone to the movie theater since Pirates this summer, so it was about time. I was a little wary at first of Jack Black’s role in the film, but it worked somehow. I have a greater respect for the man now. I was happy on a few occasions with the decisions made by the characters. The flick also inspired me to write more often. I wouldn’t love anything more to see my name in print. A by-line in something will be my life goal. On the cover of a book jacket, in The New Yorker, on the big-screen…anything. So here’s to life, and the sometimes hopeless dreams of a liberal arts student.

It doesn’t feel like December.

I can’t seem to decipher just what I am feeling right now. I know that we only have three days of class remaining and finals are looming off in the distance, but it almost doesn’t feel like it. Perhaps it could be the weather these days. We had a nice long week of absolutely freezing temperatures, but right now I could go outside with only a sweatshirt on and be perfectly fine. It kind of looks like Christmas is drawing near too I suppose, but the lack of snow is putting a damper on the entire mood. I will be going home in 9 days now, and am really looking forward to it. Christmas-time always makes me feel like I should be around family. It is difficult being further away from home sometimes. I did choose this place, but every once and a while I think it would be nice to just drive home for the evening, to have dinner with the family. Maybe I should have gone to Oshkosh. But then I think of all the people I would have never met, and that scares me more.

I am sitting in Coffman right now, fully intending to study. It isn’t working. I haven’t been able to get a really good night’s sleep in just over a week now, and it is starting to take a toll. The noise never seems to go away, and the apartment has gotten a lot smaller. I needed to just get out of the place for a couple hours. I have to catch up with my French homework today and finish reading To Kill A Mockingbird for tomorrow. I should revise my latest attempt at a story and write a paper on TKAMB as well. My fiction writing class will be all over tomorrow night. For my other English class, I will receive my second draft of my final paper on Tuesday, hopefully only have to revise a little bit more, and turn it in again a week from Tuesday. The only two real finals I have are in French and Journalism.

I wish I could concentrate more on what I have been meaning to do here this afternoon. I just need to focus, that’s all. Unfortunately it usually happens to be around the times when you really need to get stuff done that the procrastination bug sets in. I have been good most of the time this semester. I always get the assignments done in time, and I haven’t done badly on any tests. I can do it, but will I?

it kind of looks like E.T…

It’s only for a week and a half….right?

Four, three, two, one…it’s demo time.

I just finished clearing off my entire desk. Tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock our wall will be no more. Sure, they’ll eventually put it back together, but they will do demo work on it first, just to air it out a bit. I must remain positive because it could be worse. It is a bit bothersome to hear constant hammering all day, to be forced to use one door out of the building, to have a big hole in your wall, to move your bed directly in front of your closet, and to wake up at all hours of the night to the commonplace fire alarms going off for no reason. But we can deal. In fact, we are embracing the situation. We must remember that we do not have to move out. Also, it is becoming habitual to see the same reconstruction guys each day and saying hello in the hallways. I even baked cookies tonight for them to have while they work in the morning. After the bit of work they’ll do tomorrow, they are going to wait until finals are over and we go home for break to finish it up. At least they won’t be in our way while we have to study and whatnot for our impending finals. Of course because of the noise next door I will most likely make use of a library or Coffman or even a coffee house. Eventually everything will be back to normal. Everything happens for a reason. This is a learning experience. Yeah, that’ll work. Just keep telling yourself that. Riiiight.

It’s hammer time!

Our poor building. It can’t air itself out on its own! So we need to knock down the walls and build new ones! Yippee!

Okay, so we still don’t have to move out of the apartment completely. However, work still needs to be done on the exterior bedroom wall, so we need to shift our furniture a bit. It’ll be interesting to get into our closet, and even our beds for that matter, but it is better than having to move out altogether. We will definitely be making those workers cookies now. They were here until the wee hours of the morning last night and came back a few hours later to start the day over! Sure, it may get annoying with the noise, but I can deal. Earplugs were invented for a reason.

I cannot wait to go home for Christmas. This time of year is the worst for me. I will admit to being a little homesick. Yes, for Marinette even. I cried reading an article in Sports Illustrated on Brett Favre because it reminded me of home. Two weeks from right now I will be on my way! Being here for Thanksgiving really extends the season I think. I haven’t been home since the 22nd of October. It’ll almost be two months! This whole apartment debacle is making it worse. I am glad we won’t have to leave; that makes it a little better. I am trying to decide what is better. The timing is inconvenient because finals are coming up, however, most of us will be gone in a couple weeks anyway for break. There is a good side I suppose. But that is enough of this.

Happy Birthday (tomorrow) to my little bro! 16 years young! Watch out–he’s driving now…

the broken building

My residence is currently under construction. Not my apartment solely, but the entire building. I do not know the exact specifics of the situation, but from what I have gathered, a pipe burst and flooded a bunch of apartments. Ours was close, however, and we actually will have to have some work done on the upper walls and ceiling in a few spots. Fortunately, the damage is not near as bad as other places and we won’t have to move out! The reconstruction guys are always here, and I am beginning to recognize them now. We’re thinking of baking them cookies soon. I am always up for an excuse to bake. We made rice krispie bars this afternoon. And subsequently destroyed a spatula. There is some good news in regards to our living quarters; the hallways no longer have the stench of flood hanging in the air. However, the maze to get out of the building proves to be a daunting task day by day with all the equipment being stored in the corners of the much quieter halls. Our neighbors have been relocated to the Days Inn apparently. Now it is time for rest, although the insistent hammering next door never seems to cease.