Great Thanksgiving

If this break really proved anything to me, it's that what I'm really thankful for is my family.

They are hilarious and take care of me. All of them. My Amma and I drove up and down the coast in the past week, giggling the whole way. My Mom humored Claire and I to the extent that she stayed up till four a.m. on the Shopping Trip From Hell (Black Friday at midnight? DO NOT DO THAT. JUST DO NOT.) My Dad gave us sage advice and humorous (constructive) criticism. My sister and I just hung out, when she wasn't napping, or studying chemical processes WAY over my head.

I also realized that I am the ONLY ONE in my family unable to drop one-liners. I am not that quick thinking. It's really quite tragic.

Oh, and did I mention that they're also really, really ridiculously good-looking?

Not that I'm like, biased or anything.

"Waahhh Wahh Waaah Whine Whine Whine"- Claire

Apparently it is a problem that I haven't blogged in a week. So now it's 10pm on a wonderful Thanksgiving evening, and I'm blogging to make my sister happy.

So my break has been fantastic. I have been incredibly unproductive. I'm on football game number six at this very moment. Claire and I even took a road trip to visit our longtime friend K down in colonial Williamsburg. It looked a little different than my college, in that at IC everything is concrete, and at William and Mary everything is elegantly-aged brick. Ah, well.

One of the highlights of my break was listening to Josh McDaniels drop a not-so-polite word on national television tonight. I got a Park student high out of it. We love when professional media screws up royally.

At midnight Claire, Mom and I are heading out shopping. Yeah. Really. See, Claire decided she and I were going to start a black Friday tradition about two years ago, and this year we somehow managed to convince my mother that she totally wanted to come with us. I'm not sure I want to come with us. But I will and BY GOD IT WILL BE FUN.

This year we're even going all the way out to some J. Crew Factory store, because RPI turned my sister into a prep, and we are powerless against her will. I know she didn't go to RPI to be a lawyer, but I swear, that girl has a natural talent. If she was paid in polo shirts, there would be no one willing to face her in court.

Claire recommends that I also mention in this post that we ate our weight in pie today, and that it rains all the time. Logically these things are totally connected, because we both whine about them all the time.

I should also mention that I MADE A PIE. Yes. Me. My mother and grandmothers some how left me unsupervised in the kitchen and I made a pecan pie all by myself. All. By. Myself.

Yeah, I'm just as shocked as you are. Oh and yes, my house still exists as an entire, struturally sound entity.

It's a Christmas miracle!

It's Almost Thanksgiving, For Which I'm ENTIRELY THANKFUL

Do I have to preface this with a "my life is crazy sentence?" No? You got that point? Okay. Let's get to it.

I am blogging right now because it is far more fun to do that than actually write my papers or go to the gym like I'm supposed to. And, because I wanted to share with you something in my life that was actually FULL of WIN!*

You should know that I hate group projects. Loathe them, actually. I'm not so much a collaborator. I mostly like to impose my will and opinions ruthlessly and shamelessly on others. This is probably because I grew up in the DMV. Anyway, I was terrified of working in a final group project for my journalism ethics class, which involved a 20 minute presentation. It's being graded on a ranking scale. All the groups will rank which presentations they thought were best. The one averaged as the top will get an A, the second will get an A-, and so on for all 8 groups. Absolutely horrifying, right?

Luckily, I got a group full of girls just as competitive as me. We pulled the first presentation slot. We met obsessively for weeks. It all came together today, when we literally suited up and gave our presentation. And it was awesome. Our professor said we set the bar incredibly high.

And let me just say, this power-suit idea is totally true. Everything you say sounds 10 times smarter when you are wearing a suit. That is not to say that I in any way endorse Hillary Clinton's insane collection of primary colored pantsuits, but let's just say I kind of get it.

It is Tuesday. On Friday, I GET TO GO HOME. On Friday, I will have written two more papers and given one more presentation.

Keep your fingers crossed for more win!

