Final Count Down

Yes, the song Final Countdown is very much stuck in my head, which brings thoughts of the movie Team America.

I am a giant ball of stress at the moment, and I don't expect it to get much better over the weekend, though it certainly will wax and wane. Right now its waxing big time. The weird part is, a large portion of the stress is not even coming from the exams themselves (at least not the ones on Monday and Tuesday). Although those are certainly scary, I am sort of resigned to them. I am more stressed out by all the the bureaucratic nonsense I have to deal with in the next few weeks, and all while starting classes and still studying for the final parts of the exam.

Here is what my next few week looks like:
Monday Sept 15th- Written exam on comparative politics 8am - 5pm
Tuesday Sept 16th - Written exam on comparative methods 8am-12pm
Tuesday 16th until Sunday 21st
- Study for my minor exam (I haven't done much because I have been concentrating on the major exam, so I need to be concentrating on this)
- Get registered for classes (which involves several signatures and other nonsense)
- Drop OSU health insurance (more bureaucracy)
- Schedule Oral Exams (coordinating my schedule with 4 professors?)
- Apply to have my masters granted (assuming I pass)
- Meet with professor about all the things I didn't do this summer
- Meet with the professor I am working for this fall and find out what his demands are
- Turn in paperwork to work this Fall
- Pay Fees
Monday Sept. 22nd - Minor Exam (in a professor's office), 6 hrs (timing yet to be scheduled)
Tuesday Sept 23rd - Finish up anything I haven't done yet from the previous list.
Wednesday Sept 24th - Classes start, Deliver copies of my written exams to the committee that is doing my orals.

After that - Study and Prep for Orals, go to 15-18 hours of my own classes a week and 4 hours of that I am TAing, pick up football tickets (a hassle because it requires paperwork to prove I am married), get to the Doc (I am already over due), and start thinking about what I want to write my dissertation on. Then, sometime in Oct. (hopefully around Oct 8th), I will take my Oral exams and actually find out if I passed anything.

If I pass... onwards to that propspectus and dissertation.
If I fail... reassess what I have been doing for the last 2 years and what I really want to do for the next forty.

*sigh*

Yeah. I think the giant ball of stress thing is justified.