Things are Good

Life has been super awesome lately. True, I had originally planned on doing all of the chores around the house that I was not able to do while in school, and really all I am doing is relaxing and being lazy, BUT, I keep telling myself that I deserve it after a terrible school year.

I had an amazing weekend with Paul and friends. On Friday, Rick, his gal-pal Nic, Paul and I played tennis. It was great to do a fun activity and get some social time in with my peeps. After some great rounds of tennis, we played board games and watched a movie. On Saturday, Paul and I went to a flower store to fill in the gaps around the house. Hopefully, these perennials come back, and then our house will be perfect. (However, this also means that I won't have any plants to research for next year, and I really like doing that) We also went "fishing" with Rick for the rest of the day. I put that in quotes b/c the lake that we went to only had bluegills that were about four inches long, so Rick and Paul caught a combo of 33 fish. However, I despise fishing for bluegills, so even though I had intended on fishing, I quit after about an hour. Still, it was fun watching the boys fish and I just breathed in the fresh air and contemplated my happy state of existence. :) On Sunday, Paul and I finally celebrated our wedding anniversary. We got married on May 13, but we are almost always busy on that day (especially since it is at the end of my semester all of the time). Anywho, we went canoeing for four hours on a slow moving river. It was wonderful to get all of that fresh air, although my back was in much pain by the end of our river adventure.
After a fantastic weekend, I had to deal with jury duty crap. I was pretty annoyed to find out I was summoned for jury duty. I had assumed that it was like Michigan, where jury members are picked from the voters. Thus, I purposely did not register to vote in Wisconsin. However, here in WI, they pick jurors from their drivers licenses. Like I said, I was very ticked off. After taking a grad class on the history of law, crime, and justice, I learned to have no respect for the U.S. law system (i.e. a variant of Common Law) and instead I prefer the Roman law system of the majority of the rest of the world. Anywho, so here I was, in a cramped and crowded and very uncomfortable room. They made us watch a movie with animated cartoon american flags and patriotic songs and slogans about "pride in our democratic institution" and "civic duty" and other nauseating jabber. Just as I am about to puke from the propaganda and blindly-devoted patriotism, a lady comes in and tries to guilt everyone to donate blood. Well guess what lady, some people can't donate blood and don't deserve a guilt trip (like me). So I was grumpy AND uncomfortable. When I was finally lined up to go into the court (after sitting in an uncomfortable chair from 9am-2:30pm), I learned a new lesson about our law system: Lawyers and Judges are not always intelligent. I may not have liked our law system before, but I at least had respect for the intellect of judges and lawyers. But they were terrible. At the end, they asked the jury if anyone was not interested in serving, and I quickly raised my hand. I was the only one! Even though everyone complained on the way to the courtroom about jury duty, when we were given a chance to get out of it, no one bothered! Since I raised my hand, I got out of it and now I am safe in Wisconsin for four years. *whew* I am glad we will be out of here by then. I don't know if I will always luck out like I did this time.
Other than jury duty, I have been planting my flowers, cleaning, researching recipes, and other light chores. But mainly I am still relaxing and having fun. Tomorrow, I shall start looking at employment stuff. For now, however, I will sleep sweet, non-stressful dreams without a care in the world. :)

A few of my Favorite Things

I don't know how I managed it, but I survived the semester! I am still pretty exhausted and my body cannot seem to relax. It has become a habit to be stressed starting the moment I wake up, so it might take a while for me to unwind completely. In celebration of my freedom from the academic world, at least for a few months, I decided to remind myself of a few of my favorite things in the world:

My fave foods/beverages:
*blackberries and raspberries
*limeade
*tomatoes!!!
*CHEESE!
*Gin and tonics with a twist of lime

My fave activities:
*taking care of my flowers
*sewing
*playing Sims 2
*playing board games
*playing video games
*making t-shirts with Paul
*hosting dinner parties
*walking with my dog and husband
*MUSIC: playing instruments, singing, listening to a huge variety of songs
*FISHING!

My fave people:
*My sweet, sweet Paul
*My family: Moms, Dads, sister-in-laws, brothers, bro-in-laws, AND my two NEPHEWS!
*My friends: Rick, Julie, Cindy, Staci, Abby and my Small Group
*My dog Athena...not a person, but very dear to me.
*My Extended family: I miss them all so very much.

My fave dreams/goals:
*Catch alot of fish this summer
*Get into shape
*Get a job
*Explore Europe
*Take a bunch of cruises
*Move out of this crappy state
*Take time to tell my loved ones how important they are to me

I'm a Zombie...can I have your brain?

*Whew*
I am getting to the end of the semester. I have less than two weeks to go! Today I realized it was May 1, and I panicked. I still have so much to do for school before the end, which is May 13!
This past week, I wrote two papers, read 8 books, and graded 75 essay exams.
Here is what I have left:
*25-ish page paper for my medieval class on: "Continuity versus Change: Working Women in Early Modern Germany" I have all the books read and my notes done and my outline is complete. I just have to sit down for a few days straight and write until my fingers fall off.
*20-ish page paper for my early modern class, this one isn't too bad. It's just a historiography paper based on my notes from class on violence, crime, and justice.
*Presentation on my medieval paper. I am not looking forward to this. We have to make a fancy presentation, which I think it ridiculous and a waste of my time.
*Read one more book for my American Revolution class. Woo hoo! That is all left for this class!
*Grade 75 quizzes (essay format)
*Grade 75 final exams (essay format) I am so sick of grading!
*Input all the grades into the official format. This is the worst. I haven't finished inputting their grades from extra credit and discussion sections, so I have to put them all in and then go from there.

I am getting there. But I can't believe I have only 12 more days to do all of this! :(
What a negative post. Don't worry, though. Once I am done with this semester, my posts will be SO much happier!