Hmmm. So I'm trying to think of highlights of the last ten days or so. And, as usual, I'm drawing a blank. What did I do last week? I'm not really sure. Lots of work... Friday the Glascock festivities started... I went to the Life & Letters talk, which was... hilarious. Mainly because of something that Prof. H. did to bring a close to a rather awkward -- rambling -- wrap up. That evening I got dressed up for the contest, and listened... lots of good stuff, and our reader's poetry was quite satisfying, as it is similar, I think, in aesthetic principles, to what I write. But I still wished that I was reading (I mean come on, first runner up two years in a row??) Anyway... Saturday morning I went with Julia to hear the judges read, and hear the results. The Smithie won... I personally thought her poetry was the least polished of the bunch, and the least thought out. Saturday night I went to my first seder with Karuna, Lindsay, Susan, Sarah, & Molly. It was great, partly because I had good company =)

Sunday... I got up pretty late, after working late into the night. I finally got my ass to brunch around noon thirty, and met up with Kathleen. Then I had a huge t-shirt fiasco... by default I'm kind of in charge of the English Dept. t-shirts, and I had to scan in the image and set up stuff with the screen printers. Sunday evening I got some work done, and then read theses with Karuna.

Monday... I went to N. Delle's Presidential Tea & told Jo jo that I'm satisfied with my education here, and that my classes have been great in my major, and that I'm going to grad school... it was a nice feeling of closure.

OK, Tues. morning the weirdest thing happened. I told Andrew so here's the IM conversation:

Pink Poodledog: this morning, 5:30 am: I wake up to some bizarre undercurrent of noise -- like a shovel being steadily scraped across pavement from a distance. of course now I need to pee, so I get up out of bed, look out my window, and see two people gesturing out on the green
Pink Poodledog: so I go to get my glasses, thinking I recognize them, and then the fire alarm goes off
Pink Poodledog: so I get my coat on and flip flops, run out -- we've had all our drills so I know something has set this off....
Pink Poodledog: we get outside...
Pink Poodledog: and wait for 45 minutes. three fire engines come, smoke is billowing out of the basement on the north side, and we can see another flume going up above the roof from the other side
Pink Poodledog: all that hassle -- no explanation -- still none today, as to what the f*#$ happened and what the hell is being done to prevent it from happening again
Pink Poodledog: or what has been fixed thus far (ex: can we take a hot shower, or not?)
ANDPEW: but what about the people who were outside before the alarm went off? they didn't know what caused it?
Pink Poodledog: so then finally we're allowed to shuffle back in, though it's still smoking, and it smells like ... you know the smell of a burnt pot, after you've tried to boiled water and all the water's boiled away?
Pink Poodledog: that's what it smelled like in all the common spaces
Pink Poodledog: no idea, when I looked again before jetting out of my room they weren't there
Pink Poodledog: so by the time we're back in the dorm... it's too bright out to get back to sleep easily, the crows are going at their f&$*ing annoying ass squawking, and I'm wide awake...
Pink Poodledog: sooo annoying... so I only got like 5 hours of sleep at most

See, I whine to everyone, not just my blog readers!

Anyway...

Tuesday evening Azeen & I read theses in the evening after my last ever small group for SAW. It was great -- and I love her project!

Weds. was a down day at first -- it was gross outside, and I realized I had more work due than expected. I was frantically getting stuff together for my poetry portfolio & Eng. Dept. contests. But then I went to my last 101 class (the English class I mentor). The two groups presenting were awesome, simply awesome. Eleanor was channeling a mix of Jerry Blank of Strangers with Candy & Lorraine (of the funny throat clearing noises) of MAD TV. Then Mary & Linda's group made up a ritual based on a myth involving the Little Bru-ha-ha & a plant with Michael Jackson fruit. I laughed so hard I cried. I can't believe how incredibly lucky I was to mentor for this class. I talked to Prof. Davis afterwards, and we hugged, and it was the most satisfying class... ever. And I completely love the firsties -- I hope I'm lucky enough to have students like them in the courses I TA & teach in grad school. I finally realized that yes, I like doing this, and I think this is what I want to do with my life.

Today was kind of sad... We had our last Verse writing class, and I'm not kidding when I say that we should have a Livejournal community based upon that class. We were laughing like crazy over something I can hardly remember now, instead of looking at my poem -- a situation I was perfectly happy about! (Sometimes I don't feel like defending my poetry thought of the hour...) Plus I treated myself to chai... ahhh... chai.

This evening was lovely. A group of us went to Noho for Miranda's birthday, to eat dinner at Osaka. Miranda got hibachi, so we were treated to a whole show: flames, bouncing eggs, burning towers of onion, flying chunks of fried egg... I did my usual sushi thing (i.e., anything with avocado and/or asparagus). We took lots of pictures... I had the best time, sitting by Miranda and Sarah... We must all stay in touch! Afterwards we explored in Faces, taking funny pictures, and then ran through traffic to catch the bus. Back at MHC, I lured everyone to the Delles for our chocolate bash =)

So that's the main stuff... On the thesis front: I finally decided to go with my reader and 2nd reader. They've both given me final edits, and I've applied almost everything to the critical chapters, and then just need to do the same with my short stories (a job I'm saving for tomorrow). Then I need to proof everything, add a table of contents & acknowledgements page... print... and... I'm done!

And I'm graduating in... what... 23, 24 days? This was my last full week as an undergrad...