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Saturday morning is swim team time trials. Meet at the pool at 7:30am. Blah. I'll be in a shady corner with my copy of Frankenstein.

OOH! Dracula IS on the reading list! So is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde! Looks like this summer will be my "Romantic and 19th Century British Literature" summer!

It just came in!!

Spanish: A

:-)

Grades for Spring 2008 are... ?

So grades are supposed to be posted already, but there's always some professors who can't manage to get them listed on time.
*grummmmble*

I got the expected A in Age of Elizabeth.
I was very very happy to get a B+ in Literary Criticism. Too bad the teacher never taught us a thing in that class and now I feel like I need to study it on my own over the summer.
I got a very unexpected A- in Chaucer! I had a solid B+ through the semester, I guess I must have done great on the final!

And we are missing... the never-ending Spanish. I should have an A, I had a solid A throughout the semester, but the final was intense, so it could drop as far as a B+. I don't want it to drop at all, I need a solid A to keep my GPA up. Ya'll laughed at me for stressing about my A's, but now that's what's going to get me into a PhD program. I need A's from here on out.

So HURRY UP Spanish Professor!!!!! Get those grades IN!!!!!

So we have another theater day scheduled, this time we're going to see John Ford's "'Tis Pity She's a Whore". With a name like that you can't go wrong, eh? Plus, it's in English! hahahaha

I am seriously considering graduate schools for a PhD now, too many people telling me I have the ability. Ability doesn't come with money or time though, so I'm not really sure how possible it is right now. I'll be applying to UC Santa Cruz and UC San Diego. UCSD will require a move, but it also carries the likelihood of them paying my way through school. UCSC is closer, but the teeny tiny size of their English graduate department is so small there is only a 1% chance I will get in.

But that's what college is all about, right? Waiting for those acceptance letters. Anyway, I sent my GRE scores to both UCSD and UCSC plus SJSU (and Stanford, but I don't really have the $40,000/year required for seven years of school there), so I may as well get things together to apply to them all too. It only costs around $60 to apply to each, I just have to get a lot of papers (20 page writing sample, 3 letters of recommendation, 1 statement of intent) together by December. If I get accepted to any... is there really any excuse to not go?

So I'm trying to just not get my hopes up, because while I may be good enough for Santa Cruz, their tiny program will not likely have room for me. On the other hand, while the logistics of San Diego may seem to prevent me from going... if I get accepted and get a free ride (likely), why would I NOT find a way to go there? Do I just deny myself a PhD because the education is in San Diego (which happens to be the most beautiful place in the world to live)?

Lots to think about, but I'm not going to dwell because I have months to go before everything is due in, and again, likelihood is... well, we'll see.

So today I came to work with a very low gas tank, figuring I should just be able to make it to work, 20 miles from home, and can gas up there.

So I get here, 20 miles from home and an empty gas tank... and I do not have my purse in the car.

I have no money, no ID, no credit cards, and an empty tank of gas. HAH! Life is so fun!!

Luckily, son is home and called to say he might be able to drive over here to give me my purse. If I give him some gas money, heh. I think it's a good trade.

Ignore the entries behind the curtain

Sorry for the book lists, I had to create new entries for them instead of logging them all in the same entry. Apparentely MovableType doesn't like entries that get that long, heh. So anyway, the newly up-to-date reading list is correctly linked over on the right there --->
And there are links to those old lists in the entry. If anyone cares, haha. I'm pretty sure it's only me who cares, but I do like keeping my log. So now I can stay up to date again.

Carry on. Nothing more to see here.

