Sunday, April 24

Sleeping in was out of the question today, having already agreed to babysit for my dad and Sherry this afternoon. The alarm went off at 9 this morning, and I was out the door by 10 or so to head out to D-Town. Stefy was questioning whether or not she could handle watching the girls with me this morning, but was afraid that her roommate would show up at the dorm again with her little sister (who was apparently spending the weekend there), so she decided to come along even though she still wasn’t feeling well. Of course, Kyra and Morgan were grateful, since they seemed more excited to see Stefy than me, but that’s getting to be the norm. It’s so cute to watch them with her though—I swear, it’s like they’re fighting for her attention every time we go over there. We decided to keep it a relatively quiet afternoon by entertaining the girls with some Pooh videos. That was actually a lot of fun though, because I got to see a lot of the cartoons that I hadn’t watched since I was a little kid, so it was a nice piece of nostalgia. Kyra ended up passing out on Stefy’s lap, and Morgan was totally glued to the TV, so we rounded out our babysitting time with “Charlotte’s Web” on tape, before my Dad and Sherry got back home at around 3:30. Stef and I went back to the pad and ended up ordering a pizza that took over an hour to deliver—damn you Hungry Howie’s! We finished up our screening of “The Godfather”, and then popped in ANOTHER movie, “Clueless”. The perfect way to finish this weekend, I suppose.

Saturday, April 23

Well, I guess that 80 degree weather is gone for a while. I mean, yesterday was chilly and gross, but today was absolutely disgusting. Snow in April is not unheard of, but a freakin’ winter storm advisory? Man, I couldn’t believe how nasty it was today. So, since there wasn’t much to do outside, and since Stefy was sick as a dog all day today, we decided to make it a movie day. I made a short trip out to Meijer this morning to pick up some Theraflu for my sick girl, but then came back and we watched “Edward Scissorhands”, since Stef has to write about it for a paper next week. I love that movie more and more every time I see it, but I’m still not sure if it’s overtaken “Batman” as my favorite Tim Burton flick… of course, I can’t forget about “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” either. Anyway, we watched some TV for a little bit, but ended up popping in another tried and true movie pick for the afternoon, “Back to the Future, Part II”. I’m still waiting for my hover board. Well, the afternoon was some more lazy time, since Stefy still wasn’t feeling much better. I poked around online for a little bit, but we pretty much just ended up watching more midday TV. At 8 or so we were feeling ambitious, so we moved it into the living room for our big feature of the day, “The Godfather”. Stef had never seen it before, so I was glad to introduce her to one of the greats of all time. Since the movie is so freakin’ long though, we took a break about halfway thru, and I braved the blizzard-like conditions to go pick up some Baskin’s for my sick girl. They had a new flavor that I hadn’t seen before—Reeses Peanut Butter Cup—so I was all over that like white on rice. It’s still not as good as a Sweet Sensations Flurry, but it was still pretty damn good. We watched a little bit more of the movie after I got back, but a certain somebody was getting pretty drowsy, so we decided to just finish it tomorrow. Well, I guess that puts a wrap on what was maybe the laziest day of the year. You gotta love a good movie day though.

Friday, April 22

You gotta love office birthdays. Racheal over at Cedam was turning 23 today, and Kim brought in some donut holes and a birthday cake for everyone, so that was a pretty good way to kick-start the day. Other than that though it was a pretty busy day today, since I had a couple deposits to work on, and Wanda, Kim, and I all needed to have a meeting to discuss this insurance situation. We pretty much managed to hammer everything out though, so I think it should be easier to handle from here on out. I split out of the office at about 3 this afternoon for a short jaunt to Holt so I could pick up my birth certificate at Dart. Once I finally had that in my hands, I doubled back towards campus to pick up Stefy on my way to the E.L. Post office. The reason I needed my birth certificate was because I had to drop off my application for a passport, and this was about the only day I could get it done this week. So, we went to the post office and into the guy’s office who deals with this stuff, and were out of there in less than 5 minutes—I think that must be some kind of record speed for any federal agency. Anyway, that was a big load off, and Stefy and I headed up to Eastwood to kill some time afterwards. We went into the Gap and poked around for a while, and Stefy ended up buying a pair of jeans. Of course, I didn’t realize who the jeans were for until we got out to the car. Well, what can I say? My girl spoils me. Or maybe she was just sick of seeing me wear ratty jeans. Either way, it was really sweet. Well anyway, we were both pretty hungry by then, so we went over to Max and Erma’s for a light early dinner, and then went back to the apartment to chill out for the night. Stefy was feeling kinda tired and sick by the time we got back, so we just indulged ourselves with our usual TV shows, and made it a pretty lazy night in.

