:D

/Staycation

My very brief spring break has come to an end already. I had my last final on the 19th, and I'm terrified to see my final grade for that class. Nada had 6 passage identifications where you have to identify the play, speaker, and context from all of the plays we read over the course of the class. That part SUCKED. I think I identified 4/6 without a doubt, but 2 of them slipped past me. Hopefully I'm a good guesser. But I got 95/100 on my Elizabethan sexuality paper and I'm expecting an A on my 5-page King Lear paper as well, so I'm positive I have at least a B in the class.

After Monday, I didn't do SHIT this week. I had Th-Sat off work and I only went out one night and spent the others at home. I had all of these awesome productive plans in mind, but I didn't want to do anything. I don't know whether or not I shoyuld feel guilty about this...mostly guilty that I didn't make plans to see people I never get to see during the quarter.

My first day at Seattle U is tomorrow and, unsurprisingly, I realize I procrastinated on buying a new binder and notebooks, etc. I've bought all of my books (and thanks to shitty sellers on Amazon, I'm still waiting on 3 that I originally ordered ON MARCH 6TH...there were cancellations and angry e-mails), but I ALWAYS start new quarters with the previous quarter's supplies. Never again, I say.

I have my first dentists appointment since 2008 on Tuesday and I'm terrified of whats going to happen to my mouth. I have two teeth that have been giving me hell for over a year, and it took until now for me to realize that since I'll be working less, I might lose my insurance so I had better go NOW. I have been experiencing some really weird chest pain in my heart area and it got so bad that I was sure something was wrong. I went to the doctor on Friday and she thinks its a pinched nerve. But its been going on for over a year and has gotten notably more painful recently. I think theres something up, but I guess I'll have to wait for it to get worse before I can get a diagnosis. Horrible sharp shooting pains on the left side of my chest. Not. Normal.

Not excited to start waking up at 8am :[

Almost There

I finished 2/3 of my finals on Friday...so 2/3 of my teachers decided to skip the hassle of finals week and the three hour finals and decided instead to give them to us early. My Shakespeare as Lit. teacher, Nada, has decided to utilize the two hours given during finals week. In fact, she's offered an extra two hours because her finals tend to take a while to complete.

Nada is by far the most difficult teacher I have had so far in my entire academic experience [ever]. I have been a decent writer since middle school, and at this point I am fairly confident in my tenuous ability. The first paper I had to write for her was a four page paper analyzing a sonnet we had not discussed in class. I had absolutely no idea how I would go about analyzing a sonnet in more than one and a half pages; my ability to write semi-extensively about poetry has never been even almost on par with those who were quasi-competent. I decided to break it down quatrain by quatrain and derive what I could out of those lines, the couplet, and included a conclusion paragraph. I got an 80% on that paper, and I haven't earned that low a grade on a paper in a really, really, long time. Our extensive and very comprehensive midterm included TWO four page papers, followed by another four page paper with a 6 slide presentation and 30 line reading from one of the plays we covered, graded VERY. UNKINDLY. Followed by a ten page analysis paper on some aspect of Shakespeare's works (Elizabethan Sexuality as Reflected in the Sonnets) and a take-home final paper of 5 pages on the wrongs of King Lear. I have always been someone who could write an excellent scoring paper with little effort, and Nada really challenged that in me. She required that I be more insightful and more eloquent, and I'm sure I will benefit from her challenge in the long-term. I hope to someday be so astute in the subject of English Lit...I cannot recommend her highly enough.

I was invited to study with a girl I thought was French for the majority of the quarter--and a couple of other girls in my International Relations class. Aigul is actually from Kazakhstan and just happens to be fluent in French and Kazakh. I have considered her my secret competition in class...she can answer as many questions as I can (actually more...kills me) and has made a point to ask me any questions she might have. This wouldn't be weird, but I had been thinking of her as stupid smart all quarter and I thought she was challenging me when she would ask me questions. Because school is a competition to me for some reason I cannot describe.

Anyway, she was a fantastic and thorough study partner, and I really appreciated that about her. We studied for 6 hours straight and then e-mailed each other sample essay questions with the prompts our teacher gave us in our study guide. It felt really fucking good. If I don't get a 3.8-4.0 in that class, I'll be genuinely surprised.

I have Nada's final and 5 page paper to write, and as of around 3pm Monday, I'll be done with my A.A. As of 9:20 a.m. on March 26th, I will have started my first class towards my B.A. in English Literature at Seattle University.

FINALLY.

@ LONG LAST

Essentially I am really goddamn stoked this week! I had my orientation at SU and am finally a registered student. I think my really close friends are the only ones who know how important and exciting this is for me. I. Cant. Wait. I feel like I've been in community college for 10024r842yrs. The campus is evergreen-y and warm and not too big to feel lost, the library is brand new and has a cafe in it! & Private study rooms where you can bring that coffee! One of the most annoying things about Seattle Central for me is that utter disrespect everyone has for the library. Whenever I'm in there, every table (exaggeration) is eating crinkly crackly junk food and teriyaki and speaking really fucking loudly. I LOVE libraries. Just respect the library. Respect the books.