My Fabulous Book List - 2008

Finished 2008
Winning by Losing Jillian Michaels
The Historian Elizabeth Kostova
Twilight Stephenie Meyer
Overlook Michael Connely
Remember Me? Sophie Kinsella
The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies Vito Russo
Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall Richard Barrios
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories Nathan Englander
Goodbye Columbus: and Five Short Stories Philip Roth
An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber Colley Cibber
Midnight's Children Salmon Rushdie
The Complete Stories Bernard Malamud
The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer
Cracking India Bapsi Sidhwa
Oroonoko, The Rover, and other Works Aphra Behn
The Roaring Girl Thomas Middleton, Thomas Dekker
The Home and the World Rabindranath Tagore
Epicoene or The Silent Woman Ben Jonson
How I Found America: Collected Stories of Anzia Yezierska
American Jewish Fiction: A Century of Stories
"Defense of Poesy" Sir Philip Sidney
"The Schoole of Abuse" Stephen Gosson
"A Reply to Stephen Gosson" Thomas Lodge
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity Judith Butler
Shakespeare's Dramatic Genres Lawrence Danson
Theories of Comedy David Galbraith
What now? Ann Patchett
Understanding English Grammar Martha J. Kolln
Exercises for Understanding Grammar Martha Kolln
Dracula Bram Stoker
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism
~~~Edgar Allan Poe
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson
Frankenstein Mary Shelley
Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
Potential: The High School Comic Chronicles of Ariel Schrag Ariel Schrag
The Ruins Scott Smith
Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Thurston
The Waste Land and Other Poems T.S. Eliot
The English Patient Michael Ondaatje
Ovid's Metamorphoses : The Arthur Golding Translation of 1567 Ovid
Edmund Spenser's Poetry Edmund Spenser
~~~The Faerie Queene
~~~The Amoretti
~~~The Epithalamion
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia : The Old Arcadia Sir Philip Sidney
Elizabeth I Christopher Haigh
Chaucer's Major Poetry Geoffrey Chaucer
~~~The Book of the Duchess
~~~The Prologue
~~~Knight's Tale
~~~The Pardoner's Tale
~~~The Nun's Priests Tale
~~~The Miller's Tale
~~~The Reeve's Tale
~~~The Wife of Bath's Tale
~~~The Prioress's Tale
~~~Chaucer's Tale of Sir Topaz
~~~Chaucer's Retraction
The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer transl. Neville Coghill
Hamlet (Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism) Susanne Wofford
¡Avance! Intermediate Spanish
Album: Cuentos Del Mundo Hispanico
Critical Theory Today Lois Tyson
The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms Ross Murfin, Supryia M. Ray
Chaucer's Major Poetry Geoffrey Chaucer
~~~The Book of the Duchess
~~~The General Prologue
"The Lady of May" Sir Philip Sidney
"The Four Foster Children of Desire" Unknown
"Letter to Queen Elizabeth" Sir Philip Sidney
"The Quene's Majestie's Passage"
"Speeches by Queen Elizabeth" Elizabeth I
"Homilies on Obedience and the State of Matrimony"
"On a Dream about an Encounter with Queen Elizabeth" Simon Forman
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
Queen of the South Arturo Perez-Reverte
Seeing Me Naked Liza Palmer
Moon Acapulco, Ixtapa, and Zihuatanejo Bruce Whipperman

Other Years
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2002-2004

My Fabulous Book List - 2007

Finished 2007
Till We Have Faces CS Lewis
The Metamorphoses of Ovid Ovid
Situaciones ed. Valette
Bedford Companion of Shakespeare Russ McDonald
Heroides Ovid
La Morte Darthur Sir Thomas Malory
Norton Anthology of Shakespeare ed. Greenblatt
~~~Troilus and Cressida
~~~Winter's Tale
~~~King Lear
~~~As You Like It
~~~Hamlet
~~~Henry IV Part I
~~~The Merchant of Venice
~~~A Midsummer's Night Dream
~~~The Taming of the Shrew
The Erotic Poems by Ovid ed. Peter Green
~~~The Amores
~~~The Art of Love
~~~Cures for Love
~~~On Facial Treatment for Ladies
Classical Myth Barry B. Powell
The Jew of Malta Christopher Marlowe
The Washingtonienne Jessica Cutler
Little Beauties Kim Addonizio
Laugh'n' Learn Spanish Lynn Johnston
Ramona la Chinche Beverly Cleary
Too Much Tuscan Sun Dario Castagno
Bright Lights, Big Ass: A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Sorority Girl's Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idiots and Why Do They All Live Next Door to Me? Jen Lancaster
Bitter is the New Black Jen Lancaster
Can You Keep a Secret? Sophie Kinsella
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic Alison Bechdel
Shopaholic and Baby Sophie Kinsella
Metamorphoses of Ovid Ovid and David Mandelbaum
Women in the Classical World Elaine Fantham
