Now, I've got about half an hour until my Middle East final.  On my only other point-bearing evaluation in this class (the other exam) I somehow got a 75.  I seriously cannot remember the last time I got a 75 on anything in an essay format.  Apparently, a guy from Palestine who has trouble speaking or writing English decided that my essays were insufficient.  Call me ethnocentric, but fuck that.

My sociology instructor this morning, after I had turned in my final and paper, followed me into the hallway to personally thank me for taking her course, telling me I had contributed valuably to it.  Shit-howdy, what an awkward moment.  I tried to return the courtesy by thanking her for letting me take her course, and quickly left.  What do you do in a situation like that?

Last night, Amy went to church at 7:30 pm and didn't come home for a long time.  Around 11:00 pm (her normal bedtime), I really began to worry.  I had figured that she had been captured for the rituals of socializing, but the passing of the 11:00 barrier made my heart race.  In my mind, exactly 34,462 scenarios played out, all of which involved me going to the hospital or the morgue to find my lover.  About 11:05, as I went to look for her (the church is only blocks away) she called.  She had indeed lost track of time in the presence of Kory and Amy (easy to do) and was still talking to them at the church.  She was coming home.  Still close to a heart attack, I got a cigar at the Citgo and smoked my anxiety away.  It still took me most of an hour after that (and after Amy went to bed) to calm down enough to sleep.  Weird what love does...

A thought that crossed my mind during my sleepless relaxing period last night involves the saxophone. To me, it's one of the most annoying instruments ever invented, bar none.  But if you remember, back in the eighties, the saxophone was the official instrument of the cool soundtrack.  Saxophones were used (over pseudo-porn-style pop beats, heavily synthesized) to create moods of coolness, sexiness, and excitement in varying degrees.  Fast forward to like 1991, and the sax is no where to be found in popular soundtracks.  After a decade of such dominance, what caused people to (finally) realize that saxophones were shit?  And with the emphasis of this material culture on retro, how long is it before the sax is back?

Also speaking of the 1980s, I thought about Pee-Wee's Playhouse today.  That show was my absolute favorite show when it was on the air.  I scheduled my entire Saturdays (which at the time consisted of playing, reading and eating cereal) around watching that show.  Well, until one day when my parents told me I couldn't watch it anymore because Pee-Wee was a bad, bad man. I Wikipediaed it, and found out that at the time it was tremendously critically acclaimed and that a number of now-famous actors appeared on it.  Weird.  Thanks, Wikipedia! 

Oh, and I miss watching the Copa Mundial on Univision.  One thing I miss about having decent (read: cable or satellite) television is the unsurpassed access to sporting events as a way to blow off steam or relax.  I've been thinking about getting the uber-basic service, but have yet to convince myself that Time Warner is not the spawn of Satan (if not Satan himself).

I've been listening to a lot of Blur lately.  They are some of the most unheralded artists of the 1990s.  Or, at least ones I never really paid attention to.  "Coffee and TV" has been stuck in my head for like three days.

I'm only an hour and change away from freedom for Summer I.  Of course, I still have to teach tonight.  And I start at Tuscarawas on Monday!