Guess What?

I know all of you are getting pretty comfortable with the content of this blog. I talk about being sore from crew, being frustrated with classes, and how it ABSOLUTELY NEVER STOPS...PRECIPITATING in Ithaca.

Well I've taken a break from writing the silliest paper ever for my environmental class and from digging people out of the two feet of snow we got over the past two days to inform you of a recent development.

As of Fall 2010, Shipping Off is going international.

I'll pack up my laptop and my non-existent sense of direction and make a home in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Home of international notoriety, canals, the Dutch, and a reputation for good coffee (right? that's what makes their coffee houses so popular?)!

You may think that I'm only going there because I discovered that Dutch speed skater Sven Kramer looks like Matt Damon, and I consequently fell in love. Despite the relative validity of that statement, that's not why I'm going to Amsterdam.

I'm going because of the Universiteit van Amsterdam's Pre-Law certification program. I'll immerse myself in international law and get a little certificate at the end, which may not mean anything, but looks pretty cool anyway.

It's a ways off, but I'm pretty sure I can sustain an insanely high level of excitement for multiple months.

Mark your calendars. September 2010. Me. Amsterdam.

And now this post has to come to a close, because Mannheim Steamroller just came up on shuffle AGAIN and if I don't take my Christmas music off my iPod immediately, there will be technological casualties.

Yeah, So, I Miss Them Already

For all my look-how-grown-up-I'm-getting bluster, I love when my parents visit. They trekked all the way up here to baby me a little bit. It was kind of the opportune moment, because I got a 24-hour type of virus and kind of needed to be babied.

It made me kind of un-fun, so we took in some Olympic action in between awesome meals. So I got fed AND got to lay on a comfy bed. It was awesome. We also got to go to Wegmans, which is like a pilgrimage for Washingtonians. We don't have them, and they rock. We also spent some quality time together while we got the oil changed in the Hyundai, because somehow my Dad has become buddies with the guys at Ithaca's Midas and its cheaper. My family is weird. You know this.

They were here for such a short while that it was kind of a tease, and it was hard to see them go. Even though I saw them like 10 minutes later because Mom left her phone in my room. We are absolutely unable to leave anywhere the first time. Whether it's Claire with her books or me with...everything, the emotional goodbye is never the actual goodbye. There's always the second god-I-can't-believe-we-had-to-turn-around see ya! Miss ya! Hug and leave that comes after. I love it.

I guess our dysfunction just works for us.

Okay, So Now It's @$#@% Raining

I MEAN SERIOUSLY? It stopped snowing and now it's RAINING?

REALLY, WORLD?

Also I'm not so sure I have anything interesting to say, but here are some things I just want y'all to consider.

Is it just me, or can Tiger Woods like, not read? Most awkward speech ever. And I am already sick of hearing about it. It also creeped me out to hear Al Michaels even say the phrase "sex addiction" during the midday Olympic coverage. Now I'm going to have to go to therapy.

And the main reason I am blogging is because I need to be doing work...on a Friday night. Because this weekend I am frolicking around time with my lovely parents and then being imprisoned by Newswatch. So there is work to be done.

I also have to be up early to do a six-mile team run. So, parents, if you're reading this, there's a chance I will pass out and die before you get here.

Yay!

It is Never, Ever Going to Stop Snowing

I think it has snowed lightly for the entire month of February, and I am kind of over it. The charm is gone, okay snow? You've killed it. Now you're about on the same level as rain.

So that's out of the way. The most eventful thing that has happened to me this week actually occurred this morning. There was no coffee in the dining hall. I went and tried all the dispensers. Another girl was doing the same, and after a stunned silence she looked at me with all seriousness and said, "Oh my God." I'm getting my fix now, courtesy of our cafe. But it was shocking. I mean, I'd already lifted weights and done a radio shift. I was pretty sure I'd earned some coffee.

I have problems.

Two of my problems are my hamstrings. See, they HATE me, and are the most inflexible hamstrings in the universe. We were doing a technique rotation yesterday at practice, and Becky (our coach, if you haven't caught that by now) laughs and says (as she has done before) "I guess we have to work on those hamstrings." In the next shift, she says the same thing to Ashley, and suggests we stretch each other out seeing as we live together. We share more than a love of cheeseburgers and cheez-its. We have inadequately flexible hamstrings too!