!Trato hecho! Spanish for Real Life McMinn/Garcia
Puntos de Partida Part 2 Knorr
Archaeology: The Science of the Human Past Sutton/Yohe
Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology Kenneth L. Feder
The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Package 1 (Volumes A and C)
~~~The Iliad - Homer
~~~The Odyssey - Homer
~~~Poetics - Aristotle
~~~The Oresteia - Aeschylus
~~~~~Agamemnon
~~~~~The Libation Bearers
~~~~~The Eumenides
~~~Oedipus the King - Sophocles
~~~Antigone - Sophocles
~~~Medea - Euripides
~~~Lysistrata - Aristophanes
~~~Apology of Socrates - Plato
~~~Aeneid - Virgil
~~~Metamorphosis - Ovid
~~~The Song of Roland
~~~Thorstein the Staff-Struck
~~~Inferno - Dante
~~~Purgatorio - Dante
~~~Paradiso - Dante
La Perdida Jessica Abel
Pompeii Filippo Coarelli
The Marketplace Laura Antoniou
Smart Women Finish Rich David Bach

Other Years
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2002-2004

My Fabulous Book List - 2006

Finished 2006
Laugh 'N Learn Spanish: Featuring "For Better or For Worse" Lynn Johnston
Puntos de Partida Part 1 Knorr
Silicon Valley, Women, and the California Dream Glenna Matthews
Major Problems in American Women's History Mary Beth Norton
Women in Labor Allison L. Hepler
Women of the American South Christie Anne Farnham
Beauty's Release A.N. Roquelaure
Eleanor Roosevelt: a Personal and Public Life J. William T. Youngs
Writing About Literature Edgar V. Roberts
The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories Ernest Hemingway
~~~The Snows of Kilimanjaro
~~~The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter K A Porter
~~~Old Mortality
~~~Noon Wine
Troilus and Cressida William Shakespeare
The Awakening and Selected Stories Kate Chopin
~~~At the 'Cadian Ball
~~~The Storm
~~~The Kiss
~~~Story of an Hour
The Lady with the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904 Anton Chekhov
~~~Gooseberries
~~~The Lady with the Little Dog
~~~The Bishop
~~~The Bride
~~~Man in a Case
"Troilus and Criseyde" Geoffrey Chaucer
Diary of a Madman & Other Stories Nikolai Gogol
~~~Diary of a Madman
~~~The Nose
~~~The Overcoat
Edgar Allen Poe: Complete Tales and Poems
~~~The Balloon-Hoax
~~~The Fall of the House of Usher
~~~The Cask of Amontillado
~~~The Black Cat
~~~The Tell-Tale Heart
My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student Rebekah Nathan
The Ways of White Folks: Stories Langston Hughes
The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
Lost in a Good Book Jasper Fforde
The Penelopiad Margaret Atwood
"Trifles" Susan Glaspell
The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison
The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Story of an Hour Kate Chopin
A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf
Much Ado About Nothing William Shakespeare
Italian Farmhouse Cookbook Susan Herrmann Loomis
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
The Lovely Bones (audiobook) Alice Sebold
Citizen Girl Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
The Nanny Diaries Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
The Devil Wears Prada Lauren Weisberger
The Undomestic Goddess Sophie Kinsella
The Reluctant Tuscan: How I discovered My Inner Italian Phil Doran
The Second Assistant Clare Naylor and Mimi Hare
Norton Anthology of English Literature - Twentieth Century
The Prophet's Hair Salman Rushdie
Scholar and Gypsy Anita Desai
Mannequin, On Not Shotting Sitting Birds Jean Rhys
~~~Katherine Mansfield
~~~Virginia Woolf
~~~Chinua Achebe
The Dumb Waiter Harold Pinter
Endgame Samuel Becket
Shopaholic & Sister (Audio) Sophie Kinsella
Bergdorf Blondes (Audio) Plum Sykes
Tales of the City Armistead Maupin
Shopaholic Ties the Knot (Audio) Sophie Kinsella
Shopaholic Takes Manhatten (Audio) Sophie Kinsella
The Lost Language of Cranes David Leavitt
Vindication of the Rights of Women Mary Wollstonecraft
Stone Butch Blues Leslie Feinberg
Orlando Virginia Woolf
Beauty's Punishment A. N. Roquelaure
1st to Die (Audiobook) James Patterson
Funny Boy Shyam Selvadurai
Company (Audiobook) Max Barry
Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period
~~~Mary Wollstonecraft
~~~Elizabeth Barrett Browning
~~~Jane Austen
~~~William Blake
~~~Robert Burns
~~~William Wordsworth
~~~Samuel Taylor Coleridge
~~~Percy Bysshe Shelley
~~~John Keats
~~~Lord Byron
~~~Sir Walter Scott
Bridget Jones's Diary (Audiobook) Helen Fielding
Confessions of a Shopaholic (Audiobook) Sophie Kinsella
Good in Bed (Audio) Jennifer Weiner
Good Omens Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Rubyfruit Jungle Rita Mae Brown
The Color of Magic Terry Pratchett
Elementary Statistics MyMathLab
ShopGirl Steve Martin
The Laramie Project Moises Kaufman
Going Postal Terry Pratchett
The Truth Terry Pratchett

