A girl in my Chaucer class has whooping cough.

She’s not contagious.

I’m going to be spending all night Monday at Cook Library studying for my midterms on Tuesday. I think it is a little odd that I’m more worried about my Roots of Rock & Roll mid than I am for the Chaucer midterm.

I don’t much like Cook Library, although it is a lot prettier than it was the last time I was here. The doors don’t weigh ten million pounds, the interior has been repainted and recarpeted. It is a very pretty interior now, even a Starbucks!, but I prefer the student lounges in the 7800 York Road building. After Chaucer lets out, and before CompSci, I spend a good five hours or so camped out here — where I am now — because it is comfortable, and quiet (except between class-change). Plus, there are electrical sockets in the floor for ease of laptop & charger use. (No sooner do I write this, than two dorky computer profs sit down across from me and start yapping … loudly).

In other midterm news, guess who scored a B- on his Folklore mid? I’m disappointed — I was expecting an A, but I see where I made my mistakes, and I now know what Dr. D is looking for on his final. I’m not worried about this class - at all - I’ve gotten A’s on the quiz and previous assignments, and we’ve got a paper coming up in November that I’m sure I’ll kick ass on. I’m a frequent participant in class — I think he’s going to give a quiz on The Arabian Nights Thursday to see who has and hasn’t been keeping up with it — and I’ve only missed one class (and I skipped so I could study for it).

There’s a dude in my Chaucer class who I’m pretty sure doesn’t pay attention. He flips open his laptop and studies intensely — or studies it intensely. I suppose he could be following along with an online Chaucer text — good idea, that book weighs more alone than my laptop, notebooks, and other texts combined — but the point is that he has political bumperstickers on his laptop. I don’t particularly care for the candidate he does, but I can’t help think about those doofuses who stick political bumperstickers on their cars, and years later, you can still point at them and chuckle, “Dukakis! Hah, what were they doing?” I mean, on cars, you can just scrape off bumperstickers if you really feel so inclined, but how do you get bumperstickers off a laptop?

I say this, but I’ve got a Thundercats decal on my laptop, as well as a sticker featuring an outline of the continental U.S. and the notation: “LAND OF THE FREE: Some restrictions apply. Void where prohibited.”

I’m watching part of “Thanks For Smoking” before meeting eXtraHeavyMarcellus for beer at five. Best line? “Brad, I’m his father. You’re the guy fucking his mom.”

Apparently, someone is stealing blinds from classrooms in Linthicum Hall.

You heard it here first.