Sunday, May 1

Well, at least we got to sleep in this morning. I got out of bed at about 11, so at least I got a good 8 hours of sleep. Stefy and I had a very nutritious breakfast this morning: cocoa pebbles with a glob of peanut butter. The breakfast of champions. We got cleaned up by 1 or so, and took off for the parté a little after 4 this afternoon. Today was officially Greek Easter, and the big family party was at Stef’s grandma’s cousin Fran’s house. There were about a million people to meet once we got there, but everyone was so nice to me, and of course there was mountains of fantastic food, so it was actually a lot of fun. Stef and I spent some time talking to different little pods of people throughout the course of the afternoon, but the time really flew while we were there. I think it was a little after 9 p.m. by the time we finally took off for Lansing, but with Stefy driving faster than the speed of sound, we managed to get back to town in just over an hour. Anyway, that was pretty much it for today. And so begins finals week…

Saturday, April 30

We really couldn’t sleep in for very long this morning since there were about a million things to do today, so I was up by 9 or so getting ready. Stef and I had to load a bunch of boxes and other odd-ball stuff from her dorm this morning, because this was pretty much the last trip back to her house before the big move out date next Friday. It really didn’t take very long since everyone was still asleep this morning, so we didn’t have to fight for a cart or anything. We were on the road by 10:30 or so, and with Stefy behind the wheel, we made it to her house in record time. Both of us were already a little hungry by the time we got into town, so we grabbed a light lunch at BK to tide us over for the afternoon, and headed to the house. We let Zoey in from the back porch and played with her for a few minutes, and then retired to the library to eat our lunch and watch some TV. After we were done Stef and I pretty much took right off again for Somerset because she needed to get a small birthday gift for one of the girls at the dorm, and since I wanted to look at some new work clothes anyway, we started off at the Gap. It was a successful trip for Stefy, because she found a few small presents that did the trick, but I didn’t even bother looking at the guy’s stuff really, since the place was a total zoo. Although, since I had forgotten to pack and extra pair of boxers for the weekend, I shrewdly picked up a pair that was on sale before we left the store. Stefy and I wandered around the mall for a bit before we eventually met up with her mom and cousin Sarah to chat for a while. We ended up going to a restaurant inside the mall to all have a drink, and listen to Sarah’s very long and bizarre story about breaking up with her boyfriend. Anyway, after our little visit Sarah had to take off, and Stef and I piled into her mom’s car to head off for dinner at Mon Jin Lau. Tim was in Vegas this weekend, so it was just Stefy, Teri, and me at dinner, but we had a really good time. I decided to mix up my usual order by switching to Sweet and Sour Chicken instead of General Tso’s. It was FAN-TASTIC. Oh man, this place is just insanely great. Anyway, we all had a really nice time at dinner, and we picked up some ice cream on the way home for a little snack. I must say, cake batter might just be my new favorite Coldstone flavor. Mmm Mmm! Stef and I watched some news for a little bit with her mom, and we just ended up talking about that crazy lady who faked her own kidnapping. I guess that family will be making some returns. What a nut. Anyway, we started getting ready for tonight’s Greek Easter church service at 9 or so, and hit the road for Stef’s grandma’s house at 10ish. June had some cookies and tea waiting for us, so we sat and visited with her for a little bit before taking off for the church. The service was a lot like a Catholic one, only, you know… in Greek. We did this thing where everyone filed outside so the priest could say the prayer under the stars, but even June admitted that it was a little pointless. The service was only about 40 minutes or so, but I was really glad we went. I think Stef’s grandma really appreciated having some company. It was well after 1 a.m. by the time we got back to June’s house, but she was still wide awake, so Stef and I stuck around for a little bit and chatted some more before we finally took off a little before 2. Man, we were totally gone by the time we got back to Stef’s house, and I pretty much passed right out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Friday, April 29

A very busy Friday at the office today. I had several deposits to work through, loaded some files onto the server, did some spring cleaning on our website, pawed through the insurance files some more… the list goes on. Still, the great part about a busy day is how fast it goes by. I picked Stefy up from the dorm after work, and we pretty much headed straight out to Dimondale to pick up her car for the weekend. We stayed and played with the girls for about an hour once we were there, but took off a little bit before dinner time. On the way back to the apartment, Stef and I dropped her car off at lot 91 for the weekend, and then went back to the pad to unwind for the night. We pretty much had a lazy evening at home. There was talk of getting up and driving to NCG to catch a movie tonight, but there really wasn’t anything earth-shattering at the theater that made us want to leave. So, we just stayed in and channel surfed the night away. Always a good decision.

