Back at Ithaca

So after a long ride in the rain, I'm back at IC.  It feels good to be back, and my candy wreath is already quite popular.  So, good job on that one, Mom! 

It was such a great break that it's a bit tough to return back to the harsh realities of homework, papers, and exams. On the bright side, I have Christmas music, cookies, and friends to help me get through all that.  I'm only here for about three weeks, and then somehow I'll make my way back to D.C. 

My Christmas wish is that I could go to college... without classes.  

That would be SWELL.

Oh, and an interesting note. I will be here for about 19 days until I leave again. According to the weather forecast, it is extremely unlikely that I will see ANY sunlight for that entire span of time.

Yay.

It's Saturday Already?!

I haven't been posting during break, mainly because I directed most of my energy towards eating and being as relaxed as possible.  

I think I succeeded to a huge extent this week. I ate absurd amounts, lounged in front of the fire, and reunited with friends.  Now of course, the week is ending and tomorrow I'll head back with Amma to Ithaca, so it's back to reality. This was such a great break that I'm ready to head back, because I really miss everyone there a ton. Also, I'll be back for Christmas break in less than 3 weeks, so departing won't be too sad. 

Today I actually have to work on the anthropology paper and write up my article, two things I've been putting off all week.  Then, I hope to head over to the Einstein swim scrimmage against Whitman. It could be ugly. But I don't really care. 

The best part of this week? I finally can legitimately listen to Christmas music. I won't even get yelled at. 

Wow. I am Home!

The ride back from Ithaca was long, but largely uneventful.  Uneventful is pretty much what you want for a 6.5 hour car ride.  

This was pretty much what I did when I arrived at my lovely, lovely home:

1. Squealed with joy. 

2. Jumped out of the car and dropped all my stuff.

3. Scurried out of the cold into the back room that that an awesome fire going. Hugged parents. 

4. Scurried some more around the house I hadn't seen since August.

5. Contemplated why my bed and room seemed to have shrunk. 

6. Lounged on my favorite chair in the entire world. 

7. Died of happiness.

Then, of course, there was yesterday. If you ever come spend a weekend with the Paulson family, you will discover that my love of football is, in fact, genetic. Because you really spend the entire afternoon/evening watching football (with a little What Not to Wear thrown in) and no one will ever say, "Guys, this is our third game, can we, like, do something else?" Really. They won't. This is beyond excellent, because some times the best thing to do is nothing.  Sometimes it's just really fun to watch Texas Tech be absurdly embarrassed by Oklahoma State with your Dad. 

For the record, MoCo seems pretty much the same. Which, you know, I appreciate.  I relish the fact that I grew up in the weirdest place ever. I kind of want it to stay that way. Even if my own house is creepily clean.  This can be fixed, however. When Claire gets home, we will set things back to normal.  

I'm Coming Home Tomorrow!

Hopefully I will arrive in Wheaton, Maryland around 9 o'clock tomorrow. 

I haven't been there in just about three months!  

I'm so ridiculously excited!  

Tomorrow night I can lay on my couch and NOT THINK ABOUT ANYTHING AT ALL.

Except, oh wait, the Ithacan assigned me an article due next Sunday. A profile. So, basically, I have to do a profile of someone I can only talk to over the phone. I kind of like to meet the person I'm supposed to write about. Who that is, I really can't decide on.  Generally the Ithacan likes profiles to be about upperclassmen, athletes who have a history and attachment to Ithaca and also have paid their dues.  The problem with the mens swim team? They have solid seniors, but the big stories of the year are really the freshman and sophomores. They are just taking over the spotlight in a huge way. Hopefully I'll have things figured out after my section meeting tonight.  I'll talk it over with my editors, seeing as they've got the final word on everything anyway. 

Whatever. I can't even worry about it because home-cooked food, my bed, the DVR and my couch are calling my name!  

Also, I am totally loading all the Christmas music I can onto my iPod so I can blast it non-stop when I get back from break. Just saying.  

It's Really Cold. REALLY COLD

So I woke up this morning and checked the weather as I do every morning. I was thrilled when I saw the words, "10 degree wind chill." 

I guess I'm really going to have to put away the flip flops for sure this time.  

My R.A: "Please, you haven't seen anything yet. I'll TELL you when it's cold." 

Things are winding down around here. Of course, I have a political communication paper due tomorrow, but I'm well on my way to finishing it.  It's about political talk radio, and so I wasted about two hours of my life yesterday listening to Rachel Maddow and Bill O'Reilly whine as I took copious amounts of notes.  