Other Years
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2002-2004

My Fabulous Book List - 2005

Finished 2005
The Art of Discworld Terry Pratchett
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty A. N. Roquelaure
Interpersonal Communication Julia T Wood
Norton Anthology of English Literature M.H.Abrams
.....Beowulf
.....Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
.....The Faerie Queen
.....Twelfth Night
.....Gulliver's Travels
.....Paradise Lost
.....The Rape of the Lock
Destinos - Student Edition
Destinos - Workbook
When the Wind Blows James Patterson
Practical Algebra A Self-Teaching Guide Selby/Slavin
Until I Find You John Irving
Art & Fear David Bayles
Three Genres Stephen Minot
For Matrimonial Purposes Kavita Daswani
The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc Loraine Despre
Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger
Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd
Sushi for Beginners Marian Keyes
Deception Point Dan Brown
The Pearl John Steinbeck
Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
Environmental Science Eldon Enger
Norton Anthology of American Literature, Volume E
World Literature Rosenberg
The American Promise Vol. II Roark
Tortilla Flat John Steinbeck
Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. D
Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. C
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
Sorrow Mountain Ani Pachen (have not finished)
Cannery Row John Steinbeck
Beloved Toni Morrison
The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco

Other Years
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2002-2004

uHHHHHH

Okaaaaay. I *thought* that Scott's house was out of danger.

I see on the news that Aptos High School is closed.

Aptos High School is less than two blocks from Scott's house.

I just checked the fire map, it's 3-4 miles away from him.

So the wind shifted and now the fire is headed east, which is away from Scott's house.
But towards Charleen's house, heh.

15% contained, so hopefully this is over soon. I feel so badly for people who have lost their homes. There are a LOT of people who live in trailers in the SC Mountains. They don't have much to begin with, but the did at least have a home.

Edited to add: Well I just looked at the fire map and it looks to me like the fire is twice as close to Scott's house as it was earlier. WHATEVER, Stupid Fire Gods. I send a WATER CURSE upon you!

Santa Cruz Fire

It has now burned 2500 acres, which is 800 more than three hours ago.
The news is making no reports of evacuations in other parts of the county, so I try to not worry about Scott's house. Then I look at the fire map, which shows the fire to be only 2-3 miles away, separated from his house only by a bunch of highly flammable trees, and start to flip out again. I am just keeping my mind on the reports that do not mention Aptos.

I heard about the fire on the news early this morning, but it wasn't until I drove Buffy to school that I saw the HUGE grey cloud coming up over the Santa Cruz mountains --- only it wasn't a cloud, it was the hugest plume of smoke I've ever seen. And when you figure in that Santa Cruz is a good 40 miles from my house, that tells you how bad this fire is.

When I drove to work today I could no longer see the cloud, but it was definitely smoky in north San Jose. But according to the news the fire is still "raging out of control". So I'm just keeping my optimistic side on; as long as the news reports it's only the "sparsely populated" area in danger (still incorrect, there's lots of houses there, they're just little and small and poor and often trailers - they are still homes though) then I'll cross my fingers that things don't get much worse.

The Semester from Hell is over

I am done, I am done, I am DONE. And only three more classes to ANOTHER graduation!

I got to my Literary Criticism class yesterday morning and the entire class was pretty morose. "Hey," I told them, "this stupid exam isn't so scary when you realize we are also getting our papers back today." *GROANNNNNN* Well, it got their minds off the final.

So she gave us the final which except for the essay portion had, as usual, NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT SHE GAVE US TO STUDY. Our last class day was a review where she helped us creat study sheets, which we all studied, but then... NONE OF IT WAS ON THE FINAL.

So, whatever. But then, halfway through the final, I walked up front to get a cup of coffee (we had brought breakfast foods). The professor looked at me and whispered, "you got an A on your paper."

"me??" I whispered back.

"yes," she whispered.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME???"

"SHHHH!!!"

Heh. So I went back to my desk... feeling up in the CLOUDS. I sat there recounting points in my mind. Because if I got an A on my paper, then I had an A-/B+ in class, before the final. Which meant I just might get an A in class. Which was SO COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE throughout the entire semester that it really was blowing my mind.