Thursday, April 28

My last day of film classes (aside from study abroad) ever. Sniffle. We talked some more about “Under the Skin of the City” this morning, and by the end of our discussion, my opinion of the movie had definitely changed. It’s amazing how much you can miss when you doze off for even a few minutes of a screening. Prof. Fay set us free about 20 min earlier than usual which was nice, but it left me waiting outside twiddling my thumbs waiting for my dad to come pick me up for lunch. We went up to Grand River and hit up Cosí for some eats, but got there right in the middle of the noon hour rush. Still, it was nice to spend some time chatting with my dad. He got to listen to me sing the praises of “Tiger” some more in person today, since he’s doing an interview with a tech guy about it next week on the air. We had a nice, leisurely lunch though, and then I went back to the pad for an hour or so and chilled out afterwards. There was no such luck getting out from my Film Theory class earlier today, but we still had to fill out course evaluations in there. I don’t get why so many kids race through those. I mean, even for BAD professors I still feel like I owe it to them to honestly appraise the class, and explain what I thought did and DIDN’T work. But, especially for an instructor like Prof. Fay who is universally adored by film students, I think kids at least owe it to her to write something halfway decent down. I digress. Anyway, the bright spot of my day came when we were filing out of Film Theory for the last time—also my final class of Junior year—because Fay gave back our final papers. 4.0. I don’t know how, or why, but I’m taking it. What a way to finish the year?! Whew. Well, the rest of my day was pretty easy after that. I pretty much spent the night relaxing in my room, before eventually picking up Stefy for a Meijer run at 9:30 or so, but that was about it. Ya gotta love the last day of classes.

Wednesday, April 27

Last Sociology class EVER. Man, what a drag this class turned out to be. Well, the good part was getting to leave about an hour early today. At least the guy is halfway decent. Work went by kinda slow though with that extra hour tacked on today, but I still got a lot done. This afternoon was also my last English Lit class, and while I had to sit through the professor droll on about Paradise Lost some more, he also let us go about an hour early today. Man, I guess everyone is feeling generous. Prof. Morrow also handed back our final papers, and I got a nice, respectable 3.6 on that baby. A very big load off. Stefy and I were lazy couch potatoes tonight with our favorite TV lineup. Constantine is gone from American Idol… a welcome surprise. Human’s just shouldn’t have a cleft chin like that. It’s not natural. Anyway, that’s it for tonight. A surprisingly relaxing day of classes, and very laid back evening. Always a good thing.

Tuesday, April 26

My second-to-last day of film classes. In History this morning we watched another Iranian film, “Under the Skin of the City,” and I had just as much trouble staying awake. Still, this one had a lot more going on last week’s movie, so it did manage to finally capture my attention. I ran into work for a couple hours this afternoon, but there really wasn’t anything going on since everyone was in Detroit for a staff meeting. My Theory class was a little more entertaining this afternoon, as we were finally having our screening of “King Kong.” I’d never seen this movie before, but man-oh-man is it bad. The readings we’re doing right now are talking about ethnographic cinema, and how inherently racist such films are, and “Kong” certainly proved the point. I’m kinda wondering how Peter Jackson is supposed to do a remake of this without (A) pissing a LOT of people off, or (B) royally sucking. Anyway, we finally had our first meeting for the study abroad program after class tonight. I finally figured out who the other faculty member is on the trip. Dr. Roof is this short, pudgy little lady with short gray hair, and is a little nutty. She pretty much ran the discussion tonight, and I was kinda hoping that Prof. Nieland (the guy I had for Film Criticism) would've done more. The meeting was pretty haphazard, and I don't think I walked out of there really knowing a whole lot more about the specifics of our classes than I already did. Still, it was a relief to finally have it out of the way. One shining aspect from tonight was learning that the production aspect of one of the two classes is much more prominent than I originally thought. This means that, in one way or another, I should walk away from this trip with a finished film. I don’t know… it just got me really excited. The kids in the group seemed pretty cool for the most part. There are only about 14 of us, and I actually recognized quite a few of them from my other classes. So, it'll be good to have some familiar faces on the trip. So yeah, that was pretty much it for today.

Monday, April 25

Back to the grind today. At least the weather was a bit better. Sociology was pretty typical this morning, and we went for the full two hours. Work was kind of busy today, since I had to do some tweaking of our loan application and get that baby back up on the website ASAP. We covered more of “Paradise Lost” in English Lit today, but the professor decided to put us in groups in an effort to spice things up and distribute the material across the entire class. I actually lucked out with my group though, since we had to talk about a passage that was the topic of a paper from the fall. That meant I actually had something to contribute to the class for once. Afterwards I picked up Stef from Barnes and Noble, and dropped her off at the dorm since she had to do a bunch of studying. So, I went back to the pad and spent a good couple of hours doing some spring cleaning on my computers. Nate got an advance copy of OS X Tiger last week and I’m really anxious to get that installed on both of my machines, so I needed to clean out some space before backing them up. At around 7:30 or so I got an S.O.S. from Stefy because her roommate’s boyfriend was over, and the two of them were watching TV really loud. So, she came over for a bit to work on her “Edward Scissorhands” paper, and I managed to get through most of my reading for film classes tomorrow. That’s about it for today.