The Ides of October

Apparently Massachusetts is getting snow today, as evidenced by the football game I'm watching live from Foxborough. Today. October 18. Not even Halloween. Barely past Columbus Day. Ouch, folks. Does anyone question why I'm in North Carolina now?

Sure, it's cold here in Raleigh today, too--in fact, when I went out this morning to shop for miscellaneous household creature comforts at 10ish, it smelled a little snowy here, too. But the cold we're talking is, like, 50's. Sweatshirt weather. Slow-setting intermittant wipers weather. Reading the Sunday paper indoors weather. Not taking the TV out to the stoop to watch football weather.

Man, the Titans are really blowing. Sorry, Tennessee.

I'm amidst my inter-exam period, which means no need to do anything this weekend (aside from laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, cat feeding, bill paying, cat pee deorderizing, etc., etc.). The next exam is Schematic Design, which is entirely drawing-based, meaning there really isn't "material" to "study." So perhaps I can get through the holidays with a minimal amount of exam study time suck.

To fill in that gap of otherwise enjoyable free time, I will be preparing a presentation on Raleigh planning for my professional colleagues, Christmas shopping (no idea where Christmas will be yet...), and outfitting my apartment one item at a time (I bought a plant today!). And keeping the volleyball torch going as long as possible...

Autumn commences

The seasonal shift from summer to autumn here in North Carolina is pretty abrupt, though by no means unpleasant. Heading into Labor Day weekend, it was consistently 90+ for highs with high humidity... reflective windshield screens were a necessity if you wanted to leave work without spending fifteen minutes blasting the AC before you could touch the steering wheel. Coming out of Labor Day, the temperatures dropped a full notch on the belt... warm, but certainly more pleasant, and noticeably more comfortable. Just last week, in time for the official end of summer, we dropped another full belt hole and now it's definitely feeling fallish--cool mornings, cold sand on the volleyball court, more leafy debris on my windshield, more desperate-acting bugs... I opened my front door to leave for work earlier this week and who should greet me on my front mat but a lone camel cricket looking for a fight! I kicked him away before he could sproing into my apartment--these cold blooded (or non blooded?) animals don't have much fight in them when it's 55 degrees out!

Eight weeks after my last exam, I finally got my results back--PASS. So, what could have been an enduring legacy of the mild social revolution of the summer turned out to have no grip; no failed exam, no permanently deformed finger... just memories that will stay as long as memories do. Oh, and an obscene credit card statement.

Next exam--number four of seven--is a week from tomorrow, and this one promises to be a corker. The subject matter is both broad and deep, and there are three--three!--graphic exercises, each of about an hour, and considered some of the hardest throughout all the exams. So if I'm bound to fail something, this will be the one. If I pass... I'm due to be a registered, licensed architect by next May. I mean, assuming I pass the other three exams that follow.

Volleyball and vball-associated friendships have been going well. First Friday a couple days ago, Korean BBQ yesterday, and an exceptionally pleasant night of doing nothing but drinking wine and watching Netflix alone last night. Best of all worlds. Now study, clean, study, TV, study, nap, study....