Welcome to Monday.
I wasn't sure how or if to mention it toward the end of last week, but my dad was in the hospital for a few days. They weren't really sure what was causing his symptoms until late Friday afternoon but now the whole thing is going a lot better. I'll spare the crazy details, but it turns out he has some sort of virus that goes after the spine. He's going to be just fine, this thing apparently clears up after a few weeks. The virus causes his legs and feet and sometimes up past his waist to be numb, tingly, feel "asleep," that sort of thing. They tested to make sure it isn't Multiple Sclerosis and it isn't, thank God. Anyway, my dad being who he is was already up and walking around the hospital with a cane, trying stairs on the sly, and did well enough that he won't have to have therapy. He got out of the hospital Friday night and walked a mile or something already on Saturday. He says it's hard to do that when his feet feel like big blocks of cement, but it's manageable. My mom and Stacey both say that he and I both share this sense of restlessness and not being able to stay sitting down for a while, chock full of nervous energy. Luckily he's used his to exercise quite a bit in the past few years and I hope to do the same soon.

Tonight's the big 20th Century English Lit. final. I already know a big part of the focus will be on TS Eliot's "The Waste Land," so at least I've gotten a bit of studying in. Be sure to check out the poem if you get a chance, but be prepared to read quite a bit of commentary and user notes in order to fully appreciate it and possibly understand it a little bit. I suggest reading it through without any help the first time or two, then going back and reading it with notes a while later. I still have one major paper to finish for Culture of the 60s, as well. I made sure to get my Astronomy final done way early last week even though it wasn't due until today. I just wanted to get it out of the way before the weekend. I haven't found out the grade for the final yet, obviously, but I've gotten barely enough points from everything else to at least pass...so the final will only add to that (hopefully) and maybe even propel me from a C to a B.