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Playing Hooky I've caught Greg's cold, and felt nauseous off and on all night. When I woke up at 5 for about the fifth time, I thought that I might stay home from work today. When I woke up at 7:20 from a horrifying dream in which a poisonous snake bit me on my wedding day and I subsequently died, I decided it was most likely an omen. I set the alarm for 8:30, woke up and called work, and crawled back into bed. How did I decide to make myself feel better? Why, by going to the mall with Greg, of course. (What? I felt better after I fully woke up and took medicine. People, I'm a temp. I like it, but I'm still just temping. Plus, I thought, we'd get home early and I'd work on my paper.) Greg did some grading this morning (the dreaded exam time has come), and then we headed out a little before noon. The mall was fairly empty, since it was early, and since this is a massive two-part mall that manages to feel jam-packed at Christmas despite being the size of a small town, that was a good thing. We had a few goals in mind, of course - purchase nice articles of clothing at Macy's for my grandfather and his father, utilizing the ubiquitous Macy's coupons on top of the still more ubiquitous Macy's sale prices; buy something for me at Tiffany's using a wedding gift credit; buy a storage unit for gift wrap at Organized Living; return a few things to Borders. And wander, of course. It's the mall. I have two X chromosomes. We bought the shirts, and another for Greg (they're not all the same). I looked for something for my grandmother and didn't find anything. I did, however, find a birthday gift for someone and a Christmas gift for someone else. Greg bought his dad a mouse pad that looks like a woven rug (they're Armenian). At Tiffany, I bought a pair of sterling silver Elsa Peretti "Eternal Circle" earrings (or maybe it's "Infinite Circle"). I can't seem to find them on the website, but they're beautiful. It's my first Tiffany box - and they were practically free! One returned crystal bowl we would never have used from someone who will never know turns into earrings I will wear every day. (I feel no guilt about this. This is why boxes include gift receipts; sometimes people get two and three of things.) And we had lunch at Ruby's and browsed in the Sanrio store and Pottery Barn and the comic shop and the game stand and H&M and were fairly restrained. Then, we headed home. It was five when we got there. So much for spending the whole day on my paper. I came upstairs to the computer and started typing; I wrote barely a page. I still have about eight to go. I have to face it - the bulk of this paper will be written at the last minute. It will still be good - I have my pride - but it will be done in the two days before it's due. It's time for me to stop pretending that this is not true. I basically know how the rest of the paper goes, I just cannot seem to make myself write it. It's due a week from tonight. I know my first half is solid; the professor hardly wrote on my draft and at the end wrote Looks great! so that gives me confidence. That plus the grad school acceptance is making me cocky; I don't want to be. I want to write an A paper and earn my "highest honors." Of course, I'm going to further play hooky from my paper by watching 24. (What? You expected something else? I have a whole week!) |