I’m excited to announce that I could be sunbathing on a more secluded part of Waikiki, playing my guitar on our lanai and otherwise diving back in to island lifestyle in less than a week. Isn’t that incredible?  I’m extremely excited to return; I’d be there already if it weren’t for those silly little finals I have to take in the next four days.

I could blog about all the hours I’ve spent attempting to memorize 200+ years of Renaissance and Baroque art or slicing apart Post-Its to mark important passages for my open-book English final, but why would I want to relive my studying experiences? Instead, I’ll take a few moments to relax while relating some non-academic adventures that have taken place since classes ended.

Monday: Lasts & Lights 

Although this weekend was more than sufficiently packed with performances for me, I still had the Sage Chapel Christmas Vespers service on Monday evening. As usual, we sang to an incredibly full house (which included, much to my delight, several of my superiors from the museum). Somehow, I also managed to keep from burning the building down while processing in with my candle–score!

Our repertoire included a few pieces from the Rachmaninoff Всенощное бдение (All-Night Vigil), one of my favorite choral works and the major joint piece for next semester. Though I won’t be around to rach out with the Glee Club and Chorus–for personal and academic reasons, I’ve chosen to deactivate in the spring– I enjoyed having a chance to perform a few gorgeous Russian snippets in my beloved Sage.

Tuesday & Wednesday: Sixth-Floor Shenanigans 

Sometimes I’m overwhelmed by the number of museum activities in which I participate (in case you’ve forgotten, those would be my internship, the Student Docent Program and the Student Advisory Committee), but a pair of end-of-the-semester lunches (both in the very classy sixth-floor Lynch Conference Room) rewarded my efforts quite well. The intern party on Tuesday was catered by Manndible (one of Cornell’s tastiest (and priciest) on-campus eateries), so I enjoyed a hummus, seitan and tomato sandwich instead of hitting up a dining hall for my midday meal. Moe’s Mexican restaurant, on the other hand, provided the food for Wednesday’s docent luncheon, which was also a nice change of pace. Because both interns and docents receive holiday treats, my status as the only intern/docent meant I collected a sizable amount of Johnson paraphernalia, including two refrigerator magnets, museum-themed notecards and a massive bar of Cadbury chocolate.

That bar has remained untouched, however, because Chocolate Mania at Appel’s North Star Dining killed my cravings for a little while. Terrified that we might see a repeat of the disappointments of Cupcake Night, “Pippin” and I dashed to North Star right at 5, and were lucky enough to grab some gourmet goodies before they were all consumed.

Her collection, featuring a "peanut butter wing," a "drumstick" (a pretzel stick dipped in caramel and chocolate) and some kind of truffle.

I’d make a little sub-heading for Thursday as well, except my day mostly involved art history cramming. Well, and drinking a mango smoothie at Risdining. And worshipping the RisMas Tree (a gorgeous tall fir that magically appeared in the rotunda a few days ago). And trying out for Waiting for Godot and study-breaks consisting of chatting and reading bad fanfiction with Pippin and my boyfriend (who really should have a Fellowship-based codename, but I don’t think any of them fit him). And drafting an email that might lead to a summer internship at the Honolulu Academy of the Arts.

Oh yeah, and procrastinating by writing my biweekly blog post. Time to return to Rembrandt!