Return to leisure within reach

By this time next week, I will be done with this semester. I am going to really miss my classmates in this intensive enviro sci class I am in. Two of them signed up to take a Geology class next semester, so I registered for the same class. I have really hated all the busywork required in this class. I have certainly learned a lot, but at this point, I actually do not care to learn a lot. I would rather just learn enough to get the credit and move on, school seems like it is just taking forever. The classmates I have gotten to know are in their mid-twenties and are all either married, divorced, or in a relationship. Only one of them has children, but not as young as mine are. Unlike my classmates, I am never in a hurry for class to end. I don't mind when the professor takes up the entire 3 hour class period. I only have home to return to...the same place I am stuck all day. School is my social life.

But I do have a Christmas party to look forward to this Saturday! And the weather is supposed to be mild, with lows in the mid-60's. This means I will probably be hanging out on the porch smoking cigarettes with the girls. I smoked from age 15-22, mostly on weekends and while drinking. I "quit" around the time I moved to Dallas, though I would occasionally "bum" from smokers if I happened to be around them, because the majority of my friends then weren't smokers. It was easy to quit, I was never addicted in the classic way. I think I never really smoked enough to become addicted. If I didn't have weekend plans, a pack used to last me a week or more. But...I do miss smoking (boo!! hiss!!). I am not afraid to admit it. It feels good (the nicotine, not the smoke in the lungs) and it just makes things seem cooler and laid back. I just wish that big tobacco companies would quit putting so many ridiculous chemicals in their cigarettes. WTF is cyanide in there? I am not enough of a smoker, or a tobacco conoisseur, to purchase organic cigarettes, if such a thing is easily available somewhere. That would be nice though, wouldn't it? Anyway. This home Christmas party is always a good time, I can't wait. So worth missing out on some studying time. I hope to kick out the boys on Sunday so I can "geek-out" (thanks AJ) on homework all alone and get this material down.

I noticed this while working on a group research project last week. Two spaces after each sentence is no longer the standard according to the MLA. 2 of 4 of us in the research group type two spaces after our sentences. MLA guidelines say that either is okay, it depends on the professor. Apparently the two space rule applied to typewriter use. Since everyone uses electronic software that automatically adjusts paragraph spacing now, it is no longer necessary. Okay, I didn't get the memo. So any suggestions about how to get myself out of the reflexive habit?!?! I feel like I sound old complaining about this. The other person in my class who types two spaces is only 22, so I didn't feel so bad after knowing that it wasn't just me. Apparently, she must have been taught by an old school professor. Oh, these little obsessions. We got an A BTW. AJ and I stayed up until 4AM working on the project via Yahoo IM. I never do that. If not for AJ's obsession for perfection, I would have wrapped it up by at least 1AM, I am 7 years older than she is, I know my limits and I can allow myself to say, "it just isn't worth it."

After this semester is over, I plan to blog more, figure out a good agenda for my mini-trip back to Tulsa, plan a pampered chef party that I got suckered into hosting (WTF am I going to invite?), figure out how to make Christmas gift buying easy on myself this year (i.e., as much as I loathe them, it's going to be giftcards galore this year...blame it on school), and finally, I want to finish reading a book I started back in August.

Back to the boredom of all the enviro science I never wanted to know.

Peace!