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Well, I have about two weeks of stuff to catch up on, and I don’t remember everything that happened last week. I remember that it wasn’t too tough academically, and that things kept progressing with Debbie. I played some Mario Party, some poker, all the usual. The weekend was pretty good, as I recall. On Friday night, I had a fun night in my room watching Amelie with Debbie, Matt, and Michelle (and various others at different times in the night). I’ve seen it a couple times, cute French film. On Saturday, a bunch of us went to Chipotle in Burbank for a delicious Mexican meal. Afterwards, I again had a short talk with Debbie about our status. Then we proceeded to get kind of tipsy, having a bunch of people over for White Russians (kahlua, vodka, and milk) and other drinks. Afterwards, we headed off to a dance being held in the Greek Bowl that wound up being a lot cooler than any of us expected. I spent most of the time at the dance with Debbie, Emma, Lindsay, and Josh in kind of a freak line. Hot stuff. I ran into other friends like Mirella, Shannon, Allison, Michelle, and really it just seemed like a lot of people were there. Afterwards, I hung out with Debbie for a while and spent some time in the common room chatting with some of my buddies before going to sleep. Sunday was pretty typical I think, watching some sports and comedies and the like. This week was a true challenge, with three huge assignments looming that were all due Friday by 5:00. As an alternative to a normal final, our English teacher offered us the opportunity to get an automatic A on the final if we memorized 15 poems, so I took her up on that option and got to work on that. I also had a 10-12 page Economics essay to write about Saudi Arabia and the WTO (same topic as my presentation). In addition, I had to do a massive Econometrics project, which I chose to do about Major League Baseball and the relationship between a team’s winning percentage and its attendance levels. While there was no set page limit for that one, it wound up being about 8-9 pages with an additional 11 pages of data. On Monday night, I watched 24 (TV show) with Debbie and then played a crazy game of Dealer’s Choice poker. Essentially, every hand was whatever the dealer wanted. We mixed it up between Hold ‘Em, Omaha, 7-card stud, with variations in limit/no limit, wild cards, and even some other crazy games. For one, there were 2 wild cards, but they were face down and we wouldn’t see what they were until the end of the hand, completely changing the results. It was absolutely wild, pure gambling, but a great deal of fun. I recited my first couple of poems Tuesday afternoon, wrote some of my Econ paper, and then I slept over at Debbie’s Tuesday night and worked on memorizing The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, which counted as 4 toward my total of 15. We went to the Newcomb hall spread (where she lives) and got to hear the Acapella singing group on campus - they were really good. On Wednesday, it was a bunch more work and seeing Debbie and the like. I successfully recited The Raven Thursday afternoon, along with two other poems bringing my total to 8. That left me with a daunting amount of work to do Thursday night and Friday afternoon. So what did I do Thursday night? Played poker, of course! But I ended early and did a bunch of work. Debbie slept over again. She got the job at USGS in Pasadena for the summer like she wanted, so that was really cool. We made our relationship “Facebook official”, which is the true test for college relationships haha. Basically, it means that our Facebook profiles say “In a relationship with - ” and the person’s name. So yeah, I have my first official girlfriend at the tender age of 19. I woke up at about 8:00 Friday to continue my work, and didn’t finish it all until 4:50. I recited my final 7 poems, and did a pretty lousy job. I wasn’t proud of it, but thankfully the guy who was helping my teacher listen to them was lenient and passed me. So that class is officially done. Econometrics ended when I turned in my project at 4:50 (no final exam in that one either), and then I turned in my International Econ paper at the same time. I know that I could have done better on those assignments given a little more time, but with all three things due at the same time, I just couldn’t do my best on all of them. I still did a pretty good job, but I’m a little frustrated because they could have been great instead of just good. Anyway, I was a relieved man Friday at 5:00, and I celebrated in style with a nice weekend. Debbie and I went on our first official date Friday night, which was really enjoyable. We went to Paseo Colorado, grabbing dinner at a Mexican place called Rubio’s and then watching Mission Impossible III, starring Tom Cruise. We both really enjoyed the meal and the movie, so it all went perfectly. When we came back to school, there were a bunch of people in the room hanging out, celebrating “Cinco de Drinko” (college for Cinco de Mayo). Debbie got up around 10:30 Monday, and headed off to the Hameetman science center at 1:00 to start an intense weekend of Finals studying. I spent my Saturday throwing a baseball around with some buddies, watching some basketball playoffs, enjoying a barbeque on Stewie Beach, and then heading off to the Dodgers game after being invited by Ernesto. Jack came too, and I brought Matt because Ernie had an extra ticket. Our seats were kickass, about 10 rows behind the Dodgers dugout on the field level (face value of $50 apiece). And it was a great game. The Dodgers blew a 4-3 lead with 2 outs in the 9th inning, but wound up winning it 5-4 in the bottom of the 9th on a Nomar Garciaparra single. Upon returning, I spent some time hanging out with Matt, Daniel, and Josh, and then went to bed with Debbie around 2:00. I slept in today and didn’t do much, watching some sports and TV. After dinner, I grabbed a couple chocolate milkshakes from the Cooler and surprised Debbie, who was slaving away in Hameetman studying Geology. She was happy to see me, and she took a little break to hang out with me for a half hour or so. I probably should have studied for finals a bit. I have two finals - International Economics at 6:30 Monday night, and History at 1:00 Tuesday afternoon. The tests seem hardly intimidating compared to the intense work I had last week, and I’ll be done by Tuesday which is cool (so will Debbie). On tap for the next few days are the finals, a Dodger game with Debbie Wednesday night, packing up for home, and then embarking on my road trip starting Sunday or Monday. I’m pretty excited about the trip, but I’m a little sad that the year is ending because it was such a fun, good one for me.