I'm all done. On Monday morning I had my last exam. It went well and should do good in that class. I only got about 3 hours of sleep before that exam too and thought that it might hamper my ability to do well on the exam and be able to recall all that I had studied that night, but no. All those stories you hear about needing to get a full night's sleep before an exam are overexaggerated. There was one question that I didn't study for and turned up on the exam but I was able to actually remember things that I had learned in class but didn't study for. Imagine that. Amazing. So I have a couple of days now to get ready for Christmas, catch up on sleep, and start on some web design and java work for my fourth year project that was getting behind.

I think perhaps I will no longer speak of time in traditional terms, but rather speak of time as a number of songs instead. Instead of saying that I'll be there in 20 minutes, I will instead say I'll be there in 5 songs. The length of an individual song could vary though so I have some leeway about how long I would really be. Depending on the songs that come up, 5 songs could be an hour too. I was faced with the trying situation a couple of times in the last few weeks of being somewhere at the particular time that someone said we would meet and having to wait upwards of 45 minutes for them to arrive. I'm too prompt, in general. If you tell me that I should be there at 5:30, I'll be there at 5:28. If someone tells me to be there in 10 songs, then I can come somewhere between 30 and 90 minutes and be on time.

I have now been unsuccessfully studying now for 59 songs. No, 60 songs.

I was thinking also of letting my iPod run on shuffle through all the songs on it (2016 to be exact) but that would take almost a week without stopping. It won't happen. It would be interesting to try it though. Maybe in January. It could take all month with the amount that I actually get to listen each day. Imagine. A month of listening without hearing the same song twice. Incredible.

61 songs now.

Old Faithful, 5%.

Connie,
I apologize for my actions that summer day as I was waiting at the bus stop, reading Dostoyesky and listening to music. I really did see you walk by me and look me in the eye. I glanced over to where you were sitting a few feet to my left and admired your sense of fashion. I also saw you walk by me a second time a few minutes later as you returned the same way you came. I was really watching you and not engrossed in my book as I made it seem. I wanted to say hi. I wanted to ask you how you like the place that you live. I meant to ask you what you do now to keep busy. I wanted to know where I could bump into you again. I didn't say a word though and for that reason, I am sorry. I hope you can forgive me and give me a second chance. I can't promise I'll do any better, but I want the opportunity to redeem myself. Do us both a favour and stroll through my field of vision again.
Consistent 5%

So on Saturday, I had a good time with the 'Crusaders'. I rode in a Mini Cooper (only 16 km's on it. Something about riding in a car straight out of the dealership.) Played some good pond hockey. Dressed up all brown and sweater and old man for the Christmas party. Ate roast beef, deer meat and all the rest. Dessert. Mmmmm. Spent time visiting with friends new and old. Sang Christmas songs. Created a new version of 12 days of christmas based on our friends hair. Sang it for the collective enjoyment of all and embarrassment of a few. Played card games. (unfortunately spoons wasn't one of them) Shared stories. (I suspect that if I work at it, I could actually be a funny guy) Took plenty of polariods. (People really love them. There was lots of 'shake it, shake it, shake it like a polaroid picture') Finished it all off at 2 am. Came home to a quiet house. Woke up roommate. Ate pie and shared stories from the night at 3:00 am. Laughed until I got the hiccups. Drank someone else's milk. Got insomnia at 3:30. Tossed. Turned. Got up to look for scissors to cut off the annoying strap from my polaroid camera. Finally slept like a baby after a great, great night with friends.

Today I decided it was laundry day. This is a big thing for me as I don't do it as much as I should. Or rather, I have enough socks and underwear to go a pretty long time between washes. Doing laundry at our bachelor pad is a little different than doing it at mom and dad's. First there is the task of sorting. Most of my clothes end up in a pile in the corner of my room. There is a clothes hamper under there somewhere but that fills up pretty fast. Overflowing from it are my socks, underwear, t-shirts that may or may not be worn again and anything else that has bad enough stains to warrant a wash instead of a wear. Sorting is not just for lights and darks, but also for the essentials, and not so essentials. I really don't have enough time in the day to do more than two loads, and it definitely wouldn't all fit into two loads. Maybe four. Maybe four if I don't have sheets to wash.

So, once I have everything sorted to my satisfaction, I head to the empty basement to begin the next stage of the process. First, I sort through the five or six empty bottles of laundry detergent to find one with a bit left in the bottom. Since they all have dust on the lids I assume they are all from one of the old roommates and no one will notice that I am using their detergent. I haven't bought laundry detergent myself in about a year or so.

Once I get the soap and clothes loaded up in the washer, the tricky part comes. In order to get the washer started, I must use a screwdriver placed stategically in the hole where the knob would have been that allows you to turn to the correct setting. I gently turn the screwdriver until it seems that the right setting has been selected and there is now water entering the washer. I have no way of knowing what setting I am on other than the fact that the water is on and it appears to be at the beginning of some cycle.

After this, I busy myself with other tasks while waiting for the washer to conclude. Now there are two options at this point for how the wash cycle may finish. It will either finish just short of the end and not have spun the clothes dry, or it will continue to go through all wash cycles, never stopping until I physically stop it. I discovered that second option after school one day that I had started the washer before leaving for school. Seven hours later, my jeans were worn out and a hoodie was almost ruined. (I still don't wear that hoodie) Luckily, today the first option was the successful one. Since it hasn't spun dry yet, I must turn that screwdriver again, just a little, so that it will find the spin cycle. On this occasion I go too far and must continue to turn it until I find a spin cycle. I often leave the lid open so I can see what is happening, but that means I have one hand on the screwdriver and one finger from the other hand in the little hole so as to trigger the safety switch so that it will spin with the lid open. Scary.

The next part of the process is the dry. I load up the dryer with the newly cleaned clothes, close the door (by lifting it a little and gently pushing it close, careful not to let it fall off the hinges) and hit the switch to see if it will go. Nope, not this time. It starts briefly and dies. There are a couple of options for this part. Either the dryer has overheated and needs some time to cool down (obviously not the case here since it hasn't been on in 24 hours) or it won't start and needs a sturdy bang on the side to resucitate her. I try the second method a couple of times and get it to go. About a half hour later I check on it and find it dead again. In the process of banging on the side and trying various violent methods of starting it again, I discover one spot on the front of the door that needs to be pushed or leaned on to start it. A quick fix includes using a cue card and some electrical tape. This does the trick and we're off to the races.

Just a normal laundry day. Certainly not boring. Maybe another day I will discuss the parallels this draws with my life right now. (I just want to be clean, but it's so much work!)

And if I haven't shared enough, I should mention that I hadn't cleaned my glasses for a few days and really noticed the difference tonight after doing so. Wow, my computer screen looks so bright and clear. I need to do this more often.

Last thing, I swear. Remembering the first time I saw fireflies, at Cornerstone this summer. Good memories of Illinois.