Reading Week

There is a certain bliss that comes along with reading week, especially for those of us with very few finals (or for those of us who don't know how to study at any time other than the night before). A whole seven days with absolutely nothing to do except ignore your schoolwork and have fun. Heavenly!

Some of my favorite school days have been passed during reading week - going to the park, playing games, idling around eating ice cream and savoring our freedom down to the very last second. Reading week is probably the best invention there is. Every adventure is saved for reading week. Serene moments with friends are strongest during reading week. Reading week exudes nothing but fun, pleasure, and peace.

But now, reading week is nearly over. Now is crunch time, when we must finally write our papers and study for our exams. The fun is finished.

Or is it?

I wish everyone good luck on their finals (and papers) and, more importantly, I hope we all find the time to squeeze in some more blissful moments of fun.

Poemization - Part II

So last semester, I wrote a poem in honor of finals. I figured I'd do the same now. Here are the rules for something to qualify as a Finals Poem:

1. Cannot be planned out in advance
2. Must be written on the spot
3. Preferably slightly incoherent or nonsensical or both
4. Must convey the impression that it was written during a time of heavy stress
5. Must be written at some time in the early morning (between 12:00am and 6:00am)
6. Must still follow all the rules of poetry in terms of rhyme, meter, etc.

Procrastination or That Paper the Sneak

When finals fin'lly come around
It's hard to keep your feet aground
For when the wind blows in in gusts
With final tests and papers dusts
And sweeps you up off of your feet
It's then you know you'll come to meet
An island where it's all okay --
Procrastination's saved the day!
He'll give you lots of tasks to do
Most of them fun and needful, too
Though not exactly at that time
But it's okay, (this line must rhyme)
Because when those small tasks are through
He'll give you more - oh lucky you!
And all so that you won't do work
But you don't mind, so there you'll lurk
And spend your days through reading week
On a procrastination streak.
You'll do no work, but you won't care
The days are young! And oh, fresh air!
Adventurising through the night!
Though something comes to give a fright!
What is it? You look round and round
And, suddenly, without a sound,
A PAPER comes in leap and bound!
"You have not written me at all!
Your grades will drop! GPA fall!"
"I meant it not!" you say in fear
"But finals time was drawing near,
And I'm afraid my feet got swept
Along by one oh so adept
At big distractions through small things."
Is the excuse your voice box sings.
And so you scramble to complete
Before the due date's obsolete
With snacks and stressing, snacking, too
A nervous breakdown might come through
But those right now are normal things
And that is what exam time brings.

Paper-induced insomnia

I can't sleep.

I've been lying awake in my bed for who knows how long trying to fall asleep but it's no use. I have too many papers looming over my head. I can't keep them all straight anymore. I keep forgetting what is due when. Too many things are happening all at once and I can't keep them straight! This is one of those times where I feel like I'm losing control over the outside world.

Okay, let's make a list:

1. Tomorrow, I'm going to finish/hand in my theatre critique and my nidda paper. I was really, really, really behind in my nidda paper until I got the smart idea to look up sources on the bar-ilan responsa project thing. Now I feel a bit more confident about finishing the paper on time. It actually really helped. I found nearly every single source I need aside from the sub-topic part.

2. I have to send in my third Dr. Peters reading response! I never did this! I also really want to revise whichever of the other two responses I'm not turning into my paper (since the paper one counts as a revision anyway). Which reminds me, I have to write my Peters paper.

3. I have to write my Development of the English Novel paper. I'm not sure when this is due. I don't think it's due yet, but I don't know! I have to check when I'm more awake. For some reason, this paper is really stressing me out. I think because I'm not as into it as my other English classes when I really know what I'm writing for all their papers, even though I haven't actually written them yet.

4. Kiddie Lit. paper, but that's really my last priority right now, seeing as it won't take me very long. It's only supposed to be four pages, anyway.

5. Email Beckman about the mock-up. Then, if I need to, do the mock-up. I'm also not stressed at all about this because doing mocks-ups is FUN.

Why does it feel like so much is going on? There are only five things on my list! Except that really a few of those numbers has more than one thing going on. And this is all separate from studying for my finals. Oh, FINALS.

GRRRRRRRRR.

I need to go adventurising and relieve myself of all this stress, but how can I go adventurising when I have SO MUCH TO DO????