Maddow was actually informative, if occasionally annoying. She does start off every episode with a report on the Iraq War, which I find refreshing because the conflict has startlingly little coverage in mainstream news.  O'Reilly...was O'Reilly.  

I come home on Friday! It's exactly a week until I see THESE loves of my life: Yeah, I know, this picture is wicked flattering of all of us.  But I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THEM!!

I Survived!

Like the mature college student that I am (well, at least appear to be), today I dragged myself down to the Hammond Health Center to get my flu shot. I did. I survived. 

The band-aid doesn't have any cheery cartoons of woodland creatures congratulating me on my bravery, but that's just something I'll have to accept. 

I hope this is a good sign, in that I'll be able to actually show concern about my physical well-being without the prompting of my mother. Granted, she sent Claire and me e-mails a few months ago about it, but hey. I acted like a big girl. I guess.

I'm off to class in just a few minutes. I wish Claire luck in all her craziness today and tomorrow! 

I'm in a very good mood today because of the snow covering the ground. I love it.  

Monday Morning

This morning I totally destroyed the egos of a few hardcore sports fans in my journalism class. We were talking about narrative journalism, and my professor brought up Rick Reilly.  

"You all know who he writes for?"

About three guys yelled out, "Sports Illustrated!"

"Not anymore," I said. "ESPN the Magazine."

"Ohhhhhhh!" said my professor. "Shut DOWN!" Then he gave me a high-five. 

So that kind of made my morning.  

That's all.  

Back in the Pool

I've been feeling achy and tired for a while now. My shoulders were bothering me and I just felt rundown.  When I was watching swimmers go back and forth in the pool for four hours yesterday, I finally realized the solution.

I HAD to get back in the pool.  Swimming fixes everything in my body. No amount of running or exercises can do what swimming can do for me.  So today, at 2 o'clock, I dug out my swim bag from under my bed, threw on a suit, and scurried out into the snow. 

There weren't many people there for open swim on a cold Sunday afternoon, so I had a lane all to myself.  I hopped in, and just swam. I really worked myself hard, largely because of the horror of how out of shape I was. I grabbed a kick-board and kept going, for the total of about an hour. I finished, got in the shower, and everything felt better.  My legs had that leadenness that I was so familiar to, my head felt a little light, my arms felt loose, and my shoulders, well, I felt them.  I feel so much better, it's incredible.  

I just thought about all the locker rooms I showered in, all the teams I've swam for, everything I liked about swimming.  Kenmont, Titans Swimming, AquaHoyas, Einstein. Now I'm done. I'm okay with that.  But I'm not done with the pool.  

I've still got a project meeting to go to, a teleprompter to run, and a football game to watch, but I can handle it. 

I've really got to do this more often.  

Oh Mens Swimming and Diving and Other Shenanigans

So today was the infamous "Cortaca Jug" game, and of course, because we are awesome, we won!!

Not that I watched a single second of the game. My parents, all the way in Maryland, saw more of the game than I did.  I was at a swim meet. A very, very long swim meet. Like, FOUR HOURS long. I guess that's what happens when you have 32 total events that include a 1,000 and 500 freestyle that take forever, and 2 20 minute breaks. Honestly, I bet they only give this job to people who have actually swam before.  Seriously, if I didn't know much about swimming or like it, I may have thrown myself off the bleachers at the 2-hour mark.  Even with my heightened appreciation for the art and physical exertion of swimming, I was about to die. I watched, but also fiddled with my tape recorder, which has decided to stop working.  It's probably just a problem with my tape, but still. I'm whining.  

It was fun to watch swimming, and I definitely got my fill of it. What I hadn't counted on was how impossible it would be to get any useful feedback whatsoever from the guys after the end of the meet.  I think the most insightful answer I got was to my question "What does the team need to improve on to be successful at the 4-team meet next week?" It was, "Uhhh...I dunno...swim faster?" 

They did win, which was good. I only got swimmer feedback, though. I had to sprint from the stands, downstairs, through the women's locker room to get to the deck, and by the time I did (about 2 minutes after the meet ended) the coach was no where to be found.  Luckily, I don't have to go to another meet until January.  

Tonight I'm going to see the new James Bond movie (my first, actually). Should be interesting. 

Oh, and Chris Cooley said in his blog that there is only 44 days left of regular season football, and that they've been playing for 115. ONLY 44 DAYS LEFT? How am I going to survive without the NFL? Seriously, last year the symptoms of my post-Super Bowl depression escalated to worrisome levels.  

