Break is nice, but I definitely can't wait to go back to school.

My last grade for the semester was finally posted. I ended up getting a 3.566, definitely my best semester since starting college. Weird considering all my health problems lately, haha. Oh well, I won't complain.

Salvation with a side of guilt...

So we just got back from the first of our twice-yearly church quota, and I don't think I have ever gotten as many dirty looks as when we walked into the 5 o'clock mass at 4:55.

I've gotten really lazy with this thing...

I hope everyone is having a nice holiday season so far. I've been out of classes for about 10 days now and have definitely been enjoying the time off. No studying, no papers, no hospitals (I'm currently in the middle of a 3 week break from chemo). Just a lot of sleeping, TV, and relaxing.

We drove Up North yesterday after a nice holiday brunch at the Nauer's house. It was great to see a bunch of old friends, some of whom I haven't seen since high school. It's crazy that most of us are about to graduate college and enter "the real world", and interestingly enough, it looks like a lot of us will probably be working in New York. It'll be interesting to see if we ever hang out or catch up.

Crazy. Make sure you watch at least until the halfway point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbkNxYaULBw

Sorry handball, you're just tennis for poor people. - Stephen Colbert

I can't say enough awesome things about the folks over at Atlantic Records. As many of you know, I spent this past summer living in New York City and interning there, and after they found about what's going on in my life through this blog, sent me a kickass care package with a ton of cool shit, including a really great card, about 30 CDs, some music DVDs, and other random cool stuff. I can't say thank you enough to Katie B. and everyone else over there. I hope to see you all soon.

Caitlin and I saw I am Legend last night, and I was really impressed. It was actually quite a bit spookier than I expected, but was great nonetheless. The ending definitely elevated it from a really good movie, to one of the best I've seen in awhile, and it's amazing how the filmmakers were able to add dialogue into a 1-character movie without making it seem corny or forced, but I think they did a good job humanizing the main (and pretty much only) character. I definitely recommend it.

Currently reading Dry by Augusten Burroughs. Great book so far. Running with Scissors is next, I think.

Good News

Today was definitely a good day. I had my 3rd round of chemo at the hospital and found out the results from the CT scan I had on Friday, which showed that my tumor has shrunken considerably, maybe even as much as 90%, which is fuckin awesome. I'm still scheduled to do 3 more rounds of chemo every 3 weeks, now that my weekly cycles of Rituxan are finished, and I'm feeling great and hopeful. The combination of Rituxan and Citoxin seem to be working really well, and even better is the fact that my side effects from said drugs are pretty much nonexistent, other than the fact that I've gained a couple pounds and am looking a little chubby from the steroids. It could be worse.

My awesome girlfriend also got me Guitar Hero III and Michigan hockey tickets for Christmas, both of which I'm super stoked about.

All that, coupled with the fact that my grades this semester were some of the best I've ever gotten (how that happened, I have no clue) makes me pretty psyched. Not a bad way to start my Christmas break. Off to celebrate...

I'm sorry I haven't been good about updating lately. These past few weeks have been super busy with the end of the semester and whatnot. I had tons of papers and exams, but now that it's all over and I'm on vacation for a couple weeks, I should have more time to myself and more time to update this thing. One thing I'm definitely looking forward to doing over Christmas is catching up on reading. There are way too many books on my "to read" list right now.

Just...wow.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22115291/

Roses and Robots

My facial hair has been growing at a very strange pace lately. It's almost in stasis, with chemo and high doses of prednisone counterbalancing each other. I haven't shaved in a week, but it's not nearly as dirty as it usually is or as I could expect it to be.

I bought new headphones about a month ago because my old ones were crapping out after being used every day for almost a year, and even though they rock and are super comfortable, they're almost too good. Now I notice the shitty quality of the stuff I buy from iTunes, as well as my older stuff that's somehow ripped onto my computer at a lower bitrate, which is super annoying. I've had plenty of pairs of "nice" earbuds before, but I've never felt like an audophile dork as much as now. The stuff that's ripped at 128 just sounds thin and crappy.

My 5th round of Rituxan was today, and it was super easy. It was my quickest one yet, and I slept for pretty much the whole time. Rock.

Still standing or standing still?

Starting an 8-10 page term paper the night before it's due probably isn't the smartest thing I've ever done. Oh well.

Belikos is the best live band in the world; you just don't know it yet. See them in concert if you can. You will be converted.

So I finally finished the paper for the internship that I had last summer. I've known about the 10-12 page paper since April and of course, decided to write it this week. Nice to have it over and done with.

Other than going to drop this off at the Comm Studies office, I've got a nice little Saturday planned: watching movies from Netflix and relaxing at home. Back to the books tomorrow.