Okay, after tomorrow I'll really be better. It's this nidda paper that's really stressing me out the most. I feel like I have the least handle on it. But once that's handed in, I'll be fine, I'll be happy, I'll be gleeful, and I'll be quite in the mood for ADVENTURISING. (okay, SJ?)

Poemization

To Neologize: To make up a new word or a new definition for an already existing word. It is one of my goals in life to neologize at least one word and have it be in the dictionary. That would be awesome. Anyway, that totally has nothing to do with anything, except that I'm fairly sure that 'poemization' is not a real word. In any case, I have a huge French Revolution final tomorrow morning but I ALSO have to hand in my Latin final tomorrow morning and I just spent THREE HOURS translating part of Cicero's In Catilinam, which is basically a speech about how Catiline is a traitor to Rome and is therefore a very bad person and should get out of Cicero's sight. Basically. There's still a poem I have to translate but, see, since I wasted all day today doing...I'm not even sure what, I ALSO have to study for my French Revolution final tomorrow. So I decided to do that now. See, blogging is part of studying. Uh-huh. Yep. It...erm...it is.

And now, a poem, made up on the spot by, well, me.

Studying is so much fun
It should be done by everyone
Although it takes some energy
At night up keeps it all long me
That word order was out of place
But that's something you'll have to face
I feel like I'm running a race
Writing this at such a fast pace
I cannot come in at last place
For if I do I'll go to space
How many other words have 'ace?'
How long can I keep this thing up?
I think I'm wasting plates and cup
I'm not sure why, but it just rhymed
Why do I feel like this is timed?
This work has gotten very silly
But I'll still do it willy-nilly
Since once I stop I'll have to study
And I don't have a study-buddy
I guess I'll stop this nonsense now
And revolution, pow pow pow
Will have to enter my brain. Ow.

A David Copperfield Dream Come True

I was so lucky this morning. Somehow, I managed to write half my paper last night before I went to bed (at three in the morning, oy!) and still woke up at 8:25 this morning, finishing it with enough time to still make it to my final at 9:30! Yes! I'm not positive how coherent it was, but it was on David Copperfield and when I handed in my final, the teacher started talking to me about Great Expectations (which is clearly not as good as David Copperfield, its only redeeming quality being Miss Havisham, who is made of quirky win) as though she really delighted in the fact I enjoy Dickens. So perhaps that's a good sign.

What was fun about this paper (that I, er, had forgotten about until the last minute) was that I had been waiting since I was in tenth grade to write a paper on David Copperfield. You see, as a tenth grader, I went to a friend for shabbat, we shall call her Friend A, and she invited along Friend B, as well. On Friday afternoon, Friend B mentioned the fact that she would read anything and that she was going to even read Don Quixote. Well, I was not going to let her outdo me, so I picked up a rather fat book from a shelf at Friend A's house and said, "Oh yeah? Well, I'm going to read this!" 'This,' I discovered, as I belatedly glanced down at the title to see what exactly I had just promised to read, turned out to be David Copperfield. At that time, I had never read anything by Dickens, nor had I heard much about this David Copperfield character. I knew Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, and I'd heard of Great Expectations, but that was about it. And I had read none of those. But I was determined. I sat down to read that Friday night and I did not stop for about two or three months. No joke. I would read during lunch at school, during free periods, anytime, anywhere. Friend A had given me the book gladly, claiming that no one in her family read it anyway.

At some point later, I was finished. FINISHED. I couldn't believe it. I almost wanted to cry. I had worked so hard, looked up all the hard words, read for so long, gotten to know the characters on a real personal level, and now it was over? But I had a real sense of accomplishment, too, as I closed the book for the final time. I had read an entire nearly a thousand page Dickens book and I had survived to tell the tale. I was so proud of myself that I even told my English teacher as we were going up the stairs to class. I'm sort of embarrassed for having done that, now. I mean, who on earth goes bragging to her English teacher over having read a book? She sort of just nodded and smiled and told me that was very good. But I wasn't satisfied. I was squirming to show off. More than that, though. I wanted to tell everyone about all these characters I had come to know so intimately, the way someone else likes to talk about her best camp friends that live in Texas or wherever. But I knew no one would really like to hear about Mr. Micawber, or Aunt Betsy Trotwood, or anyone else I had met in my literary journey. So I waited. I waited until the perfect opportunity came. And then, to my delight, for my Film and Fiction class, I did my paper on David Copperfield.