*As opposed to full of fail...I am sure this makes no sense for those tend to speak english properly. This is just how we speak in the Paulson household and at Ithaca College. For example, on Sunday my news director wrote up an entire story about the SPCA in LOLcat speak, entitled "NOM NOM NOM." That was most definitely full of win.

Claire Told Me to Blog, So, Enjoy

This week has been entirely insane. Its low point was when I called my mother in meltdown mode over glitches in audio editing software.

Yeah. I mean, I cry over software and then I go to class and hear about human rights violations in Palestine and I feel like a huge jerk.

Basically I've spent this week trying to throw together the audio package from hell. It is about sustainability on campus, and how basically none of the students care anymore. It is REALLY REALLY DUMB. I am not even exaggerating. But whatever. I am so close to being finished with it. I just have to re-record two of my narration pieces because on one I sound intoxicated or something and the other my computer randomly deleted. WHICH IS AWESOME.

Cortaca, the big annual football game we're hosting against our rivals Cortland State, is this weekend. So this entire week we've been getting e-mails from the administration, e-mails our R.A's, posters in the bathroom, ads in the school paper, telling us all that if we do anything rude/illegal we will never succeed in life or be tasered or something.

At least, that seemed to be the gist of it. I don't know. I don't filter information as well when I'm sarcastic and crabby. A state of which I've been in basically all week.

I am excited for the game though, even though our football team hasn't been doing as well this season, and we will probably lose. But we are Ithaca, and we will lose with ENTHUSIASM and with cleverly worded t-shirts on our backs!

If anything more blog-worthy happens, I will totally let you know. In the meantime, I will return to fulfilling teenage stereotypes of sullenness and self-absorption...with a little audio editing thrown in.

First Practice With Varsity

Yesterday was my first official practice with varsity. Before heading down I was envious of all the other novice girls that had their freedom after that morning's team yoga. (Yes, apparently we do yoga Friday mornings. It is kind of awesome, and I am kind of bad at it.)

For today's fun Friday we divided up into teams of five and were given two ergs. Each erg was set to 15,000 meters. The task was to finish both ergs, that combined 30k, in under an hour. In a relay.

Here is what I have learned about erg relays: THEY SUCK.

Needless to say, with this challenge you knew going it was going to be really difficult for every team to finish both of their ergs under that time. We finished one, missing the second by 16 seconds. About 6 of the 16 ergs made it under an hour. After we finished and huddled bent over and gasping for air, our coach made an observation.

"We got six ergs. When we get ten, we can start talking about a National Championship."

And I thought two things: Ten is possible. And, THAT'S AWESOME.

Andre Agassi Made Me Cry, Plus Other Stories

Basically I'm a psychopath and cry over sports all the time. If the Redskins are humiliated, if there is a young-person-overcomes-great obstacles-to-obtain-great-success-and-self-actualization story in Sports Illustrated, if I win something, if I lose something, if something ends, if I fall in a painful manner, if Tom Brady is looking particularly attractive in the Road to the Super Bowl on the NFL Network.

That last one is a complete lie. In that case I'd be thrilled, if unsurprised.

Anyway, so it wasn't a total shock or anything when I was sitting on my bed last night not doing homework and instead getting misty-eyed over Andre Agassi talking about hating tennis. I knew what he was talking about. I got it, and I love when you can feel that empathy with someone you've had on a famous-person, redemption pedestal for so long. They're real. Just thought I'd share that.

Anyway, I was procrastinating late into the night last night with the Agassi article because I'd been running like a mad person all day yesterday. I worked and attended class. Boring. Then, I attended a small question and answer session with Arianna Huffington. Not boring. While Ms. Huffington is a dynamic, interesting, and powerful speaker, I was almost more interested by the supposed top-tier journalism students asking her questions. This is a program rooted in asking the uncomfortable questions, blah, blah, independence, blah, etc. But every question posed to her, except mine, was weirdly prefaced with a long story about how amazing it was of her to come, thanks so much, I'm a huge fan, I read everyday, I aspire to be you, and more nauseating crap.

