I've been pretty busy over the last week or so, and probably will be for the next week until the move's done. It really shouldn't take up that much time, but I seem to have an amazing ability to make tasks fill up as much time as they can possibly take, and since I don't have to be completely moved until next Thursday, I imagine I won't be done until Wednesday.

More thoughts on graduation: I saw so many familiar faces in those black gowns and caps, more than I'd expected at a school this size. Sure, there were plenty of strangers, but everywhere I turned, I saw someone I'd shared a dorm with, took a class with, interacted with through our extracurricular activities. That doesn't mean I found friends, though. No, on Friday I bumped into someone whose face I recognized from various interactions, but who I thought of as that-WoCo-guy for most of the evening before I heard his name; I sat a couple seats down from him, and ended up sharing most of my conversation with a girl he knew casually, Amy, who I met that evening. On Saturday, I lined up next to a guy who I'd taken an 8-person history seminar with, and chatted with him during the proceedings, but still needed to look down at his handy-dandy name card to remember his name. I just don't know many people well in my year, I guess, and of those I know a little, so few are in CAS and even fewer in history. This is why Eileen should never have been allowed to graduate a year early.

Oh, but speaking of history, my family got into town on Thursday just in time for the history department reception. Some of the profs I'd hoped to introduce my family to weren't there, but I did end up getting to observe my dad and Professor McCauley having an in-depth conversation of literally almost 5 minutes about suicide in China. It just goes to show you that anyone can find common ground. (Note: Prof McCauley=Chinese history professor; my dad=suicide prevention policy guy at SAMHSA.)

Lessee... what else? Went to the Chicago Board of Ed meeting today. It pissed me off. There are few things more frustrating than having some people in an office building making decisions, and those decisions being made without consulting a) the people on the ground who understand the situation better, and b) everyone else who's going to be affected, so that there can at least be discussion and community input. Except for the announcing-it-two-weeks-ahead-of-time part. Gah. Reminds me of the Lagoon debacle, for sure. It's starting to frighten me how much some things in the Real World echo things I've experienced at NU, and not in a good way.

I'm still very much in my "my privilege disgusts me" stage at the moment, which has not really motivated me to actually do anything but just to grumble and imagine throwing my shiny new computer and camera out the window and running off to live in a cardboard box. It's not a productive way of thinking, I know. I need to sit down and try to find ways to process these feelings better, so I don't keep getting angry and pissy and/or teary-eyed at random, not-usually-opportune moments.

Speaking of my camera, I need to find a way to put my photos and videos up online for your viewing pleasure, or it's all rather pointless. I don't know if anyone knows a good place to host them where I can link to them from my blog, or maybe I've just got to look into moving my blog(s) to a new site. Eh. I'll figure it out.

Okay, there are plenty of other things I could write about, but all of them would take more time than I want to spend right now, so I should just finish up and then come back to this another time...  ¶ 9:30 PM