ditching

What to do when you decide it's too late to get to your morning class on time, and suddenly have six hours before you need to be in your afternoon class? Lay around and watch Discovery Channel for 4 hours, and spend the last two worrying because you only have like two weeks left before taxes are due and you don't know what you did with your W-2s. That's totally what to do with a beautiful spring morning.

I love the way it smells in Spring

It smells like flowers. When you live where I live, you learn to appreciate the smell of plants when you get it. It smells like the flowers on native plants, domesticated plants and introduced plants. The smell of the wildflowers that line the roads and fill people's yards. Flowers always smell better when they are simple and bright. Flowers that are too complicated or showy always have a strange smell that you don't want to experience for very long at all, but small, simple flowers give off a scent that you can inhale for hours and still not have enough of. I love the way orange blossoms smell, and grapefruit and such. I'm so lucky that there are so many citrus trees on and around campus that I can walk by several in a day, and walk a little slower so I can get the full effect. Spring also smells like bodies. The natural smell that people give off when they are just warm enough to enjoy it, without being hot and sweaty. More of a glow than an odor. The smell of girls' perfume heated up but not stale and sweaty. The smell of the few people who start wearing sunscreen in March. The smell of food from outdoor vendors, making hotdogs and Mexican food, the breeze wafting the scent towards me after an afternoon class. Really, the smell of Spring is the smell of warmth, the warmth that comes before the unbearable hotness that is Summer. The warmth that you are excited to feel and can really appreciate after a few months of being chilly in long pants and sweaters. I love the way it smells in Spring.

One more thing...

Today in my statistics class, I fell asleep. Not just light dozing. I'm pretty sure I must have been drugged or something, because I kept on trying to wake up and not being able to, not even for a minute or two. You know how in the movies, if a guy gets punched in the face, he falls down and kind of struggles to hoist himself up again while being forced down by a rain of blows from his assailant? Or when someone's out drowning in the sea, and they find something to float on right as they run out of energy to swim, and they drag themself up onto it with their arms all askew? That's what I was doing to my desk. TOTALLY embarrassing. I was awake the rest of the day, though, no problem. On the plus side, we got our quizzes back from before spring break. I got a 105. And yes, that IS a percent. It's always pleasing to be handed your more-than-perfect score just as the girl next to you complains that she got a 52. Made my day.

just so you know...

I'm back. And I'm tired. Too many nights up past my bedtime, and too many mornings where I woke up. Instead of being asleep till afternoon. All in all, it was the most excellent spring break I've ever had, which is saying a lot since I've been through a whole ONE of them before this. I should spend more weeks with no responsibilities besides having as much fun as I can. I think that would improve my morale a lot.

In other news, I'm totally excited about leaving for a far-and-away school next year. If I wasn't so tired, I would leap for joy. As it is, I'm leaping inside my head, and it's starting to make me go cross-eyed. If you hadn't noticed yet, I'm going to a different school next year, and I'm exuberant. You'll be hearing about this probably for the next five months or so. After that, you'll be hearing about what I'm actually DOING there. So I had the "placement meeting" today with about 25 other students from my school who are going to various places in and around the US. We filled out forms and told each other where we are going and generally felt excited and learned a little more about what is expected of us to make our exchanges happen smoothly. I love filling out forms. I never get tired of telling people my full name, address, phone number, social security number, and emergency contact information. It's so fun to look and see a nicely filled out form, giving the reader a short and sweet dossier about me. Sometimes I fill out both the "current address" and "permanent home address" lines, even though they are the same for me, just so the form looks complete and useful. I mean, who wants to read a form that has a big empty space right in the middle where there should be juicy numbers and information? Not me, that's who.

Yawn

I am so tired from NONSTOP PARTYING since I got here to Provo. Ok, maybe not, but we've done some fun stuff. We went hiking, for instance, up a trail that was much steeper than I expected it to be. And I am now tired and sore. And we've done much hanging out with friends, which was cool. Now, as much fun as this has been (really, very fun), I don't really feel like typing out any more words. Expect no more words from now until next week probably.

EEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Isn't it great when you learn that you have one extra day of spring break? And then you get an email saying that you've been successfully placed at your first choice school for next year? That's just the best. I'm so excited. I'm going to go and run around the house like a little kid hopped up on sugar cereal on a Saturday morning. Oh boy oh boy oh boy! I can't wait! I can start getting ready now I know it's a sure thing! I can go and make "sample schedules" for my advisor to ok. I can go and buy like shoes and sweaters and scarves and all kinds of stuff. And some coats. And I can look up tips for driving in snow. Listen to me while I scream with glee: eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ai ai ai ai ai eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee yyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-haaa! And now more crazed running. Woo!

My No-Good, Very-Bad Day

Sigh. To tell the long, drawn-out, this-is-how-it-felt version, or to simply tell the facts, short and not so sweet? How about an unsatisfactory blend of both? Sounds good to me too.

I woke up late this morning. No big deal, right? I wake up late every morning. Well, today was my music midterm, which involved being at class, and, oh yeah, HAVING STUDIED. So, I leap out of bed, throw on a dirty shirt, and jump in the car with my iPod and the liner notes for the album that I have to know the names of the songs and artists for. I'm driving to school, trying to study and make up for lost time, when I look in the rear-view and see your friend and mine, the policeman in the nice, shiny Mustang that they use to nab kids drag racing. Great. All I need is a ticket for $181 and 10 more minutes down the drain while the cop stands around behind my car looking important. Good thing he didn't see me READING A CD CASE while I was driving, but noted only that I was doing 63 in a 50 zone. Sigh.

Fast forward to me parking in the stupid garage where I have to pay, instead of my usual spot that's free, so that I can actually make it to my midterm on time. I get to class, and take the test. I'm acing it. I've gotten EVERY SINGLE QUESTION, including the three bonus questions, right. I'm going to get a 100% on this test. I'm starting the very last section of the test, when... the fargin' FIRE ALARM goes off (do you like my choice of words? I stole it from Lileks). The fire alarm! My professor, of course, has no provision for this type of occurance, so he tells us to "leave your stuff, but take your tests with you." Stupidest thing said with the best intentions. If the room's on fire, I'd rather keep my money, driver's license, iPod, car keys, camera, homework and books with me, and let the stupid test burn. It's not like I'll get out of the room any faster if I leave my backpack on the floor- there's 120 other people in front of me, not to mention the people in all the other classrooms around us. Plus, think about it- if you're the type of person who pulls the fire alarm just to see people hate their lives a little more, wouldn't it be a great idea to stick around and take everybody's stuff that they leave lying on the floor? Yargh. Anyway, I'm tired of typing, and you're probably tired of reading, so I'll finish up quick. Because he had us take our tests with us, our prof. realized that he couldn't count it (cause you know, everybody could switch around their answers and get a hundred percent while waiting around in the sun outside the building). The midterm, the test which I would have aced, the test I had sacrificed $181 and my dignity in front of the main drag at rush hour for, the test that I left the house asleep and unwashed for, was void.

On a happy note, nobody stole my stuff out of my backpack while it was sitting in the empty classroom.