I wake up this morning (Wednesday) at about 7:30, suddenly bolting out of bed in an “oh, SHIT!” style, rushing around to find skivvies and trousers and shirt when I realize… wait. My alarm didn’t go off. Maybe I should check the damn phone before I get in a panic. Yeah, I didn’t have to be awake until 8:30. So I stand there for a minute, debating whether or not to just stay up, wake up, and study up for my exam at noon. I come to the conclusion of “fuck it” and fall back in bed, where I have a dream that it’s the end of the world, so Addy, Terro and I are all hanging out being very angel-ho! and trying to organize some salvation. Meanwhile, Adam, a dude from my German class, is an archangel in the dream… who is hiding in a fridge because he doesn’t like this whole “end of the world” business.  At any rate, the world decides to stop ending, so we’re all, “hooray”, as Adam crawls out of the fridge. And then my alarm goes off, and my day actually begins.

It begins with me finding my brother downstairs, who tells me that Dad is in the hospital. That would’ve been nice to know, oh, I don’t know, when he was being taken to the hospital? Sorry, sorry… that just bugs me that I don’t know this shit until way after it’s happened. I immediately start conjuring ideas up about how I could maybe, probably, possibly use this to get out of having to take my exam at noon, but nah, not if it isn’t serious. And I know, I know, that makes me sound like a horrible selfish bitch, but hear me out. It’s rarely serious, cos of Dad is a whiner… you know the ones that think they’re dying if they get a case of the sniffles? Not in a hypochondriac style, but a big ol’ pitiful baby style. That’s Dad. Not that I’m bad-mouthing it or anything… he’s cute as a button when he’s sick. At any rate, turns out it may actually be something, in the area of the gallbladder. Which again, isn’t serious, but hurts like a motherfucker anyway. So I’ve made sure to be extra nice and not poke fun of the sickie. He was released, and is scheduled for a test tomorrow. If it’s NOT the gallbladder though… well. Hmm.

Went on into class, banged out my exam. Didn’t go so well. I swear to god, I did actually write “Chuck E. Cheese’s” as a movement which led to the development of social work as a profession. Also, some other “prominent” figure in social welfare was listed by me as being “so not in Wikipedia”. I only choked terribly on about a fifth of the exam, which, if I get every other question right, isn’t bad. But I never count on getting everything else right…

Came back home to watch over Dad while Mom ran errands, happy for the excuse to skip out on Micro. He slept. I reorganized my papers and notebooks. Made a pizza run, and settled in for the debate. And, when I first started writing all this, I had quite a bit to say about McCain’s Healthcare Plan of Epic Fail, plus a sidetrack into just what’s wrong with the American education system (adding more strength to the idea of being a school counselor… srsly), but… now I’m just not much in the mood for that sort of talk.

Sadly, what I really DO want to talk about isn’t something I feel like talking about in a public setting… and not really even in LJ, either (though those on LJ know a bit more detail already). Just private, thankful thoughts on just how strange life is, and how lucky I am, and how amazed I am that everything I ever hoped for, but shrugged off as unrealistic, was actually very real — very attainable. As I said tonight… were it any other time, under any other circumstance, with any other person, I would be shitting my pants right now. But for once, for the first time… I’m not scared of the uncertainties and difficulties that surely lie ahead. I’m actually entirely comfortable with this. Excited about this. Hell, I even feel like I need this. This is the path set out before me, and not taking that path would defy all reason.

Knowing myself as I do… I know that being able to say that is pretty fucking monumental.

I didn’t really get much sleep last night… as those who follow my LJ already know the reason as to why.  Cos of SNUGGLES this weekend! YAAAAY.  My squealing, sighing, happy warm glee of warmth and glee had me tossing and turning in bed (hugging myself between flip-flops) for about two hours.  I think, anyway.  I don’t have a clock by my bed, so there’s really no way of knowing.  Hopefully I’ll be more successful in sleeping tonight.

Not sleeping wasn’t an excuse to sleep in, though.  So I get up, roll out, and hit campus by ten-after-eleven, have a smoke and a sit-down before going down to the OUTsource.  Chatter a bit, then I’m left to man the station til one… and it’s three before anyone shows up again.  I missed my class (a rather critical pre-exam review), and was quite displeased with this until I shrugged and decided it wasn’t a big deal.  It probably isn’t a big deal.  I don’t see myself having any trouble with the exam… *shrug*

What did upset me, however, was the fact that I didn’t have to miss the class… if I had just been put on the key list, I could’ve locked up and went to class.  And if I am on the key list, it would’ve been nice to have been informed.  I’ll just have to make certain to have a chat about this before next week.

But you could decide to see the good in it, which was: I clocked three of four required volunteering hours for my SW class.  Tuesday next week will have it covered.  Sweeeeeeet.  And I put a dent in my Micro (the class I’ve been doing the best job of slacking in).  As to what’s left… the rest of Micro, and my SW paper, which I’m not clear if it’s due Tomorrow or next week.  Cos of lost my fucking syllabus.  Haaaaay I’m smart *facepalm*

In short, today has been mostly unproductive, but not entirely fail.  I guess that’s somewhat “win” but not really.  Perhaps maybe?  Almost certainly.

