"Off to Andersant" and the nearing of the end of the semester

5 classes
2 days of classes
1 essay to be finished
1 take-home final to complete
2 finals to take
2 days of work left
9 days till I go home

Time is simply flying. I can't believe that the semester is almost over. Most of my work for classes is done; all I have left to do is put the finishing touches on my essay for Writing the Essay and finish my take-home final for Great Poems. After that is done, I only have two writen finals to take -- German and Quantitative Reasoning. I have to say I'm slightly worried about my finals, but my grades are, overall, pretty good.

Today was my roommate, David's, birthday. I'm not sure if the grammar in that last sentence was sound, but that's how I chose to convey my thought. Anyway, Jaron, Sam, David, and I went to Cafe Le Figaro (I may also be messing up the spelling of that name). I didn't get anything because of my lack of expendable money, which I'll go into later. Anyway, it was still a very fun time. David and I also exchanged Christmas gifts, which was nice. I got him a green jeweled frame that I was horribly afraid he would dislike, and he got me a scarf from H&M that matches a sweater I have that is really neat. It sort of completes a set in a way, as I have another scarf in the same style with different colors -- I'll have to rotate them depending on my moods, cool colors for mellow moods and warm colors for ecstatic ones.

On Saturday night, I went to see David's one-act, Off to Andersant, as part of the College of Arts and Science Theatre (CAST) night of one-acts. It was one of five short plays that were put on. The first two weren't to my liking; David's was the wittiest of them. The most riotous was the last play, Laurastrata about an assembly of the first wives (and a few others). Overall, the entire evening was great. It was interesting to see the way David's mind works dramatically. A lot of the comedy in the play reminded me of the essence of David if that can be summed up into a ten minute play.

I've been working on things for school relatively efficiently in the past few days. Last night, I got my work done early enough to hang out with Ally for a few hours and watch her bootleg DVD of Rent, which was of pretty good quality, certainly good enough to sit through the whole thing. Today, I got a good deal of the reading that's due for Wednesday for Great Poems -- The Best American Poetry 2005. I have to read the whole book, chose the best and worst poems, and then write a poem worse than the worst poem in the book. It's a neat assignment, but the book is pretty time-consuming. Tomorrow will be slightly more hectic: I have class at 11, a break from 12:30 to 3 where I can finish reading the book, then another class at 3:30 and work at 6, which means I have to put the final edits into my Writing the Essay paper and write my poetry assignment between 10 and when I go to sleep. Hopefully, I'm efficient.

Work is going relatively well. My nights are hit or miss. Sometimes I do well, and sometimes not. Last time I worked, my boss pulled me aside as if chiding me for not keeping up with the pack, so I'm getting slightly worried. I've definitely been improving during my time at the job, and I'm getting better at being persuasive so I feel as if I should be getting more pledges than I do. I really wish I had a different job, and I'm thinking of taking a look for a new one this weekend so I can effectively give my boss two weeks' notice, but we'll see how it goes. It's not so much that the job is demanding, but I feel sleazy having to call people and bug them for money -- no matter how much I know that the job I'm doing helps the university, I can't help but feel slightly uncomfortable. Anyway, the job is certainly not bad -- it pays fairly and is easy enough to perform well at. My boss is fair and so are the supervisors, so I won't be disappointed to continue there through this school year. We'll see what happens. I can't afford to be out of work right now, but I'm thinking of going to Gap or TLA Video and perhaps a few other places (bookstores?) and seeing what I can do.

Oh, so I suppose the next topic of discussion is my money situation. I had about $35 dollars left in my checking account for my use until my printer ran out of ink and I had to go out and make an emergency ink purchase. Now, my checking account is just about obliterated. My savings account has $80, and I owe $65 of it to Christina and $12 of it to Ally. I get $100 or slightly more when I get paid tomorrow, so then I'll be relatively financially stable, as my mom is depositing a check for me to get a book for school, repay me for my ink cartridge, and pay for my train ticket home. Gosh...I never knew money was so complicated until I had to be such a thrifty person. I can't even believe how many Broadway shows I went to see earlier in the semester when I should've been saving money. I suppose after the holidays, when I get paychecks and still have a stash from whatever I get for Christmas, I'll be a little bit more comfortable financially. Ugh. I need to make more money (another bit of a reason to get a new job).

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a nice beginning to their holiday season. I, for one, can't wait to watch White Christmas and perhaps spend New Year's in NYC (perhaps at the Life Cafe). Whee!

Also, going to see Rent (the movie) for the third time on Wednesday with Len, Christina, Olga, Richard, and Ally. Yay!