One down...

I handed in the 33 1/2 page behemoth today. That may be officially the longest paper I have ever written-I kinda hope that if I write like that again it won't be for a crunch-deadline. Two more, gotta get 'em done!

Edited to add:

This is not the result of dieting for a role. She looks like I do right now, other than that whole fact that I weigh at least twice as mu....wait, Super Thin Man weighs twice as much as this, what was I thinking???!!

I think she is secretly in her last semester of grad school.

In which....

I think it's finished. But it's 4:32 am EST, and I may be hallucinating.

There's still two papers to go: Why Everybody Hated Poland in the 17th Cantury, and How Jewish Family Life Changed in the 19th Century. These aren't really related in any way....though if you went all Six Degrees on them they could be.

But the How Wine Culture In Russia is even More Backward Now than it Was in the 17th Century and Gee Isn't it Interesting How the Russian Oligarchs get Treated Just Like the Nobles Used To paper is finished. I think. I'm still somewhat doubtful.

Make that 4:35 am EST

Capstone

Just for the record, when I finish this damn paper, I'm going to find a way to post it on this website--all 35 damn pages of it--so all of you can see why I've suddenly turned into something approaching a cross between Bridezilla and the most passive-aggressive person you've ever met. It's not you, it's not wedding planning, I don't have cold feet, and I am actually really unhappy to have to keep telling you all to leave me alone at such a crucial period in the planning process.

I'm Sorry.

But it's not going to get a great deal better until this weekend.

Tuesday Night BBQ

This Tuesday our department had the first of its end-of-year events. Unfortunately these are always on weeknights. This event is the annual end-of-year barbeque. Last year it was held at Old Glory, but since the Alumni House at 35th and O St. is finally reopened they decided to hold it in the new courtyard. I must admit-they did a good job with that place. It had been condemned in my sophomore year of college and sat there for several years before it was gutted and rebuilt.

In any case, they had the event catered and hired a bartender. This guy was crazy-he kept mixing up this rum punch that took the whole 'punch' idea a little too literally (as in 'punch in the jaw'), but you couldn't tell when you were drinking it. Over the course of the five hours we spent at the Alumni House I consumed three glasses of this and ate a fair amount of BBQ. We went to someone's house to continue the party-and I zonked out on the sofa within half an hour. Super Thin Man, deciding to take advantage of the situation, let me sleep for two more hours before he took me home. I think the stuff must have been about 50% rum. I had work the next day. Let's put it this way: although I had theoretically not imbibed a huge number of drinks, I was still rather less productive than usual yesterday morning at work.

The thing that I'm wondering is how other people did the next day. There were several people drinking that stuff like water.

Gaw. Note to self: if you meet a bartender who is making his own mixture of rum punch, and if he spends a significant amount of his time in Jamaica, and if you have work the next day, be warned.

And now I've said way too much.

So, In Conclusion...

I have been preparing and writing my Capstone paper all this semester. I actually began preliminary research before the end of the fall semester. For anyone who knows me this is an amazing feat of non-procrastination (not that I didn't procrastinate!). I have my paper presentation in my department today at 11am.

So, what have I learned from months of reading and research?

-Wine was always freakin' expensive, and unless you lived in Italy or France, it was reserved for the super-wealthy
-There have always been wine snobs
-Russia doesn't really have any wine-growing regions, since in winter it gets FREAKIN' FREEZING. Ahem.
-Putin and the Romanov Dynasty have more in common than people want to admit: namely that he is a strong ruler who keeps a tight hold on the elite (formerly nobles, currently oligarchs) and who has serious isolationist tendencies. This is related to the wine commentary, I swear!
-There will always BE wine snobs
-Where a decent bottle of wine may cost $50 here, it can cost $100 or more in Moscow. Damn that oil wealth.

Wow. All that reading summed up in six points.