One Final Remaining

On Wednesday at 10:30 in the morning I will be taking my last final of the semester.  I think I have done alright this fall.  Nothing too spectacular, but I did my best.  I have some new life experiences as well.  2007 has been a year of…patience testing?  Frugality?  Baseball?  Stress?  Worry?  I had some good moments, some bad.  I have come into my own as far as my studies go.  I sort of know what I will be doing with the rest of my life.  But when I think about it, I am not too worried.  I kind of enjoy the fact that I have no idea what specific sort of job will find me in a year and a half.  It scares me still to think about graduation looming in the distance.  It is strange to be 21 as well.  I find myself wanting to order beer at restaurants just because I can, not because I necessarily want or need to have one.  New experiences.  That is what has defined my 2007.  I have met some new people as well, and strengthened current relationships.  I have overcome certain troubles and am continuing to realize I am not ready for any type of relationship.  I am confident that one day someone will change this.  But I am not in any rush.  I am not one to stress about being alone or lonely, because I have a good group of friends and I am really not alone.  It is difficult to find a person who fits in with those in which I surround myself.  My friends are part of my family.  I have too much to focus on for myself right now to worry about petty relationship troubles.  Of course, I keep telling myself this and it may seem that I am trying to justify not finding anyone.  But that isn’t the case.  There have been opportunities.  I just don’t see them going anywhere any time soon.  It is an unnecessary luxury at this moment in time.   Along with a lot of things, really.  Materialism and useless shopping has been lost on me lately.

Emma, the cat.

Emma, Doug’s cat, has been rather annoying lately.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind having a cat around the house.  It is nice to have an extra living being around.  But sometimes I am not in the mood to give her constant attention.  Every morning I wake up to her pawing at my bedroom door and meowing until I let her in.  My bed is up higher in the air, so she can’t really jump up on it.  But she has found ways to crawl up there from time to time.  I have an ottoman thing next to my reading chair in the corner next to my bed, and she uses that as a step to get on the bed.  But I have this thing where I can’t have Emma sleep in the same room as me.  When she sleeps, she wheezes and snores.  And from years of vacations and camping with the family in which all 6 of us are sleeping in the same room/general area, I know I cannot sleep well when others are snoring.  (Try all 5 of them at once!)  I am sure I snore too, but I know how to remedy the problem.  I have a really nice pair of earplugs in my purse at all times.  You really never know when they might come in handy!  So, Emma is sitting next to me on the couch right now.  She’s curled up into a ball, with her eyes closed and looks absolutely precious.  I may be a cat person after all.

Two days of class, Two papers, a Map, and Four Finals…and it is Christmas!

I am starting to get a hold on what I have yet to accomplish before my fifth semester in college is completed.  Tonight, I am finishing two papers that are due tomorrow.  I have been catching up in all the reading I have fallen behind in, and am actually feeling pretty confident about the exams themselves.  As far as my map goes for my Russian History class, it doesn’t seem too difficult.  Our professor mentioned tonight that we shouldn’t worry too much about it or spend too much time on it.  He sees it more as a review of the course rather than a test in cartography.

It sounds like I will be hired to work with my Dad over break.  I am getting scheduled to take a drug test for next Friday when I have the one day window before we leave for Florida.  This makes me feel a lot better about next semester, for I won’t have to worry about having to work a specific number of hours in order to make rent each month.  The way my schedule is looking next semester, I will be working about 13 hours.  I have it worked out so I don’t have anything on Fridays.  Right now I haven’t had class on Fridays, but I worked for about 4 to 6 hours.  In the spring it will be entirely free.  It will be nice to have an extra day for the weekend to get work done, study, or maybe read for myself!  (Which I have been severely lacking in this fall.)

I am not too stressed yet.  I am feeling alright in all the areas of my life right now, which is hard to come by sometimes.  There always seems to be something to worry about!  It helps that we have snow right now, because without that it wouldn’t feel like Christmas is coming.  It has something to do with the fact that this semester has flown by!  I can hardly believe we are in the remaining days of class.

I am looking forward to having a break.  And visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Florida over the Holidays.  Maybe even getting some reading in, and getting a good chunk of War and Peace read.  Who knows, maybe I will actually write that novel I keep talking about!  So many expectations.  But I have a feeling that things are going to be looking up for awhile.

Snow, Finals, the pitfalls of Baseball Trades.

It snowed again yesterday! We received approximately 3 more inches to our already covered ground. It was tons of fun driving to pick Doug up! Because Minneapolis doesn’t like to plow until a good 24 hours after the snow falls. Or in the middle of the night while everyone is trying to sleep. Whatever. Who knew Minnesota had real winters? Today I am wearing long johns, leg warmers, and snow boots. It is freezing in both of the offices I work in today, so they are helping a lot!

Other than watching the snow fall, it has been pretty hectic around here. I will be finished with finals exactly 2 weeks from today, so I have tons of work and studying to accomplish. In about 2 hours I am turning in my last paper for American Lit. Now I just have to catch up on the readings and study for the exam. I have two papers due next Tuesday, and a map of Russia to draw. Plus the loads of reading I have yet to get done for the rest of the classes and making flashcards and studying and whatnot. As much as I love school and learning…finals are rough. Towards the end of the semester, I always get fed up and start looking forward to the next. This time around, I don’t have class or work on Fridays! It shall be wonderful.

In baseball news, I am devastated with all the hubbub surrounding the Twins. We all knew Torii Hunter would leave, and I am not upset with him, just the organization. I didn’t expect them to actually trade Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett. I was afraid Garza would go because we have a lot of good pitching prospects, but I didn’t want it to happen. And adding Bartlett to the mix? Out of nowhere! And where do they go? Tampa Bay. Gee whiz, how can I even root for them now?! Ah, well. And now this Santana business? I wish they would get it over with already. Might as well trade Joe Nathan while they are at it. I have no idea who this team is anymore! Next year will be interesting, that’s for sure. And as much as I would hate to see Santana go…especially to the Red Sox…if it does happen…and we get Jacoby Ellsbury…it would not be the worst thing in the world.

This will be a real winter, I can feel it!

Today is the first of December. And it is snowing. Not little flurries with zero accumulation. A winter storm warning all day, with up to 8 inches possible by this evening. I don’t recall having a snowstorm like this happening last winter until the middle of January. No lie! We had a lovely brown Christmas in Wisconsin. That should not happen. The snow today is giving me an excuse to stay in and catch up on my reading. Maybe I will get some inspiration for writing, who knows. It is going to be interesting later on tonight when we take one of our friends out for her 21st birthday, that’s for sure. Break out the snow boots!  I am very happy about the snow for several reasons.  First of all, it is December and snow should be falling all the time.  Secondly, we live in Minnesota, which is notorious for raging blizzards.  Thirdly, it has been completely and utterly freezing for the past week and we might as well get snow if the cold continues as it does.  Fourthly, it helps get me into the Christmas spirit.  The Christmas carols won’t sound out of place anymore.  Let’s face it.  I live in the North for a reason.  I grew up with snow, and I can’t seem to hate it.  Especially when we haven’t had our fair share for a few years now.  Nothing beats 1996-1997 and the 100 plus inches that fell.  We had snow banks 7 feet tall.  It was awesome.