Sunday, March 06

Our first full day in Florida, and it was gorgeous. Sunny skies and in the low 70s. Man, I totally don’t miss Michigan. Anyway, we decided to ease into the whole Disney scene with MGM Studios today, which was a wise suggestion from our knowledgeable tour guide, Miss Spiro. We pretty much did everything there over the course of the day, because the park was totally dead for (what we assumed was) the spring break season. That was a good thing though, because all of the waits for rides were totally painless, and we got to meet quite a few Disney characters without having to push through mobs of annoying little kids. Always a bonus. The funniest part of the day probably came near the end though when we were at the “Who Wants to be a Millionaire: Play It” game show, and the first question of the show was “Put these U2 albums in order, starting with the earliest.” Of course, I totally froze up and pushed the wrong buttons, but Stefy got it right, and was about a tenth of a second away from getting to sit in the hot seat—she came in second to a girl who admitted to just pushing random buttons. It was just funny that of all the possible questions they could’ve asked, that’s the one I got, and ended up choking on. Ah well. Anyway, the rest of the night was spent recuperating at the hotel. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the upper 70s, and is looking like the warmest day of the week, so we’re hitting up Typhoon Lagoon like it’s nobody’s business.

Saturday, March 05

An early start at 6:30, but it’s so worth it for Florida. Stef’s Aunt Dolly and cousin Lily showed up by 7:30ish, and we hit the road right away. The drive to the airport was a drag, but the flight itself was actually uneventful, which was a big improvement compared to the big fiasco my mom and I went through at this time a year ago. Stefy and I watched “Waiting for Guffman” on the plane, so that made the trip go by really fast. It was close to 1 p.m. by the time we arrived in Orlando, and we were welcomed into the sunshine state by a dead body. Yep, as we were leaving the terminal to pick up our baggage, we saw some dude sprawled out on the floor with the paramedics attending to him, but he was clearly already gone. Not the best sign to start off a vacation, but that was pretty much the only weirdness for the trip, so I guess that’s good. The rest of our day was pretty low-key: got the car, checked into the resort, went to Downtown Disney for Dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s, and finally crashed at around 10. ZZzzZZzZ.

Friday, March 04

Work was long for a Friday, but it especially dragged since I was so excited for the trip. It was around 3:30 when I hit the road for Stef’s house, which was perfect timing for the Friday evening logjam on 96. It was after 6 by the time I got to her house, and I was completely exhausted by then. There was no time to waste though—Stefy and I grabbed a quick bite of food before heading out for the production of “Cabaret” at Stef’s high school. Neither of us had seen the show before, and while it turned out to be MUCH longer than either of us were expecting, we both really enjoyed it. I was especially impressed by the kids they had performing, and the elaborate sets onstage, considering it was a high school performance (of course, I have to consider the school we’re talking about though). Anyway, we were zonked by the time we got back to Stef’s house, and it’s an early flight in the morning. Early to bed…

Thursday, March 03

Today was film day. I pretty much spent the entire morning wrapping up my paper on “The Great Dictator”, and ended up skipping Film History (the class it was due for) to do so. By the time I made it to Theory for my mid-term this afternoon, my brain was thoroughly fried. The exam was much more difficult than the one we took a week ago in History, and it certainly didn’t help that my study time was severely diminished by my effort to finish the Chaplin paper early. I did get some good news though… as I was turning in one mid-term to Professor Fay, she was handing back the one from the other class, and I actually did much better on it than I’d originally expected—a 4.0! So, that pretty much made my day, and it was all downhill from there. I drove out to Dad’s for dinner and a marathon laundry session tonight for my pre-Florida prep time. The rest of my night was spent packing clothes at the apartment and getting psyched up for the trip.

Wednesday, March 02

Well, I went to Sociology this morning to take my second exam in there. It wasn't too bad, but it definitely felt good to get it done. I spent most of the afternoon at work tying up some loose ends before the trip, and then decided to just skip my English class since I made the decision to skip this week's paper. So, I spent a good chunk of the evening working on my Chaplin paper for Film History, and then relaxed a little bit with my girl in front of the TV. Tomorrow is definitely going to be a busy day, so some down time is definitely in order.

Tuesday, March 01

Every school in town was closed today. It’s a good thing that I go to a University that hasn’t cancelled classes since my DAD went to college. Scraping off my car wasn’t too bad today—but standing in a foot of snow to do it sure as hell was. I must’ve cursed my home state a hundred times today. It was just absolutely unbearable. There were only two other kids at my Film History class with me when it started at 9:10 this morning, but it did eventually fill up. We watched this really good, but painfully slow Japanese film “Tokyo Story” today, and I had a tough time keeping my eyes open. My afternoon schedule was swapped for Thursday’s today since I had to turn in my Study Abroad app, so my dad picked me up from class at noon. We did lunch at the Pizza House, and both got a couple of really yummy calzones. Dad dropped me off at the International Center after we ate, I dropped off my application, drove my car to the apartment to pay my rent, and then turned right back around to head to Film Theory. Class went VERY slow this afternoon with our midterm review session, but I was really glad I decided to stick it out—I think I got some pretty helpful notes out of it. Anyway, the rest of my day was pretty much downhill from there. I managed to fall down a flight of stairs after slipping on the snow. Ironically enough, if there hadn’t been snow on the steps, I think I might’ve broken a few bones in the process because it actually broke my fall. It still hurt like a mofo though. I came back to the apartment and spent the night studying for Sociology, and writing my paper for Film History. Pretty crazy stuff, I know. Jesus, I am * SO * ready for spring break.

Monday, February 28

This week is going to absolutely suck. There’s just so much shit going on, my head is spinning. I actually dragged myself to Sociology this morning, and it turned out to be pretty pointless. Work was a total headache today because some idiot gave out some bad information about our organization to 3,200 homeless people, basically saying that we give out free money. So, we were absolutely flooded with phone calls all day, and that was a P.I.T.A. My English Lit class was actually enjoyable today because the professor took it upon himself to (GASP)… TEACH today. We’re talking about sonnets right now, and have a short paper due on one of them for Wednesday. This is one paper that I actually wouldn’t mind doing, but I think I’m going to have to skip this one (we only have to do 4 of 5) because there’s just too much on my plate right now. I came back to the pad after class and got cracking right away on the 1-page essay I needed to write for my Study Abroad scholarship application. It was total BS, but I think it turned out decent enough. The rest of my night was spent churning through my Sociology readings for our Wednesday mid-term, and you can imagine how thrilling that turned out to be. It was close to 10 by the time I finally threw in the towel for the night, and I was just about ready to collapse at that point. Gee, it’s snowing outside and there’s a winter storm warning right now. Tomorrow is looking like another wonderful day in Michigan.