Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.

So, I survived Finals.

Huzzahs all around.

It was a lot of work, I'm not going to lie, a lot of work. I probably could have done a little better than I did. But it was a lot at once. Ah well, it's over for now. After Finals, I was looking forward to the smooth sailing of the summer.

Oh, Matthew. How naïve you are! Life doesn't work like that. Have you not learned from life before? Perhaps you should take a class in history at Matt U.

Perhaps.

After finals I had tons and tons of grading to do. I also had a meeting I had to go to concerning my summer teaching at UF. I was still quite busy for some time, but it wasn't as stressful, which was good. I then went to the meeting and found out my original plans for the summer--which I had stressed about all semester in trying to get perfectly aligned and tried to let everyone know what was going on and not go behind people's backs--were now impossible. The teachers said they don't think it is a good idea and I had to choose between teaching the first half of the summer at UF or teaching the second half of the summer in Paris.

After a lot of debating and discussing with friends and my parents about what the best choice would be, I had not yet come to a decision. There were lots of things to consider: money, time, the ability of each program to replace me, what God might want me to do (if he even has a preference), etc. I was leaning on teaching at UF and then I got a call this morning though, from Paris, telling me that they really would like me to come to Paris and not teach at UF. The director in Paris also tried to talk to the head of the RomLang Dept and ask him to reconsider his decision. Perhaps he might change his mind.

Perhaps.

It turns out we all found a compromise that we could agree upon and I am now able to do both. This is very very good. It's also pretty awesome. I am excited.

So now, I am able to relax much more at home with my family and my friends. I'm going to see Michael, Kathryn, Nicole, & Drew tomorrow. It's going to be pretty sweet. I'm excited to see them. I'll get to see Becca on Friday and hang with Drew (from Gainesville) and Matt Stauffer when they come through too and show them Atlanta. It'll be pretty sweet. I'm excited.

Much less stressful now, which is good. I still have a kink in my back from my crappy chair I sat in way too much during finals week for typing the 50ish pages I wrote for school. But I'm hoping that goes away soon. There are a few things else on my mind, but a lot of them have been eased with the fact that a friend of mine helped me realize that just because you are being patient, does not mean you are not making a decision. Patience is an active decision, it's not laziness. It's something I will hopefully learn to handle well over the summer. That's my goal. God's not finished with me, yet, it seems. Perhaps I'll finally get it. Or, at least I'll be on my way.

Perhaps.

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.

Pensive.

So I know I have 5 pages to write tonight, but I can't seem to get started. So I am going to procrastinate further by writing a blog entry. Don't you feel special.

Random thoughts currently going through my head:

• I bought new deodorant yesterday. It is a scent i have never tried before. I don't know if I like it.
• Sometimes I wish I had a laptop, sometimes I'm glad I have a desktop. Too bad I can't have both? lol
• I have very little due this week (one presentation), but I am behind on a few things, so this week feels really busy.
• The semester is almost over, Hallelujah.
• My friends in Gainesville are awesome. How did I come to deserve them? Wait, I don't. But that's cool that they are my friends anyway.
• I have this desire to be purely honest with everyone about everything. But I'm afraid it will come back and kick me in the arse.
• It's crazy the differences your life can be in after just one year. I wonder what the differences will be next year?

"Arrache-moi la tête, que je ne puisse savoir."

I think I'm officially on Hawaiian Time....

So I am very much thrown off with my sleep schedule now. After being up until around 6am the past two nights, I am not getting a good night's rest tonight, I can just tell. This weekend was full of unproductivty and awesomeness. I can't even remember all that happened this weekend. Friday night was Happy New Month chez Kyla. I got to play with legos and Caleb D. It was awesome. I also got to enjoy some good times with some awesome people. We should do this again next month :p

Saturday was a day of sleeping in and reading. I did a lot of reading for fun and enjoyed that. I also went out to Berto's Art show closing. It was also pretty awesome. Followed by a surprisingly good movie (Blood Diamond) and surprisingly confusing movie (The Darhjeeling Limited). I think at the end when Aux Champs Elysées came on for the credits music, I just about burst out laughing (waking up two awesome ladies that had fallen asleep watching the movie). Seriously? Seriously.

