How to avoid studying

Round one of year two's exams are getting ready to start so I've been trying to find ways to de-stress in preparation for them. I mainly do this by thinking about all of the things I'd rather be doing and all of the things I have to look forward to. This for me mainly includes different trips that Keegan and I are planning to take. And drinking a lot of chai tea...

We have a lot to look forward to in the coming year, and not just growing in our marriage together! We were initially planning to go up to the northeast between Christmas and New Year's to visit with some of his extended family, but I being the stealthy wife I am helped plan a surprise ski trip with Keegan's dad for him and Keegan right after New Year's. So that's part of Keegan's birthday and Christmas gift from his parents :-) Keegan will be going to Colorado in January! I've never been skiing but it looks like something I would like to try (but most likely be bad at).

For Easter we're planning to go back to Hilton Head with Keegan's family, at least for a few days. Easter I think overlaps with the younger kids' spring breaks, but I know Duke doesn't have any days off for Easter; I also don't know what my course schedule will be like, so maybe I won't have class on some days.

I'm hoping that sometime in May/June/July I'll be able to take that train trip with my grandparents, to see all of those beautiful places and also to spend some more quality time with them. But I'll need to talk over with Monty to figure out if it will be okay for me to be gone that long. I don't think he'll mind, but I want to make sure I'm at a good break point when I go and that I achieve enough before I leave to really enjoy the trip and not worry about what I could be doing in lab :-)

One of Keegan's good friends is getting married on June 19 in the Outer Banks, so we'll be going there too! And then we'll probably be going up north for the July 4th picnic with his dad's side of the family. Our plan was also to visit Newport, RI and then drive up the coast to Maine to visit with Keegan's cousin and her husband for our anniversary during this same time frame (since we'd already be in the area for the picnic), but we may not do that because I would feel really bad taking a two week trip then missing another half week of work so close together. We could always take that trip later in the year and they would be more spread out and less buggy (I hear Maine has a lot of bugs in the summer) but I'd also like to avoid the 6 feet of snow they get in the winter...

I'll probably be going to BMES next year, which I think is in Texas, so there's yet another place to go. And I've never been to Texas!

See, I really like to avoid studying by planning all the other things I could be doing... but I also can't look at these complex diagrams for more then 2.5 hours before I start to crack and my back hurts.

New NCIS tonight!!!! EEEEE! My goal is to know enough that I don't feel guilty watching it! Or that I feel less guilty watching it anyway :-) I didn't feel bad at all watching House last night because I was on campus from 7:30a.m. to 9p.m. and I got a lot done with studying. And then I think Grey's Anatomy starts Thursday (which has regrettably started to suck) and Desperate Housewives starts on Sunday. Ahh, premiere season!