That's just the way it is.

So I'm into this whole grad school thing.
Mostly it is great. And mostly I pretend it is great.

Overall the word I will use to describe it is: SWELL. Because swell also means "to overflow" and that is what is happening.

I am just overflowing with knowledge.
And overflowing with knowledge leads to moments... nay days of being overwhelmed. There are a lot of "overs" happening here.

Overall.
Overflow.
Overwhelmed.
Overboard.
Overconfident.
Overdramatic.

And the point of all these "overs" is that grad school causes extremes.
Examples:

Extreme smartness: Once I had a casual conversation with a stranger about the medial lemniscus nerve tract and trigeminal nerve tract. And I knew what I was saying.

Extreme emotions: Once I cried because a song told me "don't let 'em jack you up, back you up, crack you up, and pimp smack you up". I'm doing my best sir!

Extreme procrastination: Dangling a string for Penny for an hour is often urgent.
And necessary.

Extreme addictions: Angry birds. I agree with Franny... I wanna wipe those smug smiles off those damn pigs faces.

Total Extreme Awesomeness

Extreme friendliness/abrasive eagerness: Just now I walked out of the coffee shop to shout across the street at a woman about what breed her dog was.
It was a chocolate lab.

Extreme walking: Often necessary.

Extreme awesomeness: This may just be another 'over"... the over being overconfident. But that's me in that picture up there. Roundhouse-kick to your face mr. shark. uhh... awesome.

News of the day: A man on a bus exclaims "I'm going to pop everyone on this bus... including the babies!"

Seriously dude.

This reminds me of all the absurd and riveting events I have seen or heard or been involved in while using the MBTA system. The following list (because lists are really neat and fun to make especially when procrastinating) includes a few notable instances:

- A man slowly plucking hairs off a woman's head. She had no clue it was happening.

- A woman slapping a man.

- A homeless man showing me magic card tricks on the bus. He thought it was a gift from God that he could perform real magic. He planned to use his gift to earn money for drugs. He held his finger to his lips and sneakily croaked "shhhhhhh don't tell".

- A man who was blind in his right eye and fancied whiskey.

- A girl puking everywhere.

- A man who I thought was about to puke everywhere but then I realized he was just exhibiting a gag reflex because the woman a few seats down from him was clipping her toe nails. Then I gagged.

- The same man who I thought was having a gag reflex exhibiting the same gag reflex with no reason to gag.

- A man falling asleep standing up. His body literally folded in half so that his head nearly bumped the floor.

- A monkey.

[Ok so I didn't see a monkey but wouldn't that be grand? Also this list wasn't as riveting as I thought it would be and I always figure adding a monkey to any list justifies the making of the list. Try it out sometime]

I spit and then it froze.

Real talk.
Also... my stress is taking on the form of a frog hunting me in my dreams.
He carries a bow and arrow.
Furthermore if you get less than three hours of sleep your functioning is impaired equally to that of when you are intoxicated. What does this mean. For an example see the post I wrote the other night. And frozen spit. Unreal.

Here I live in this city.

And there are lots of lights And they sparkle and make me think:
Here I live

In this city
I walk places and cross bridges
I am a grad student
And it flurries
But I am acclimated;

Mostly

I procrastinate and I look for signs
And occasionally I smoke an old man pipe because the smoke is captivating in the air

I sit on porches and I hold this thought:
Here I live in this city.

The bee's knees. You know what I'm talking about.

I was procrastinating, obviously, so here I address procrastination:

Procrastination, I believe you are the solution to everything. I currently approve of your presence in my life as I should be learning all the muscles in the body yet instead am doing anything but learn. Although my studying technique of pretending all the muscles are magical wizarding spells worked for a while, I now firmly stand behind the belief that all muscles should be vestigial structures. Who needs them. Not I.

I will let my muscles atrophy and in doing so I will become the Miraculous Muscless Madame; Thus allowing all future anatomists the freedom from learning all the muscle insertions and origins and pollicis brevis extension retinaculum interossei motor praxis brachii levator scapulae occupational performance. Ok, now I'm just throwing out buzz words to show off.

I take pictures of my rental cat when procrastinating
from less important things. Weird? No way.

Back to procrastination... Thank you, truly. Because of you, I have accomplished endless chores, to-do's, errands, and miscellaneous projects that would never have been finished. Things are cleaner because of you. Namely the dishes. I am more knowledgeable in the subject of the disappearance of bees [check it] additionally I am well learned in the area of efficient composting in urban cities. Hells bells I think I love you procrastination. But, I think we should take a break. Seriously.

Until tomorrow, mm

You're the voice I hear inside my head.

You know those moments when you are sitting there, wherever you are, and suddenly you think "how the ef did I get in this situation?" Or you know, some version of that question introduces itself to your mind.

For instance, the time I was sitting on my porch watching this midget dance on the roof deck across the way I was all "what the ef am I doing here on this porch in Ecuador watching this midget dance." I mainly felt that I should avert my eyes; but I didn't. Anyways I had another moment like this last week. Occasions like these really get me thinking about all sorts of things like God, and the closest glass of milk, and friction versus traction, and time, and machetes, and life and stuff.

Ultimately through all my contemplations I always come back to this answer: Watch this video to find the answers to everything


Yeah it's a throwback. And sure, it doesn't really provide answers for when we are in situations with dancing midgets. In fact the song as a whole has nothing to do with anything except teenage angst and discovery and true love. But I am choosing to focus on these things as well as one line here and that is: "I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be". Thus, whenever I am in a strange, beautiful, or remarkable situation and find myself thinking "what the ef am I doing here?" I bust out a little Camp Rock.

Usually someone joins in with my chorus and our songs go together. And that is a faboosh [*usage of 'faboosh' courtesy of annie*] moment all on it's own.

Slice like a ninja squirrel cut like a razor blade so fast.

Today a squirrel fell out of a tree and landed on my head. Ok it didn't quite land on my head... it landed on the ground next to me but it felt like it landed on my head. And what I'm learning in my fancy master's classes is that it is very important to listen and consider the client's feelings. Perhaps I fabricated this fact. Nevertheless, in this situation, I am the client and I felt as though the squirrel landed on my head.
Anyways, so this squirrel falls out of a tree and lands on my head. It was not a hallucination. There really was a falling squirrel. And do you know what happened to this squirrel when it fell? Nothing. Because it died. This makes me reminisce about the Black Squirrel [read previous post] and whether the Black Squirrel met a similar fate. Falling out of trees and dying? Squirrels please get better proprioception. RIP squirrel. Train as a ninja next time maybe.