Oi.  After… what, four hours of stressin’, I think, I finally have the article assignment finished.  It’s not as if I intended to leave it to the last second… no, I wanted to do it this weekend.  Unfortunately, this weekend was filled with other things such as German, emo, and making falls which COULD have been put back to a later date, but you know what?  I wanted the damn things to be done, so I did it.  Back to the topic, though, neither is it that the assignment was particularly difficult… the only problem was that it just started off badly.  My first area of research turned up nothing… by which I mean, turned up useless articles which I did not find out were utterly useless until I sat down four hours ago.  So I had to start over again with a new topic, with major printer problems (which just fucked me off after having so many Acrobat problems earlier today with the lappy).  And on top of all the technical problems was the fact that I am more than likely coming down with the creeping crud that has been going around campus AND home.  I’m tired, dizzy, my throat burns, and my head isn’t too nice, either…

So yes, I was (and am) quite a mess.  Thank holy lovin’ fuck I can come home and stress and panic and cry and wail and get nice, calm, caring support from the Kevbot.  I went from freaking out to the point of nearly flipping into a nervous breakdown to being on the ball (mostly, save for my goldfish-like attention span).  Gotta love that.  Gotta gotta.  Gotta love random flwrs, too.  If there was ever a day I needed lillies, today was that very day.  It may be by accident that he always hits it when I REALLY need the cheering up… but I’m going to say it’s intuition anyway ;P

But all is done, and I am finally satisfied.  I can now devote tomorrow’s break to catching up on Micro.  Should also probably see if there’s still a desk position available at the OUTsource… I need to get those four hours in… and desking would do it.

Other news?  I got a wicked bitchin’ new monitor… a nice 22″ widescreen dealie.  My original plan was to get two 17″s for a dual set-up, but meh.  This wound up being cheaper.  And it is fantastic!  Also fantastic, my ThinkGeek order came in the mail today.  I know have CAMP SPOONFORKNIFE.  Why the fuck do I need that, you might ask?  Cos of tuna, duh.  Also nabbed the Ladies’ T-Qualizer, OMG PWNIES, and a SpazzStick.  Party!

Blue Grass Airport Welcomes Allegiant Air to Lexington

Nonstop service from Lexington to Tampa at a mere $69 (plus taxes and fees) each way.  Can we say GODSEND?  I wish I had smelled this happening earlier… I wouldn’t have panicked over rising prices over Christmas Vacay.  But no, this had to get smelled just days AFTER I reserved my seats with United.  Son of bitchy!  But hey, now I know where to look for Spring Break.

What else can be said?  Not much.  Not very much going on beyond waking-up, driving, going to class, driving back home, getting my nightly dose of haerts, sleeping (not enough), and waking-up some more.  I suppose I could mention that the OUTSource is actually a rather cool place to chill between classes.  Always weary of GLBT(QQA) associations as they always seem to be uber-faggy, but I slid down to their office the other day in search of volunteer work, and wound up staying for two hours just jabbering.  If you’re bored on campus, I’d definitely recommend checking ‘em out.

Sadly, I’m not hearing about any real volunteer work from them, and I have to get four hours minimum for SW, so eh.  I’m either going to hit up VIP or KET.  KET would be the shit.

Another weekend, another failure to keep track of things I should be keeping track of. Ugh. I did chew a rather hefty dent in The Omnivore’s Dilemma… about 150 more pages to plow through before the first exam. Not that daunting of a task though, since it is actually a very interesting book. Nothing in there that shocks me, and most of it I already knew, but it’s still a rather delicious read.

Tomorrow, I need to try and catch up on Micro, and see if I can’t figure out the rest of the German work we were left to do.  It’s gotten to a point, it seems, where we’re being expected to complete assignments before we’ve even covered the things we need to know for said assignments… sort of like your Friday quizzes to test you on what you learned during the week being moved to Monday before you’ve learned it (I desperately need to buy that movie, by the by).  I’ll give it my best, but I really expect a bit more instruction for this ~$1k-per-class price tag.  If I wanted a teach-yourself deal, I would’ve stayed with my $10 set of cds.

Ah yes, I almost forgot.  One major accomplishment of the weekend which fills me with glee… I managed to nail a reasonably priced flight down to Tampa for Christmas and New Year’s, on top of my previously scheduled Thanksgiving trip.  Feels strange having two flights tucked away at once in my wallet.  Now I’ve just got to figure out when and how to break it to the folks that I’m not going to be around…

New Year’s.  That… yeah, how am I going to feel about that day?  So much to reflect on, there.  So many changes over the past nine months already… so much more happiness and comfort.  More movement and progress.  More love.  More laughter.  It’s been one hell of a remarkable year.  It blows my mind every single day.  Standing on THE day when everything changed… seeing where I’ve been and where I am today… well.  Wow?  It should be interesting.  And nothing less than fantastic, considering I am one of those goofballs that just loves, loves the idea of facenibbling at the ball drop.  Teehee.