A Different Drum

Wow...where to begin.

I graduated from college a week ago tommorrow. Conincidently, I have a job interview tomorrow. More on that later.

Graduation, was, well, all in all, it was fine. I have to admit the day started out as a dissapointment, as many of you may have gathered from my angry post the moring of the ceremony. It rained, so we could not hold commencment on the Lawn in front of Lee Chapel, instead, we had it indoors, at Cameron Hall, the large basketball arena at VMI. Very annoying. Had a good laugh though, looking at the banners hanging from the rafters. Poor little VMI is still claiming bragging rights to making the Sweet 16 in the early 70's. I guess they haven't had much luch since then. Graduation speaker was Tom Wolfe, a WLU alumni. He was hysterically funny. Made fun of Paris Hilton, that was cool. Got my diploma, real sheepskin!

After the ceremony it was time to finish up the packing. We managed to get everthing in the two vehicles, and trundled home to NH on Friday, getting in very late. Saturday was spent unpacking. Most of my stuff still isn't unpacked, as I'm trying to clean my room, and start packing to move out all at the same time. Not working really well, in fact, my computer isn't even unpacked yet. I'm updating from my Dad's.

That doesn't stop me from working on Fanfiction! The Prolouge to DTR is back from the beta, as of today. I'm going to go have a look at that next.

I've been working at the golf course. I'm now nicely sunburned to deep lobster red, but that's okay, because once that peels, I'll brown up to a nice farmers tan. Sara's crazy about that. She also think's that I look sexy driving a tractor, so it's all good. We've been areoating,(sp?) this week. On Tuesday, the small areoater blew a spring, and was down most of the day, so we were behind, but Bob, the mechanic, managed to fix it. Today, worse, the big areoater blew a drive shaft. Glenn, my boss, the course super, had ordered a spare, because he knew it was wearing out. That was two month ago, the part's been backordered. Bob took the broken one to a machine shop to see if they can create a new one. That's won't be cheap.

Job interview tomorrow at John Stark Regional High School. It's a temp position, one year only, and it's the school furtherst away from where I want to be, so I may not take it, even if they offer it to me. But it's a place to start, we'll see.

Anyway, time to go do some editing, catch ya on the flip side.

I'm packing...which means my apartment resembles something out of a war zone, like London during the Blitz. My walls are now bare, which is really depressing, and boxes and bags are stacked everywhere. This is really depressing.

I'm excited about graduation, though. Praying hard for sunshine on Thursday...hope everybody will pitch in on that. I would much prefer to graduation outside, on my campus, rather than INSIDE, at SOMEONE ELSE'S campus. (Our fieldhouse isn't big enough).

Saying goodbye to Lexington is going to be hard/easy at the same time. I'm going to miss some people, and as for the rest, I just want to blow this popsicle stand.

The reality of the real world is pressing in, though. When I get home, it's time to start the wedding plans in earnest, as well as get serious about getting employed. I do have an interview lined up, and my resume is off to about six differant schools now, so we'll see.

The end of an era, the closing of a book, the twilight of the gods...that reminds me of another comparison to my room...Berlin, '45. How very Wagnarian.

I must be playing too much Panzer General 2 lately. For anyone who cares, I've swept across France, routed the British in North Africa, and I'm currently closing on Moscow. Wunderbar! Rommel? He's a piker compared to me...Gureidian? I ate his book for breakfast.

Oooookay...one down, one to do.

Sara's graduation went off without a hitch. Mostly. I spent a good chunk of the weekend playing chauffer for my future in-laws. Which was fine. My only regret about the weekend was not having enough time to spend with Sara, and Sara's freinds, because we had so much family to take care of.

I will miss everyone at William and Mary. I'm not sure I can put it all into words right this present moment. But I might give it a try later.

I'm back in Lex Vegas, alone, for the moment. Sara's coming down later in the week after she gets everything unpacked at home in NH. For me, it's back to work, back to class.

Later all.

Whoohoo! Saw Fever Pitch today. Holy cow, it was wicked awesome. Sara and I pretty much had the theater to ourselves, too, so we sang along to all the songs, like Dirty Water and Sweet Caroline. If you even remotely consider yourself a member of Red Sox Nation, you need to see this film.

Weekend was good, yet sad. I had to say goodbye to a lot of folks at William and Mary who I won't see again until I get married in December. I'm not going out there next weekend, and graduation is the week after that, and I won't see anybody but the seniors then, everyone else will have gone home. Saying goodbye is tough.

My sister's coming down to visit next week, so that should be interesting. Looking forward to it.

Class is going well, but I need to go do some reading.

"It's a comebacker to the mound, Foulke stabs it, steps towards first, flips it to Mientkiewicz..."

Here it is, Wednesday, and I'm already pining for Friday. It's been a long week. I'm tired, and whiney right now. I miss Sara, who has been more than a little incommunicado this week, with the thesis and all. I'm not really upset, because I know how important this is to her, but I'm feeling a bit alone over here.

Class is going well. Doc is piling on the praise in class, which is highly embarassing. Don't know what's gotten into him lately. The senior history majors have been invited out to dinner at his house next Tuesday, I can't wait.

Finished my first paper (of six) for the class today. Had to write a speech defining freedom. Could either be from the point of view of a northern conservative, northern radical, white southern, or southern freedman. I chose northern radical. Go figure.

I'm dissapointed I won't make it out for Sara's thesis defense, but participation is 50% of my grade in my class, and I'm stockpiling absences for the off chance I get a job interview. ::crosses fingers::

Doc did a great job with my letter of recomendation, but messed up a little, I discovered. He put Parry McClure High School, instead of Rockbridge County High School, when he was talking about my student teaching. An honest mistake. County has two schools.

Between Sara's issues with her roomie, and her issues with MY roomie (who invited his girlfreind to out wedding without checking first) and my issues with my roomie (how hard is it to do dishes once in a while), I'm thinking the time has come to graduate and move on. Only a few weeks now. May 15th, for Sara. You need tickets to get into that one. June 2nd for me, and if you're in the Lexington area, come on down.

Speaking of graduation, ran into Cash Koeniger today. He's a VMI prof who graduated from W&L and was a visiting professor for a year at W&L while Barry Machado was on sabbatical. He and I took an immediate liking to one another when I had him for Populism, Progressisim and the New Deal, and I've kept in touch now that he's back over at the Prison...I mean VMI. He told me we should do lunch sometime before I head back to NH. Have to take him up on that. Rule #1 of College Students. Never turn down free food.

Anyway, I'm going to go get ready to hit the rack. Although I might play the interview game first...we'll see.

Campbell Out.

So, I'm just about all packed to go. This will be my last 12 hour trek to Virginia, with only one more return trip to go. I'm leaving bright and early tomorrow moring, and I'm going to try to use up all the daylight I can. Really and truly not looking forward to the drive itself. It's a pain in the neck to drive 12 hours, all alone.

But what's waiting at the end will be worth it. I get to see Sara, which is good. I'm also thinking about stopping in Philedelphia to see my sister, who's at school at St. Joseph's.

The last term starts Monday - seminar on Reconstruction, with Dr. Merchant, my favorite prof. He's pretty funny.

Anyway, I'm planning on being up early tomorrow, so I'll wrap this up.

Rogue Leader out.