Friday, June 1, 2007

Night off, a student's paradise

Getting toward the season where my non-student friends start rolling their eyes and making snarky comments about not being "so dam serious" about school -- finals are coming around. Hanging out with non-students this time of year can be taxing. It's like sports fans dealing with non-sport derision during the playoffs, or new parents getting asked out for beers by their non-parent friends who just don't get the fact that there is a toddler involved. Somehow, I think a lot of adults got all the way through school and never lost the attitude of "oh it's just school, who cares." No reasonable person would encourage their friends to blow off work deadlines when they have a performance review coming up -- but I still get this kind of flack from otherwise perfectly reasonable adults regarding my schoolwork.

To start off the finals season, I took a night off. I got off school, dropped my backpack on the living room floor and didn't think about it or academia again the whole night through. I didn't do my normal routine of a little cleaning and housework or bill paying , a snack, and probably a nap before leaving again in a few hours to go study til the wee hours of the morning with The Crew. Instead, I walked down the street and hung out with the neighbors as they were building a stone retaining wall, walked the garden a bit and talked to T. about the goings-on there, stared at flowers and bees in the yard for exceedingly long periods of time, shuffled uselessly around the house a bit, and hit the sack early. Actually got to lounge around and chat about nothing in particular with The Wife as well. At this point in the school year, that's a description of heaven for me.

I don't need to be casting over a nice hatch of Pale Morning Duns off a gravel bar on the lower Deschutes, or hunting spring Morels on the slopes of the Cascade range -- just hanging out around our wonderful house works for me. It's a sanctuary for us -- a colorful sanctuary full of books and good food, and beautiful art. A place where we can put up road-weary friends and keep the cats in a matter to which they are accustomed. A little urban oasis surrounded on all sides by flowers, trees and veggies. It pays back in spades the work we put into it.

Now that I mention it, some fly-fishing and knocking-about in the woods would be quite fantastic too. Note to self: get the hell out of dodge this summer as much as humanly possible before school starts up again.

7 comments:

Iciyapi Tate said...

nice that you were able to take the time off.....


NOW GET YOUR ASS BACK TO STUDYING!!!!!!!
what. you think this is gonna get done by itself? whats wrong with you, this is no time to be slagging around, chit chatting with the whole freaking hood..

see not all of us tell you to take time off...

Bpaul said...

LOL weenie

ya ya ya, just printed out 3 journal articles:

Parallel evolution of lake whitefish dwarf ecotypes in association with limnological features of their adaptive landscape

wow, ok I was going to type the names of the other two but bugger that.

Soon we'll be in the desert together Tate, I can't wait.

Bp

Iciyapi Tate said...

The desert is coming fast.. i am feeling ready and very excited

endy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
endy said...

[deleted comment was me: silly typo]

What happens in the desert? Inquiring minds want to know.

Iciyapi Tate said...

if we told you we would have to kill you..


no, we go to the desert for ceremony. it is a beautiful time, and very intense

Bpaul said...

There will be a post on the desert, maybe pictures we'll see :-)

Definitely a post.

Folks are going out to fast, and I'm going to help out in camp and support one of the fasters. I'll post in a week or two about it.