Monday, May 22, 2006

"The benches were stained with tears and perspiration..."

Hey Reginald, guess what? Yup, you guessed it: I'm still alive. I'm also out of college. Weird. To provide the remaining requisite "loch ness monster sighting" evidence, I present the following photograph: If you look closely you'll see that it looks like I'm walking somewhat oddly and might be about to fall down the stairs. I'm actually not, or at least I don't think I am-I don't remember all that much of the actual walking down the stage part of the story. It wasn't the most interesting part, I probably skimmed through it like the musical numbers in movie musicals that don't have interesting musical numbers. The ceremony lasted three hours or so, and I spent most of the speech reading the names and majors of the rest of my graduating class, but it wasn't devoid of interestingness. For example, the guy at the far right in that picture (Dr. Mark Kalthof, I hope I spelled that correctly), who announced our names and degrees as we walked accross the stage to receive our fake diplomas (they say the real ones, like every check that was never received, are in the mail), actually pronounced my name correctly. On a loud speaker. With my family and friends there as witnesses. I was shocked. Maybe stunned. I don't know if I kept walking right away or not, but I suppose I did. I didn't actually notice the applause that I got at the time, but as I was shaking the president's hand he said "You've got a fan club out there," so I expect that I got a noticeable amount. Apparently I had a lot of people pulling for me out there, so thanks. Anyways, that's all for now. Stay tuned for grizzly tales of adapting to life after college for D.Cous.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

A fine, fine mess...

Greetings one and one. I'm sorry for scaring everyone except Reens away from reading the blog, I hope you all didn't use to congregate in one place to read it, because if you did then you stood her up at the last get-together, and that's not nice. Today is the day, world. I stayed up all night last night in the snack bar and finished my last final this morning. I don't expect that I failed it, so I guess that means... I'm going to graduate. I've had the cap and gown sitting on my desk for a month and a half now, still in the packaging, afraid to open it up for fear of jinxing my chances. I'm not even superstitious. I guess I'm just having trouble believeing that I've actually been here for so long, or that I'm actually going to leave. It often felt like I'd been here a long time and I wanted to be done, but now I actually have and I will. It's crazy. For all that, it's been an amazing few years here, and I'm extremely grateful to have been able to do it. I've gotten to know some great people and taken some great courses and had a few mishaps and meaderings here and there to make it interesting. I'm still worried about what's next or how I'm going to survive in the real world, since I'm convinced that it's going to be quite different than my last few years have been, but maybe that's why I'm so excited. I get to change my entire day-to-day, hour-to-hour pattern of life, and I get to/have to learn how to do that by trial and error. I'm not guessing that it'll be easy, I know a lot of people who have long-since finished college, and I don't remember any of them telling me that it was by any stretch of the imagination the hardest part of their life. Maybe it was for some of them, but all the same life's not known for being easy. It is known for being interesting, though. I know that mine has been. I'm not saying that if I wrote an autobiography anyone would want to read it, just that it's been interesting for me. Then again, I'm writing a blog about my life that usually gets read by one or two people. I guess I'm better at guilting people into stuff than I thought. As usual, I'm babbling. That's all for now, I'm looking forward to seeing whoever makes it out for my commencement on Saturday. The weather outlook's not great, so unfortunately it'll probably be down on the basketball court instead of outside, much to my chagrin. So to sum up: Sorry, thank you, basketball court. Good day.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

"See the world in green and blue..."

Hey Reginald! Sorry I haven't written in a long time, I guess I've been busy or something like that. My coughing fits are steadily becoming less frequent and my sinuses are clearing up enough for me to smell the blossoms all over campus, so everything's going fine on that end. I received my first final via e-mail yesterday, so I'll be working on that this afternoon. Then I have to go over some Beaumarchais (Le Mariage de Figaro, upon which is based the italian opera of the same name) and various other French readings from the rest of the semester, but really the stress level's pretty low at the moment. I mean, nothing is due until Monday, and that seems like such a long ways off.
Hey, a paragraph break! I'll probably be hitting the snack bar tonight, which means I'll have to contend with the lady who works there, which (believe me) is no small feat. I don't want to be mean, but this woman may very well be pure evil. Here's a candid photo of her, taken stealthily by one J. Walker (This image is not for the faint of heart): Honestly, she has that expression on her face all the time, like when she's asked politely to make food for money, which requires her to get up from watching television. I'm not kidding, she's just rude to everyone who goes up there, and most people aren't the least bit rude to her. Also, she charges money for ice water, which she already only serves when you buy food. Seriously. I should be safe though, I'll be wearing a cross.
I ran into Mrs. Abel, my tennis instructor from last semester, in lunch today. Considering that the class had two sections of 20-30 people that semester alone, I'm always suprised when I run into her and she remembers me. She wished me well with graduation and everything and we chatted for a few minutes, she's very nice.
I was advised today in random conversation (not with Mrs. Abel) to drink while studying, and then drink right before taking the final, and apparently this will actually improve my chances of getting an A. Yeah, ok buddy. Whatever works for you. I think I'll adhere to more traditional study methods, since they've served me pretty well for the most part during the past few years.
Anyhoo, I'm gonna drag the lappy up the hill and try to find a decent spot outside with some wireless internet action going on, then crack open the books while researching and listening to music on the lappy. Yeah, sometimes it's tough to be me. Try not to feel too sorry for me. Have a wonderful day, Reginald.