March Midterm Madness

The last day of winter semester classes is in one month and one week from today. The semester started two months ago today. I'm glad we're more than halfway through the term. I have fond memories of the other two winter semester finals weeks I've experienced. Finals aren't too fun (unless you get 100%), but it's nice knowing there's no more homework, and you don't have to get up early to go to class, and all that jazz.

But the problem is that to get to that point, you have to wade through midterms. I was supposed to be done with all that by now--but alas, 'twas not to be.

A week or so ago, I had my Doctrine and Covenants test. I only missed one of the twenty-five questions, so I was pleased with that.

I had to practice and submit pieces for my piano class. It always amazes me how I can start with a piece that sounds so clunky but I can practice it to the point that it sounds decent. I recorded my pieces this week. They're not great, but hopefully they're good enough. If I had had more time, I would have practiced more.

I was supposed to have a geology test this week, but our professor moved it back to this week. I would have preferred to have it over with by now, but oh well. After doing so well on the last geology test, I'm nervous about living up to my own high expectations. I don't know if I'll be able to do as much studying this time around.

I may also have a semantics test this week. It was supposed to be a while ago, but our professor, Dallin D. Oaks, loves teaching and he gets on tangents, so we're behind. Which means it will likely fall in the same week as my geology test.

And these two tests also fall within the same week in which I have a big project for my editing class. We have to create a style guide, which is due on Friday. As of yesterday, I had only barely started it. So last night I spent four or five hours working on it. It requires thirty paragraphs. I have twenty-nine, so I only need one more, but I still have to find illustrative examples for all of them. I'm also not sure if all of the paragraphs count. I'm sure glad I spent so much time on it yesterday. Yesterday I also took a test for that class. I had originally planned on taking it later, but I realized that with everything else I have, I probably wouldn't have done much extra studying anyway, so I decided to just get it out of the way.

For my student journal, we are starting the proofreading process. This will be a good opportunity for me to do some extra work and get ahead on my mandatory hours for credit. But I don't know if I'll be able to, since I have two tests and a project to juggle.

But I think I'm probably in better shape than I was last year. On Saturday, March 12, last year, I had a day in which I had a million things come up all in one day. I worked many hours getting soaked while cleaning tennis courts. I had an appointment with a TA to get help for my internet publishing class (that whole class was a headache). My parents came down to see me because my dad was working in Chicago and he only got to come home every other week. I felt bad because they had to wait so long for me while I was working. And it was stake conference.

But this year won't be that crazy. We have stake conference, but my dad has a regular job, I'm not working, and my classes are such that I don't have to meet with TAs--I understand the material.

Last week I got a new roommate named Cameron. I now have two roommates named Cameron. New Cameron got off his mission February 1, and started second-block classes this week. Last Sunday we went with the ward to sing at a nursing home (I drove four other people--I'm usually self-conscious about driving other people, but it was all right). That night I corrupted Cameron with the things he'd missed, such as Rebecca Black's "Friday," Tonje L--whatever's "I Don't Wanna Be A Crappy Housewife," and Divine Comedy's "Provo Utah Girls." I also showed him Seen @ BYU while listening to my 2011 music--Christina Perri, Ladies Gaga and Antebellum, Owl City, and even Michael Buble's Christmas album (putting in the accent on the "e" is too much trouble on my laptop). The only one he was familiar with was the Grammy-winning Own the Night album (Lady A). I also played the Black Eyed Peas' "The Time (Dirty Bit)" (2010) and Katy Perry's "Part of Me" (currently my only 2012 song).

Wednesday was Leap Day. It got me thinking. I'm a very time-oriented person. I like thinking about what I did at a particular time of year at some point in the past (hence my recollection of March 12, and all of my memory posts). My life practically revolves around holidays and the arbitrary seasons I assign to them. But Leap Day made me realize how man-made time is, that we can just add an extra day every four years, and that February 29 could just as easily have been March 1. If we had no calendars, the world would still go on with seasons and snowstorms and day lengths and heat and cold.

But coming back to our world, namely one in which we use calendars, March started this week, which I consider to be the start of spring. (I think most meteorologists, although not astronomers, would agree with me.) But the first three days of March were colder than most of February. However, today and the rest of the week is looking to be a little warmer and much more March-like.

Which means it's going to get very lemitsy very quickly.