Sunday, January 30

Needless to say, I was pretty anxious to get the hell out of the apartment this morning, so that’s exactly what we did. Stef and I finally made it to an early afternoon showing of “Million Dollar Baby” at NCG, and it was definitely worth the wait. I absolutely loved “The Aviator” on Friday, but this was certainly right up there with it. It’s pretty ballsy to do a story like that, especially considering the political climate nowadays, so I have to give huge props to Mr. Eastwood for this one. Anyway, Stefy and I hung out for a bit at the dorm after the show, but I eventually went back to the apartment to deal with the drama that had been brewing there all weekend. Things were definitely tense for a little bit, but by the end of the night everything seemed to be more or less back to normal, or whatever this new state of normalcy is. I’m definitely feeling much, MUCH better now though.

Saturday, January 29

A day for sleeping in, basketball, and not seeing Million Dollar Baby. Stefy and I started the day off by having lunch at Old Chicago Pizza, and then running some errands, before stopping by NCG to see “Million Dollar Baby”. We were hoping to catch the 3:55 show, but the theater was absolutely swamped for some reason, so we decided to give up and go back to the dorm. We spent a fair chunk of the afternoon there watching some TV, before finally taking off for the MSU / Oakland basketball game at around 6ish. The game was over before it even started, since this was pretty much just a warm up for Tuesday’s bout with Illinois, but it was still a fun game. Stefy and I were planning to just spend the night at the dorm tonight (choosing to avoid the apartment, for reasons that will be obvious to some), but those plans were foiled when her roommate Danielle and her boyfriend Brian came rolling in at 11 p.m., ready to spend the night. So, we packed up and headed back to the pad, which actually turned out to be okay.

Friday, January 28

A long day at the office today, for more reasons than one. I’ll just stick to the everyday stuff for now though. I raced through finishing the brochure this morning to get a copy to Christi, but there’s still some tweaking that needs to be done. Somehow in the course of the day I managed to get our office newsletter dumped on my plate. I’m not really complaining here, because I’ve really wanted to take this project over for a while now, but it’s just a big headache that’s suddenly at the center of things to worry about at work. Anyway, I’ll glaze over the details of this afternoon, but suffice it to say, I didn’t exactly leave the office in the best of moods. Of course, my wonderful girlfriend helped cheer me up over dinner at Max and Erma’s, and then by taking me to NCG to finally see “The Aviator”. I thought it was absolutely fabulous, and Stefy and I both really enjoyed it. I’m so glad that I’m finally knocking off most of the movies that are up for Best Picture this year too. Stefy and I came back to the pad after the movie to unwind a little bit with the Ben Folds Five concert DVD that I’ve still never seen all the way through. So, that was pretty much the end of what was for many reasons a pretty emotionally taxing day. Thank God for great movies and a great girlfriend to help me get through it though.

Thursday, January 27

It’s late and I’m tired, so I’ll keep today’s events short. Film history was kind of a bore this morning, and we didn’t really cover anything too interesting. The best part was getting out about a half hour early, so that meant I had some time to fetch my car and take it back to the apartment before my dad picked me up for lunch. He took me out to the Old Chicago pizza joint up on Grand River, and we had a really yummy pie. Afterwards we swung by Younkers in the mall so dad could pick up some new gloves, and then we stopped by Best Buy so I could finally buy season three of Curb Your Enthusiasm on DVD. By the time I got back to the pad I pretty much had to head right back out for my film theory class at 3. Theory was even more boring than history was this morning, and she didn’t let us out early, so that was a bit of a bummer. It was pushing 5 by the time I came back to the apartment again, and I kinda had to hurry around to eat some dinner and talk on the phone with my mom before Nate and I had to leave for the basketball game. We made a stop at Holmes on the way to pick up Stefy, and then found a spot over by Wilson before walking over to Breslin. We played U of M tonight, and while those pesky Wolverines kept it interesting throughout the first half, the game ended up being the ass-pounding everyone expected. Well, that’s a wrap on Thursday… I’m sleepy.

