It's that Time of Year

Time to pull all-nighters, down energy drinks and coffee galore, cram heads with dates, disappear into the basement of the library to write five papers. Final exam time. And you thought I was talking about Christmas!

Yes, the semester is winding down. Students will be finished with exams next Thursday. I feel somewhat nostalgic as I remember my own semesters of frantic paper-writing and studying. Now, I'm just an observer of this mad, end-of-the-semester whirwind. And I have become the tried and true study break. Students have to eat. And we already established they are drinking tons of coffee, so why not drink it with me?

A few days ago, we had our RUF Christmas Party. We met on campus in the lobby of the Admissions office. It was already decorated for Christmas and even has one of those nifty fireplaces that turns on with a button. Kind of cheating, but very cool nonetheless.




We had a tacky sweater competition, dessert-making contest and Dirty Santa gift exchange. It never ceases to amaze me how much students love to dress up. And I think the guys actually outdid the girls in creativity (one guy stuck tic-tacs and thumb tacs on a maroon sweater... get-it, a "tacky" sweater) and tackiness (seriously, knee-high red and green plaid socks, slicked-back hair, crazy hats, glittery old lady sweaters... the guys went all out).





But the girls took the cake in the dessert contest. No pun intended. Props to freshmen who won the prize making dirt cake in the shape of a Christmas tree. And they did it all in a tiny dorm kitchen.




Dirty Santa is always an adventure. Quite a bit of stealing went on for the Juno DVD and the infamous RUF Uno Stacko game that surfaced for the second year in a row. A rollicking good time!