There is a Masterpiece Theater production with Daniel Radcliffe as young David and Maggie Smith as Aunt Betsy that I really wanted to see, but my teacher wouldn't let us use Masterpiece Theater because she says they're not real films. I'm not film-obsessed the way I am book obsessed so I don't really know the difference, but I did as she suggested and saw the 1935 black and white version. I hated it. I hated basically everything about it, except for the woman who played Aunt Betsy. She was very good. So I emailed my teacher asking her if I could use the Masterpiece Theater production instead. This was her response:

Erachet, the classic won an Academy Award, and the Masterpiece Theater version isn't exactly a film, still you can use it, but be very precise about matters of adaptation.

Right. So the 1935 version it was. Still, I got to spend two pages talking about the book and gushing over the eccentric characters, which is what I really wanted to write about.

And as for Friend B, last I heard, she never had gotten around to reading Don Quixote.

Drowning In Schoolwork

Do you ever get the feeling that you're simply drowning in schoolwork? That the more you do, suddenly the more you have to do?

Today was the school day from hell. I woke up at 9:30 with a huge final at 1:00 on the philosophy of the Rambam. I had studied so much last night but I still felt like I knew nothing so I crammed in some more studying in the few hours I had this morning. Then I took the test which was two hours of nonstop scrawling in one and a half blue books (well, actually, they were white). By the time I was done, I was so drained I wanted to just fall into bed and take a long, long nap. But I couldn't. No, I had to come back to my dorm, send in some IDs for my French Revolution final (since my class is compiling a collection of them to study from), do my Latin homework (which took ages - it always does, and this was after having done half of it already yesterday) and then, all of a sudden, at 10:00 at night, remembering that I have a paper due tomorrow! So I haven't done the paper, I'm too wiped. I have a final which I haven't studied for, either. I don't know what I'm going to do. The one thing I do know is that I ought to go to sleep right now. But I can't. If I do, I'll wake up at 8:00, have a test at 9:30 that I didn't study for...and what about my paper?

Erg.

Midnight Madness

Although I don't really have the time to spare writing a blog entry this afternoon, I also just finished taking a very draining final and need to chill for a moment or two, so I figured blogging might be a good release.

Last night was the annual Midnight Madness at Schottenstien dorm. What is this madness, you ask? Well, the Student Council decided that since we're all in the middle of finals, we might like to have some ice cream and pancakes in the middle of the night to help us get through studying! Great idea. The problem is, for someone like me who does not particularly enjoy crowds, it became very overwhelming. I really, really, really wanted pancakes. I did. But I just couldn't go down there. You see, large crowds tend to frighten me, especially large noisy crowds all stuffed into one lounge. So I hesitated, I reconsidered, I tried to assess whether I really wanted that pancake or could go without, and then I stood up and told myself, "No. No, you do want that pancake. You really do! And you are going to march straight down there, barge in, and get your pancake!"

Yes! I will get my just desert! I know, I know, that didn't make much sense, but I just had to say it.

Anyway, that's what I did. Of course, all of a sudden, as I was waiting for my pancake to finish cooking, I realized that I was still wearing my slippers. Ah well, I decided. It was so crowded in that room, no one would even notice. And the crowd was rather overwhelming. I couldn't wait to get out of there. It made me feel so small, so...insignificant. Here I was, little me, in the midst of a huge, noisy crowd of girls all pushing and shoving to get their pancakes and ice cream. I did not belong there. No, no. I belonged in the safety of my quiet room studying the philosophy of the Rambam.

I eventually did manage to make my escape, and with not only two pancakes (instead of just the one I intended on getting, since the person making them flipped another onto my plate before I could so much as back out of my spot at the table) but also with a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream, which is my absolute favorite! So all in all, it was good. All's well that end's well, huh? I also managed to get myself a black Stern zip-up sweatshirt. I figured I might as well, seeing as I already gathered the courage to plunge into the monstrous crowd and I didn't own any Stern or YU apparel as of yet anyway.

So there you go. The experience did make me a bit disgusted with myself, though. I mean, I don't want to be so insecure, to have so little confidence as to be afraid of going into the back lounge just to get some pancakes! Something I'll have to work on for next year. I must be braver in these social situations.

I mean, I must have a record here. I'm a junior at Stern and I've never even been up to YU! Well, once, sort of, to pick up the guys on the debate team, but that doesn't count seeing as I didn't even get off the bus.