It turns out that a lot of people got A's on their papers. People who I know don't write that well. So I think maybe she realized she was... being too hard on us? I don't know. There's really no explanation for the A's. I mean, my paper didn't even deserve an A - how could it, when I didn't even understand the criticism I was using to write it? None of us did. So somehow... she grew a heart (?). I don't know. What I do know is that I should for sure get at least a B in class after finals are graded, which is fine. I was afraid that I was going to bomb the final, and get a C or even an F on my paper, and this would have been disastrous. So somehow, things worked out. Really though? I'll never understand how.

Then I went to my Spanish final which was the hardest exam I've ever taken and took 2-1/2 hours to complete. It was crazy. It was so crazy that I couldn't help giggling through the whole thing. I mean, I just got out of Literary Criticism, where I was very close to not passing the class, but then left with an A paper in my hands, and now here I was realizing I may not even get a B in Spanish after this final. I could not get less than a B in class because of Masters requirements. So I'm sitting there realizing I've somehow passed Literary Criticism, but now I'm going to totally fail Spanish. And I couldn't help but get the giggles. Alix, my Spanish partner, sits in front of me. She kept turning around and hissing, "WHAT is the MATTER with youuuuuu!!!!! WHY are you laughing!!" But all I could do was giggle back. Because I knew the answers to half the exam, but had no idea what I was doing for the other half.

But we have a crazy Spanish teacher too. Every exam we take we have to stand next to her while she looks over our completed exam and points out which questions we got wrong. Then she sends us back to our desks to re-do them. (I know, WHAT???) The problem with this exam was, IF WE KNEW THE CORRECT WAY TO CONJUGATE THESE WORDS WE WOULD HAVE DONE IT THE FIRST TIME. Which is why after 2-1/2 hours I was finally set free to go (she won't let us leave until we've fixed everything) but there were still people sitting at their desks trying to get through the exam.

But the main thing is, she set me free after only one re-do section. That means I should have at least a B on the final, leaving me with an A in the class.

I was so deliriously happy when I left that class I know I made no sense in the conversations I had after. I just completed the Semester from Hell, passed my Literary Criticism class, wrote at least two papers that received RAVE reviews, AND NEVER HAVE TO TAKE A SPANISH CLASS AGAIN. That's right Folks, these long years of studying Spanish are OVER. I am officially "fluent" in a foreign language according to Graduate Standards.

On June 2 I start my summer class, "Modern English", another requirement. It's over by July 11. And then just two classes next semester before I graduate.

Good lord this has been a long journey.

more fire

They just interviewed a man who had evacuated - the CDF had woken him up this morning where he lived in a trailer. He grabbed his computers ("Cuz I'm a computer guy") and his dogs and drove off. "How do you think your trailer is doing now?" "Oh, it's gone," he said. "Do you have friends or family?" "I have friends... in Connecticut."

"What are you going to do now?"
".... Hey, I'm ALIVE."

And then I broke down. Because though I understand completely his reaction, from experience... that man now has nothing, he woke up and his life is completely changed, and that's the same thing happening to hundreds more people in those mountains right now. I just hope everyone gets out. It's pretty tough seeing a place I consider my home being destroyed.

On top of that, I just looked at the fire map and it is NOT FAR from Scott's house, and the wind map shows it heading directly toward Aptos. JESUS CHRIST. If that fire jumps the freeway, Scott's house is a goner. NO NO NO. This is not how we want to start our summer!!!!!!!

They are not evacuating anyone even close to Aptos right now, but the way the area is situated, and the strength of that fire, and the winds, I don't see how they're going to get this fire out any time soon. If it continues like this, it will be bad news for thousands of people. Hopefully they can stop it from jumping the freeway.

:(

Santa Cruz Fire

There's a huge fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains right now, and it's pretty devastating. I'm watching film on TV of people trying to hose down their houses which are within ten feet of the flames. Dude, your house is a goner. Get your family and get out. But this early in the morning... this fire is going to get much worse, the winds are going to kick up even harder around 1-3pm. Fires are always stressful for me, it brings back some really hard memories; to see the fire consuming an area that I know intimately is devastating. I'm terribly sad to see so many houses that so many families are about to lose. I would normally be driving through the area on Friday to get to Aptos - there is an alternate route, but when I eventually do have to drive through it, after the fire, it's going to be really sad.

