Finals! Flying! Giant birds!

Sunday 12/12

• Work 7-4.
• Econ sample questions.
• Realization: sugar cookie dough will not keep over winter break.
• Wander building in search of a kitchen that is not being used as a study room.
• Bake sugar cookies.
• Wander building in search of friends to help eat cookies.
• Continue assembling Greek culture essay outlines.
• Glance over journalism notes (again.)
• Econ late into the night.
• Facebook status: "Studying the night before a cumulative final is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic." Ten friends agree.

Monday 12/13

• Up at seven to study.
• Econ final from 12-3. Keep my cool but agonize over every answer. Trandel's parentheses confound me. Work from front to back then back to front, skipping many first, second, third times through. Catch a bus home at quarter till three.
• Work 4-10.
• Studying journalism and Greek culture until about three.
• Distress. Tossing and turning. Dreams feature Oedipus and Antigone arguing about the theories of freedom of speech.

Tuesday 12/13

• Up at seven to stare at my Greek Culture outlines and review journalism. Decide to write on Apology of Socrates or the causes of the Peloponnesian War. Rule out prompts regarding Antigone and statues. (Did we cover statues?)
• Study until eleven.
• Dress. Catch a bus.
• Greek Culture final at noon. Write on the war; essay goes well. Last short answer section is iffy.
• Gap. Go to Student Learning Center (SLC) to study journalism. Rumbling stomach embarrasses me, sends me to the cafe for some overpriced chicken salad and unripe fruit. Flip through note cards until 3:30.
• Sit for the journalism final. Simpler than the preceding four; knock out the multiple choice in thirty minutes, excluding one, which contains a double negative. Professor scolds me for over-thinking, possibly does not understand the concept of a double negative. Short answer is tougher but doable.
• Catch a bus.
• Pack, change sheets, clean out refrigerator.
• Bid Roommate a Merry Christmas.
• Ask strangers for help carrying bamboo and potted plant.
• Offer stranger the pizza that will not fit in my cooler.
• Meet stepfather out front.
• Pick up rotisserie chicken for (late) dinner.
• Home. Load of laundry #1.
• Enjoy some quality time with Brooke. She likes her music box, brings me a Target gift card. Assure her I will use it. Certainly will.
• Convince stepfather to make me a fire because room, above the garage, is arctic, and couch is more comfortable anyway.
• Fall into a coma of happiness.

Wednesday 12/14

• Awoken by Mom's evil finch colony at eightish. Find that seven hours' sleep suits me better than four.
• Pack for Florida. Condense everything into one duffel, one backpack to avoid paying stupid checked bag fee. Read the long list of forbidden items. Enlist Mom's expert help in rolling clothes.
• Loads of laundry #2-#3.
• Shower.
• Share Nutella toast with Sofi. Several leisurely cups of coffee.
• Wander around house awhile. Blink and it's two o'clock.
• Drive like fire truck to the airport in Atlanta.
• Check in. Fret that I won't make it. Stand in line at security. Make conversation with a five-year-old and a Frenchman. Fret again. Phone rings three times.
• Wait forty minutes at the gate. Make conversation with an old man from Maine. Give a Kindle tutorial and discuss the lost art of biographies(?).
• Board plane. Am assured that said plane will depart on time.
• Flight is delayed forty minutes due to ice.
• Flight. Take photo ONE somewhere over Florida-Georgia line.
• Locate grandparents at Orlando airport. Depart for Dad's.
• Dinner en route.
• Arrival. Hugs for all. Second coma of happiness.

Thursday 12/15

• Day consumed by an important scholarship application -- contacting professors, requesting transcripts, writing essays. Find professors quite willing, bless them, and am able to arrange the transcript to be mailed straight to the appropriate office.
• Visit local library with stepmother. Am delighted to find that they have both a CD and a DVD collection.
• Stay up until 4AM perfecting essays. Do not feel especially put-upon, since finals week was still worse.

Friday 12/16

• Am awakened at 7:30. Feel groggy but accomplished, as the essays are done.
• Print application, essays, etc. Sign name and date; scan and send to my friend LaShon, who has said he will deliver them to the Honors office.
• Drive dad an hour to the V.A.'s local health clinic. Meet a shy old man from New Hampshire who, when pressed, really just wants to talk about his grandsons and snow tires. (No connection.) Am approached by another man who calls, "Look, Sarah Palin has come to visit us!" and am stared at all the way down to Dental. Enjoy a relaxation podcast and the office Christmas tree -- see TWO -- while Dad has his teeth prodded.
• Drive home.
• Nap...?
• Watch Catch Me If You Can with the family. Enjoy younger-than-Inception's DiCaprio.
• Other stuff happens. Fail to remember exactly what.

Saturday 12/17

• Read through most of The Princess Bride.
• Bake and decorate a million Christmas cookies with siblings and participate in holiday merrymaking. See THREE.
• Am bullied into watching The Other Guys (another Will Farrel movie...) with family.
• Check grades. Am delighted beyond all expectation to find five As and one A-. Feel justified in being a recluse/insomniac/grouch for a week.

Sunday 12/18

• Attend Mass. As one of probably three protestants present, am asked to usher and collect the offering. Little sisters offer much helpful instruction; presiding elder gives me bewildered looks. Refresh my hazy memory of the Apostle's Creed.
• Meet the neighbors (again.) Mrs. Neighbor's "old family friend" insists he must kiss my cheek. Am informed in the car that said old friend is senile and, after meeting stepmother, purportedly informed Mrs. Neighbor that stepmother was a floozy who wanted him for his money. True story? Unsure. Entertaining anecdote? Oh yes.
• Play "Singing Star" (game like "Karaoke Revolution") with siblings. Excel at "Don't Fear the Reaper" and "Want You to Want Me," but have serious trouble with "More Than a Feeling."
• Make soup.
• Go on a walk with stepmother. Am pursued by these crazy tall birds that make weird sounds and perform dances of aggression. See photo FOUR.
• Finish The Princess Bride. Enjoy the prose but have mix feelings about the it's-not-my-work-I'm-just-the-abridger device.
• Get caught showing entire family a photographic representation of my life since March.

Now we're up to speed!

Appendix

(ONE)

(TWO)

(THREE)

(FOUR)