vel's journaly thing

GAH!! I only have a week left to finish all my big papers. I'm so very sick of writing! >_< Blargh...I can't wait to get out of school and never go back (well, as a student that is).

I'M DONE.

Now I think I'll sleep for the next three or four days...goodnight.

Holy crap that took a long time! And I just barely got it into six pages >_<

Okay, one more essay to go, five hours left. This one is on information structure, shouldn't be too bad. Not a bunch of freaking theories, just straightforward information regurgitation. Here we go...

You know what the hardest part of this is? Trying to squash all the information they're asking for into only six pages! That's the maximum limit you're allowed, but this topic is WAY too broad. I mean really, what they're asking is for me to take my Second Language Acquisition textbook and try to summarize it in six pages; it's insane! I'm having trouble writing this because I can't figure out what's really important to include and what I can leave out.

Look at this essay topic: "Trace the history of the concept of language transfer in second language development from its earliest behavioristic origins to current perspectives AND discuss the pedagogical implications that have been claimed."

ARGH. How the hell am I supposed to do that in only six pages? There's probably a whole library worth of books just written on this subject alone!

I don't think I'll be doing any sleeping tonight after all.

12 hours! ACK!!

Damn, I popped the wrong flavor of popcorn...this isn't what it said on the box! Oh well, I guess it'll keep me awake anyway...

Okay, right now it's 1:40am. My goal is to finish this paper by 5am, sleep for two hours, get up at 7am and write the last one, finish by 3:30pm at the latest. Entire exam is due by 5pm exactly, but I want to get it in by around 4pm in case of traffic or anything else.

Whoo, looking at an all nighter here...haven't done one of those since high school I don't think. I got very attached to sleeping when I started college, so this will be...interesting to say the least (miserable is more like it). If you're wondering how it could take days for me to write what is essentially only about 15 pages, it's because I have to go back and pull out all the papers and books and information I've collected about language learning over the past two years, find the information I actually need to answer the questions, and then organize it into well-developed, completely supported essays. FUN. I suppose I should write my paper instead of writing an entry here, huh? My head is spinning already and I'm having trouble typing coherently...uh oh...

14 hours till the deadline...

One comps essay down. Two to go. 4 to 6 pages each. 23 hours until the deadline.

HELP!

I'm suffering from senioritis for the third time around. I have absolutely no motivation to write this paper that's due tonight. I don't know what to write and honestly I just don't really care anymore. This couldn't come at a worse time; I have to do my comprehensive exam of three essays this weekend! I've been so lazy this semester, not doing my readings, not writing journal entries, leaving everything for the last minute, etc. I'm just so, SO sick of school I can't take it anymore.

Ugh...I'm still writing! Looks like I won't make it to class today, either. Stupid freaking pointless busy work...*grumble grumble* I can't wait for this semester to end.

Oma's funeral/memorial? was on Saturday, December 4th. I guess you can't really call it a funeral since she wasn't buried anywhere. But it was a really nice service and the church was completely packed with all her friends and family and students and colleagues and so on; seriously, standing room only...she knew people from everywhere. Her best friend Maxine, who's known her since 1935, told her biography and lots of funny anecdotes. Oma had written that we shouldn't be sad, and to play a good polka or waltz for her.

After the memorial everyone went down the street to a school she used to teach at, and where my aunt works part time now and both my cousins went to for elementary school, because the reception was held in the cafeteria there. Pretty appropriate for a school teacher I think. The night before we had set up tables and chairs and decorations and stuff, but waaaay more people came than expected, so there weren't enough seats and we ran out of food and had to go buy more. It was good, though. My uncle had made a powerpoint slideshow with over 100 pictures of Oma from throughout her life taken from her photo albums, and that was shown on the screen on the stage. Also the cafeteria had a TV and VCR on the wall, and a news tape was played of Oma being interviewed and dancing in her folk dance group from October. My mom and aunt spent the entire time talking to Oma's friends; I don't think either of them ever got the chance to even sit down. Now they can finally rest for a while.

My parents are on a cruise in the Caribbean. They were originally supposed to leave on Friday, but then all this happened and the funeral was planned for Saturday. They debated cancelling the trip altogether, but that's definitely not what Oma the world-traveler would have wanted. So instead they changed their flights and left late Saturday night and will be gone for the rest of the week. I hope they have some fun because they need it.

I guess it's about time to go back to mundane crap. I'm waaaaaay behind on my schoolwork in every class. I'm going to fail my anime class since I haven't been to it in about four weeks and I didn't write the paper, but that doesn't matter since it's a completely meaningless community college class and no one will ever see the transcript from that school. I haven't even *started* the final project for my intercultural communication class, but I talked to the teacher and he says I can get an incomplete and turn it in next semester due to the circumstances. My English structures class is really the one I have to get working on because I'm doing it with a partner. These past few weeks she's been working on the assignments alone, and they're due today. Then the final project where they're all combined is due next Monday. She and the teacher have both been very understanding, but I feel bad about her having to do all that work herself because I haven't been able to help.