Packing it in
May 18th, 2006Gosh, it’s been a long week.
It’s now the first day of final exams. *tremble* I took my first one this afternoon (New England history) with barely enough preparation to scrape through acceptably. I only managed to start reviewing material this morning after my study plans for last night were very unexpectedly and irretrievably interrupted by a surprise hucep partner… oh well, life happens, right?
And the reason why I couldn’t start studying earlier than last night is because I had to stay holed up in my room for nearly 52 hours writing two urgent, miraculously-not-overdue final papers. I ended writing both final papers (for two completely different classes) on the exact same novel since it’s the only book I’ve read in weeks (hey, it was over 500 hundred very dense pages!!). It was Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, which I’m very glad to have read. And reread. And reread again looking for references for both final papers. One paper was about the question of human agency versus fate/destiny through the lens of the narrator’s experiences, and the other presented a gothic reading of the text as a democratic narrative… I hope they fare ok.
Of course all this paper writing commenced as soon as I got back from my long-weekend in New York, which was really lovely. The weather was glorious (compared to non-stop rain in Massachusetts that even caused floods), the accommodations were deluxe (Adam and I really lucked out with the empty townhouse apartment) and the neighborhood we stayed in was my favorite residential area of Manhattan - the upper West side around the 72nd and 79th street 1-train subway stops. This is the area with Gray’s papaya, H&H Bagels, Zabar’s, the Barney’s Co-op and more. I especially like the small village-feel to the area, the proximity to Central Park and great public transport links. I also got to see Poseidon on an Omnimax screen, which was so much fun. I’ve always enjoyed disaster movies, and this one was very well done, with great acting, no plot pretensions (about ten minutes of set-up and then *wham* the action begins), interesting challenges for the survivors, fanatastic effects, just enough corny dialogue (hilarious but not grating or tiresome), good pacing, unrelenting disaster scenes (some shamelessly borrowed from other disaster films). The very best of Titanic and Independence Day. What was not to love? 
Ok, I have to get back to actually-productive work now. I have one more final paper to turn in (very shortly) and three more final exams. It’s the last stretch now, and even now I cannot imagine having to pack my room and put my desktop into storage…
This is it.
PS: I got my senior pictures back, and while they are fairly bad (especially the ones where I’m not smiling), the remarkable thing is that the photographer has somehow managed to make my face look both very drawn and pinched (ie too skinny) but also somehow very puffy. The lighting was also very very unkind to my skin. Oh well.