I took my second final Monday, my Age of Elizabeth class. I had a solid A before the final, and I think I got an A or B on the final, so no problem there.

Tomorrow is going to be HELL.

7:15am I have my dreaded Literary Criticism final, and I'll be really happy if I get a C on the final. I'll be really happy if I get a C in class. That's not a joke, Folks, that class/professor was brutal and I will not miss it for one second. The only thing worse than the final tomorrow is getting back my paper in that class. Papers I thought I had earned an A on I received B-, and that last paper I did NOT think I was getting an A on. So... I am just hoping I passed the class, and that seems to be the majority thought in that class. Students are bringing donuts and coffee to class tomorrow, I think we all just hope to drown our sorrows in sugar.

Then I have a short nap/breakfast break, and it's on to my Spanish final. Which... I have to say I've already forgotten most everything at this point and really don't care. I need a B in class to pass the Masters requirement. I have a solid A at the moment... so I can get, what, a B on the final? C+?

All I know is, by 3:00pm tomorrow I'm going to be wiped OUT, and so looking forward to summer. I can't wait for a NEW semester to start. Next Fall is going to be so much easier, and simpler, and a better schedule, and hopefully a little less work. What I DO know is that I will have three very very good professors.

Wish me luck folks, I'll really need it tomorrow.

I'm back home from our San Francisco trip and everyone is safe and sound. We had a great time. We got into the City safely, found the parking garage right away, and then found a nice restaurant for drinks. One martini each (because service was so slow) and then we went to the play.

Which was in Hindu and Farsi.

HAH! The laugh was on us! Some was in english, but most was not, but since we know the story (very very very very well) we knew what was going on. It was a lot of fun. It was a very interesting interpretation of Midsummer Night's Dream, and there were some parts we didn't like but lots of parts we liked a whole whole lot.

Getting back home was a little tougher, since I didn't have reverse directions printed, and San Francisco isn't the easiest place to navigate. But I was SUPER careful of pedestrians (both friends laughed at me for this) and one friend even said I had EXCELLENT, AWESOME driving skills. Take THAT Charleen! Actually, the driving moves I pulled off in attempts to change over four lanes at once, or to maneuver out of the bus lane avoiding the oncoming ambulance and squeezing into a too small space between cars going 40 mph probably would have had Charleen screaming. But see, these friends understood the NEED for driving like this in San Francisco. See, Charleen just doesn't understand that you HAVE to have mad driving skillz like mine in order to drive through San Francisco. (Actually I laughed hysterically every time they yelled "Your driving skills are AWESOME!" because it's not like I hear that very often. Or ever. At all.).

At any rate, we're all home safe and sound, there was no trouble to be had, and we're already planning our next trip.

Man. That GRE Exam was intense.

I only need the essay scores which won't come in for 14 days. But I had to take the whole test anyway. My score for Verbal was 590 out of 800 - I thought that sucked until I saw the mean average was in the 400s. My score for Quantative Reasoning was 620 - the average mean is again in the 400s. So I guess I did pretty good.

But I sure hope I did well on the essay portion, cuz I don't ever want to take that exam again!
It took me from 8:00am to 11:30am. My brain is fried!

She has forbidden me from shedding any clothes while in San Francisco, and when I assured her my two friends are both female and lesbian she then forbid me from coming back married.

No fun, no fun, no fun!

"Don't forget," she said, "people have camera-phones now... with VIDEO."

Yes, mother.

She then pointed out several other previous cases of Pischina-getting-into-trouble-in-SF, the least of which was getting a ticket for "almost mowing down 20 pedestrians back there." I had kindly informed the policeman that there were NOT 20 pedestrians back there, but merely around six... but he didn't really seem impressed. It was an expensive ticket.

Then when I informed Charleen that I was the driver for our Bay Area Road Trip Extravaganza (as my fellow student calls it) Charleen told me I needed to have my friends sign a waiver. For what? "Emotional trauma caused by being in a vehicle driven by you."

Now I ask you, what kind of friend would say stuff like this???
*
*
*
*
*
A friend who knows me very very very well. And who has cleared her schedule on Sunday so she can come bail us out of jail if needed.

I actually went to State Farm yesterday just to make sure my car insurance was completely paid up. I'm sure we'll be fine! Just good, clean fun for us! I swear, we'll really be studying at the LIBRARY.

