In about 12 hours...

I have to take a final exam on:

Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle” (951-965); R. W. Emerson, Nature, Chapters 1, 7, and 8 (1106-1113, 1132-1138), and “Self Reliance” (1151-1180); Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown” (1289-1298), and The Scarlet Letter, (1377-1493); Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1553-1565); Harriet Jacobs, from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1808-1829); Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1698-1792); Henry David Thoreau, Introduction (1853-1857); from Walden “Economy” (1872-1885; 1893-1900; 1908-1914), “What I Lived For” (1914-1924), “Solitude” (1940-1945), “Higher Laws,” “Brute Neighbors” (1981-1995), and “Conclusion” (2027-2046). Herman Melville, “Bartleby” (2363-2384); Walt Whitman, Song of Myself (2920-2923; 2937-2982); Emily Dickinson, poems (2554-2597), especially “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” (#124; 2560), “There’s a certain Slant of light” (#320; 2567), “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,” (#340; 2568), “This was a Poet—It is That” (#446; 2575), “Because I could not stop for Death—” (#479; 2578), “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—” (#591; 2579), “I started Early—Took my Dog—” (#656; 2582), “Tell all the truth but tell it slant -” (#1263; 2590).

Is it too late to turn back...?

We interrupt our regularly scheduled studying to bring you...

My favorite Youtube video!

Only in College

Can you go sledding on cafeteria trays at 2:00 a.m. with your roommate and your neighbor across the hall. I am bruised and exhausted, but it was so worth it! Our neighbor Zac is on the Cross Country team, so last night (this morning, rather) after we got sick of watching youtube, he took us to this hill that the team runs workouts on. It's a pretty big hill I must say, and I didn't even know it was there. So we got all bundled up (I am definitely bringing back some more snow apparel after break) and trekked out with the trays Zac had to the hill. At the hill, we found two more trays that had been left there in the snow. These were bigger and better for sledding than the other ones, and now Zac has quite the collection of cafeteria trays... Anyway, we had a blast! We slid down the hill four or five times before we got tired of climbing back up. On one run, I fell off the tray and it went halfway down the hill without me! Then, obviously, we had a mini snow battle. We would scoop up fresh snow on the trays and fling/dump them on one another. I think I lost the fight. :-( Now I have to stay in and study all day to make up for all the neglecting I did yesterday. I have a paper to rewrite, another paper to write, and three tests to study for. NOT FUN!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Last night, the wet misting weather had started when I got out of class at 7:45. (There is a story about class, I'll talk about that later.) So I braced myself for the snow turning into a wet ruined mush. When I woke up this morning, I turned my head towards the window and was greeted by the wonderful sight of huge flurries flying around like crazy! I feel like I have won another small victory! I know, I have nothing to do with causing the snow, but I just enjoy it so much. I'm sure that now that I publicly expressed my joy for the snow that it will all melt just to spite me. Hopefully there are enough people complaining about the snow to counteract my joy, and it will snow more just to spite them. Yes, I believe that things work this way. I hate when people complain about the snow. It's bloody MICHIGAN people! Move to Florida if you don't like the snow. We don't want you and your complaining here anyway.

Another personal victory: Mel and I decorated our room for Christmas!

Mel made the snowflakes. I made one, but it came out yucky. 

I just have to take a brief pause here to say that The Princess Bride is on Bravo right now. Oh Wesley... Edward who?

Ok, good stuff out of the way, now for my epic fail.

Yesterday I went into my Italian class at 6:00 pm. I hate Mondays and Wednesdays because I have three classes back to back, starting at 3 and going till 7:30. It is awful. So my Italian class is the last one, and by that time I'm exhausted. The final was scheduled for next Monday, so I'm thinking that it would just be an easy review day. I sat down and started knitting a few rows on my scarf. But then the people around keep talking about how much they had studied for today. I turned to the girl next to me and asked if we had a test today. She said "Didn't you get the email? The final is today!" Of course I didn't get the email!!! So I had to take the final cold turkey, no studying. But actually it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I know that I passed, but I know I could have gotten a better grade if I had studied. Sigh. One thing is good though, now I only have to take one final on Monday instead of two. 

But nothing can get me down because it has been snowing for almost 10 hours! 

I Should Disconnect My Computer from the Internet

I shouldn't be writing this right now. I shouldn't even be on the internet. I have so much work to do by Monday it is ridiculous. I really enjoyed the long weekend at home, but it set me back so much! Sunday I got back to school and realized I was whole book behind in my reading. Melanie (my roommate. Just in case there happens to be a reader who doesn't know me. Doubtful.) is working on her rewrites for writing 150, which I help with occasionally, but she would rather be making paper snowflakes. I agree. The end of the semester is awful! I just can't wait till finals are behind me and I can relax!

Instead of my papers, I'd rather be working on this:

That would be the Noro Scarf, which is so much fun to knit! I should be working on Christmas presents, but I just I love watching the colors come together. Speaking of knitting, I brought my knitting to my Civ class a few weeks ago, because I was desperately trying to get a pair of fingerless mitts done before the cold weather hit. My prof was fascinated and he said that he had never had a student knit in class before. I was a little surprised at that, because I am sure I am not the only student here who has yarn exploding from her/his backpack. Anyway, yesterday I went to class and three other girls were knitting. I feel like I have just won a small victory in some way. I inadvertently got more people to knit in public! Mwahahahahahaha... The class continues next semester with the same people, so we'll see if this knitting continues, or if they go back in the closet.

Maybe people are knitting more now because of the weather. Today was bitterly cold with the wind blowing. But at least we have snow!

They say it is supposed to rain tomorrow, but I am really hoping they are wrong. The snow just puts me in such a better mood. If I have to watch it turn to a slushy mess, I won't be able to handle it. I'll just have to turn in a blank sheet of paper for my final on Monday. I swear I will.