Moot Thoughts & Musings

Well, I'm done with the semester. At least done enough to begin to relax a little. I didn't manage to finish without any incompletes, but this is the most complete incomplete I've ever had...as in, I'm over half-way done with the paper instead of wondering what to write about.

I feel very tired and crashed today. It's been a crazy weekend.

Friday morning I went up to Baton Rouge to take part in the Packing Party. The building where our department is located is scheduled for renovation, so we had to pack up to move to another building while this happens. In addition to the profs offices, which we students helped some with, there were two libraries that the theory and musicology people have, which we students helped most with. In exchange, we students got free pizza. Hey! It worked for me. If all I could eat right now was pizza, I would be a happy camper. Whenever I'm hungry, all I want is pizza. But I've been good and have been eating healthy things. It's just very hard to think about pizza. Watching the Simpsons in the evening just about kills me, because there are always pizza commercials.

Friday afternoon and night I spent at Jack and Erica's so that I could study for my final on Saturday. Going to somebody else's house to study was nice, because I had none of my stuff to distract me (including husband, who I like, and therefore want to spend time with instead of studying), and somebody else made a yummy dinner.

Saturday I had one final at noon, and then had to take another one I should've taken Thursday, but couldn't because I had to teach. So I studied for that one after the first one while I sat in a very cozy, Christmasy favorite coffee shop.

Both of these exams were for the same prof, and I must say they were a little disappointing to take. In my opinion, a good test is a learning experience. One learns and connects while studying for it, and the kinds of questions it asks brings it all together in a really marvelous way. These tests were not like that. They were rote. The reason I studied so little for them was that I all I did was to cram some dates in my head. I didn't really need to know a whole lot more than that. I could manage the rest of the tests from there. They were really frustrating. In many respects, my coursework experience has been a disappointment. But I won't go there now....

So after a brain-wracking Saturday, I got home around 6.30 pm, really pooped, but glad to have it over with and glad to be home. Well, Chris had had a busy day and got my all psyched up to go around town to do a few things. First thing's first--getting our Christmas Tree!!! Woohoo!!! We got a really nice tree, too! It barely fits in our living room, but who cares? It's such an awesome tree...between 6 and 7 feet to the very tip-top, and nice and full with soft needles.

After we got the tree, Chris wanted me to go with him to go through some boxes of books at his school where he teaches. Somebody donated a ton of kids books to his school's library, but they were little kids books, and his school starts with 7th grade--really too young to be helpful to the school's library. So they said that Chris could have some for Elvis. We scored a ton of fantastic children's books!!! I was so excited. It was such a blessing for us, because we value books so highly and are so excited to have the beginnings of a really wonderful library for Elvis.

Not only did we get a ton of books, Chris bought a nice wooden bookshelf at his friend's yard sale, so after we sorted through the books picking out the ones we wanted, we went on over to his friend's house to pick up the shelf. When we got there, she was outside, having accidently locked her house keys inside and trying to reach her roommate on her cell to no avail. We tried various non-violent ways of breaking in, but none worked (which I suppose should be a relief). So she said she would bring the bookshelf to us yesterday (wh. she did, and it is just fabulous). But we'll have to keep the shelf and the books in storage until we move, because there's NO ROOM in our apt.

Speaking of moving, we may have a place. One of Chris's coworkers is moving out his place in May--it's half a double (typical for NOLA), 2 bedrooms, and already has a washer and dryer in it (so we wouldn't have to buy one). Chris looked at it on Saturday, since it was right next door to his friend's yard sale (unfortunately, she is moving); he said it was everything we love--things so typical of New Orleans architecture: the hardwood floors, high ceilings, and molding. It's in SUCH a cute neighborhood, and just perfect for us--lots of friendly people walking around. Still in the city...in fact even moreso. It's in a part where renovation is starting to take hold, so rents are still cheap, but there's a lot of vitality. It's on the other side of the downtown area from where we live now, but closer to the Quarter. So we'll see.

Well, Chris and I got home about 10.30 pm, at which we point we had supper and began decorating the tree. It's such a fab-o tree that we ran out of lights after two strands. So between exhaustion, the soporific effect of hot milk with chocolate powder dissolved into it (i.e. hot cocoa), and not enough lights, tree decorating is momentarily paused. I'll try to pick up another strand of lights when I go out to the store today.

Yesterday morning before church, Chris's friend came over to deliver the bookshelf. After church, Jack and Erica came down from Baton Rouge, and we caravaned to the Mississippi/Louisiana border on I-10 to take C'mas pictures in front of the "Welcome to Louisiana" sign, which was a lot of fun. I think we're the only state in this country that has our welcome sign in English and in French. I'll post a pic as soon as Erica emails some. It was her idea for their pic, and we got in on it, too (since somebody had to take the picture), since we always get a kick out of the sign.

So thus is the tale of my last few days. I'm positively crashed today. But I'm hungry and need to go to grocery store, since there's no food at home.

I've got Chris's soldering iron. My next project is making ornaments with wire and beads. We'll see how it works.... if there's success, you'll be sure to know.

I've enjoyed all the kind notes from everybody about our baby news. It's been fun getting comments from people I haven't heard from in ages. Cheers, everyone!