I have but an hour until my first exam. While I can’t say that I’ve studied a lot for this exam, I can say that I am reasonably confident in my understanding of the material. Even still, I am getting nervous (as I do for all exams, regardless of my level of preparedness).

The first exam of the period is particularly nerve-wracking; it pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the exams. If I kill it, I increase my confidence and tend to do better on the remaining ones. And, of course, the opposite is true.

So, as I deal with the butterflies fluttering around in my stomach, I have elected to listen to a song that should get my mind ready. Yep, you guessed it — The Final Countdown by Europe. Now, I know the lyrics have very little to do with anything, but the song itself gets me in the zone; When I hear it, I know there’s going to be a performance! (See Arrested Development for details.)

Does anyone else have pre-exam rituals? I hear listening to Eye Of The Tiger is pretty good…

It’s exam time and I’m doing what I do best: not studying. I don’t know what I always fall prey to procrastination under these circumstances; it is awfully frustrating. In the words of Jack Bauer: “Dammit! [I am] running out of time!”

Part of the symptoms of TES was going to Burlington (i.e. Borington) to visit Erin’s new house (and new barbeque) yesterday. John, Erin, and I went to the Farmer’s Market to pick up three racks of beef ribs that we felt would be best prepared on Erin’s enormous grill. So we went there with grandiose plans for dinner: garden salad and a generous serving of mesquite-smoked ribs followed by apple raspberry pie.

The salad was standard fare, and talking about it won’t make me any friends. So, I’ll talk about the ribs instead. They were a tricky affair as they were very massive, and we were not accustomed to the size of the barbeque. We had a heck of a time getting the smoke going, and there were several times when we feared that the ribs were drying out. After five hours on the grill, we caved to our hunger. The ribs looked amazing (pictures coming soon).

It took all of one bite to realize that we had grossly underestimated the mass of the ribs; they were cooked to medium rare! All of us were boggled by this discovery, but it tasted too good and we were too hungry to really remedy the issue beyond making it disappear into our stomachs. For next time, and for anyone else making beef ribs, though, I offer this: cook at 300F for at least 5 hours. Holy!

Things are moving.. fast. I’ve been exchanging emails and MSNs with a friend who is also going to be working in New York and, the more I do it, the more excited I get. It’s going to be a life-changing experience and I really can’t wrap my head around it.

But it comes at a price. Immediately after my last exam, things will be set in motion to cover my bases before I leave. That means that I won’t have much in terms of a break, which is something I will sorely miss after this term.

There are so many things that I need to handle and, sometimes, I wonder if it’s worth all of the hassle. It doesn’t take long to convince myself (albeit temporarily) that it is, but it’s frustrating. Between the travel arrangements, the unloading of large items, the rushed moving, and the last goodbyes that I will have to make, I’m really get pressed.

Unloading my big stuff was a serious concern for me; there is no way that I could fit all of my stuff in the room back in Toronto. Thanks to some of my good friends, I am able to leave my fridge, dresser, guitar amp, and guitars in Waterloo. I don’t think that it’d take too much more convincing to pawn off my cooking wares and items for some four months, either.

Other than some miscellaneous items that I’ll drop off in Toronto, I think I can take the rest to New York. So that’ll be my clothes, toiletries, and electronics. I still haven’t decided if I should bring my desktop and laptop yet… I think I will because I wouldn’t want to do without all of the music I have on my desktop, but that could change.

What makes a lot of this possible is the fact that I will likely be driving down to New York. After taking a look at the price of flights and considering the option of flying out of Buffalo, it’s much less of a hassle to take a carload of my stuff with me. I’d operate on my schedule and can carry a good amount more compared to taking a plane. Besides, it’ll be a good road trip and I’ll snap lots of pictures 😉 Now if only I had some company…

Then, of course, are all of the things that I’ll need to address when I get there: opening a bank account, settling into the apartment, getting my bus pass, getting oriented in the city, buying food, paying rent, starting work. Oi. No wonder I’m still feeling awfully nervous.

I just have to keep reminding myself to take one step at a time. I can’t get all worked up about this because I still have six finals to write. They, as they should be, are my primary concern since I’m not about to throw away all of the hard work that I’ve put in this term. In sixteen days, that will be over. And then a new chapter of my life will begin.

Breathe, Justin. Breathe.