;-D

Ticking down

No more finals until Monday, but I take my GRE Exam in 9 hours.
8:00am Saturday I'll be working my way through a 3+ hour test, WOOOO. It's a computerized test so I'll have my scores right away, except for my 2 essay scores - which are the only scores I really need anyway, hah. I'll have those scores in about 2 weeks.
I'll be stopping at Starbucks to energize up on my way there.

Then in the afternoon I'll be giving my car a good scrubbing, inside and out. The inside is full of books, papers, crap, empty coffee cups and water bottles, etc. And it's dusty. The outside is just Dirty. I don't think I actually got to the inside-car-washing at the end of last semester, so the poor car really needs it.

Then Sunday... FUN TIme! It's off to San Francisco with two of my friends for drinking and Shakespeare. What's more fun than that?

It's going to be a big weekend, and I'm glad a lot of it is going to be spent in air conditioned buildings. This heat really sucks.

It is FUCKING HOT in San Jose and especially in this house.

Monday I picked up my signed Major forms from the English Department and went over to turn in my graduation forms. Three more classes and I'm done! With my BA anyway.

I got my Spenser essay back and received another A with another comment that I need to turn it into a conference paper - that professor is determined to get me to a conference!

Today I confirmed my GRE Exam for Saturday morning. I'm so excited! I can't wait!!!

Sunday I'm going to see Midsummer Night's Dream with two adult females. That may seem a wierd statement, but I realized yesterday that it has been OVER FIVE YEARS since I went out with a FEMALE FRIEND and WITHOUT KIDS. Ever since Eliza moved to San Diego and I started school, I have not gone anywhere without my kids except for a few things with Scott. I've gone to lots of great places and done some great things, and actually I LOVE doing things with my kids, but it feels really great to go out with some adult friends who are not males. I'm going to have to do it more often.

Anyway, the Midsummer Night's Dream show looks incredible, and if you didn't already you really should click the link and watch the preview. I'm super excited even though I have to drive to San Francisco (and my friends will quickly figure out what a mistake it was to assign driving to me, heh), but it's a matinee, and we're going to get drinks before the show. So... there will be good and loud times. Sunday is going to be Fun Fun Fun.

The funny thing is I'm just as excited about taking the GRE on Saturday. I guess because that almost makes me an official graduate student. I can't believe I'm almost there!

No, Colin, No! Eat something, Please!!!

Oh Lordy, someone please give Colin Farrell a sandwich, extra cheese, please, because whatever movie role it is that made him lose this much weight has just sucked the hawtness right out of him. Egads!!!

What English Majors do when school is done:

1. Play endless stupid word games on Facebook
2. Sit and read their Literary Criticism book... just for the heck of it

Turned in my last paper today. This is the class where the professor hates us all for some reason. As we left I asked if she was going to email comments on our papers since we won't get them back for two weeks. She said, "No, I don't want to do that because you'll just get upset."

Wow. She didn't even LOOK at my paper yet, but she already knows we're getting bad grades. Which... is what we expected from her.

Today she told us that for our final we'll be writing a criticism essay on either this novel or that novel... which means... we have to read BOTH novels before our final????

I hate that class. I'm so glad I'm at least PASSING it.

So that's it, all I have are two more days of classes and then a messed up 2-week long final schedule with some finals at 7:15am and some days I have finals all day long. I just need to re-read a few Canterbury Tales, look over The English Patient, The Waste Land and Great Gatsby, try to review The Faerie Queen, read two novels ...and try not to fail the Spanish final.

I have a solid A in Spanish right now, all I need is a B in the class and I'll be done with Spanish forever. I never thought I'd see this day, that's for sure.

And now I shut down and head out to Aptos.

I interrupt my essay writing to say that this season's Survivor is the BEST SURVIVOR SEASON EVER. I have never sat and laughed my ass off at Survivor for so many weeks IN A ROW. If you guys haven't been watching, you've missed some Good Good Stuff.

It's actually quite amazing that a bunch of women actually got their acts together and joined forces. IT'S ABOUT TIME. Oh my god I have tears running down my face from laughing so hard.

And now I go back to writing. I'm up to a whole 940 words. Heh.

A sprint to the finish line

Okay, here we go: My last paper is due tomorrow morning. I'm 900 words into the 2000 word paper. I have a big frozen lasagna in the oven and a large glass of Mt. Dew with ice next to me. I have my stupid Waste Land book in my lap and the laptop on and Judge Judy on TV...

I really hope I can get this last one out.

