Fate Sucks

After reviewing some of my requirements to finish my Masters and get on with my PhD, I've realized that I have a bit of shoring up to do in the language department. I have to have the equivalent of a "B" average in a fourth semester language in order to finish up my Masters. I had four semesters of Italian, but I'm 99.9% sure I didn't graduate with a B at the end of the fourth semester.

Hell, if I hadn't graduated that semester, I probably would've collapsed anyway. I was finishing up a simultaneous B.S. in Economics and a B.A. in English and I was working full time. And Dante was just then 5 years old. I passed with departmental honors in English, but I just coasted by in everything else. I didn't really care. It was done.

So now, I have to either take a couple of courses at the university here or take a translation test in Italian. I don't think I have the time or the will power to force myself to study Italian to the point where I could do well on the translation test. I just have too much to do. So I'm probably going to have to take the "hurry up" version of Spanish here at the university this summer.

Instead of going to Ireland.

Grrr. Something always gets in the way. Always. The last time I was out of the country was 2003 right after college. We went to Mexico. I was supposed to go to the Caribbean in 2005. Didn't happen. Now it looks like Ireland in 2007 won't happen either. Maybe the desire to get out of the country will spur my independent study of all those Italian verb tenses.

I've tried to get to Italy several times, but it just ain't happening. One year I was going to go on a study abroad type of thing. Then the car broke down, and the money for the trip evaporated. In fact, in 2003 we were supposed to go to Italy. Then the Euro took a 30% rise against the dollar and wiped out 1/3 of our trip money.

When I was bitching to an Italian over the phone (I used to work for immigration) about how I was continually denied the pleasure of going to Italy, he replied: "It is not your time. Fate is telling you this. When it is your time, you will go. And you will love it."

Fate can kiss my ass. I'm pissed.