Sunday was Kristi's birthday surpriseness and some homework. I wish I could have come up with a song in time to get it on Kristi's birthday CD. It is a pretty awesome CD (for a pretty awesome person). I also spent some time on SimCity....probably not that productive. I got a great phone call from Jamie telling me that he is ENGAGED! Holy crap, yes! Apparently Meghan popped the question today and they are getting married. Details not hashed out yet (particularly the "we have different citizenships" problem)...but this means that a) one of my best friends is getting married and b) I get to take another trip to Washington State. Sweet. I guess I should start saving now.

I was slightly bummed before I wrote this entry about how my life is going so incredibly not where I thought I would be going (and not where I want it to go?) ...but after writing this entry to sum up the weekend, I don't want to dwell on the blah-ness.

Alright, it's off to bed.......


......maybe. lol.

Actually, I kind of hate Waffle House

Many thoughts.

I'm a generally pensive kind of guy, but there are these moods I normally get in that are kind of nearly-depressing/emo/serious pensive moods that I get into about once a month or so. I like those moods though. Even though I described them rather unamiably.

Today however, is a bit different. I've just got a bunch of things running through my mind and I'm thinking about a ton of different things...but it's not quite the same. I don't know how to describe that any better....which makes it ridiculous to write in a blog, but that's just the way it is.

I haven't been very good at talking recently, nothing comes out like I want it to. They should just make a way to communicate feelings through a direct internet upload/download system or something. Life would be a lot easier.

---

So Mike and Kat got married this past weekend. I love that couple. I love them...both individually, and as one. I am so blessed and thankful that they are in my life. I kept telling them how excited I was and how I love those two and how awesome it was that they were married...but everytime I said it it never seemed to do justice to what I actually felt. Hurm. Words are ridiculous (which is why I spend all of my time studying them.....irony?)

---

I had a good long talk with Drew at the Bachelor's Party. I'm glad we got to talk. I really didn't get to know him that well until my last two years of college and really my last year of college. But I've really come to love him and Nicole (his wife). It's really kind of a shame that our lives are splitting in so many directions. We're trying to make sure we spend a good amount of time with each other at least once a year.

It was crazy seeing the mass of people at the wedding and pre-wedding festivities that I hadn't seen in ages. So this is what growing up is like. Crazy.

I'm pretty sure that Mike, Drew, and Micah (and their respective spouses/future-spouses) and I should know each other for the rest of our lives and keep in contact. These people are amazing.

---

It's weird that I've traveresed three different worlds in the past three days. Being with my parents and family completely without interaction with the outside world for a few days was good, I do love my family. Then I went and saw all of my best friends from college and my best friend get married to his beautiful and wonderful wife. And it was a kind of surreal experience in many ways. Then I came to Gainesville, my new home, and hung out with nearly everyone I know here and love here.

---

And now, some random thoughts, as that seems to be the trend:
-I talked way too much about emotions in this post, I blame it on the surge of estrogen I've been exposed to in the past few days.

-I definitely need to learn when to stop talking. I have told Mary far too much.

-There are still some things that my mind has not fully found closure on. That bugs me.

-God is ridiculous.

-I've been using the word ridiculous way too much in the past few months.

-I'm not sure how I feel about my party planning being hijacked by my ex-girlfriend. It doesn't really bother me, it just seems weird.

-I need to fly somewhere far away. Just for a bit.

-I'm glad that my electric bill is for the first time under 90$...in fact, a lot less.

-I am not excited to write this paper in the next few days.

-I got a calendar with pictures of Paris and a typography book from Jamie for Christmas. Yes, I'm a dork, but it's totally awesome.

-I also got a lot of practical stuff for Christmas, which is fine by me, I'm glad to get them.

-I was sad that I was not able to be as giving because of financial means this Christmas.

-I am saddened for a friend of mine whom I wish I could be there for more, because I know he needs it.

-I'm trying to learn to have Gainesville be my home...even if it's just a home for right now.

-Love is amazing.

-There are days when I really can't wait to be with the one I'm going to marry. And there are others where I think it's probably never going to happen. I've been doing better at thinking less.

-Still a lot of unanswered questions. I think most of these will probably stay that way until the Big Guy decides to let us all in on His secrets.

