I got to hang out with the Joel Helms today. From 10 AM to noon I was a very happy man. I haven’t seen him since February at the Spring Conference. It was cool just to talk to him and find out what he’d been up to. He wanted to know everything I’d been doing, which is a rarity from anyone these days. Most people just want to tell people what they’re doing, not take the time to listen to see what’s up with everyone else. It seems his time in Costa Rica was productive. He knows Spanish much better than he did. His confidence is higher, which is the most important thing. He’ll only be here for about 3 1/2 more weeks, then his mission to Argentina begins. I’m really excited for him.
Today, other than my time with Joel, was really hectic. I’ve been trying to track down a projector for tomorrow night’s Nav Remix and it’s not going well. The university is no help. There’s just too much red tape to get one. Wesley doesn’t really want to have to give there’s up. Amanda is close to getting one, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Plus, the super fun Nav photo box is officially lost. I have no idea where it is or, more importantly, where any of the photos are that were inside of it. I mean, tomorrow night will still go on, but I’m just not sure if there will be a slide presentation.
So I’m in the Union studying with Elijah and Christy for about an hour and a half today and there must have been at least a dozen people who stopped and talked to me. At least. Elijah and Christy saw one person they knew, and they had to fight to get his attention. Now I’m not trying to brag. I’m just telling you this because this is not a normal thing to have happen to me. I have never been the socialite in any circle. For me to know more people than anyone in any context is rare indeed. I have to say it was a good ego boost. Oh, the studying? Yeah, I think I’ll do pretty good on my Critics final tomorrow. It’s only on two of the authors we’ve been reading (Nietzsche and Freud). I’ve got a 79.5 in there right now, so I basically need to get an 81 to pull a B-. If that’s what I ended up with I’d be happy. Obviously a straight up B would be nicer, but I’m not confident that I’m going to be able to pull that off.
So this afternoon I went to my last Buddhist Tradition class and my last Macroeconomics class. I got my take-home exam in Buddhist Tradition, which actually doesn’t look to hard. I think I’m pretty much locked into a B. Maybe I could get a B+ if I do really good on this exam but he’s a really tough grader. I’ve gotten 80% of both of my first two essays. Fortunately both the tests he’s given I’ve gotten A’s on. As for Macroeconomics, my professor actually was still�introducing new material for the exam. The review session is on Friday, but I don’t know if I’m going to go. My prof made us a deal at the beginning of the semester — if we got A’s on all of his tests before the final, the lowest grade we could get overall in the class would be an A-. That’s a pretty hot deal. I got a 100, a 92, and a 96. Hello guaranteed A-!
Tonight I’m going to study some more for my Critics exam and probably play a little Halo with the guys on the hall. We’ve been playing with some guys on the 7th floor recently who have been ripping us all a new one. Oh well, the only way to get better is to play people better than you are. Unfortunately that was already just about everyone before these guys joined us. 