I sat in my seat, and I was actually getting mad about it. You're supposed to be journalism students, where is your critical eye? How do you expect to get anything worthwhile if you douse your question in syrup? Also, she is most definitely getting paid TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars to be here, so yes, thanks for the time, but seriously? It was almost as if the desperation for future employment knocked out all the legitimacy and value of the questioning.

If you're wondering, I mentioned the prominence of celebrity commentary and punditry on the site and asked about her perspective on objectivity as a journalistic value in light of that. I followed up with a question about whether she'd regretted publishing any of the opinion pieces. She didn't really answer my second question, and instead talked about the editing process. I probably sound like a self-righteous whiner right now. I am one.

Of course, it was also election night! That meant Newswatch. I helped produce the Data Center, where the anchors would throw it to another reporter, Nick, to announce all incoming results and vote count. That meant I spent the few hours in a tiny room with Nick and a camera with my laptop perched on my knees and the Tompkins County Board of Elections at my fingertips. I love the internet. But we had to throw together information on about 30 elections, cohesively, in just minutes over the hour broadcast. It was hectic and crazy, but it worked out.

Then today, I had radio, class, and my politics advisor meeting. My politics advisor is awesome. We talked for quite a bit of time about how I was varying my classes, and what I wanted to focus on. She also had a lot of advice about studying abroad. Also, she hooked me up with some great places to look for internships. Who knew advisors could actually be useful? I am also SO EXCITED for my classes next semester. I am only taking one hardcore journalism class, with the other four centered around politics. Technically, my "Government and Media" class fulfills a journalism requirement, but it's all about law and government practice. So basically, next semester should be full of win.

And now I'm actually going to do my work, so I can pass and therefore take classes next semester.

The First Frost, Waayyy After the First Snow

Here I am, blogging. My sister basically threatened my well-being due to my epic failings at posting, so yes. I'm here. Talking about my life.

Halloween kind of happened this weekend. In college Halloween basically takes over the entire weekend, so from Thursday night on you could see people walking around in strange attire. I saw one girl dressed as an LOLcat. I was so incredibly jealous that I did not think of that. SO JEALOUS.

I dressed up as a police officer. Not like an out-of-the-bag "sexy" police officer (a look of which many college girls are fond of), fear not. My feminist values remained intact. I basically chose to be a police officer because all I had to do was buy a hat and wear black. I also thought it was funny, in a, "Look at me, I'm the physical embodiment of legitimized force!" kind of way. Because I am that kid you knew at college. Really.

You could argue that the physical embodiment of legitimized force would be a soldier, but there was no way I was going to be caught dead in anything with a camouflage print.

Anyway, so there was that. I ate something described as a "Reese Pumpkin" and went into a blissful sugar coma. I then went for a swim, and thoroughly regretted ever consuming said Reese pumpkin. Despite the nausea, I've decided it was totally worth it.

Today marked the beginning of our off season weight training. The varsity coach teaches athletic training classes and is supervising their training of us. Today we learned about different machines and got analyzed. My assessment was basically: 1. You are kind of inflexible. 2. You have long femurs! 3. Oh, and long tibias too! 4. Actually, long everything. So, uh, work with that, okay?

Tomorrow will bring insanity. After work and class, I'm heading to a question and answer session with this little known blogger named...Arianna Huffington. Oh yes. I totally know Claire will not know who this is/care, but she is kind of a big deal. My professor said the set up will be Oprah-style, so I guess we'll pass around a microphone and discuss our journey to our best self and you know, like media democracy or something. I am most excited because I realized today that Arianna Huffington and Aunt Zelda from Sabrina the Teenage Witch ARE THE SAME PERSON.

No one believes me. And yes, I did just take the time to do that. You'll be happy to know that Zelda Spellman has her own Wikipedia page, and you'll be even happier to know that it's extremely informative.

Then I'm helping produce Newswatch's election center. I will basically spend the night on the phone with the Tompkins County Board of Elections, pretending people desperately care who won the Town Council positions. Most of the incumbents in the election have held their positions since the 80s. The suspense is overwhelming.

Somewhere in there I'll fit in a workout and eating. That's about it.

In a totally unrelated note, cherry Starbursts taste like Nyquil.