Across the sky I reach for you

So far I've only attended one class.  Due to the scheduling faeries I have a 4 hour break in between my English Comp 101 class and my Computerz 4 dummies, I mean Computer Applications which means that I'll end up ferrying around my laptop so I can actually do stuff  while waiting. 

English looks like it'll be fine, there will be 4 essays turned in over the quarter, learning to give and take critical review of said essays and other fun stuff.  My big issue so far? Someone in the class is using or wearing a body product that makes me sneeze and my eyes itch.  I cannot actually smell it but I have all the reactions of it being present.  Joy oh joy for I am allergic to these things and they make my life a fucking misery.

Trapped in a plane with 200+ other people that don't understand fragrance allergies is shear hell; classrooms are not much better.

Also, I have a question for you fine folks out there... how do you define friendship?  I have a friend that I have known for nearly 30 years.  He has certain interpersonal ticks that make me twitch, but he is still a friend, or at least I call him one despite knowing that I cannot spend any amount of time in their presence without wanting to smack them some.  And on the internet, such as Facebook or blog sites?  I end up hiding them for periods of time so that they don't annoy me.  Are they really my friend?  Is my dislike of their ticks and quirks a friendship killer or is it that friendship means something entirely different?  Is the old bumpersticker adage right; friends help friends move, real friends help friends move bodies?  I am actually kind of serious about this.  Should I still consider them a friend when they annoy me so much or do I instead call them an acquaintance?

The reason I bring this up is that there is a person in my English class that could be a clone of the friend I am talking about.  Similar features, ways of talking, personality quirks.... I am just wondering if I am going to be able to survive being in the same classroom with this person without melting down.

The computer class I think I will hate as I'll be bored to tears.  Perhaps I can take in a flashdrive and write while twiddling my thumbs?  I would have skipped taking it at all except it is required for my degree.  Really.  

I know that there are lots of folks out there that cannot figure out how to use Word, PowerPoint and Excel, but I am not one of them people!  Sigh.

I leave you with this bit of poetry excerpted from The Garden of Proserpine by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1866)

...

Pale, beyond porch and portal,
Crowned with calm leaves, she stands
Who gathers all things mortal
With cold immortal hands;
Her languid lips are sweeter
Than love's who fears to greet her
To men that mix and meet her
From many times and lands.

She waits for each and other,
She waits for all men born;
Forgets the earth her mother,
The life of fruits and corn;
And spring and seed and swallow
Take wing for her and follow
Where summer song rings hollow
And flowers are put to scorn.

...