Well now, no excuses

This is the part of the evening (similar to parts of the morning and afternoon not taken up by class, work, or bus) where I should be doing homework, except I am working ahead so it's not too crucial. Instead of working I am reading blogs, mostly completely irrelevant stories of total strangers.

And speaking of total irrelevancy, it's cold out but I have all the windows open and the fans going because my roomate decided that reruns of Leave It To Beaver or whatever the hell he's watching is more fascinating than whatever he's cooking, and burned a giant pot of beans and rice such that he set off the smoke alarm. Now everything smells of burnt beans, with his exceptionally witty--and not ironically intended--question, apparently dumbfounded by the piercing shriek of electronics in pain, of "is the stove on?" WTF?

I've tried to be productive today and study, but it didn't work out all that well. I spent the morning being mildly productive, went and spent too much money on crap I didn't need before heading up to a friend's to study for our MiDtErM tomorrow with my German friend. We drank tea, checked out his rediculously awesome house (hardwood floors, bay windows, north Boulder, within walking distance of Mt Sanitas, huge yard, huge kitchen), cooked pasta, and tried to figure out what the hell happened in Germany starting in 1848, who Frida von Bülow was and why she was such a crazy fucker (I am not cut out for feminism). German left and we went for a hike which turned into a jog, as he was late for work.

So, I have no idea how I'll do on the midterm. I know I'll pass, but the teacher is such a wild card, gives us completely illogically structured handouts and generally manages to completely confuse me. I have no idea what he wants from me.

Other than that, I am supposed to be learning just what, exactly, an olecranon fossa is, and how you distinguish it from a coronoid fossa (in case you care, we are talking about the recessions in the bones of your humerous--upper arm--on the back and front, respectively). This, and about five million other, otherwise completely irrelevant terms are the subject of my Thursday test. I'm not doing too much studying on that one, but I did manage to remember that the acromion is part of the scapula, and how to tell the right ulna from the left. This will become crucial for my later career, I'm sure.

There is a species of primate whose name I've forgotten, that is just plain freaky looking and has an exceptionally skinny middle finger (as in, half to one third the diameter of the other fingers) which it uses to tap on tree trunks, find hollow bits with worms living in 'em, and fish them out. Strrrrrange. I also learned that gibbons live in monogomous pairs and mate for life, that they sing to each other and, when searching for a mate, travel through the forest singing, till they find another little critter to sing back. Orangutans, however, are practically asocial, excepting the occasional rendez-vous. Male baboons are twice the size of females, have relationships based on kinship, and have body parts that turn bright blue or red when they are ready to mate. And Koko the gorilla--you remember her? the one with the kitten?--can actually be verbally abusive to her handlers, lies, exercises deception, and tries to blame college students when she freaks out and rips a sink out of the wall. Whoops.

Of the half of the semester remaining, I have at least one if not two anthropology exams and two astronomy exams, four more lab practicals, two minor and one longer paper for poli sci on civil war as well as a presentation on Zimbabwe, a short reaction and a research paper for german history, two or three more midterms for history, a presentation and five reaction papers--and a 20p research excerpt--for international affairs, a conference paper, five final exams and four applications due. I like to complain about my workload, because it makes me feel important. Or masochistic. Perhaps that's the same thing?

It's too dark now to go running in the morning, so I now go in town on the Boulder Creek path with everyone else and their hamster. Seriously, the place is full but the people-watching is great, though I get depressed by the romantic couples. The football team practices down there, and it is funny to watch guys carrying around their bodyweight in padding, looking like little marshmallows with helmets. It makes them look manly, and...padded. I miss the appeal. Sometimes there are packs of sorority sisters wandering around, looking like a matching set of decorative objects. To be fair, all of those that I have gotten to know have been way more interesting than anticipated.

Someone gave me a free cow bell yesterday at the fall festival. And a yoghurt. And a cookie. I still have the cow bell.