Wednesday, January 26

On Monday Sociology was half empty. Today, with our first quiz of the semester, it was packed to the gills. There were about 20 kids sitting in the aisles so they could take their quizzes, which certainly didn’t help in a room that’s already a pretty tight squeeze. The professor started the class by lecturing for about 20 minutes or so before handing out the quizzes, and then told us that he wanted everyone to stay after they were done so the scantrons could be turned in at the same time. I didn’t think the quiz was too tricky, but there were a few questions that I had to guess on. Anyway, once everyone was done and handed in their answer sheets, he wanted to use the remaining hour to start lecturing again. Of course, I wasn’t havin’ any of that, so I bolted out of there and headed to work to get in an extra hour this morning. Most of my time was spent finishing up the brochure I’ve been working on, but once I finally printed out a test copy, I was a little disappointed with the final result. So, I guess that means it’ll be back to the drawing board on Friday. Anyway, my English Lit class this afternoon started out easy enough, but by the end of the class period, I was ready to pull my hair out. The prof lectured for a little bit, but clearly hadn’t prepared much to talk about since we had our first group presentation today. These kids were supposed to go up and talk about our reading for the week in greater detail, and had brought a Power Point presentation with them that they couldn’t get to work. So, we waited for about a half hour for the building’s tech person to show up and get things working, and then got to sit through the most boring presentation * EVER *. There was still about 40min left in the class once the group wrapped up, and it looked like the prof was ready to call it a day. Any such plans of getting out early were foiled when all these damn kids in the class started asking QUESTIONS about the reading, and of course he felt obliged to answer, so we ended up going for the full session. Now, I get that this is a pretty reasonable concept, but you have to realize how mind numbing this shit is. We’re talking about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and I feel like I’m in fifth grade history all over again… it’s ridiculous. Okay, I’m done venting. Anyway, I met up with Stefy once I was set free, and we headed up to Eastwood after class to kill some time before my dad’s big performance at the Boar’s Head Theater tonight. “Killing time” up at Eastwood meant the usual routine for us though—dinner at P.F. Chang’s and shopping. Stefy wanted to look at J.Crew for some things, and I ran into a kid from my film classes while we were in there, so he corned me into a rather lengthy conversation for a few minutes while Stef tried some things on. She eventually decided to pick up a new coat and a skirt while we were there, since so much of their winter stuff was on sale, so I guess it was a fruitful trip after all. We finally escaped the Eastwood vortex though, and made it to the theater with time to spare. My dad was doing his second stint as the narrator for the Boars Head production of “Side by Side by Sondheim” tonight, so it was pretty cool to see him up there on stage, being the big shot that he is. The show wasn’t exactly balls to the wall excitement, but it was entertaining enough, and I thought the musicians were all very talented. Stefy really seemed to enjoy the show, which was a bit of a relief since she didn’t seem that enthused when I first told her about it. Anyway, we got out of there after saying hi to my dad at around 9:30, and we were both thoroughly pooped by then. It was a LONG day to say the least, but it was nothing but comedy tonight.

Tuesday, January 25

Mondays and Wednesdays? Not my favorite class days. Tuesdays and Thursdays? Me likey. I hate to sound like a total jerk, but I really lucked out today by having a sick film professor—it also didn’t hurt that she’s the teacher for BOTH of my classes. That meant a couple of SHORT sessions, which meant more time at the office, which is always good for a light pocketbook. We watched “Nosferatu” in Film History this morning, and while I enjoyed it enough, I think it could’ve been a lot creepier if we hadn’t been watching the version with a “modernized” soundtrack that sounded a little too much like Pure Moods for my taste. My afternoon at the office blew by since I had so much work to do on the new brochure, and I was back on campus in no time. Film Theory went by even faster than History had in the morning, because Professor Fay had gotten even sicker, and ducked out before we even started screening “Kon-Tiki”. It was this documentary from the 1940s about a Norwegian sailing expedition to the Polynesian Islands (pretty fascinating, right?), and only lasted about 70 minutes, so I was out of there before 5 p.m. which was really nice. I spent a fair chunk of the early evening studying for tomorrow’s Sociology quiz…probably too much time really. This class is such a joke, and it’s basically a repeat of the course I took back when I was a junior…in high school. Anyway, I got an IM from Stefy around 6 asking me to take her to this open-mic poetry reading at a teahouse in Lansing, so after I was done hitting the books I picked her up and we headed over to this place on Michigan Avenue. This joint had come as a recommendation from Stef’s poetry professor, and low and behold, she was one of the first people sitting there when we showed up. Stefanie had brought a few poems with her, but wasn’t sure about getting up to read them. Any doubt was pretty much put to rest though when her prof called her out by name, asking if she had anything to read. So, Stefy finally got up the courage to put her name on the signup sheet, and she read about halfway through the program. Now, I’m certainly no member of the Dead Poet’s Society, but in my humble opinion she was one of the best readers there. A couple of wackos got up there and went of on some pretty lengthy rants, but there were a few others who actually did a really impressive job, so it turned out to be a pretty enjoyable evening. Stefy and I wrapped up the night by swinging over to Starbucks to get a couple of Chanticos before coming back to the pad to watch “The Office” on DVD. I was a little skeptical as to whether or not Stef would like it or not, but she really seemed to get into it, so hopefully we’ll keep watching the show. I’m a friend first, a boyfriend second. Probably entertainer third.

Monday, January 24

It’s amazing how much a full five-day week sucks the week after a holiday. I managed to drag myself to Sociology at 8 a.m. this morning, and, even more shockingly, stay awake! The prof told us that we would be having our first quiz on Wednesday, so I guess that means I’ll actually have to, you know, crack a book for this class. Sheesh. Anyway, I went into the office for a few hours this afternoon and plowed through a good chunk of the new brochure I’m designing for the Trust Fund. It’s supposed to just be a quick-and-easy number until we get something more permanent put together, but I actually think it’s looking pretty great as-is. I guess we’ll know by Friday whether or not the head honcho likes it or not. This afternoon I was back at my dreaded English Literature class, but today’s session wasn’t as pointless as the ones we’ve had so far. I actually managed to * gasp * pay attention the whole time for once, and even got some pretty decent notes taken down (because there was, you know, actually something to take notes ON for once). The prof even set us free about a half hour early, so I killed some time waiting for Stefy out in the hallway playing the music quiz game on my ipod. Stef showed up after just a few minutes though, so it was nice not to have to wait around until 5 to leave. I drove her back to the dorm, and then came back to the apartment to do some studying. Tonight actually might be some sort of record for me… I did ALL of my assigned reading for tomorrow. I know it’s hard to imagine, but it was such a shock and relief, I didn’t know what to do with myself. Well, it really wasn’t that hard. I worked on catching up on events a little bit, and talked with Stef some online, trying to hash out plans for our trip to Orlando for Spring Break. Let’s just say that the trip is looking a little more expensive than I’d expected, but I’m not too worried—something will work out (thumbs up). Anyway, that was pretty much it for today.