A proper start to the school year

After the short two day nonsense of the official "first days of classes", school is now actually getting underway tomorrow.  So far I have had my Geochemistry, Chemistry, and Entomology classes.  Chemistry is business as usual (except I'm only at that lecture on Fridays) and I am glad we were spared from reading the syllabus again.  The Entomology class I am warily excited about because it seems like it won't be an intensive course by any means, but it will actually instruct me.  I think my main cause for pause is the professor's personality reminds me of the disappointing physics professor I had last semester.  I'll have to try to give him a fair shot and pay attention to separating the two instructors' merits.

As far a geology classes are concerned, I know most of the department (at least in some measure) and the subjects are deceptively familiar as well.  My Geochemistry text is bringing no end of anxiety to me lately, as my first attempt to order it online was aborted when the seller gave me a refund.  Needless to say I was pretty irate at that turn of events, and now I have to wait until the 23rd (according to the university bookstore) before I will have a text in hand.  I am very excited to see how my Geology of the Colorado Plateau class will turn out, and it comes highly endorsed (at least by Dr. M, Tristan, and Evan).  Optical Mineralogy however I am worried about for the eyestrain induced headaches to come.  As exciting as it will be to toy around with polarized light and thin-sections, I am worried the subtleties of rotating and reading into minute details of slivers of minerals may lose its novelty and simplicity fast.

In unrelated matters, I broke up with my girlfriend Donna today.  After nearly a year and three months together I felt like it was time to move on.  I think that she handled it well, but it doesn't feel very real to me yet.  I told her that neither of us seemed very happy with our relationship the past month, and that I felt like things were getting away from me in my life (which was my main fear).  I told her that I still cared about her and that we could be friends but not to expect much one-on-one time together until a long way off.  I feel like it was the right thing for me to do, but she still really seems to love me and I am not sure how I feel about that.  I'll have to wait and see how well she actually copes with it, and how our friends will grow to treat us now that we have broken up after most of our friendships consisting of mutual friends.

Shortly after the breakup conversation I went for a hike up Tortugas Mountain to try to refresh my mind and get everything together.  It was nice to hike alone, and the mountain was pretty vacant with the exception of a pair of runners and a few stray hikers coming down.  It was nice to have the peak to myself, and I took some pictures before my camera died to make a panorama (after the NMGS one I wanted to make another).  For once the cold wind felt more refreshing than cutting, and I think winter should be over soon both seasonally and for my mood...