My Final Undergraduate Semester

First impressions:

• In the first week, I have been more motivated than in any other collegiate semester. I have become addicted to homework. Funny, that. They usually say "senioritis" kicks in by now and there is a tendency to want to slack off. Perhaps, it's because I know I need to achieve better study habits in preparation for law school. Personally, I attribute this to being married. The fact that Amanda is commuting to two days per week to Loyola puts enormous time constraints on her, and derivatively, me. Therefore, though this may be a surprising confession to some, being married while in school is not only do-able, but also efficient, if both people are likeminded.
• The prior statement should be viewed in light of the fact that it is only the first week of class. Ah yes, I thought my contact lenses were especially rose-tinted this morning.
• Income Tax Accounting: I thought I would hate it. No, I thought I would loathe it. Once I started reading the book, my dismay was gone. It's great stuff. To clarify: so far, there has been an emphasis on the tax law: its sources (judicial, executory, legislative), its development, its rationale, etc. We're about to start memorizing forms and the fact that Line 37 is always adjusted gross income, and such. That might not be so pleasant. But learning about the logic for deductions, exemptions, etc., is definitely not a bad thing.
• Auditing: Just your ole' fashioned external financial statement audits for public corporations. Did I mention I'm enjoying the readings more than the classes? The book is pretty down-to-earth on what is honestly black-and-white anyway it's colored. Oh well, it can't be much worse than Internal Audit. And then...
• Strategic Management: What? Some class that everyone graduating from the business college has to take the semester prior to graduation. And no one seems to know what it really is, yet. Something about long-range planning. Competitive advantage, business landscape, Jimi Hendrix, stuff like that.
• The Roman Republic: History minor's in the bag!...after this course. Rome's pretty off-the-heezy-fo'-sheezy-ma-neezy, but it's hard to judge if there will be a correlation between this neezy-ness and the class. There is an average of about 100 pages per week, in reading. So far it's rather boring reading. But at least it's not accounting. (Did I mention I'm an accounting major?) (P.S.S.S. I never researched the shizzle-dizzle language used earlier. If anyone comes up with something definitively denotative, please have a dialogue with me.)
• ISDS, yeah. I love working here. Yeah. That's all. ........Yeeeeeah.
  What??!
• William Jay's Evening Exercises. Not calisthenics. It's a devotional Amanda and I received as a wedding present. I had ignored it till now. Picking it up, I have to honestly say, I have been blessed beyond measure. Reverend Jay knows how to take one verse and milk it for all it's worth. There are several trials that God has allowed Amanda and I to experience together recently, but we know that, as Jay mentions, God makes us fruitful in the land of our suffering. Anyway, Jay is a contemporary of Spurgeon, and from the tenacity of his writing, I have to conclude this man walked in the shadow of the Almighty.
• The 459 Commons is the new dining hall. I like it. The lighting, the carpet, booth seating, the pleasant cooks, etc. It's just very high-trafficked.
• My hands like the way they smell: Irish Spring soap.
• Oh yeeees. My honors thesis on How Leveraged Buyouts Affect Managerial Behavior. Do you beg my pardon? You have it. As John Barreca says, "I KNOW it's gonna be God" [that enables the completion of the thesis]. (He's writing one, two. That is to say, he's writing one, too.)

Cheers.