the home stretch

here it is. the last leg of the semester. the final bang that kicks my ass. the penultimate in stress and misery. the storm before the calm.

why so early? good question. let's take a look at the evidence:

three classes, as always. means three term papers, as always. means several days of desperation, as always. but wait!

two of these three classes are different from "always." they have final exams. and papers. not a "final paper." no no. a final exam. and a final paper. and two of these classes have a timeline unlike any other [sane] graduate course i've encountered.

dead day. that holy day when all classes cease and the sound of frantic studying and/or binge drinking can be heard across the entirety of dirt town, or indeed any college town. no one goes anywhere. the streets are empty, the libraries and bars are packed. and in graduate terminology, dead day is the "day of gearing up to write papers."

because graduate papers are due during finals week, which takes place after dead day. despite some problems i have with the lutheran church, i am still lutheran, and i do still thrive on tradition. the unchanging. etc. so the fact that two of these three major papers are due BEFORE dead day sends chills of wrongness down my spine. it is quite disorienting. it means that the finals week will be relatively stress-free. but it also means that those few precious moments before dead day will be much worse than they've ever been before.

i almost gave serious thoughts to just staying here over the break and ploughing ahead. almost. i'm going home. i secured an extra week on a criminally early-slated paper, and have the other one written in my head.

and over the break? i'll be reading a boring book, taking notes, reading a coursepack of unknown bore factor, and researching for the criminally early paper which is now merely juvenile dilinquintly early. the sign of a criminally early due date is this: when you get nearly a whole week of extra time on it and it's still due half a week before dead day, that due date was criminal.

so. the things what need to be done include: three final papers, a presentation, a book report, two final exams, a short paper. books to be read: 3. research for papers: *eyes roll back* hours of sleep to be had: *whimper*

***

on a happier note, KM's bowl-o-water approach helped tremendously last night. i woke up this morning, blew my nose, and for the first time in weeks did not spray blood into the kleenex. [okay. i'll stop being gross.]

have food in the fridge at the moment. not a lot of fresh stuff, since i'm leaving so soon, but soup ingredients. imma make a pot of soup from a bagged soup starter thing that caught my eye in wally world. it had a cloven head of cabbage, a potato, an onion, and a carrot, and a zucchini. they must not expect much soup from this. to make a little more, i bought three leeks [because experiments are good, and leeks are good for you] and a thing of sliced mushrooms. i may add a can of diced tomatoes to this. i'm not sure what they expect me to use as the liquid. just water'd make a pretty bland soup.

tomorrow i'm writing the v for vendetta paper. or at least, about 10 pages of it. i figure i can do that. i've got my presentation notes to work from, an outline of what imma say, and all my sources [me, the film, the book] right here. i'm passionate about it. should slide from my brain like room temperature stick margerine from a squeezed fist.

on that note, there's an apple pie that needs making tomorrow as well. KM's friends from church are putting on a pre-thanksgiving feast, and she invited me. i shrugged and said sure, because this whole getting out and meeting new people thing is working out well for me, and because it sounds like fun. and there's good food and probably some great conversation as well. so. a pie needs making for this shindig, and KM preferred apple something over cherry something, though i think i probably do both equally well.

and no. i would never go out and buy a pie for such a gathering. no. it would hurt the pride of my inner stepford wife. neither would i buy a can of filling and pour it into a ready to bake pie shell in aluminum pan. nuh-uh. nothin doin.

so i've got a bunch of grannies, some fugis, and two golden delicious. i'll use the grannies and one of each of the others for variety, i'll vary the slices' thickness so there's more variety still, and i may add a hint of allspice to the regular spices. perhaps a tiny squirt of lime juice. the debate in my mind currently is this: i have the margerine and cheese for the pizza apple pie. but what if i made a dished pie and still used the toppings from the pizza apple pie? i could make two desserts. a nice deep pie with crumbly strudel on top, and a bar cookie style dessert with fewer apples but maybe a thicker layer of strudel and some almond extract in the apples? or maybe vanilla would do better than almond. maple?

so many choices. i haven't given myself permission to go hog wild on dessert baking in forever it seems. i'm thinking i'll make that death by chocolate cake for cb's birthday later on. maybe spell something out in the frosting. i wonder how that recipe would do with toffe crumbles on top, or in cupcake form...

i need to post this and stop thinking about desserts. my cats need play time and i need to brew a pot of tea before settling down with Harlequins! for the night. [doesn't hurt to get a head start on readings, after all.]