Bring on the Mt. Dew

Tonight is D-Day(/Night). My last paper is due tomorrow morning. It's the 2000 word Literary Criticism of The Waste Land, and I'm 900 words in, 1100 to go. I am exhausted and my brain is fried I don't feel like I have the energy to finish this, but I'm going to get a 2-liter of Mt. Dew on the way home, send Spike out for burritos, and set down to writing.

Mt. Dew = Magical Essay Writing Juice

From Friday afternoon on it will be all alcohol all the time through the weekend. Now I understand why college students drink so much.

Guess what I'm going to see, probably with my favorite professor?

Midsummer Night's Dream.

Click on it with your speakers on and watch the preview.

And then tell me you're not jealous.
:-D

1100 words to go

Super Fantastic Spenser essay all complete!
After school today I work on my Spanish presentation (on Daddy Yankee, HAAAR) with my partners for Wednesday.
Then I finish the last 1100 words of my Literary Criticism paper, due Friday.

That's about IT, Folks!!!

Turned in my Chaucer essay today, it came in at 3300 words (and 11 pages with 2 pages of works cited).

My Spenser essay has to be 2000 words (around 5 pages) and I'm 150 words into it (due tomorrow) but I finally have a good thesis in mind and it's progressing. I can always count on good old Ovid for inspiration.

I have my Mt. Dew here next to me and expect to be up until at least 1am.

I am happily writing away!

At 2700 words and 2 pages of works cited I am all finished but the conclusion. I think I'm going to put that paper away until tomorrow, take a break from it and then write the conclusion with a clear head. Just in time to print it for school!

And now I BEGIN my 2000 word paper on Spenser's Epithalamion. Don't hate, I know you want to write one too.

I can't believe I've written over 3000 words in only a few days... My cold isn't 100% gone (because I'm not getting enough sleep or healthy food) but as long as I can keep it at arm's length I'll be okay.

I CAN'T BELIEVE I ONLY NEED TO PASS THREE MORE CLASSES TO GRADUATE!!!!!!!

Progress

2000 words done on my Chaucer essay, 1000 words to go, due tomorrow.
(sighhhhhh...)

Nothing done but the title of my Age of Elizabeth essay, 2000 words to go, due Tuesday.

900 words done on my Waste Land essay, 1100 more to go, due Friday.

On Saturday I'm going to sleeeeeeep.

The first 2-3 pages of our 2000 word papers in Literary Criticism are due Friday morning. I just finished over three pages and 900 words so I'm printing out my copies for class right now (1:00am). We had a choice of The English Patient or The Waste Land to write on. You can guess what everyone else chose... I decided to be different and take the harder route and chose The Waste Land. Now that I'm over my cold I think it's going to be a good paper.

The entire thing isn't due until next Friday, so after this that paper is going to sit until Tuesday.

Starting tomorrow evening I'll be frantically pounding out my 3000 word research paper for my Chaucer class. It's about the Blood Libel stories and Chaucer's "Prioress' Tale". Nice and bloody and gory - it's going to be a fun paper. Oh yeah, and I haven't started it yet and it's due MONDAY.

I just discussed an entirely different approach for my Age of Elizabeth paper with my professor today. So again I'm going to be different and instead of writing about The Faerie Queene again I'll be writing about Spenser's Epithalamion. And that's due Tuesday.

I'm sure it all sounds boring, but now that I'm not sick I'm having fun and am thriving under the pressure. And after the papers? School is all over except for the Finals.

WOOOOOOO

And now I go to bed so I can be at school by 9:00am. Six hours of sleep, Yayy!

Except for a hacking cough that is exhausting me (and about to split a blood vessel in my brain) today is the first day I've felt better since Friday evening. So that's... four and a half days of writing WASTED. WHY do I get sick at the end of EVERY DAMN SEMESTER????

I got one page done today and lots of research for a paper which is due next Friday, but of which I need to bring the first three pages to school THIS Friday for peer review.

I got research done last night that will help for the 3000 word Chaucer paper that is due... MONDAY. That I have not started WRITING yet.

And for my class on Spenser? We are still at Zero, even though I sat staring at my computer screen all weekend long with the book open next to me, but my doped up brain couldn't think of one coherent word to type.

So, that's where we are. I'm not sure I've ever been this crunched for final papers, but I know it's been close. At least now I'm better. We'll be eating takeout all week and I won't be leaving the house this weekend until I have my Chaucer paper finished.

No matter what that sounded like, I actually finally feel optimistic that I can finish everything, now that I'm well again - just a little stressed about time, but I know I'll get them done.

Okay, off to bed I go.

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