Back on the other side: bullets of random crap

• So I'm back in the USA. And it's weird as hell.
• The flight home was long. The entertainment system didn't work for half the trip, so I tried to sleep/read/not think about the fact that I've been breathing processed air for hours upon end.
• When I arrived, it was HOT here. I swear I lost weight by sweating (carrying heavy luggage didn't help!) yesterday.
• My laptop was stolen. It was while we were loading all my stuff into the car. My parents took over while I went to the bathroom, and neither one remembers seeing a laptop. The New Jersey police have not been extremely productive in helping me out. *%&#$*%&#*%&!#*$&#!!! They want me to MAIL IN a frickin' form to report the lost laptop. And when I ask if anything has been reported, they're like, "Umm, nope." No desire to help me. Almost a whole year's worth of work was on there, including my teaching materials from the Winter. Thank God I have hard copies, or they're on Blackboard or in my email in some spots, but I don't have everything. Oh, and all of the photos I took are gone too. (Thank God for FlickrPro in that case, although there are a few that I didn't get to upload). This kind of dampened the homecoming spirit, to put it lightly.
• Side note: I had been wanting a new laptop for a long time, as my current (former?) laptop is heavy as hell and the battery only lasts two hours. So maybe this is an omen. I'd kinda like a Tablet PC. For a fleeing moment I considered a Mac, but I don't think I could make the transition.
• Sign at Heathrow in the toilets: WARNING: WATER IS VERY HOT. RISK OF SCOLDING. Hee!
• When I sat down at the computer kiosks in Heathrow, I tried to visit Phantom Scribbler's blog to see who won the Wednesday Whining Prizes for the week. Their Internet server blocked her blog from me, saying it could not be shown because of its High Porn Content. I'm not making this up!
• Damn, do I miss Oxford, and England in general. I miss the people above all else.

Last night at Catz

Farewell to you and the youth I have spent with you. It was but yesterday we met in a dream.

So, dear friends, this will be my last post from Catz for the summer at the very least. I hope it will not be forever. Things are looking very promising, but I don't want to get overexcited.

I was ONE POINT away from a distinction. (US readers: this puts me in the 3.7-3.8 GPA range.) I got distinction level marks on my special subject and dissertation papers (3/4 of my total mark), but was slightly below on my theory paper. Technically, I am still in the running for a DPhil. I have to sort out some of the minor details, now, to make it all work. I have accommodation for the Fall. If I don't get to come back for the DPhil, I will come back at the very least during Freshers' Week to clean out my cupboard. But let's work under the assumption that I will be coming back--that's much nicer.

I never thought this year would affect me as much as it did. It was nothing like any of my previous degrees. What made all the difference was the PEOPLE. I haven't had this much fun and haven't laughed this much in years. And that means as much to me as getting good marks on papers.

Oxford people--whether you're returning or not, y'all better keep in touch. My email addresses are on Facebook (or you can email me if you're not on Facebook). I also have Skype and all the IM services--just drop me a line and I'll send you my details.

I leave the college tomorrow night to go to Headington, and then will leave Headington for Heathrow on Thursday at noon. It's easier for me to do it this way, so I don't have to worry about packing up stuff on the day I'm supposed to leave. I will be around college until about 7:30 or 8 pm, so I hope I get a chance to say goodbye to everyone.

Thank you, dear friends, for making this such a fantastic year. It's been brilliant.

I love you all.

The Sounds of Silence

Remember how I used to complain about my loud neighbors? I don't have that problem any more.

Last weekend (my God, was it last weekend already?), Mark had come to visit, and we were having drinks in the Catz bar. I can clearly remember commenting to him, "I am fairly certain that everyone in Catz is drunk tonight." The noise was unbelievable. Everyone was rowdy and celebrating. For the grad students, it was the night of the last guest dinner of the year; for the undergrads, it was the last night before they packed up to go home.

Now that the full term is pretty much over, the college seems to have fallen silent. No matter when I leave my room, there is no noise. No one in the library. No one lounging around the quad. No one at the bar at night. No one even hanging out in the staircases--they've all packed up and gone home.

The undergraduates and visiting students are pretty much gone. Those who remain are the few grad students (lawyers in particular) who have exams and dissertations to finish or couldn't get flights home until now. These people can't really be bothered--they're busy working or packing.

The emptiness is really creepy. I guess I should appreciate it while I can, because in a few short days I'll be going back home to plenty of noise.

But honestly, I'd rather have the noise any day.

Five days to go

Where the hell did this year go?

On Monday, I will have spent a combined total of 33 weeks in England. And on Thursday, I go home.

I will have spent a total of 234 days in England.

It sure as hell wasn't enough.

My ability to stay next year still hangs in the balance. I don't want to discuss it right now, but let me just say that it's not the financial part this time.

I have made wonderful friends from around the world. I have seen royalty, had cocktails with the cultural attache from Spain, listened to world famous authors and scholars give lectures, taken roughly 52 billion photos, and have generally caused trouble in at least seventeen Oxford colleges.

I'm not ready to end it just yet.

The day has arrived.

Today, for the second time this year, I have to put on my sub-fusc. Except this time, it's not the magical and mysterious Matriculation ceremony. This time it's the viva voce exam, my final requirement as a Master of Studies student.

