The Great Winding Down

There are another six weeks or so left in the semester, and I'm going to be super busy, but I also have the definite sense that things are winding down, and that's a little bit terrifying. Jennie and John successfully defended their theses last week, and Laura and Sam defend this week. Once they're done, there will be very little remaining for them to do, apart from a few fairly minor assignments for class, and they're all pretty focused on, well, leaving Fargo, basically. Jared, probably Jennie and maybe Sam will be here next year, for at least part of the year, but it's going to be really hard to lose Laura, John, Lauren, and maybe Sam and Jennie. We've been a little social island in the sea that is Fargo, and I don't want that island to get any smaller. The good news here is that I'll be obligated to spend less money, I will have a lot more time to focus on my studies, and I'll have lots of extra incentive to finally befriend the baristas at Atomic Coffee. It's possible that we'll get some more grad students next year, but I don't think that's guaranteed, which is a frightening possibility. How do people make friends? That's a serious question, everyone. If anyone has suggestions for how I can make some friends, please please please let me know. There's roller derby, but then I really don't have enough health insurance for that. And I could join a choir, but I don't want to get involved with one that doesn't have a lot of young people in it. I could just hang out at the Aquarium every night, and hear whoever's in town, but that takes me back to my money problem, and in spite of the many concerts I've been to there, I haven't really met anyone. This all sounds like a lot of excuses. I'll figure something out, I'm just freaked out by the prospect of losing my entire in-person social network, again. It's also sort of hard to watch people getting excited about the next stage of their lives, especially when there's no one else sharing the current stage of your life with you.

So, what else has been going on in my life? That's an excellent question. I've been working, reading, hanging out... It hasn't been terribly exciting. Oh, a company tried to scam me and I went a little crazy digging up information on them, so that was a highlight. I miss fighting crime. I've been having some problems with my plumbing that, had I not experienced them, I would have found rather implausible. Don't have a whole lot else for you. After the snow from the blizzard we're about to get melts, I'll have some thoughts about spring for you, but it's hard to be enthusiastic about spring when we're expecting sixteen inches by tomorrow night. That's Fargo, for you.