Here I am, sitting in the new no-classes computer lab at a computer with a ridiculously huge screen and today I have just been thinking a lot about how I just belong here. I belong here at ESF. I was meant to be here and I am and when I can slow myself down enough to take a deep breath and push the stress away for just a moment, I'm ridiculously thankful for everything I have here. RIDICULOUSLY.

Hahahaha someone just sneezed funny. I have always loved sneezes.

I'm sure a big part of the reason that I have been thinking about how I belong here is that I went from my differential equations class at SU - which is a good class and taught well but just sort of impersonal and foreign because it's pretty much completely engineers of various types and then me, a random chemistry major - to my lab, to drop off my bag, and then up one more floor to see our very own the-man-himself.

Excuse me, I mean The-Man-Himself. The capitalization is, I think, pretty necessary.

So I slipped into his office and I asked him if there was any way I could have my old exam back, the first exam of the Spring 2008 semester and he looked at me, smiling knowingly, and informed me that he really had no idea where it was (which is understandable because he has exams dating back to '98 in that office). And then we talked. And talked and talked and talked. For an hour and a half we talked and it ran the gamut from how he began teaching organic and why he teaches it the way he does to how the preliminary qualifier is written and organized and when it's given to why the Heck reaction is a big deal but there is no Caluwe reaction (we devolved into inorganic, not that that's exactly a devolution, so to speak) to how I am organic-chemistry-brainwashed...

Basically, the man is the bomb. He's fascinating and he's sharp and he tells good stories and the fact that his accent is awesome doesn't hurt. Also he does not wear glasses anymore because he has had laser eye surgery, I believe, and it becomes less and less jarring every time I see him. After all, his eyes are still blue. Gotta love the man.

I have too many exams this week. I'm pretty tired, too, but I'll make it. I just have to budget my time... which I am unfortunately clearly not doing right now by blogging, but I think that even - and maybe especially - when things are crazy it's important to take a breather every once in a while. Plus I'm finally not house-sitting anymore tonight so I can sleep in my own bed in my own house with my own Schubaby.