I've skimmed through my papers from this year. I re-read my old notes. I'm breathing deeply, have been careful about what I eat, and have sent my friends good luck pokes on Facebook.

The viva can only keep your grade the same or raise it. It cannot lower it. That helps, slightly, but I want it to work towards raising my grade. Otherwise, it won't be worth my while.

But I'm ready. At 3:50 p.m. today, I will walk into 41 Wellington Square and kick @$$.

Bring it on!

I have made my mark on St. Catherine's College.

So today (well, yesterday by now) was our massive garden party. Twelve full hours of garden party goodness. Food, music, games, a lovely day outside--you couldn't ask for anything nicer.

In between sets from the Yukons, our live entertainment, Sha presented the annual MCR awards. They are not unlike the kinds of superlatives you would get in a yearbook--"Most likely to become a millionaire," "Best Dancer," etc.

I got one of the awards. Which one did I get, you ask? See for yourself:

Yes, that's right folks: Most likely to end up in jail. Aren't you proud of me???

This is going on the wall to show my grandchildren someday, right next to my matriculation photo and my diplomas. It is a landmark day.

To be fair, I won two other awards as well: Best sense of humour and Most likely to have killed the MCR fish. The latter has been a running joke in the MCR, fueled by this incriminating article posted by Sha.

It is getting harder and harder for me to face the fact that I will be going home in less than two weeks. Harder still for me to face the fact that some of my dear friends are leaving even sooner than that. Once I get through my viva, it will be time to start packing. How will I get over the shock?

Sorry for that last minute bit of depressing stuff. I didn't mean for that to happen. It's just that after all of these happy and fun events, it's hard to forget that there aren't many of these happy and fun events left...

G'night!
Me

Connecticut Idol

Hey kids, check out my sister Kelly, she's famous.


Last week she sang in a contest for a radio station, and now they have her picture on the ads. They also have her on the main page of the website, but she says they change the photo daily, so I don't know how long it will last. But either way, how awesome is it that she is in the ads?

She sang "I Will Always Love You" the first time around, which she sings amazingly, but she totally got robbed because she had to go first and not many people had arrived yet. She's going back again this week, so if you're in the area, go and listen and vote for her. :)

Hey Kel - I know you're reading this, so I hope you don't mind this bit of shameless promotion! ;)

Help!

Dear loyal blog readers,

Does anyone have the email address for Cindy from Red Bird Rising? I need to email her, but I forgot that her blog is no longer there (unless it has moved and I didn't know it?).

Here's why I need it. I'm submitting my series of cento poems for publication, and I need to get permission from all the bloggers whose lines I "borrowed" to include them in the poem. (You'll get credit in the publication if my poems get accepted!) Cindy's, I believe, is the only one I used that is no longer on the web.

If anyone can point me in her direction, please email me or leave a comment here.

Many thanks!

Feeling inspired yet again

I haven't done a cento poem in a while, so I thought I'd do another one tonight. I don't know how I feel about this one, but I hope you enjoy it.

Don't read it if you can't handle it!

You can live with something for years,
Now I only have one good reason:
It's certainly not meant to sound contemptuous.
She had them custom made
But just a little, tiny bit ugly.

Finally, perhaps the most damning of them all,
There is a pride in not being able to do it.
Bam! Strike me down. Hubris and all.
Talk about delayed gratification.
Those lines really struck a chord with me.

"With aspect stern and gloomy stride..."

Sorry for all the Mikado-themed titles lately--I downloaded the whole opera onto my iPod recently, and I've been rather obsessed ever since. But in both cases, the titles have been relevant ;)

So after I handed in my dissertation, the rest of the day was filled with celebrations. I met the other graduate language people at the Turf for drinks and lunch, and later on I went to dinner with a bunch of friends at a beautiful Indian/Thai/Bangladesh restaurant on the river. It was great fun. The next day, my friend Mark came to dinner at Catz, and the day after that I had brunch with some friends at Christ Church. I also volunteered at the Cancer Research UK's "Race for Life" that day, so I got to spend several hours in the beautiful sunshine and help a worthy cause all at the same time. So things have been very nice for the past few days.

I was starting to forget that I'm not *quite* done here. But today, I got the notice of my impending doom: the date and time of my viva voce exam. It doesn't take place until 15 days from now, but already, I'm feeling quite sick about it.

For those of you who don't know, the viva voce is an oral exam where I show up in my sub-fusc garb (the stuff I'm wearing in my photo on this blog) and sit in front of a group of mysterious examiners who ask me questions about my dissertation. This is not like a Master's thesis defense, where you know the people really well. I have no idea who these people are. They have not had any contact with my dissertation until this week. I have no idea what they'll ask me. To be honest, I'm not sure how they'll do it, because my supervisor is the only one who specializes in what I'm doing here at Oxford. And since he's not one of the ones examining me, I'm not sure how that ends up.

They can also ask me about any of the other work I've done this year. So I'll have to go back and re-read the papers I wrote way back in October/November/December so I remember what I said!

I still have time, I know. But now the date is set in stone, and it looms over me ominously. Yikes!

Much love,
Me

"With joyous shout, with joyous shout and ringing cheer..."

Aaaaaaand that's a wrap!!!!!

Dissertation is completed, printed, bound, submitted. All that's left is the viva voce exam, but right now, it is time to celebrate!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!