Over the hedge!

Finals are over. School is over. School is over? It hasn't even sunk in yet. It dragged on for so long and ended so quickly. The first fourteen weeks represented a long, gradual upsloping curve, a bit steeper in some areas than others, and as soon as the last two or three weeks arrived it became a downhill roller coaster and all I can do to avoid barreling uncontrollably down the mountain was hold on for the ride.

It seems I made it safely, though. Each of my exams were progressively more difficult, but not too difficult to get the best of me. I believe I did quite well. And now that all my projects are completed and submitted, and all my finals finished, I feel that the gorilla on my back has been vanquished. Now I am simply stuck with the monkey of having to find a decent job. That would certainly leave room for other things to hitchhike on my back, but I don't give piggie-back rides to just anyone.

Reselling a few of my textbooks got me $160; enough to blow on some presents for people. And that is good.

Friday was a day of celebration for Susi, Akuro, and I. We all got together in his furrymobile (a green Jeep Wrangler I christened "Lifty") and made the most of it. We enjoyed ourselves, yes, maybe a little too much. Well, no, there's no such thing. Our day together started off in the early afternoon, when we went to the New China Restaurant for another scrumptious buffet (the tofu and veggies are excellent). Unfortunately, the waitress parked us right next to some customers with an infant, but it must have been sedated or dead, because it didn't make a sound. I still hate babies and commercials with babies in them. They are far too many in both senses.

Borders was the next stop, and we spent some quality time in there... I sought out a couple of books for my parents, and found a book entitled "The Chronicles of Narnia for Dummies." Sweet mother of Heathcliff. They had to pick up a few things at Wal-Mart, and fortunately that errand was comparatively very brief. I would say it was like a zoo in there, but quite frankly I think tamed animals would be more intelligent and respectful of each other.

After returning home and dilly-dallying around for awhile (I found myself playing some ZSNES roms on Aku's new laptop- Secret of Evermore is a game I must get!) we headed up to the river and tripped around for awhile, eventually ending up at Boiling Pots uptown and roughing our way up to the waterfall. It was a very pleasant lightly overcast afternoon, and the water was... well, chilly, especially by the downdraft of the waterfall and the flurries of cool droplets it slinged at us. Even still, we full-on swam across the deep, choppy pool to another separate waterfall. Getting under it, or even close to it, was near impossible due to the surginess of the water underneath. Many laughs were had as we watched each other try as hard as we could to fight against the surge, failing miserably.

Swimming in a river in December. I think it's safe to say that is something neither of them ever did in Ohio or Germany. Since they have only been here half a year, it's always fun to show them enjoyable places to go they haven't yet discovered themselves.

It was also quite entertaining to watch a couple of teenage daredevils jump from the top of the main falls into the pool below, a good 40 or 50 feet at the least. A three-second 50 foot plunge was rewarded by a mile trek downstream, back to the main road, and up to the ford whence they started. It certainly looked worth it, though.

Back to the apartment again; showering the river water away and more messing about with amusing flash movies and games. It was quite a beautiful twilight. At around 6:45, we were headed off to see Narnia! At least, we thought we were. Vacant parking spaces seemed non-existent anywhere near the theatre. Eventually, we ended up going down a row of stalls into the only narrow one-lane alley in the entire mall parking lot. And it was blocked by a stalled car. Lovely place to let it die, guys. It took them a few minutes to get it pushed out of the way, and only when we parked, rushed over to the theatre, stood in line for another few minutes, and got almost to the front of the line that a sign was put up declaring that tickets for Narnia had sold out. It seemed it was destined not to work out from the beginning.

Consequently, we just headed back to the apartment and hung out some more, with the intention of returning for the 10:00 show. Fortunately, there was no trouble getting into this showing. After the movie was over, I drove back home from their place and relaxed for a little while before deciding to go out again on a rather epic moonlight wander of my own. The experience was exhilarating and enlightening, and I didn't get home until around 5:30 in the morning.

My full review of the film will come in a later entry, but for now, let me just say that I found it sensational. Wonderful, magnificent, riveting. It was great to see it in such magnanimous company. As for my afterhours excursion, that too warrants an entry all its own ... so much to write about, how could I ever get bored?

As for today, I think I did fairly well with Christmas shopping, having picked up a few -perfect- gifts for certain individuals. Really, there's nothing like the heightened exchange of commerce in the November and December months to get you in the "spirit." I did get just one thing for myself, a black Scarface t-shirt that fits me perfectly in size and message.

And I'm heading back to the warmth of home for awhile, at least until Christmas, and am dragging my computers back with me. One shall be used, the other sent in to the repair centre. A place it knows all too well...

It's time for a vacation. A long-awaited one. **Grabs a flavoured cooler, stretches out, and digs his feet into the sand, sticking his tongue out in hope for some rain**

Rotterrotterrotterdam, rotterrotterrotterdam, rotterrotterrotterdam, ROTTERDAM TERROR CORPS!