I earned the "plus"...

...so why don't I get it? Seriously. My final grade in one of my classes is clearly a "+" and I want it. It will bring up my GPA a bit and I deserve it. Is it worth complaining about and asking him to change the grade?

Oh yeah...

...and I also like it when I write an 18 page paper in 2 days and get a 96% on it. That also makes me happy.

Things to be happy about

1. People telling you how awesome you look. I went with Josh to his company Christmas party (complete with free drinks and free cab rides home!) and it seems like every time I turned around, someone was telling me how skinny I look. It pretty much made my day. The next day, Josh sent me a text that said, "Everyone keeps talking about how good you looked last night." Ahhhhhh.....

2. You're apartment not catching on fire. The night of the aforementioned Christmas party, the building next to my apartment burned down. It down right stinks - they had just done a bunch of remodeling, etc. I'm just happy that the apartment with a ton of my stuff still in it didn't burn down...well, sorta. The insurance money for a new bed would have been just a little bit nice :)

3. Being productive. I was able to get the rest of the big stuff (minus the couches....those will go later this week) out of the apartment and hauled a bunch of stuff to the dump. I cleaned up a ton in the apartment and managed to through an amazing amount crap into the garbage.

4. Feeling sore from being productive. Moving all the "big things" from the apartment to the house combined with an extra long pilates session makes for a sore Miranda on a Monday morning.

5. Doing your job and doing it well. I'm still getting the hang of this whole Probation Officer bit, but I feel like I'm actually getting things accomplished in a positive manner (albeit, in an untimely manner last week) and it's not going unnoticed...and that makes me happy.

6. The end of the semester. This one was tough....I'm glad it's over.

I need a break....

...from....writing? Wait, that doesn't seem right. Let's try this again. I need a break from ADHD. I think that can actually be taken in both an academic sense and in the literal sense. I don't want to study it anymore. I'm done. I don't care anymore. So what if it's cause by fukt-up uptake dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, and monoamine oxidase. So what if it's highly heritable. So what if it can be treated with stimulants, non-stimulants, and psychotropic drugs. So what, so what, SO EFFING WHAT?!

Alright, I'm going to be ok. I'm just tired and I don't care anymore and I still have a bunch of stuff to write about the evolution and adaptations of the disorder. Again, I don't really care anymore.

This next part is for Alison (and I suppose anyone else who is interested...), did you know that you can have ADHD without being hyperactive? In fact, in adults, the hyperactive part tends to dissipate and the inattentiveness increases. Sorry Jon, you'll have to hear that again Monday night. I thought it was interesting. For anyone else who is interested, you can be assessed for ADHD here. Click on "assessments." I scored as a "high" which would explain why the fuck I'm writing this right now instead of typing my paper....

I should be...

...doing many things other than blogging. Whatever.

I found out last night that my parents and sister are going to CA for Christmas to see my brother and his family. I can't go because I don't have any vacation time that I can use yet. Brooke will be gone too, so it looks like it's just Josh and me for the holidays. I think we'll go skiing at Tamarack :)

Two classes left to go for the semester! One will be hell, the other...not so much. Still SO much preparation for the weekend. Ugh! And the shitty thing is that I'll have to sit through "stupid girl's" presentation before I can give mine, even though I requested the first slot. I'd much rather go first and get it over with so I can concentrate on everyone else's presentations. Oh well, can't win 'em all. And you may think I'm being rude by calling her "stupid girl" but it's much nicer than calling her an outright "bitch." (oops, I think I just did.) Hopefully she won't be in my classes next semester...one could only be so lucky.

On another note, I realized last weekend that I paid my last month's rent back in January and I don't have to pay rent this month! Hooray!!!

BTW, still looking to sell my couches...$350 for both....or $225 for the couch and $175 for the love seat if bought separately (man, what a bargain to buy them together!).

I can see the end....

....and it looks good.

I am a little less frustrated with the undergrad papers, mostly because I found out that several of them have plagiarized and I get to give the I talked about previously an "F." Whew.

I'm still not quite seeing the end of this semester, but it looks better than it once did, so I like that. Papers to grade, project to finish, quizzes to take, 2 papers to write, and much more reading to do before Dec. 6 or something crazy like that, but I am much more optimistic right now than I have been at this time during previous semesters.

On top of that, I just registered for my last semester of actual course work. I am obviously very excited about only having 2 actual classes to take, but on top of that, the grad coordinator is letting people use an elective class as a seminar, so I get to take some sort of "alternative courts" course instead of "punishment and corrections." Hip hip hooray! But yikes, I really need to get cracking on a project topic...

P.S. I bought skis on Saturday at the ski swap! They are old rentals and aren't the greatest in the world, but they will allow me to ski all season, so that makes me happy!

summer

Some things you should know:

1. My 3 week Grantsmanship course has ended and I am the proud recipient of an A for the course.

2. School ended yesterday and I am happy to report that I am officially free of work responsibilities (unless I choose otherwise throughout the summer) until August 24, 2007.

3. I am currently a baking fool. So far today, I've made 2 loaves of banana bread, one pan of corn bread, and one of two batches of chocolate chip cookies for the MiddleFork trip. Whew!

12 days and counting...

Or should I say 11 days and counting? For the majority of the students and staff at my school, there are 12 days left, but I'm taking tomorrow off, so I only have 11...and I am pretty damn excited about that fact. I had originally planned on taking the day to work on my rough draft for my Grantsmanship course, but that's nearing completion and I shouldn't have to spend nearly as much time on it as I thought I would. It's pretty rad to be taking a personal day just for the hell of it. Yesssssssss! I am awesome!

do you hear that?

It's the sound of 30+ pages being printed off in the Communications Building computer lab. It's the sound papers passing from one set of hands to the next. It's the sound of a stapler pressing through the pages I have slaved over throughout this first semester of grad school. It's the sound of a great big sigh of relief. It's the sound of the door being closed on this chapter.

I'm done folks, and it feels really, really good.