One More Week

I turned in another final paper today. Now I just have one more final to finish and I'm done with the semester. True, it's another one of those thirty page essay things like the one that was making me crazy back at the beginning of November, but I have five full days to do it, so it should be a bit more manageable this time. Oh, and I also have to grade sixty final exams once my students finish taking them on Monday, but I think all the TAs are going to get together for a little grading party, so that shouldn't be too bad.

A bunch of us were supposed to go down to City A tonight to look at Christmas lights, but everyone ended up deciding not to go because it's rainy and half of the group felt like they had too much stuff to work on. The rain and cold is a pretty good excuse. It really wouldn't be the most pleasant night to spend time outside. But I always feel like saying you have too much work to do is sort of a cop out. We're Ph.D. students and once we're done with this we're going to be teaching and on the tenure clock (hopefully). We will always, always have too much work to do. Even during breaks I always know in the back of my mind that there's something I technically should be working on, and it's the same for everyone else. That's just the life we've chosen for ourselves. So occasionally I think it is fair and reasonable to say, "You know what, I just have way to much to do right now, sorry." That happens to all of us, and you have to know how to manage your time. But some people here are always moaning and groaning about how busy they are, and that makes me sad. Why choose this lifestyle if it really makes you feel like you can't ever take a break to enjoy yourself? I guess part of it is just priorities, too. I've always been aware of the fact that what I'm going to remember in years to come is not the grade I got on the paper but the time I spent with actual human beings. That was always my way of rationalizing in college when I wanted to go out rather than study, and I still operate pretty much the same way now. I really do think that's true, though. When I think about both college and my MA program, I don't remember much about grades I got or projects I did. I learned things, sure, but ultimately none of my favorite memories revolve around studying.* But I remember the dinners and parties and road trips and the nights we stayed until last call. So for me, when it comes down to it, I'm all about doing things that will make my life more fun and enjoyable and make me happy when I think about them in the future, so when opportunities for socializing come up I take them as often as possible, even if it means I have to be up all night finishing papers once in a while.
To be fair, though, I guess I should acknowledge that all my socializing has never actually hurt my work, and the minute it did I probably would become a lot more dedicated to work. Work IS my priority, I guess, at least at this point in my life.
Oh well. I figure we'll go check out the lights next week, and even if we can't get our acts together to go as a group, I'll go check it out by myself next week once I'm done with my final. It's not like you actually need anyone to help you look at Christmas trees, after all, and I don't want to miss it just because nobody else's schedule coordinates with mine.
In the meantime, I ended up having a Christmas-y night anyway. I made myself hot chocolate with chocolate mint Baileys leftover from the pizza and videogames (and alcohol) night Stacy, Nicole, Anna and I had on Monday, and then I wrapped up all the Christmas presents I bought for my family. And then tomorrow night I'm supposed to go to my cousin's Christmas get-together. We're having cocktails at her house and then going shopping in her neighbohrhood, where all the stores are staying open until midnight and offering an 8% discount at 8:00, a 9% discount at 9:00, etc., etc., etc. Should be fun. Yay for Christmas!

To change the subject entirely, earlier today I was watching old episodes of My So-Called Life on abc.com and thinking about how 90s fashion was really, really bad. Maybe not as bad as much of the 80s, but still really bad. All of the flannel and the vests and the denim shirts...what were we DOING in the first half of the decade? Of course, then through much of the late 90s I was wearing jeans big enough that I could slide them on and off without actually having to unbutton them, which wasn't really much better. Somehow I just don't see myself looking back with horror on anything I've been wearing this century, though. Everything I've been wearing since college just seems pretty and simple and basic, and I can't really imagine looking back on it and thinking "Oh my god, what was I THINKING?" Part of it is that I don't tend to follow some of the more questionable trends. If it's something I'm probably not going to be able to wear next year without it looking dated, then I'm not going to buy it. But I also think that some decades just have better clothes than others, and so far I think we've been lucking out in the twenty-first century. Our luck may be changing, though. Have you seen those new super high-waisted pants, for example? Who actually wants to wear jeans that come practically up to your boobs? There's nothing flattering about that.

Speaking of jeans (watch me segue!), Kiki just did a photo shoot for a new brand of jeans. My best friend is a model! Okay, okay, so she told me that I had to work a mention of it into my blog somehow, but even though I partially mentioned it here because she's threatening me on Facebook, it is true that I'm very proud of her. Plus she's far and away the cutest model of the bunch. I'd put the link to the website here, but I don't know if she wants everyone staring at her butt.

Alright, I'm gonna go eat some spaghetti and NOT work on my final.

*Except for the night freshman year when Kiki and I were studying for a test together and I asked her to look up a term in her notes, but when she flipped to her "notes" for that day, all she had written was two lines of actual notes and then, "I'm ADD, ask *A* for notes," in really huge letters. That is one of my favorite memories, mostly because it's sort of our friendship in microcosm. We strike a very good balance, me and Kiki.