Line of the day

NEW REPORTER: (from across the room) You said you wanted 15 inches; it's 15 inches. You said you wanted by 9:30; it's 9:35. Do I get a cookie?
ME: No. You get a paycheck in two weeks, asshole.

Day 4, after the weekend

So, the Last Semester Day 4 classes were the same ones as the Day 1 classes. But these were the first dreaded Monday classes. I worked all weekend, but that's not to say I took the two days off from class lightly.

On Friday, obviously the first day of classes, I wanted to celebrate mildly, and kick off the last semester in style. I met a co-worker at a bar after work, and we did the usual. After, though, we crashed her boyfriend's house party. When I got there, everyone was -- of course -- doing keg stands. Being the grizzled veteran that I am, I found out the house record, and proceeded to break it by two seconds. I could have gone longer, but why bother.

Come Saturday, I realized I wasn't anymore a typical college kid. Yup, the old man hangover. It was mostly because I was drinking bad beer all night. A good bottle of wine or high-quality beer just doesn't taint your body like fill-in-the-blank light. That night, it was Randy who through the all-night fiesta. It's hard to work the next day when you're up until 8 a.m. I remember Corey waking me up and it so felt like early morning. I asked him what time it was, and he replied, "It's 12:45." Ugh.

But then came Monday, the two classes and a big step. I did my senior summary (where they make sure all your classes have been taken, passed and all that). Then I signed up from graduation. A holiday indeed.

Here's to the continuation of the countdown to May 10.

The last semester -- Day 1

Today officially began the final semester of college for me ... finally. It's been a long and odd ride filled with breaks, slowdowns and a few changes of direction. I had a pair of philosophy classes today. I'm taking two communication classes, that are requirements, so I was able to stay full-time with two phil classes that really seemed interesting. My first read will be Plato's The Trial and Death of Socrates.


One interesting note, one of my professors today was going of on something of a tangent. He referenced the earthquake that hit San Francisco during the World Series in the late '80s. He asked, "Does anyone remember that?" Well, when speaking to a class filled mostly with undergrad underclassmen, there weren't too many nodding heads -- given that most of them were only just born in the late '80s. Thinking about it, I only remember one other nodding head, other than my own.

Her last words

All that time as a child running in grass so green
Bouncing, jumping, flipping on the trampoline
Every day together growing up back then
Those mid-summer days that never would end

As life took me in a different way
I've been gone for countless days
Got a job, a house, bills and a pet
It turns out she's not done with me yet

Back to that place, now, I have returned
To see the girl for whom I've always yearned
But as I arrive, I can't help but notice
It's not the place where I had so much bliss

Around the room, no posters or purple sheets
Just a tile floor that's cold on my feet
No pink curtains, books or magazines
Just gray walls and loud machines

There she sits, perched up on a pillow
The once-rosey cheeks now a shade of off-yellow
The heart-rate beeps and the bag drips
As the life from her limbs slowly slips

She turns to her mother, her father and me
Opens her mouth to talk over the beep
Don't you guys cry she managed to say
Before you know it, I'll be ...