I am going to have to buy Cheez-Its to cope with the struggle. 

Why I Love Ithaca

I am so glad I chose this place.

Why? This morning I got an e-mail from my producers at the Gridiron Report to the freshmen on the crew telling us all to be safe with Cortaca this weekend, and how to handle the craziness. My favorite part was when they referenced our crazy audio tech: "If you are going to think about doing something stupid, ask yourself, 'would Foster do this?' And if the answer is yes, THEN DON'T DO IT!"  

Priceless.  I love that they care. 

Last night at our Sports Section meeting, it was pretty much just a love-fest about what an awesome job we did these past two weeks. We did so well! We produced 13 pages of sports material in the issue, because we had the winter sports preview.  I had two articles. It was so exciting.  I got a break this weekend, and since Thanksgiving break is coming up, I won't have to worry about a feature for a while now.  I've got a meet write-up Saturday, but then I'm free! 

Yesterday I also had to help with a field segment for the Inquirer.  We went and interviewed a plumber...one that also happened to be the deputy Mayor of Trumansburg, about what he felt about Joe the Plumbers and the fate of plumbers in an Obama administration.  It was excellent.

Today, I realized that in all the business of the past two and a half weeks, I had not done laundry.  This morning, I did the biggest laundry load in the history of my college career. Granted, that's not very lengthy of a time, but I do put off laundry a lot.

I know you care. 

FRIDAY

Seriously, THANK GOD. 

Quick Update

Things you should know, in the limited time I am using to procrastinate:

1. I did, like a big girl, actually call and schedule for a flu shot. It's on Tuesday. Expect a later post discussing how it was either not bad at all, or how I saw my life flash before my eyes. 

2. I have two articles being published tomorrow in The Ithacan! 

3. After hearing horror stories about the Psych professor, I dropped it and picked up "Intro to Global Studies" just in case I want to minor in international studies or something. Because someday, I will have to pick a minor. Someday. 

4. I come home to Maryland in 9 days. Ish. So I get to sit in the awesome recliner in our back room. And see my amazing parents. And maybe even have a fire. Even maybe visit friend A at GWU.  

5. I'm helping with an Inquirer field segment tomorrow. It's sad, because we do our episodes a week ahead of time, and all shows go on a break for the end of November, there's no Inquirer studio filming until December! Sad. 

I've been busy....I AM busy, but the good kind.  I'm getting things done. 

Tomorrow will be busy, but then I have a swim meet this weekend, and hopefully I'll be able to celebrate CORTACA (!!) this weekend. We are going to win.  There is NO other option. 

The Weather Really Needs to Make Up Its Mind

On Saturday I happily skipped around SUNY Cortland in flip flops.  Today it is flurrying outside my window.  Seriously?

Anyway, today I'm out of my intro to journalism class way early, because we're getting a little break after the craziness of the past two weeks, with the Tom Wolfe article and the election article.  I got an A- on the Wolfe article and an A on the election article.  I was totally psyched, because before he passed out the Wolfe article, Professor Loop kind of issued a disclaimer.  "Okay, it's a little rough, but don't just drop the major because of one grade."  

Well, I guess I don't have to.  Our next assignment is due December 18th, and it's a 1200 word "investigative profile" written in the Wall Street Journal style.  We're pitching ideas Wednesday, and I'm thinking I may want to go after Ithaca's absurd non-compliance with Title IX.  I want to be able to ask some not-so-nice questions.  Or maybe I'll look into how terrible our facilities are.  I was writing up my final field hockey article yesterday, in which I was kind of digging into reasons why the team was 1-8 on the road.  In my research, I discovered that Ithaca and Elmira are the only two Empire 8 teams that play on natural turf.  The single road game that Ithaca won? At Elmira.  It's a tough adjustment from natural to synthetic turf.  

This week should be busy, but I've just got to manage my time with getting a bunch of reading done.  Obviously, I'm off to a great start because I'm doing this instead of reading.  The last two weeks have been crazy, but Thursday will be amazing, because I will have TWO bylines in this week's Ithacan.  If they give me a feature assignment this weekend, I may want to kill my editor. But at the same time, I'm so happy to make the switch to mens swimming and diving totally.  They've got quite a few characters on that team, and I'm hoping I won't be at a loss for topics to look into. But I want a break. Just a little one.  Long enough for me to finish reading about kinship for cultural anthropology. 

