I slept from about 7:30PM or so until 1AM, when I woke up with awful heartburn and general stomach discomfort. I don't get heartburn very often, but when I do, it tends to suck -- and suck hard. More often, I get simple acid reflux, which is generally brought on by sleeping in a weird position and/or by allergies or something acidic that I ate. Reflux can sometimes take days to go away, and is more annoying by far, because no matter what I do or what medicines I take, I can't rid myself of it until it's good and ready to settle down.
Daisy thinks I have digestive issues; in reality, I don't think I do. The only time I have digestive issues, actually, is when I eat something really far out of the norm of what I'm used to, or something with a lot of soy/tofu in it. Overall I'm a pretty healthy person, at least physically, despite all of the horrible shit I do to my body (the least of which being how/what I eat).
I tried to go back to sleep. I wanted to go back to sleep, mainly because I didn't want to spend four extra hours awake before my alarm clock was set to go off -- maybe two, at most, which is why I went to bed at 7:30PM when I was tired. Again, though, it's not like I can actually sleep when I want to -- I always want to sleep when I have other shit to do or other shit to worry about. Thankfully, for the time being those days are nearing an end. I sighed and came upstairs; there was no more sleep happening for me, especially since I felt ill.
I remembered that there were things I needed to do last night, but never did -- while I have everything taken care of for school today before my students' exams, there are things around the house that need to be done between now and graduation. For example, today is garbage day. I should have taken the garbage down to the road last night before bed, but I didn't. Both the actual garbage and recyclables need to be taken out, but as it's 5:11 AM, I can't exactly do that without being loud and waking up the neighbors or the whole neighborhood with it. It doubly needs to go out because I won't be here next Monday morning to take it down to the road (as I'll be in Omaha during that time). It'll just have to wait another week downstairs in the cans, I suppose. Can't do a whole lot about that. I did, however, clean out the cat room and their box this morning, a few hours ago. Between now and Thursday, when Daisy comes down, I have to clean the bathroom, vacuum the house and clean the kitchen again, and I need to wash the blankets on the bed -- which haven't been washed in about six weeks (primarily because of the craziness of the semester's wrap-up and because of the drainage issues I had before).
I am, as an aside, happy to report that whatever those drainage issues were -- clogs or otherwise -- they seem to be gone now; I've been doing laundry, dishes, and showering normally for the past three weeks or so with no issue whatsoever. I have, however, been watching the drains every time I run a lot of water, just in case they back up again. So far, so good. I still have 1/3 of a bottle of the Max Gel and the entire bottle of the main line cleaner if I need to use them, but as of right now everything's been fine for a while.
Anyway.
I will be leaving the house this morning at the normal time, even though the finals feast isn't until noon and the exam itself isn't until 1PM -- I have to spend most of my morning packing up my office and getting rid of everything I no longer need. I've collected some boxes for that over the past few weeks, and today I will be filling those boxes and/or tossing out shit that I've had in there for years yet have no real use for. I also have to go over to the bookstore, as mentioned in my previous post, and purchase the ungodly, ludicrously expensive graduation gown for Friday's ceremony. I am not looking forward to that, but again, it seems like I have no real choice in the matter. I don't know who will be in the department or when; most of us tend not to show up until about ten minutes before or after the finals feast, because nobody wants to get up early on a day they don't have to be there until noon. I told Parker that if he was coming in early, I'd be there for coffee and the like, since I'll be packing up. I won't be taking anything big with me today, mind you -- that will be reserved for Friday, when Daisy and I come in during the morning hours and move it all out to her car.
For the finals feast, I have also prepared what I call my "famous vegan Oreo pudding," which involves two boxes of chocolate pudding, two boxes of white chocolate pudding, and half a bag of crushed/pulverized Oreos. I have to remember when I leave the house to actually take it out of the fridge and take it with me, as there are several members of the department who are excited for it. Also, it's vegan because Oreos are vegan, and because I use almond milk instead of real milk for it. I haven't had real milk in the house in almost a year, thanks to Daisy.
Today will also be the last day for the foreseeable future that I will wheel the Monte Carlo on and off the campus of my university. Hm. That's really interesting to think about, actually. Now watch it break down halfway there, or halfway home tonight. The car's running pretty well, actually; no problems starting, no issues I've noticed over the past few days, etc. She also has a new quart of oil and new coolant in her too, which is good -- it's supposed to be in the 80s today and is projected to hit 90 tomorrow. Yes, she squeals, but no worse than before, and said squeal does go away after she's warmed up and drives a bit. Perhaps I'll take her in to the shop and get some work done on her over the course of the next month or so, provided I have the money to do so. I do need to get an oil/filters change eventually. No use in paying a $300 car insurance bill at the end of June if she's going to die very quickly thereafter, you know?
Because of the way finals are given, and because of our general schedule, I don't know when I'll be home tonight. I told Daisy that I could be home as early as 6 or 7, but I could also be leaving campus as late as 8 or 9, depending on how long it takes to grade through and post everything. I want to get everything done today if at all possible, as I don't want to have anything left over to do on Friday morning when I go back in but to load up everything, get it out to Daisy's car, and then graduate. If I have to do the computer-upload grading at home, I can do that -- but I desperately want everything turned in to the office by the time I leave campus tonight, whether that be at 6 or 7PM or as late as 9 or 10PM. Daisy is working all the way through Thursday morning anyhow; it's not like I'll get to talk to her much tonight anyhow, so if necessary I really could just come home and go directly to bed. I've told her this, and she understands it. Finals day is a pain in the ass for everyone involved; the finals feast only lessens the hurt a bit to make that pain somewhat more tolerable.
Yet, it's the last day where I will be a professor, really. After those exams are turned in to the office and my students' grades have been uploaded to the grading system...it's over. My teaching career, for the foreseeable future, will be over. It is a bittersweet feeling, as you know. It feels strange to know that I won't be teaching a summer class in a few weeks, and that I may not (read: probably not) be teaching somewhere, here or otherwise, in the fall again. It feels strange knowing that I will basically be unemployed again after this week ends, and must strike out on my own to figure out the rest of my life. I'm bad at figuring out my life -- that's why I've spent the last three years in the insular bubble known as graduate school.
It feels strange knowing that a large chunk of my friends are leaving Kansas, never to be seen again after Friday.
Yeah. It's something like that.
I can't do anything about it, really, except keep my chin up, do the last of my work, graduate, and go to the graduation party with Daisy on Friday. At least it's supposed to be nice on Friday, so it shouldn't be rained out or anything like that. If it is? Well, the new Star Trek movie opens on Friday...
Also, I've not yet seen Iron Man 3. I keep hearing mixed reviews of it. Some friends say it's the best of the three (to them, I say to go back and watch the first film again), and others who are pretty hardcore comic nerds like me say that it's terrible -- which worries me. In my opinion, it can't really be any worse than the second one, which to me was a complete fucking trainwreck of a film. But, then again, I was the guy who thought The Avengers was "just okay" and in no way lived up to the hype that everyone had created around it, so perhaps I'm a bit biased. I'm also the guy who thought The Dark Knight Rises was brilliant, but deeply flawed in many places.
For now, though, it is almost time to go to campus. I have made sure to properly caffeinate myself with super-strong coffee (despite the heartburn; screw it, I need my medicine) and I am wearing my Firefly "Keep Calm and Stay Shiny" shirt today in order to properly motivate my students for their exam -- well, I'm also wearing it because it's the last chance I get to "dress nerdy" for those students as well. That's a big part of it.
Off I go.
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