Since When?

Hi. It's been a while, hasn't it?

At this point I hope there's nothing swimming in my coffee mug that's been sitting on the floor since I left for soccer roughly six hours and twenty minutes ago. The coffee mug that takes all four cups from my coffee maker in one go with room to spare. It's the equivalent of heaven for this chick.

One assumption you could make as to my absence from my lovely blog - and my lovely blog reader, which keeps up me to date on what the rest of you happy people are doing - is that I've been busy with my last first semester of undergrad. Yeah, you read that right. I'm a senior. Believe me, it's still terrifying to me, and it's been a month since I've moved back to campus, and we're going to be starting week five already, which is another jaw-dropper. As a result there hasn't been much Murphy, and I apologize for that. However, trying to keep Murfee (my Focus) occupied and on task has been an uphill battle some days. Specifically the ones where I get out of lab and all I want to do is crawl into my dorm bed (which, if you haven't seen my Twitter, I BIG PUFFY HEART) and sleep for at least six hours. But I can't do that. It would be unproductive and one thing that I've managed to be is productive.

With some extra incentive, too.

I started playing soccer again.

The above statement gets it's own line because, for any of you that don't know, I had to stop playing soccer little over two years ago because of my health issues. I wasn't able to keep the fitness level required to be an official Heron, and it was a big step to realize that, and an even bigger step to realize that wasn't a path I could easily follow anymore. A path that was more hassle than it was worth, despite my love for the game. Two years later this feels like a second chance at doing what has been my first true love. I get to put my spandex on for a reason other than wearing it to bed, strap on some shin guards, and buy new goalkeeping gloves because my other ones have literally been shredded.

Soccer is keeping me sane. It's relaxing. Not as relaxing as knitting, which my dad brought my knitting needles to me today, so I'll spend some time unwinding with that before I go to bed. I have a second chance to do what I love.

And it's my senior year. There are a finite number of "tomorrows" for me.

Now, I could take another post to do one of my favorite "features" but that would take a little more time and, frankly, two posts directly after one another is a little odd. So, think of this as a shortened Things to Know. Kind of like an unexpected present.

- "Holy F--k that's a big spider!" (While in a car in the middle of campus)

- "Are you inebriated?" "No, I'm a chemistry major."

- I apparently can't communicate in written form to save my life. Or my lab report grade in analytical.

- To the professor that said students spend less than 10 hours per week on their work outside of class - I spend 10 1/2 hours a week in lab.

- I make a trip to Coldstone once a week. This seems to be an okay arrangement with my brain and my hips.

- I finally put up all my posters, cork-board, and Vera photo thingy last week.

- It's the beginning of week five, if you need a reference for the previous.

- I found my bedroom floor Wednesday, because I thought my mother was going to actually come in the house when she came up.

- It's five weeks in my senior year of college.

- Where the hell did the time go?

- I have a houseplant named Henry, and have named the majority of his babies after the subsequent English monarchs.

- Not one of the posters hanging on my walls is hung straight.

- My Focus is a slippery little bugger that likes to play on the train tracks out behind the house.

- Speaking of which, one of these days, when the damn train goes through, the hill and the house are going to slide into the freakin' lake.

- The prospect of graduating and going on to grad schools scares the shit out of me.

- While the previous is true, I think I'm ready for it.

- Why do men feel the need to sit with their hand in their pants? Or is this something only collegiate-age men do, because it's kind of awkward.

- My biochem partner for the first week fidgeted more than my niece when she has to potty.

- I carry on conversations with my houseplant like he should be answering me back. But you're supposed to talk to your plants, right? It helps them grow, right?

- I feel like I've been given a second chance at soccer, and I'm going to take it. Every minute of it.

- My mother and sister have been canning fiends lately. The result is that I have a jars of raspberry jam, applesauce, spaghetti sauce, and salsa currently in my possession.

- You'd have thought I was asking for the universe on a silver platter when I asked if I could have a jar of sauce.

- But yes, it's that damn good.

- I bought new colored pens from the bookstore on Friday and thought I'd died and gone to heaven during biochem.

- I have a love of office supplies.

- I finally hooked up the cable on Wednesday, just so I could watch Harry's Law.

- The fire marshal catches a glimpse of the tangled mess of wires that's everything on the one side of the room in a power strip, he'll probably have a heart attack.

- I could care less. Mostly because I'm a senior.

- And hell hath no fury like a Louise without her automated coffee pot.