a végén!!!

that would be hungarian for "at the end!!!", which finally describes my semester. today was a really long day of highs and lows... luckily the highs mostly all came after the lows, so now i'm tired but pretty happy. =)

i couldn't sleep last night (obviously from my last entry), so i was up til like 5 and woke up at 9... then it was study my brains out for analysis time... too bad it didn't pay off like i wanted it too... i honestly have learned a lot this semester, but by giving us the longest takehome exam ever, dr. ocone precluded the chance of seriously studying for the inclass half of the final, especially for those of us who struggle more with the class and were stuck for long periods of time on the takehome problems... the takehome problems are going to be my saving grace because regardless of how they went, they're definitely much much better than my answers to what he put in front of us this afternoon.

so i studied til like 2, then headed to campus. our exam started at 2:50 and his comment was "oh, it's only 5 problems, then 2 extra credit ones... you have til 6 but i doubt it should take that long at all" uh, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight... sam left way before anyone else, and he was there til at least 5 something... i was like the 5th to leave out of like a dozen students and i didn't leave til like 5:45... half of what i turned in was utter rubbish... i'm guessing i get a C (= "failing" in grad school terms), but i'm not the only one, so i'll deal. next semester is a fresh start, and not as harsh a teacher (dr. ocone is nice, approachable, explains decently well (even if he is a little scatterbrained sometimes), etc., but even the people who are really good at analysis agreed that that was one of the longest exams they've ever had to deal with and to put a really insanely long take home part PLUS a really insanely long in class part together on the same week was really not nice of him)... my grade may not show it, but i put a lot of effort into that class, and i know i learned a lot in it, even if i'm still just not as quick at analysis as some of my friends... whatever.

ok, so the analysis exam was torment... i headed straight from the class to the bathroom to hurl and stop shaking, then composed myself enough to catch up with everyone else who had "finished" in the lobby...

i was so annoyed with the test, i decided not to wait on everyone else but to get some fresh air and get home to attack my new punching bag, and eric came with me... we set it up and attacked for awhile... i made myself a huge cup of cappuccino and we watched some old seinfeld reruns.... it was just good to calm down for a bit and beat up something for awhile. =)

that done, the people (= jared, scott, john, sam, eric, colleen, and me) went out to eat... we went to a thai restaurant that i had actually been to when i visited the campus here in march but didn't know where it was since... really really spicy food but really super good, and it was just fun to hang out and laugh for awhile. after pad thai (the name of the restaurant) we went to starbucks to kill half an hour, then we drove over to the movie theater to meet up with ben and leigh, since we had advanced tickets for all 9 of us to see the 11:10pm showing of "the return of the king"

super super good movie -- i've only read the 1st book in the trilogy although i saw both of the first two movies in the trilogy before... there were a couple parts i was super grossed out and twice where i just closed my eyes and told eric (who was next to me) to tell me when the stuff i didn't like had gone away... luckily he's nice and didn't tell me i could open my eyes when stuff was still going on just to make me scream =)... ben (on the other side of eric) laughed at me a ton though as i curled up and hid from the screen at times... but yeah, despite my squirming, i really enjoyed it. =)

being a lord of the rings movie, of course we didn't get out until after 2:30am... but hey, i have no responsibility except for driving places on time for the next MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so eric had pinky swore on monday that we'd go to dennys or ihop tonight, and when i said we were going, everyone but leigh (who is getting over strep throat and needed some sleep!) came along... had a great time in general... scott and me split an omelete and hash browns and i drank way more coffee than i should have for the middle of the night... not as shady as the valpo dennys (no stories about pimps and limo drivers tonight unfortunately =P), but it was in fact a dennys =P

now, it's 5am and here i am still awake and high on coffee =) and i think i'm gonna crash for about 3 hours... prof. treanor is in NJ half an hour away visiting her brother for christmas... she called last night while i was working on my exam and didn't want to disturb so i said either call back wednesday night or thursday morning, but i was seeing a late movie on wednesday... soooo, apparently she called at 10pm, when i was out en route to theater... i don't want to miss her 3 times in a row, so i figure if i get up at 8, i can entertain myself until she calls, (without her feeling bad for waking me up!) and then crash again after we chat... good plan, right? besides, i got all the time i want to sleep between now and monday...

well, almost... there is a little structure here...
(1) definitely going to church on sunday AM
(2) my room turns into a disaster zone in times of stress, e.g. finals week, so i have quite a bit of cleaning/organizing to do
(3) gotta pack for the next 3 weeks for galavanting halfway across the country and back!
(4) and last but not least, eric freaked out last fall in budapest when he discovered i've never watched any of the star wars movies and although i recognize the more spotlight characters i don't know the plot at all,.... sooooo, when he came back from thanksgiving break, he brought all of them back with him, and is making me watch all 5 episodes that are out now before i go home for christmas... will be an adventure to be sure... he just says he's never met someone who has never seen them before and is curious to watch my "genuine first timer's reaction" being the anomaly i am who never grew up with star wars references as a regular part of my existence.

ok, dude, that sums up my day and my plans between now and monday... my semester is done, it's 5am and i've been up for 20 hours, and my last paragraph was too rambly for me to be allowed to write anymore... good night/morning =P