It’s nearing finals week, which of course means that I spent most of the weekend the hell away from campus. Currently, campus smells of dispair and freshmen who are freaked out since they didn’t do any of the course readings. Given that the only final exam that I have is during the very last slot, a week away, this is not anything that I need. So instead I experimented with having friends and hobbies and a social life again, which was exciting.

Friday morning involved some unusual (for me) on campus time. One of my final research projects for the semester involves measuring tiny pieces of rock to learn about cognitive evolution, so I spent most of the morning in an on-campus computer lab, using very expensive software to make very accurate calculations of just how statistically insignificant my sad little undergraduate rock measures are. These are things that I am fairly certain are significant, so I got to have the always-fun experience of writing a paper conclusion that basically boiled down to, “next time, maybe don’t have undergraduates do this.” The glamour of science!

Friday night was an improvement, and involved volunteering at Dad’s Garage, the local improv theater. Though it was awkward (walking into a volunteer event alone is a little like being the new kid at school), the volunteers that willingly spend their time stuffing envelopes for a theater company that puts on a Friday night improv wrestling show are–generally speaking–good folks. Plus, there was free pizza and beer. And those fudge covered oreos that I think are seasonal because if they weren’t everyone would eat them and die. There are worse ways to spend an evening.

Saturday was luxuriously off-campus. I took advantage of this to go on an outing with a Potential Gentleman Caller, where I of course ran into five of my former residents and a current coworker because this is my life. The evening ended with a Christmas party where I moved about with the other introverts and made enthusiastic hand gestures about British television, and ate a great deal of phenomenal finger foods. I am not (generally speaking) a party person, but it was a nice event.

It was also a terrifying reminder that college is nearly over, but I pushed that feeling down because there was more egg nog to be drunk.

Sunday involved on-campus employment, which meant that I spent most of the day smelling faintly of Windex. (Fun fact: I have a skin rash on my hand that I am like 90% certain is related to the amount of Windex that is constantly soaking my person. So hot.) The evening was much improved by an impromptu dinner with sorority sisters, where I got a nice confirmation that I am not the only person who’s really into Wet ‘n Wild’s 99 cent nail polish (and who has constantly chipping nails as a result). So, you know, chanting of “one of us” and all that.

Post-dinner, I grabbed a drink with another Potential Gentleman Caller (I had a very active social life this weekend, for someone who’s fundamentally baffled by other people*), where I chatted with great enthusiasm about Marcel Mauss and Doctor Who, because as has been established before, I make weird date conversation. But, y’know, sometimes (always) I have Feelings about anthropology’s delightful history of constant apology. Even if the conversation had been terrible, I would have been pleased by the dark oatmeal stout (brewed on site!) that I was drinking.

On a related note, I drink like an old English fisherman.

I have two more classes before the semester is over. There is some dreamy part of me that thinks this will result in a life without anxiety and with the opportunity for following my weirdo bliss. Actual person me realizes that this will mean a week of straight-up napping, followed by a whirlwind tour of northwest Arkansas and Boston (she said, for the first time in history), ending with a panicked attempt to start work on my thesis which is due in April, oh god.

But there will probably be egg nog in the middle! So there is that.

* OKCupid, mofos.