Spring Quarter Schedule

I think I'm most looking forward to the Law, Literature & Society class. I try to gauge my excitement off of the legitimacy of required book list and I can't wait to read and discuss the books for this class. The philosophy class is part of the required SU curriculum, and I wish it weren't at night. The book list looks pretty good, and I have yet to read much of Plato & Aristotle, which we will be. Excited for that too! And British Lit II ! RENAISSANCE TIME Y'ALL!

 I've taken MW&F off so I will only be doing school those days & NOTHING ELSE. I'll work on TThSatSun, which is pretty much perfect since I'll never work more than two days in a row. That, my friends, is how to stay friendly in customer service.

The weather in Seattle has been slaughtering my happiness. It is remarkably difficult to get out of bed in the morning knowing that it is pouring and you have to walk. BUT IM 2 HAPPY 4 IT 2 GET ME DOWN!

I turned in my 12 page research paper for my Shakespeare as Lit class today, so I'm feeling that false yet euphoric sense of freedom with my time. No papers, no projects, no presentations...just finals. I ended up writing the paper on "Reflections of Elizabethan sexuality in Sonnets 15, 20, 129, and 130." I wrote about the traditional gender roles and norms of sexuality during Shakespeare's lifetime, and since the Elizabethans were surprisingly homosocial, also about the norms of homosexuality for both genders. I used sonnets related to the historic information I found, analyzed them, and then related Shakespeare's personal sexual characteristics to aspects of his society. It was actually a pretty fun paper. Lets talk about it sometime.

Gaga Ah Ah Ah

Currently at work eating spring rolls (so in love with Kaosami and the cafe's proximity) trying to figure out what the hell to write my ten page analysis paper on...I hate broad essay topic selection! And topic is everything. It's what makes the paper smooth or shit once you get to page six and don't know what else to say. I'm leaning towards "Reflections of Elizabethan Society Values in the Shakespearean Sonnets" because I think it is a genuinely interesting subject to me...and broad enough that in a ten page paper I will have more than enough material to use. The real pain will be getting all of that information organized and deciding what to talk about. At this point in my academic career, I'm not worried much about filling up ten pages...more so about organization.

I need to start using my goddamn camera. I don't feel like I has any time!!! But maybe March will be a photo-a-day month. I haven't lost my photo-eye, but without my iPhone and instagram, I'm feeling...lacking in the photo department. 

I'm growing my hair out...the arduous process begins. I finally feel like this isn't how I'm supposed to look anymore. If that makes any sense. 

New iPhone will be here by Saturday!!!! 

:D

A Calm of Sorts

I've been stressed out that I can't do school (community college) full-time and work 32 hours/week and still maintain the grades I want and NEED. With law school, getting a slightly higher grade in one class and raising my entire GPA (repeatedly) can make a $100,000 difference. No joke! I've researched the hell out of it. What will become of me, and of us, once I start UNI?! And law school? Fuhgeddaboudit.

I persuaded my International Relations teacher to give me 2 extra half-points on my midterm (all of the multiple choice questions were .5 points) with really super good [trivial] arguments. 18.5/20 to a 19.5/20. "Holla!," she said facetiously.

I'm worried for my future...I WILL be more stressed out than this once I am married with children, and I will still have to maintain my relationships and my schedule. How is it possible I'll be able to do it then if I can't do it now? Besides the whole "learn as you go" factor. I am pursuing a demanding career and also the whole family experience...if R feels neglected now, I don't know what to suggest will be his reality 15 years from now.

I don't want to help with the dishes, I do NOT want to clean the bathroom, I don't want to cuddle (before bedtime), I just want to read/write what I need to and effectively use every second of rational-thinking free time that I have. 

Also, watch United States of Tara. But more realistically, finish two more acts of King Lear and write some seriously awesome notes.

This post is titled "A Calm of Sorts," so I should clarify that it is such because I do NOT have to finish my analysis paper on Juliet for my Shakespeare class until tomorrow night, and my seminar group doesn't have to present until Monday...so I'm feeling relaxed. And I have two days off in a row! I get a hair cut tomorrow (kind of...I'm finally growing it out unless Pinterest talks me out of it), finish my Juliet analysis paper, let R make dinner for me, and relish the fact that I do not have to explain to anyone the difference between the Starbucks' caramel "macchiato" and the actual macchiato. 

rollercoastin

I hosted my group for my Lit. Masterpieces class at my 500 sq. foot apartment for mimosas and a viewing of The Hours. I have to say, it's really quite easy to get along with people you have nothing in common with. The condition of the Young Woman transcends a surprising number of boundaries. That was fun.

Ralph and I went to Saba for lunch and split a veggie platter. Ethiopian does everything you need it to. I want to live in it.

Today has been a good day amongst a series of unfortunate events. Nevermind that we had to talk about The Incident for the majority of lunch (not to mention the majority of most days). I can't wait until it goes away and we can start over or whatever.

I'm the most upset that this even had to happen to him...someone who has devoted his adult life to helping "troubled youth" find their ground. This is what he gets.