How is it November 10th already? 

OH and by the way it took a lot of maturity (and time) for me to make myself go to the walk-in flu shot clinic today like a big girl would. And then they were out of stock.  WHYYYYY? WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN TO ME?! Now I have to make a special appointment for later. Hopefully they will get more. 

Pictures from a Great Game

Hopefully this weekend will be as fun as the last one was!

Foggy Morning

As you can tell by my creative title, it's very foggy this morning.  It's a Thursday, so that means I'm pretty busy today.  

My interview on the Bomber Nation podcast has been posted! It should be Season 3, episode 8, so click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the episodes, and find the correct episode near the top.  That is, if you want to here me talk about people you probably don't know. Or care about. 

One exciting thing is I might be getting a ride with a diver to the swim meet at Cortland this saturday, which I was looking to do because I missed the first home meet and wanted to get a feel for the team before I do a profile and such.  And, Cortland is close.  So that would be really fun.  

I really, really, need to clean my half of the room.  I actually did laundry yesterday, which was extremely overdue. 

So I'm going to get on that.  Then I've got work, and class. Three weeks until Thanksgiving!

The World I Know

Yesterday Barack Obama was elected to be President of the United States. 

Just in case you haven't heard already.  

I watched in the Boothroyd lounge with about 30 other people.  We erupted in cheers with every state announced for Obama and the excitement was overwhelming throughout the night. The one or two Republicans in the dorm quickly left and chose to watch results in a dorm room instead. 

After it was finally announced that Obama had won, I could look out the window and see people pouring out of the dorms and sprinting to the quad, where about 500 people gathered and cheered and screamed together.  Police pulled up quickly just in case, but didn't have to act because the mass of people didn't get out of hand.  They dispersed quickly as news spread that Obama was about to speak.  The speech was incredible. I am proud to be an American. 

For the first time, at least in my experience, politics reflect the world I know.  I grew up being taught that it doesn't matter what your race is, what your religion is, what your gender is. There was never any distinction made as I grew up.  As I got older I realized that there were not unspoken rules, but there were unspoken barriers.  There were bridges yet to be crossed.  Who knew this would happen in my lifetime. 

I've been thinking a lot about the kids I babysit for, who will grow up with this being history.  Maybe it won't feel strange for them.  It will be something they'll read in textbooks.  That's amazing for me.  

I'm so glad I voted.

Election Day 2008

Uggghhhhh to the Redskins game. That's all I'm going to say about THAT. 

Ithaca is buzzing about the election.  No one can concentrate and everyone is counting down the hours until polls close and we can finally have a resolution after two years of anticipation. 

I'm so excited.  Anyone who says they aren't interested in politics obviously isn't paying any attention.  

My journalism teacher told me this stat, which is sad yet encouraging in some way.  I'm not sure where he got it, or whether it's true or not, but this is it:

When the Redskins play the weekend or monday before the election and LOSE, the challenging party is 7-0.  When the Redskins win the weekend before the election, the incumbent party is 9-0.  I don't really know how the statistics work on that or anything, but maybe, just maybe, something good will come from the Redskins' embarrassing performance last night.  

The excitement is overwhelming!

Buffalo

My visit to Buffalo was everything I wanted it to be and more: relaxing, exciting, and, well, delicious. I got to spend time with two of my favorite people in the whole entire world for a whole weekend and we had loads of fun. It involved lasagna, hot cider, a bathroom without  a stall in it, about five football games, my first visit to Ralph Wilson Stadium where we had amazing seats and a tour of the press box (!), a tour of Buffalo, multiple bathroom stops, and a gigantically huge bed. 

It was perfect.  Except the Bills lost.  That was one hiccup in a flawless weekend.  Papa amazingly finagled a press box tour, something they don't normally give out.  We were shown around by an intern (I seriously want her job) and we saw the spaces where John Clayton of ESPN, all the major newspapers, Phil Simms, and other broadcasters and media would be located. Oh yes, and Marv Levy happened to wander by.  Amazing! 

Tomorrow is obviously a very important day. It will undoubtedly change all of our lives, and go down in history regardless of the outcome. I've already voted, of course.  I'm proud to say I voted for Barack Obama. I respect both candidates greatly but made the choice that felt right.  I don't think American women have waited 323 years for Sarah Palin.  But that's just my opinion.

 

Anyway, the Redskins game isn't over, let's hope we can pull this one through! I'll try to put up some pictures of the game tomorrow.