Thursday, April 21

Well, after being totally lost after my film classes on Tuesday, I think today definitely made a lot more sense. I’m not sure if it was the fact that I actually got a good night’s rest last night, or that I actually did the reading I was supposed to do—or both—but everything finally started to fall into place. I went into work for a couple hours this afternoon instead of the usual lunch with my dad, since I’m still trying to catch up from skipping Monday, and will have to leave early tomorrow to deal with my passport (blech). Like I said, Film Theory went pretty well this afternoon, and I got a bunch of really good notes down, so I think I’ll be in pretty good shape when exam week rolls around. After class I went to pick up Stefy on Grand River, and she tagged along with me for my haircut at 5:15. Angie did a good job again today, but holy crap I was itchy afterwards! I usually go home and take a shower after a haircut, but didn’t have time since we went straight to dinner tonight. It was all worth it though, because today was mine and Stefy’s 8-month anniversary. She gave me a really awesome t-shirt from Retro Duck, which is this newer place on Grand River that has all sorts of vintage shirts. It’s blue and says “Save the Clock Tower”, with a picture of the Clock Tower from “Back to the Future” underneath it. I know, this is heavy. Anyway, for dinner we ate at our usual fav, P.F. Changs, and of course had a fantastic meal. We decided to forego the Great Wall of Chocolate that we usually get though, since we had some of Sara’s birthday cake waiting at the apartment for us. After dinner we went over to NCG to check the movie times, and totally lucked out since they had a showing of “Millions” starting in ten minutes. We’ve been really excited to see that movie for months now, so it was great to finally catch it before it’s out of town. Stefy and I both thought it was really good, and that little boy is honestly the cutest kid. I want an English accent now. And some Euros. Well anyway, we went back to the apartment for a bit after the movie, and chowed down on our cake. I talked to Nate for a few minutes, and he lent me his “advance” copy of Mac OS X Tiger, so hopefully I’ll get around to installing that baby in the next couple of days. That was pretty much it for today though. Eight months—can you believe it? Time flies…

Wednesday, April 20

Sociology this morning. Surprisingly, after barely studying for today’s quiz, I actually feel like I did a pretty well. Not getting my hopes up though. I split out of there right after we were done, and made it into the office about an hour early this morning. After skipping work on Monday, I need to make up the time somehow. My morning was pretty low key. I’m still working on this big insurance project here, but am definitely pacing myself because it can get pretty tedious. My English Lit class was pretty boring again today. More talk about Paradise Lost, which meant more Tetris time. Hey, don’t laugh—I got a new high score today. I pretty much came back to the pad after class, and killed the rest of the night by actually doing some—*gasp*—reading. Yeah, I know… it’s pretty shocking. Still, I managed to steamroll my way through about a week’s worth of film reading over a two hour period (minus a 10 minute nap break), so I felt pretty productive. Once I got that crap out of the way I set myself to more important matters, like finishing the mix CD I was making for Stefy. I managed to print out the cover and slip it into the jewel case just in time to go pick up Stef from the dorm for a little while. Tonight was her friend Sara’s birthday, so she was out with the girls for dinner at Harper’s. Anyway, that was pretty much it for today.

Tuesday, April 19

I don’t know what the deal is, but I felt really out of the loop in my film classes today. Fay was talking a mile a minute in History this morning, and I took about 50 pages of notes, and honestly don’t have a clue what she was talking about. We screened this Iranian film “Where is My Friend’s House?” this morning, which was painfully slow. I nodded off for a few minutes, but perked up near the middle part of the movie. It actually did have a pretty cute ending, but man, it was a long class. Work went by pretty quick today. Someone brought in donut holes and bananas, so I made a pretty gourmet lunch out of that. Film Theory this afternoon was the class that really fried my brain today. At least this morning I got some good notes down, but for Theory, Prof. Fay wanted the class to be more of a discussion today, and it was pretty clear that nobody had anything to say. We screened another VERY slow movie today—“Nanook of the North”—which was actually very good, but silent movies always have a tendency to put me to sleep. In fact, I think I had my worst head-bobbing moment of the semester when I passed out for a few minutes. I mean, I tried to make it look all smooth, like I’d moved that way on purpose, but it was pretty clear that I was dozing off. At least I wasn’t the only one—about half of the kids had their heads down for this one. Anyway, after my long day of film classes finally let out, I went and picked up Stef from Holmes on our way to the apartment. She jumped into her car and we drove it out to my dad’s house, where it will be staying through the end of the school year. We made a pit stop at Wendy’s on the way back to campus for some grub, and went back to the dorm to watch our usual Tuesday night TV lineup: Jeopardy, Idol, Sex and the City. That was pretty much it for tonight. I was going to do some more studying for Sociology tonight, but just decided to get up a little early before class tomorrow morning to do it then.

Monday, April 18

This paper was pretty tedious to write—especially since I had to BS my way through one of the readings I have to cover—but I actually think it turned out really well. I finally printed that thing out at about 1 p.m. this afternoon, and went over to Holmes to pick up Stefy for lunch before our respective classes. She treated me to a big-ass sammich at Jersey Giants, and then we popped over to Barnes and Noble to read some magazines before class. I think we had our highest turnout of the semester today—big shock on the day of our final paper—but we didn’t even talk about them once class began. Instead, we began our discussion of none other than freaking Paradise Lost. Yep, I’m ending the year at the same damn place I started. For those with a short memory, or have also managed to block out all memory of John Milton’s poem, I had to wade thru PL waaaaay back in my fall English Lit class. It was tiresome then, and it’s downright exhausting now. Still, I guess it’s good that I already kinda know what’s going on, since this is what our final exam is covering. But man, talk about the BLAH factor setting in. Anyway, I dropped Miss Spiro off at the dorm on my way back to the pad, where I spent the next several hours busting my ass with a mountain of little chores that I’ve let slip over the past several weeks—cleaned up the room a bit, filed some papers, called the folks, worked on paying some billz, and spent 45min on hold trying to deal with some investment check I have coming to me. Thank God, but I finally finished all that crap by 9:30 or so. Still, I somehow had enough gumption left in me to tackle some reading for my Sociology quiz on Wednesday, so I spent the next hour and a half or so doing THAT. Man, I’m wiped…tomorrow can’t help but be easier than this.