My Nikon mug has no shutter

It's really quite sad when the extent of my photography has come to drinking my coffee from a mug emblazoned with the Nikon logo. Not quite the same as holding an actual Nikon, but at this point I will take whatever I can get.

We are nearing The End. Which, in our case, really does symbolize The Beginning. The Beginning of getting our life back.

I was thinking back recently to The Time Before Grad School, and what that was like. I remember feeling stressed out because I was busy. "Oh, honey, you have no idea what busy looks like!" I tell my unaware, innocent self. "Giiiiiirl...you just wait!"

I plan to be busy with my post-master self. Ha! I made a funny! Look at that. Post-master. Postmaster.

Okay, so my brain is fried. It's been two years. It's going to take some time to restore that segment of the brain that knows true humor and relaxation.

Anyway, I do plan to stay busy. I see nothing on TV that beckons, and a house full of projects that has been back-burnered for two years. I see files and files of images to edit. I see new things to shoot. I see a sad, pathetic blog that has been largely neglected. But none of these will come with a deadline or a grade, and will not require me to sacrifice time with friends and family.

M and I are working ahead as much as possible, trying to beat that Dec. 18 deadline. We want to be done already. We want The End to come early, because that means The Beginning starts early. We're working on our final paper today, and then we have to complete our group project, do our individual project and take our final. It sounds like a lot, but in the grand scheme of things - namely all the work we've done for two years - it's not much.

There is light at the end of the tunnel! (I just hope it's not a train coming.)

I hate homework

I am absolutely FED UP with homework. Sick to death of it. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent writing a stupid case analysis on the 3M Company. The firm is pretty cool. It came up with Scotch tape and Thinsulate and Post-It Notes. But there's only so many times you can write the word "innovation" in one paper before you want to just beat yourself silly with your textbook.

I am currently on my 9th page of single-spaced type on this company, and I am ready to scream. I'm not done yet, either. I have to put together my recommendations for future 3M strategy.

Given the amount of work I've already put into this paper, here's my recommendation: Make more Post-It Notes. Maybe create some cool new colors. Oh, wait, you've already done that. Okay, make them in different sizes. Nope, that's been done. Okay, maybe just for kicks, see about making the world's largest Post-It Note and scoring a Guinness Book of World Records mention. It'll be good PR.

All this is just for my paper this week. Last week was Boeing. The week before was Wal-Mart. I think Tyco is teed up and waiting for next week. Oh, goody.

On top of writing these lovely little tomes, I'm running my imaginary company, which involves figuring out R&D, pricing, advertising, sales, forecasting, production, human resources, total quality management initatives, finance. Each round represents a year. This week, because my instructor is a cruel, evil man, we've moved to two rounds per week, due Mondays and Thursdays. I'd say we've been spending about 8 to 10 hours designing each round, and now we have to do that twice every week.

When I'm all done with the papers and the business simulation, I get to write a discussion board post that typically involves answering two to three questions, presumably legibly and with original ideas.

As of today, I am one month away from graduation. One stinkin' lousy month. Given the amount of work, though, it feels like eternity.

I feel marginally better knowing that M is slogging through this with me. Our relationship has devolved to sending IMs to each other (I'm upstairs, he's down) saying, "This sucks. This really blows."

Needless to say, this is why I haven't been blogging. I do hope to return to it eventually, if my brain isn't drizzling out of my ear by Dec. 18 and I'm not found cowering in a corner, twitching and muttering, "Post-Its...must innovate...Post-Its..."

Really, why couldn't he get up?

This morning as I carried Zozer through the rain into school, we sang together:

It's raining, it's pouring
The old man is snoring
Bumped his head and went to bed
And couldn't get up in the morning!

Whereby we then had this conversation:

"Mommy, why couldn't he get up in the morning?"
"I don't know. Maybe because he bumped his head."
"Well, you can bump your head and still get up in the morning."
(The "duh!" was heavily implied.)

I didn't have an answer. Anyone know?

Zoe Games

Zoe has been playing a game in the car, where she holds out a certain number of fingers and asks me to remember (guess, actually, but she calls it remember) how many she has. I don't have the rearview mirror tilted to where I can see her, so it really is a guessing game. She gets a big kick out of it, so I play along.

Tonight, we had this conversation on the way home.

"Mommy, remember how many fingers I have."
"Five."
"No."
"Four."
"No."
(This continues on until I have named every number between 1 and 10.)
"I give up, Zo."
"Well, Mommy, guess."
"I don't know, Zo. Just tell me."
"None!" and she's so pleased that she's tricked Mommy.

Then she says, "Hey Mommy. Remember how many fingers I have now. Hold on, I need to count them."

I started smiling, because I knew exactly what was coming next. And I was right.

"One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Okay, Mommy. Guess!"

Um, eight?

This reminds of when we play I Spy, which she loves to do. Typically, when it's her turn to spy, it goes like this:

"I spy with my little eye...something green!"

(At this point all I have to do is look where she's looking and it's a dead give-away, but I play along.)

"Ummmm, that car?"

"No, that's green, but that's not what I'm thinking of. Would you like a little hint? I will give you a hint. It's the grass!"

I'm not sure how to explain to her that a hint is not coming right out with the answer, and I don't know that I want to just yet as it's adorable as hell when she's so proud for giving a hint.