-I miss my old church...or what I nostalgically remember my old church being when I was younger.

-Love is hard.

-This post is way too long and scattered (smothered, covered, and capped).

Good bunch

I had some people over at my house for a movie. It was awesome. To all of you who came, I appreciate it. I enjoyed it immensely.

I hope that people aren't too busy after school is out. I'd really like to get to know some of these people even better. I've found an amazing bunch.

---

I did very little related to school today. I'm easing myself back in from the anti-school break I had. I hope to God that next semester will go better.

Tomorrow is a day full of OPIs (Oral Proficiency Interviews) and classes plus a bunch of research prep for my two papers. Oi. Not looking forward to those.

Alright, I should sleep.

I am thankful. It may not always show, but I am.

I'm back.

Thanksgiving Break was not bad. I had five whole days without thinking about school for more than 30 minutes total. I am glad of that. However, with the looming stress of finals week from both the giving and receiving end, it was hard to destress. I'll enjoy Christmas break much more, I think.

To sum up this Thanksgiving: lots of food, seriously, lots; lots of family as well; ridiculous heat for the end of November; UF vs FSU (w00t!); UW vs WSU (boo!); visits with friends; kid cousins; cousins growing up; ridiculous amount of travelling on I-275; SceneIt (I am awesome); and Fort De Soto Park.

And now I have returned to my nice clean house. I didn't really want to do it at the time, but I'm glad that I got all of my clothes clean and the house tidied up before I left. It's nice to come home to a clean house.

There have been loads of things going through my mind recently. I sometimes wish I thought more slowly or had an awesome memory so I could eventually write all my thoughts down. Right now if I were to write it all down I'd run out of paper and couldn't get all my thoughts out before I was gone and moving on to a different thought.

And now I'm sounding senseless.

---

There are a lot of people here in Gainesville that I've met in the past few months. Some of them I really would like to get to know better. I think I'm going to try and make more of an effort in the next few months to hang out and get to know these people more.

---

One thing I miss about college life is hanging out at midnight, 2 am, whenever, and suddenly having conversations about anything and everything, musing, philosophizing, throwing out ideas, etc....

I think that's it for tonight. This week is going to be a doozy.

Stress, Stress, Stress!

---

So I have read and heard that the three most stressful times in a person's life are having a baby, buying a house, and planning a wedding. Now, I'm not experienced on those things very well but I can tell you that the second one--buying a house--is VERY stressful. There is just so much to think about and so much to know and so much to consider...and then once it's done, it's done. There's no turning back.

Oi.

Even though I was incredibly stressed and probably not very fun to be around while I was in Gainesville this past week, I did enjoy the town and the University, I think I'll enjoy it even better when I move down there in two months. The place I'm looking at has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a balcony, kitchen, living room, it's on the second floor with no one above me and it's very close to the University. Now, the thing is, you can be very close to the University, but still be far from your classes. Most classes are in the the Northeast corner of the University and I'd be just across the street due south of the middle of the University....but whatever. It's still a nice place, if I can get there. If I don't I might rent out this place on the corner of 34th and W University across the street from the Law School and the UF Golf Course. I think that students get super cheap or free use of the UF Golf Course so I think Mike and I need to have a little golf game down there sometime. I think it'd be awesome.


Anyway, I should probably get back to work. Hopefully by the end of the week we will have this thing nailed out and I can be a little less stressed. Hopefully....

'Cause There's Just Too Many Scenarios To Analyze...

Today started out OK, I suppose.

I don't really know what happened.

Right now, however, I am feeling crappy.

I've been thinking far too much about where I'm going to live next year, how I'm going to survive living next year, why in the world a friend of mine from Berry thinks that Satan was the reason a group of us friends no longer hang out, how the crap this relationship with Maggie is going to work, how much it sucks being apart and how much that will be for the next year or so.

Gah, I'm done thinking. ever.

In other news I'll be thinking about housing all week as I will be leaving for Gainesville early tomorrow morning and coming back Sunday. Horray. :|

Two Weddings and a Party.

Whew.

