The Illness Express

The past couple of weeks have been chock-full of trying to settle in to the new apartment, and writing my research paper for my English composition class. Between the two, I haven't had a lot of extra time to do...well, much of anything. Now that the paper has been written and we're a bit too sick to do much unpacking at the moment, I thought I would check in and catch up with things.

My English composition paper was on the parallels between the story of the Trask family in East of Eden and Steinbeck's personal fears about his clan at the time. It was actually pretty interesting to write about, but I was knee-deep in moving most of the time, and it was a bear to get down to the library. Ah, yes, I remember this: making excuses for my horrible essay-writing skills. College, how I have missed you. :)

Nonetheless, I think the paper turned out all right. The professor turns out to be a very easy grader, so I didn't put in the work that I could have making it great. I'm not ashamed to admit this (even if I should). I have a feeling it might bite me in the ass later; in fact I'm certain it will. Hopefully I can balance out this semester's laziness with self-study between the semesters. I really want to bone up on my grammar and trying to figure out my personal writing process before I take a class that requires more (and better polished) essays.

Next semester I'd love to take a mathematics course, but I'm not sure which side of the pool I should jump in to. There's Pre-Calculus Algebra and Trigonometry, Calculus, Finite Math, and a few other things. There's a cop-out course called Mathematics for the Liberal Arts Student that actually looks interesting, but I also know that bloofox would never stand for such shenanigans.

I'm waffling between Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology and Philosophy for my other class (I'm debating whether or not to even take a second class), though I'm leaning towards Anthropology and Sociology. There's just something neat about the concept of mass applied psychology and I'd love to get into it a little more.

Ryan and I are settling into the new place pretty well. I fell in love with our bedroom, which is this wonderful little hidey-hole in the back of the apartment hidden by a lot of doors. The living room is shaping up nicely, even though it doesn't have the books and art yet. We've had a bit of a lull in our unpacking because I got sick with some lame chest cold and then gave it to him. He's wheezing with me through Oliver and Company as we speak. :)

We've transitioned into living alone together really well. We're so comfortable with one another's habits that it's no big surprise we have. Married life is wonderful. :D

Speaking of marriage, we went to the "No on Prop 8" rally in downtown San Jose with cooner and fuzzybearca, whom we ran into entirely by accident. Awesome! :D The vibe was really great; folks were happy and hopeful despite this huge setback, and the one counter-protester was only politely heckled with quickly-made signs before police escorted him away.

I'm very hopeful about the cases going to court about the legality of Prop 8. Both sides want a quick decision by the Supreme Court, so hopefully we'll know by the beginning of next year what's going down with everything.

We're headed into the holidays, and all of the craziness that's coming with it. This is my favorite time of year, without a doubt. It only sucks that I'll have almost no discretionary income to actually buy a lot of presents. I hope people don't mind a batch of home-made cookies for presents or anything.

Long story short, I'm content and moving along pretty well. There've been setbacks with exercise, reviews and writing, but it's nothing that I can't handle. :)