Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Ummm...now what???

Today marks the end of my semester. Having just finished my last final, I'm confronted with the perennial question of grad students everywhere, "What do people actually do with their lives?" When one goes from spending a solid week getting an average of 3 hours of sleep nightly and eagerly awaiting that fateful day when all is finished, you can't help but feel a little let down by the anticlimatic nature of it all. By all reason I should be asleep right now, but that cursed andrenaline has me more wired than Princess Di's telephone.

So I try to think of "normal" things people do when they're not working. Anyone in the real world, I could use some insight here. I could watch TV I guess, or clean, or eat, or blog, or read (mmm, yeah right!), or bother my other roomates while they study for exams still pending (therein lies the double edged sword of finishing exams early: nobody to play with but TONS of people to annoy!). But the bummer of it all is that whatever I do for the next couple days, it'll be all by my lonesome!! [Cue tears of sympathy] Tomorrow will be the true test: I have no classes, no studying, no work, the first time in MONTHS I have absolutely NOTHING to do! The world's mine oyster (prize to anyone who can give me the origin of that quote without googling it). So I need some plans, ANY IDEAS????

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you finished (started?) your Christmas shopping?

Anonymous said...

let's do lunch at cosi sometime.

Kallie said...

Ok, so first of all, you need to have a yuengling to celebrate. I’m sure there’s gotta be a friend you can convince to join you if you offer free beer and a cigar or something. Here’s my suggestion for tomorrow: Sleep enough, and wake up without an alarm if possible to do so while still in the morning. Then wake up and enjoy God’s presence and a cup of coffee. After you’ve savored the moment, recognize that it is 60 degrees outside and go for a long run somewhere beautiful. Come back, take a shower, and yet again be amazed that you don’t have to study OR work. Ok, now do some Christmas shopping and maybe throw in a load of laundry or something, so you can feel like you accomplished something. Bug your roommates a little, but not too much because those of us with late finals already resent you. You should probably make them dinner or something…plus then you’d have some company while they ate with you. This is looking like a post rather than a comment because I’ve somewhat gotten into imagining what I’d like to do with a day off…minus cigars. Whatever you do, hope you have a GREAT day!

Anonymous said...

you should wake up naked in the woods! Oh, wait...no...that's a bad idea...

Anonymous said...

On second thought, go with Kallie's "cook dinner for your roommates" idea

A Sojourner said...

wow, kal, that sounds like a great idea, and i think i'll try to get my hair cut too, and maybe read for...wait, what was that word again...laser? loser? oh yeah, leisure! i'll read for leisure! thanks for the suggestions, and yeah i don't think i'll be cooking for da boyz anytime soon...i'm more likely to take up dave's first suggestion.

Anonymous said...

fine then. go ahead and go to sleep in the woods naked...mr. fancy-schmancy-mike-van gilst with your leisure reading and your boy-band haircut...when you wake up, I hope you're eaten by a wolf

Kallie said...

i tried dave.

A Sojourner said...

In the immortal words of Peter Gibbons - "I did nothing...and it was everything I dreamed it would be."

So has been my day thus far...it's now 1:45 in the afternoon, and I just woke up! This is the life...

That's Dr. shanaynay to you... said...

umm... since I've been supposedly doing nothing all semester I can try to help you out. Watch your fave comedian Brian Regan on YouTube for a couple of hours, then try "Three Amigos" or "The Princess Bride" and see how many lines you can match perfectly... and um, go to Starbucks with NO books... yep. that should give you at least three hours.

Michaela said...

Knitting.

Definitely knitting.

Knitting with scotch whisky and cigars.

(...To make it more manly.)

A Sojourner said...

as if knitting weren't manly. i dunno if it gets any better than going to the LYS (or "local yarn shop" in lay terms) then heading over to the park for some KIP ("knitting in public) utilizing a nice stockinette stitch...i just looked up all those terms. I would definitely need a lot of scotch to make that fun.

Michaela said...

Marry me.

Michaela said...

Wait, no....you lost it in the last two sentences.

I take it back!

But I'm impressed with the effort you took in Googling the terms. If not for distance, I would at least reward you with a dram of Edradour (my favorite single malt, a bottle of which I just bought yesterday to take home with me).

A Sojourner said...

denise - remind me again what cosi is? i'm always up for food!

shela - Regan rocks my face off! I quit starbucks so as a matter of principle i can't go back there for a while, although I still get free stuff when I do!

dave - i accept your apology for wishing me to awaken neked in the woods and be eaten by wolves...and I happen to like my boy-band haircut and i know deep down you do too

michaela - Edradour sounds groovy, but I'm not sure if I can handle a "dram"; that sounds a bit intimidating (I'm resisting the temptation to google that too). although I might be up for a "swig" as we Yanks like to call it.

Taty said...

Mike you are hilarious!!! more wired than princess di's phone? lol. Although I sympathize with you...I only took six credits this semester and had plenty of time but nobody to play with. Oh, BTW- You and Dave need to stop putting thoughts in my head that make me giggle everytime I meet somebody from India.

rebecca said...

i'm feeling some of that....i'm sitting at home in VA watching the lord of the rings on TV and i can't help feeling like i should be doing something or other productive. but what is there to do? hmm..i'm knitting up a storm, i guess that counts as productivity...odd and nerdy, i know, i know. oh wait, scratch that because apparently knitting is the cool thing to talk about on blogs (or just on your blog!). i'm new to this...i need to work on reading comments...but hey, at least it's been warm enough so that if you felt at all inclined to going starkers outside, you wouldn't be too uncomfortable.
see you soon!

MomVG said...

Go visit your Mom and bring her chocolates - wait chocolate covered caramels.