In the Middle of the Night

I hate it when you wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep.

Supposedly, I'm supposed to dream up a "discussion question" regarding what I've read of Beowulf for my class tomorrow. Except, I'm not impressed with the poem. But this is what I've come up with:

What is the significance of Grendel attacking Heorot?
"The great hall was the community meeting place in Norse culture. In attacking the hall, Grendel attacks Nordic civilization."

Now, if you're in my class, don't steal this and turn it in for yourself. I'll find out who you are, hunt you down and introduce you to my boots. They're hungry for some action.

Maybe I've got the wanderlust or something, because I never seem happy staying in one place for too long. The idea of being at Tech for another whole year of school is just so depressing and demoralizing. I just feel like I've been in Butte too long, that the students are too predictible, and some of the retardedness that goes on is utterly uninteresting and a waste of my time. If I didn't know that something was going to be retarded, I have the opportunity to be disappointed. But now that I know things will be stupid in advance I feel like there's no point in actually going.

For example, today I went to this Veteran's benefits meeting, because I'm leeching off of my Dad's educational VA benefits, and I got a letter in the mail saying I had to go. I went to this last year, and couldn't imagine what they could dream up this year that was so important as to call a "mandatory meeting". And they fed us at this "barbeque", which was really the SUB's attempt at Cajun cooking. Seafood from Montana Tech Food Service is usually bad to begin with, but catered seafood from Montana Tech was. . .interesting. They had oysters on the half-shell, which I was impressed with, even though I felt sick to the stomach after eating them. And I have a feeling that the gumbo they served isn't like the gumbo that you would get in New Orleans.

I did see several people I know at the "barbeque", and mentioned to my favorite professor that the Veteran's meeting was going to be a disappointing waste of my time. And Prof. Handley said, "As you get older, people tend to come up with new things to drain your time" (or something like that), which I felt was true. I also ran into one of the counselors at Tech, who I've gotten to know in passing over the years. And he asked me how I was, and how I was doing. When I said, "I'm doing OK", he sat down and talked with me for a few minutes, and invited me to stop by his office. Maybe he's just doing his job, but it's rare that someone asks you how you're doing and really care about the answer.