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I slept outside last night. Which totally would have been a good thing, except for the fact that I slept through my alarm and, subsequently, my first class and an hour of work. Sheesh.

That’s been something of a theme the last few days (or last 20 years, depending on how you look at it), actually– not sleeping through class or work, but just sleeping. A lot. In general.

For example: I took three naps yesterday (or four, or five, depending on how you count). Like last night. I was going to clean some computers in the SUB, but since it was still relatively early (like 8:00PM) and many of the computers were still in use, I decided I’d just hang out, do some reading, and wait for about an hour. While reading in Leigh Lounge, I suddenly began to feel sleepy, and resolved on a 15 minute nap. Sadly, when I woke, it was to the announcement that it was 11:30 and the SUB was being closed for the evening.

Or the night before that. It’s like 9:00, and I’m doing homework in the longroom when, all of the sudden… I can’t keep my eyes open. So I’m like “15 minute power nap!” I grab a pillow and a nice spot on the floor… and wake up at 3:00am. Nothing’s changed, really– there are still people doing homework (Andrew was still working on the same project), but … What-ev. So, I got up, did math homework for a couple hours, then home and slept in my bed for another two hours.

I think, though, that my body is just going through caffeine withdrawal. Instead of ingesting caffeine, I’ve just been giving in to my natural impulses to sleep. Eventually, I trust, I’ll get over this period of withdrawal, and I will, once again, be able to stay away for more than five hours in succession. In the mean time, though, life’s interesting. =)

Patrick and I climbed Hylight Peak this morning (and in to the afternoon), which, of course, was fantabuloustacular.

Now I need a shower. But in the meantime, here’s some photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/markegge/20060930HylightPeak

Enjoy. =)

Hope tells me, “do something 14 times and you’ll make it a habit.” So, I’m making habits. Like doing my math homework. Yeah, Mrs. Kassel, you get the last laugh on that one. I’m not saying I’d take back all the naps I took in your class(I mean, how do you take back a nap you took?), but you’d better believe I’m paying for them now. What goes around comes around, I guess. But basically: if I had paid attention in high school, I might understand a few of the key underlying concepts that I’m scrambling to hard to grasp now. Like … trigonometry. And logarithms. Simple things, really, but I look back at high school with a certain horror, realizing how little I managed to learn. At least I can count. I mean, if I couldn’t count at all, I’d be really in a world of hurt. Seven … eight … eight … oh, my.. GORDON…!

(aside: I’d say that “I’m making it through, by the grace of God,” but that’s not true. If I’m making it through, rather, it’s only by the grace of Gordon. If Gordon wasn’t around to answer all my stupid questions (which I have repeatedly prooved DO exist (even if I don’t know how to make a proof)), I don’t know where I’d be. But it wouldn’t be in calc 181, that’s for darn sure.)

So I’m making habits. Like getting up in the morning. I finally found an alarm set-up that works: I have two. The first is the “primer” alarm. It sits on the window frame, within easy reach of my lofted bed, and goes off some 10 minutes before the “real” alarm. And the “real” alarm? Well, that’s under my loft. Better yet, my roommate is a late sleeper, so when my “real” alarm goes off (and goodness, it’s loud!) I always feel the obligation not only to shut off my alarm, but to shut it off as quickly as possible. And once I’ve climbed down my ladder off my loft (which is tricky, even while wide awake), there’s no going back.

Consequently, I have yet to sleep through anything this year. And for me, that’s a big deal.

I kinda just want to chill out and listen to the Beatles, yeah? Well, maybe it’s just that I’ve got “Ticket to Ride” stuck in my head. But wouldn’t that be the way to spend the afternoon? Just to put on “One” and piss the afternoon away…

I’ll pick up my guitar, too. There’s one song on the album– I don’t remember which– that I want to learn. I rediscovered my guitar the other day, actually. I played a lot. The next morning, when I washed my hair in the shower, the tips of my fingers hurt as I massaged my scalp. I don’t really “massage” my scalp, as such, but what else do you call it when you use your fingers to dig in and make sure you scalp gets really clean?

My new favorite place on campus: Leigh Lounge. I’ve had several scrumptious naps there this semester already. Scrumptious is typically a culinary adjective, but believe me: these naps (today’s especially) were scruptious. The sort of nap that, if it were a cheesecake, I’d eat a slice every afternoon. Not frozen, but firm. A smooth, delicious texture, with the occassional nut or chocolate chip. Ya know?

We haven’t seen the sun for some days, here in Bozeman. I heard someone say that they read somewhere that Bozeman has the worst air quality in the nation right now, according to EPA measures. The fires blazing in Paradise Valley are still raging. Out of control. So it looks like it’s foggy and overcast, but it’s really just smoke. I look outside and it’s gloomy and grey, but there’s not a cloud in the sky.

At night, beneath the light-posts, you can see particles floating down, in their tee-pee shaped cones of light– it’s like watching snow fall, except this snow isn’t cold or wet…

The smoke does funny things, too.

Like yesterday. As I wandered, looking for my car, I noticed something curious in the sky. The sun, blood orange through the smoke, was a perfect half-circle– but the BOTTOM half rather than the top. Imagine a beach and the sun, sunk half-way below the ocean horizon.the sun, setting over the ocean– a perfect half circle. But now take that half-circle sun, turn it a hundred and eighty degrees, and hang it, red, midway in the western sky. Like an absurd shape, hung in the sky, in a play-world or Hollywood fiction. For perhaps a fleeting moment my mind entertained the idea that it actually was, and wondered what is that, unable to accept the reality that what I saw was the sun.

Gradually, as I watched, whatever it was that obscured the sun (could smoke obscure it so thoroughly? there was only a razor line between half-sun and dull-grey cloud) shifted away and, like the lifting of a stage curtain, slowly the entire sun was revealed.

Oh, I think I fail to convey to you, chere reader, the scene or even an accurate description. But I’ve preserved it for myself– certainly, we know even the most scarring of impressions fade with time.

It’s a strange world, being smoke filled. It often feels more like a Mordor sceen from Lord of the Rings than anything else I could liken it to.

Already I gain a certain presentiment that this semesester I may frequently be presented with the choice between maintaining a social life and maintaining a high GPA. As the clock ticks towards 4:00am, I realize that I’ve manged my time reasonably well today– it’s only for a lack of time in general that I’m deprived to sleep. I’ll take a two hour nap, then it’s off to the races again, so to speak.

(Spectacular) photos from this weekend’s hiking adventure can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/markegge/20060904TempestPeak