what a way to start a semester

there is most likely only one person who would truly understand the meaning in this post's title.

for those of you who did not have the privilege of rooming with me freshman year at good ol' UM, I shall explain. after sleeping through my alarm on the first day of second semester, I woke up, noted the time, and said [post title] upon realizing I had missed the first meeting of my 8 am calc 2 class. well, here I am some 3.5 years later, apparently having passed calc 2 and many other non-exciting classes. and today was my first day of grad school. that's right, I'm now officially a graduate student.

[by the way, that wasn't the only alarm I slept through freshman year. during dinner one evening in MoJo's dormtastic (read: craptastic) dining hall everyone was discussing the previous night's fire alarm and subsequent hall evacuation. fire alarms were, of course, a common occurrence in dorm life, but I didn't recall this particular event. after adopting the practice of staying in bed and covering my ears with a pillow during these nuisances, I apparently became immune. luckily it wasn't a real fire, it never was.]

so what, you may ask, am I referring to with all of this? well I didn't miss my first class, it was at 12:30 and lasted just long enough for introductions and syllabus handing out (yeah, they still do that junk in grad school!). no, I had been awake for seven hours by that point. during five of said hours I was driving a large two-piece articulated vehicle around campus helping others to their first classes of the day. until it happened. I'm really not sure what exactly, all I can say for sure is that the engine died and I was stuck in a lane of traffic on a four-lane road. my first breakdown! (vehicular, not mental.) so there I and the bus sat until one of the mechanics could bring another bus out to me. I was probably there for about 10 minutes, but it seemed like an eternity. you'd be surprised (at least I was) at the amount of people who honk and swear at a person blocking one lane of traffic. believe me, I did not choose for this to happen. what did they expect me to do? push it onto the non-existent shoulder? even the city buses were honking, you'd think they might have some sympathy for a fellow driver. I guess not. so that was a bit stressful to say the least.

now I know you're also wondering (and by you I mean maybe three people) what I've been up to for the last month or so. well...I moved into my new place with two nice roommates (who actually live in the rooms they rent), one of whom has a dog. I've been training for a position to teach the GRE at a test prep company. and I've been logging the miles around town. this coming weekend I'll be heading home to the MI for a bit of familial and friendly visitation. brother, sister, and nephew will be there as well so I'll get to see what Oscar looks like at three months vs. fresh.

well, I have to get ready for my second class this evening, wouldn't want to miss it! I hope all are well and that I can see some of you folks in a few days.

warmest regards,
¡DG!