"Hold the ones you love close"

I've become quite convinced that the FAFSA is the evil love child produced when the Federal Government and the Bureaucracy of Secondary Education Institutions combine into an unstoppable super alliance of Red Tape. It's insane trying to fill that thing out, especially if you haven't gotten your taxes done yet! The priority deadline is in mid-February while taxes aren't due until April! What madness is this? Bah, I'm just glad I finally got it finished this evening. Now I can wash my hands of it and walk away.

In other news, my parents are coming up for a visit this weekend and I'm super excited. They're staying in on-campus guest housing which means they will actually stay the weekend with me rather than coming up just for a day and then going back to Federal Way before returning home. In fact, it means I get to take them to Nerf Wars and introduce them to some of the friends I've made here. They haven't actually met anyone I've become friends with here. And they get to meet Cameron (see previous post as to the importance of this). Dad especially is psyched for Nerf Wars. They went shopping for guns last weekend and Dad got this monster of a gun and he's planning to modify his gun and his darts so they fly farther, faster, and straighter. Plus he colored it completely black. I would be surprised if her showed up with a bandana on in camo pants and said "Let's do this" while cocking his gun. But I'm excited for their visit anyway. Plus I've described my dad's antics to Cameron who thinks he sounds awesome.

They will also come back in April because our Glee Club (like an actual show choir sort of club) is having a showcase! It's going to be so awesome! My small group is doing Way Back Into Love from Music and Lyrics, which I love, and I'm going to try and get a solo. Plus I'm going to try and do a solo piece (Lift Me Up by Kate Voegele). I cannot wait for it all!

School has been going pretty well. I got my first essay exam back from Dr. Margaritis. Now, Margaritis' tests are all essays. You have no clue what questions he will ask you, you can't use notes or books, you have to write it in class, and you have to be very specific about your examples. I spent two nights creating study sheets and memorizing nine different quotes about fate, which we had discussed a lot in class. I got the exam and not a single question was on fate! So I did my best and when I got the essay back, I had an A-! Oh, and his base grade is a C. If you do all your work and meet the requirements, you can get a C. If you do really good work, you can get a B. If you do absolutely exceptional work you can get an A. So either I'm smarter than I think, or I'm brilliant at BSing my way through an essay. I just finished a short story for my fiction class that I'm actually really proud of. Yes, it has vampires and supernatural beings, but my preliminary group found it funny and descriptive and entertaining. So we'll see next Tuesday how the entire group likes the completed story. I'll also be reading a short story collection by Edgar Allan Poe for the next few days since I have a paper about the collection due the first part of March. So I'm off  to read about insane, but fun, people and death. Luckily I like Poe much better than the author I read before.

Take Care
Reaper