Tragic Turmoil and Termination

Okay, so really tragic might be too strong a word. And turmoil too for that matter. But the title caught your attention and there was a lot of stuff going on the last week of school. Not a lot of packing however. Monday was probably the longest day on earth. After managing (but only barely) to finish all my papers for that particularly manic Monday (and, of course, not sleeping), I had all eight hours of classes that I couldn't describe as flying by. Although, it began with a nice little gathering full of hot chocolate, pastries, bagels, and yogurt at one of my professors' home. But, for the second time this semester (and ever!) I fell asleep in class, this time my Cultural Diversity class sometime around 6:05-6:12 p.m. during a group powerpoint presentation on teaching social studies lesson on important people of color in the academic world. Thank goodness they gave me the job of official clicker to change the slides during our presentation or I might have fallen asleep again. Actually, though, after I got those 30 or so winks, I felt a lot better. It's funny how the sleep works. I totally drifted into it and didn't really notice I had been asleep until I tried to follow the presentation again and realized I had missed two speakers. I hope they didn't notice or take it personally. And I really hate relying on my knowledge of spontaneous Spanish vocabulary and grammar while writing at the wee hours of the morning. I think that was a factor in dropping my grade in my Latino Immigration Experience class down to an A- (not that I'm complaining, mind you). Although, since I'm writing about these events a month after they occurred, I can brag that despite having to deal with all this family business, having two jobs, taking a full load of seven classes, and not going insane (at least not long term), I managed to get 5 A's and 2 A-'s. Not too shabby, eh?

Anyways, I still had classes on Tuesday and work, meetings, and othernonsense took up a lot of the time up until Friday. Actually, I should note the annual Theater Banquet because it was full of seniors saying these verbose goodbyes (needless to say, actors tend to be longwinded, though generally entertaining, and we have our share of drama queens--could be interpreted as a pun in you'd like) that got me thinking about how I really haven't dealt with saying goodbye. But, after moping about for a day, I still hadn't and that was that.

Finished school on Friday, emailing a take-home exam in and taking my only sit-down exam in my altogether disappointing History of the Spanish Language class, although I had a really nice conversation with my professor who lost his father to brain cancer during the semester. I sat around the apartment most of the afternoon waiting for my sister to come in. Finally, at 8:30 she made it here. I didn't even recognize my oldest niece, Dani. Needless to say she has made it to puberty and has highlights in her hair and make-up on her face. I took them out to dinner after showing them the place and introducing them to Ronnie. We went to the Mexican restaurant in Nashville and I had chorizo!! Yay for chorizo!! But, that was all we could do that night.

The next day was full of fun stuff. We waited for over an hour to get into the Pancake Pantry for the best breakfast in town. But it left time for Madi and I to explore some of the shops in the trendy Hillsboro Village area just outside of campus. We then went and abducted one of my coworkers' daughter and all of us explored the Tennessee State History Museum and the Centennial Mall area (which is not a mall at all, but instead a big park with a flea/produce market and war memorial with a really cool marble globe that revolves and the whole park overlooks the capital and skyline that sits atop a hill). We then went to my favorite mall in the world, Opry Mills, and played miniature glow-in-the-dark golf (who would've thought! first bowling, now put-put). Then we tried to eat, but the wait was 2 hrs. so we explored the mall some more. My friend Lissie met up with us and her and I went into Barnes and Noble because she needed a book for a paper she was working on. It turns out the book was something like 50 Ways to Make Your Marriage Last Before You Start. We couldn't find it and, without thinking, went to the info desk to ask if they had it. Of course, the lady after locating the book congratulated us on our engagement. We tried to explain we weren't engaged or even dating, but I don't think she believed us as she passed us moments later browsing baby books (I was searching for a book to help my sister deal with Chasen's behavior).

The restaurant was worth the wait. It was called The Aquarium Restaurant and, sure enough, you felt like you were dining underwater. The restaurant was one big aquarium and the central tank had some really awesome stuff. This one green eel was so long and moved like a kite's tail in the water. And huge sharks and all kinds of fish and rays and stuff. Almost made you feel bad for all the seafood you just ordered, but then you taste the seafood and forget about that. Wouldn't it be a good idea if this place served only beef and chicken in an effort to preserve aquatic wildlife.

Anyways, when we got home at 11pm I took a quick run to visit Lan and Ashley one last time. Ran back and began packing which lasted up till 4 when I had to leave for the airport and catch my 6am flight. And that was the end of the semester. Just like that.