T-Minus 2, ctd.

This morning at 11:00am, I finished my master's degree. My essay, all forty-four pages of it, is currently sitting on a living room chair awaiting submission--which, all being well, will take place between 9:30-10am tomorrow. At some point, I'm going to try and put into words just what this means to me--or how it feels, rather. A couple months ago I wrote an entry about post-assignment guilt, that strange sensation you get once you've finished with a major assignment yet haven't had time to make the necessary mental adjustments. Right now, for instance, I feel incredibly guilty for sitting here and not working on my essay; it's going to take a while to get used to the fact that I no longer need to write it.

So. This time tomorrow, I'll be in Thunder Bay--most likely Chez Heppler, watching Randy Moss make his Oakland Raiders debut against the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. This time on Friday, meanwhile, I'll be at the Fort William Gardens seeing Pearl Jam. Again, I have no idea if I'll ever be able to articulate just what this concert will mean to me. I've tried a bunch of times, yet don't feel as though I've succeeded in conveying anything beyond sheer excitement. In the end, maybe it's best that I can't explain it; maybe if I could, it would cheapen the experience. Regardless, in two nights I'll be in the midst of the most surreal concertgoing experience of my life, bar none. Seeing the Tragically Hip play "Grace, Too" in a Toronto club? In a Minneapolis zoo? Hearing "Jungleland" live? Having Wide Mouth Mason dedicate "The Game" to me? Nothing will ever compare.

Tomorrow, this blog will get underway with my first pregame...and yes, in case you're wondering, I intend to write pregame analysis for each of the seven shows I'm seeing. Full-frontal nerdity, that...which is exactly what you'd expect from a blog of mine, isn't it?