I just got back from two weddings today. TWO. It's insane. Justin and Rebecca got married today up at Berry. I went up and got there just in time to sit down and get set to watch everyone walk down the aisle. It was a really nice ceremony and I'm very happy for both of them. I had fun hanging out with everyone at the reception, it was like a little mini-reunion of my closest friends. After about an hour at the reception, I drove down super-fast to downtown Atlanta (an hour and a half drive took only an hour....:$) and went to the Aquarium for Amanda and John's wedding. They already had their ceremony but I was wanting to go to their wedding as well so I went to their reception at the Georgia Aquarium. It was definitely, by far, one of the most lavish receptions I have ever been to: Open Bar, Four Course Meal, Live Band, Tons of Waiters, Assigned Seating, And Giant Aquarium viewing areas where you could see all sorts of cool aquatic animals. It was very cool. I really liked both weddings even though they were pretty much complete opposites. It was cool to go to the very fancy wedding, but it was a lot of fun to hang out with all of the people I know and love and actually be able to talk to the bride and groom and carry on a conversation with them. I dunno, they were both awesome, just in different ways.

Yep, so I had fun with that. Tomorrow is Mike's birthday party up at Kennesaw Mountain and then on Wednesday night or Thursday morning I'm going to head down to Florida to look at some places to live. I've got some ideas on places and I'm really excited and looking forward to this.

It's amazing how everyone around me is growing up in so many different and cool ways and to be a part of it....it's all really awesome. God is also awesome.

Summer Plans

---

Working, working, working. That's what I tell everyone that I'm doing nowadays, and it's pretty much true. You wouldn't think that a job tht arequires you to sit t a desk all day would be that tiring but by the time I get home around six o'clock, I'm exhausted. Maybe that has to do with the fact that I don't get that much sleep at night. I probably spend far too much time talking to Maggie at night (stupid time zones...) but I enjoy it so it's not a big deal, and I'm not going to bed
too late normally.

I'm excited because I'm pretty sure I'm going to be able to go up to Iowa (the Homeland, as I call it) for the Parker family reunion. "What?" I hear you saying "But you're not a Parker! There aren't any Parkers in your family!" I understand and no, I have not decided after a late-night screening of Wedding Crashers to start my own group called Reunion Crashers where we go to random family reunions and mooch off of them just telling them we are distant cousins. Maggie invited me up to hang out with her at the end of July with her fam in Iowa, so I'm gonna drive up with her dad (should be interesting....) and then drive back down with her. Hopefully around then I'll be able to move into my new place in Gainesville and all will be good. It's going to be a crazy new time in the life of this Matt.

I haven't really hung out with anyone from school yet. It's kinda hard when you work all day. I need to go by and see Becca's new apartment and hang out with Nicole & Drew. Mike and Kat are in Florida right now picking up some furniture so hopefully I'll be able to hang out with them too. I'm excited.

Alright, I should probably head back to work.

à+ M

Weekend Blues

So, I'm home for Easter. It's good to be home with family. Unfortunately, it's also kinda crazy being home with family. Since both me and my brother are not living at home anymore because we both go to college, when we're all together my dad and my brother seem to get at each other's throats. It's just an interesting combination of personalities between those two. So, I'm basically just sitting around listening to them argue with each other about things. I want to chalk it up to teenage angst or something...but he just turned nineteen; I would think that he'd be out of that phase by this point in his life. Ah well.

I also was supposed to go watch TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, for those who had a sad childhood without everyone's favourite metamorphisized karate-kicking teen-angst testudines) but it fell through. I'm going to get to watch it on Tuesday though as a sort of "after-birthday" thing with a couple of friends. I've got so much work for this up-coming week too. I really just want to sit back and relax after that wonderful trip in Washington...I really forgot all about school. But now, I've got three weeks to write a thesis on the evolution of the French language; finish off my portfolio that's due Monday (THANK GOD IT WILL BE OVER!); and a Psychology project due 8 days after that that I haven't even thought of starting.

Also, I'm starting to look for a place to live in Gainesville. It's crazy. I think sometime in May I'm going to head down to G'ville to find a condo or something. I'm excited. :D

Also, it's been super cold this weekend here. Seriously, and it's beautiful in Washington where I just left. I think bad weather is following me around or something....Although, it was beautiful and not rainy in Seattle...I guess maybe "opposite of normal" weather follows me around. It even dusted with snow last night. Craziness. Isn't this the first week of April??? Oi.