Monday, January 03, 2005
A break from the break
Classes don't start again until the 18th. I'm a little worried about acquiring some rust under the hood if I don't keep the mental engine running, especially with a 25 credit-hour semester around the corner, so I'm going to try to keep busy until then. I'm going back to work Wednesday, I'll work on a pet portrait for a former UI professor, fill out scholarship applications, keep contacting potential summer research mentors, and try to do some volunteer stuff.
Up to now, I've been "busy" seeing family and friends, evaluating summer work options, thinking about but not actually filling out scholarship applications, and enjoying the new DVD collections I got for Christmas: the
Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection and the complete first season of the
Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (you may think that's geeky, but I am rather particular about the cartoons I like; the early Tom and Jerry's sparkle with Oscar-winning artistic quality that puts today's cartoons to shame--and they were all animated by hand. Rocky and Bullwinkle are both educated and diversely experienced: Rocket J. Squirrel was in the Air Force, playing snare drum in the Air Force Band, and Bullwinkle Moose served in both the Army and Navy and graduated from MIT--the Moose Institute of Toe-dancing.)
Even though I've had stuff to do and places to go, I feel a little restless without a study schedule. I guess we vet students are creatures of habit--either that or we're Pavlov's dogs conditioned to hike up the cortisol and break out in zits every time we hear words like
practical,
Kodachrome,
number two pencil,
pathway,
deep circumflex, or
renal. (
Especially "renal.")
I inherited two pairs of cross country skis from Gregg's aunt and uncle last week, and, of course, the very next day we got 40-degree weather, and all the beautiful, somewhat powdery but-not-too-dry snow melted into oblivion. Poo. Maybe there'll be some nice snow in C-U this week.
If anyone out there can fit into a men's size 9 ski shoe, feel free to join me after the next snow!
