Notes from finals week

It is 6:07 pm and I'm sitting in the meeting room, and it turns out there's no meeting today so I'm sitting here with some of the cultural anthropologist girls and they're all studying and I don't have any of my work here (teehee) so I'm updating here.
Right now we're discussing the merits of a thesis on where transgender ends and hermaphrodite begins. Yes, this is what happens in anthropology groupings in our "spare time".

Today was pretty good, even though I didn't sleep well until about 4 am and consequently stayed in bed until 9 am before I forced myself into the shower and made breakfast and got ready for class. It turns out that I've gained back all the weight I lost earlier this year. All the other grad girls assured me it was grad school - one of them says she's gained 20 pounds this year alone. I MUST start going to the gym!
Maybe I'll get a month-long membership at that gym Lidia goes to and make her take me daily so we can push each other.

Cultural resource management was good, we talked about our papers a little, and it turns out we're doing mini-presentations on Wednesday which kind of freaks me out since I have an exam on Thursday and I didn't want to have to think about anything but the test (even though I'm working on both my final essays and my NAGPRA stuff this week too) until Thursday afternoon. But I'll be fine.

One of the girls just said, "I'm only a lesbian when I'm with women." I love California.

Then I went home, ate lunch, had my obligatory end-of-the-semester-exhausts-me nap, then finished my last five page paper for theory and started organizing my final paper for CRM before I headed out to the meeting that isn't. I might spend an hour or so tonight on my CRM paper, it depends on how soon we get out of Theory, because I absolutely HAVE to be awake for geology tomorrow - we get new material (that will be on the test) AND a test review. So, I need to be fully functional.

California is still strange to me, and there are still days when I feel like a greenhorn, in my Eastern European clothes, standing on the docks of the Hudson river, watching the crowds bustle around me on the threshold of the Promised Land.

Other days, I feel fine here. This Saturday I went out with Judy (geoarchaeology) and Connie (geology) and some of Judy's friends for a Girls' Night Out/Judy's Birthday Celebration, and it was so much fun! We started out at this Japanese steakhouse - I think it was called Bari Bari - and I got the calamari and it was SUPER yummy.

Then we went to this bar called The Olde Ship (it was SO cute - a little British pub full of ship paraphernalia), and when I heard the name I immediately exclaimed, "Oh, we should have rum like the pirates!"

So we were all sitting down, I had my draft Spaten, Judy and one of her friends had Long Island Iced Teas, Connie had a hard cider, and Judy's other two friends had whiskey sours (I felt like such a tomboy), and Judy says, "Let's get the rum!" So we each ordered a single, but we somehow ended up with doubles (only $5, I'm not complaining) and everyone was appalled at how big they were.
We agreed to take half the shot and they all took half a sip or so and I downed the whole shot, which made Judy say, "Damn Carla!"
Turns out I'm still 100% Gator where it counts. Definitely felt dizzy afterward though, so I stuck with sipping my lager slowly.

The rest of the night was spent sobering up - I'd left my car at Judy's and I still felt a little dizzy when we got back to her place, so I stayed there for half an hour (her brothers were throwing a party) until I was 100% sure I was good to drive.

I was really glad too, because my GPS directed me right into a blocked road so I had to use my wits, exit on the detour, then choose a nearby location already programmed into it (I chose Jo-anns) and then went home on a different highway from there. Thank goodness for that GPS! I'm so glad Dad got it for me! Otherwise I would've been in a lot of trouble, driving in circles all night.

I got home, heated up leftovers, ate and then passed out. I spent Sunday feeling grumpy and running errands. And then Monday rolled around!

It's now 6:50 and I'm tired of writing, but now you're all updated on my life and know why posts are probably going to be patchy until Tuesday, unless I decide to procrastinate. Bon soir!