This week started the NCAA season, so we can officially go to "practice." This means we tend to die more, and also row in tanks on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The only problem is said tanks are at Cornell, so we end up practicing at 8:30 p.m. Even though we also had lifting at 7 a.m. It makes for a long day.

Another problem is that I am OBSESSED with the Olympics. We have them on all day, even when it's insanely boring things like classical style cross country skiing qualifiers. I also get very invested in it all, even participating in some Sweden vs. Norway smack talk for cross country skiing. Which my ancestors totally dominate, by the way. And as much as I wanted to analyze the social symbolism of Julia Mancuso's tiara habit, I gave up and decided it was just awesome.

I also want to try out this biathlon thing, because I don't think I've ever seen a more badass sport in my entire life.

No offense, crew.

Lists

I was obsessed with that list by the time I was nine years old. It was posted weekly, sometimes even more than that. I would stand there dripping, sometimes multiple times in a day, flipping through it. Counting seconds, calculating differences. Sometimes I would go back just to see my name at number one, or plot ways to get out of number two or three.

That list was the swim team top times list. Every event. Every age group. And I loved that list. By the time I was older and didn't fly to the top as easily, I checked it less frequently. But then I started using it to estimate our chances for the next week. I was a coach, and I was plotting ways to get us out of number six or five.

I have a new list. This one has highlighter. It will be changed every Wednesday. It will tell me where I stand. It will tell me if I have to re-do a test piece. It will tell me who I have to beat, and who I lost to last week. Yesterday I saw it for the first time and felt the same rush of seeing who I was above, and who I was below. I was especially excited to see that I'd done well enough to move on to the 5k test on Monday.

Monday is the first official day on the season. The insanity begins. I'm going to work hard, get stronger, and get faster.

And I am already obsessed with that list.

Rowing for Humanity

Many of you are already aware of this, but today was our joint Habitat for Humanity and Ithaca Crew fundraiser. The coaches set up 8 ergs in our student union and had them going all day. Everyone was required to row for 30 minutes.

Oh, but here was the catch: in those 30 minutes, you had to row at least 6500 kilometers to get a seat on the bus to spring training in Georgia. I think this pressure made it far more interesting for spectators, because it meant we were all DYING and sweating our butts off in public. My throat still hasn't fully recovered. I think I started inhaling knives halfway through instead of air.

But guess what? I'm going to Georgia! I rowed 6,759 kilometers and kept a 2:13 average split. And I got a little woozy. But I know I can do better. Next goal? Top 7k.

But there's some other people who helped me do it. Everyone who donated pretty much rocked my (and the crew team's, and Habitat for Humanity's) world, because I far exceeded the average and was one of the team's top earners. So, basically, all of you are amazing. And you'll be hearing from me.

In non-crew news, the epic saga of Abby-can't-control-her-facial-reactions-to-information-and-Professor-Arroyo-somehow-sees-EVERYTHING has two more chapters. Last Friday he reminded me again after class that he is extremely entertained by my facial reactions. TODAY when he was telling us about France's ridiculous insistence that there be a second and unnecessary European parliamentary office in Strasbourg, he said IN THE MIDDLE of the class "Miss Paulson, if you roll your eyes any harder you many in fact injure yourself."

Ugh. I blame the French.

Being Mitch McConnell

Don't you love a provocative title? Allow me to explain.

My Legislative Behavior basically functions as one long simulation and examination of the Senate. We take on the identity of a Senator and conduct class--reading discussions as well as policy debate--as the Senate would. Who am I? I'm Mitch McConnell. The Senate minority leader.

Yeah. Do you know how hard it is for me to be Mitch McConnell? I'm a crotchety old white man from Kentucky. I have to be everything I hate about government. My goal has to be rendering the Senate entirely powerless. In real life I'm friends with "Harry Reid." Now I have to make his in-class life a living nightmare.

So, fun. But it's an awesome structure for a class. My first paper is supposed to help me embody my Senator and learn the good, the bad, and the ugly about him. So, our assignment is essentially to write a memo to a real or fictional opponent on how to defeat/destroy Mitch McConnell. Which is awesome. And intimidating, seeing as no one has really been able to do it in a million years.

Anyway, back in my real life, I've been suffering from DC Snow-envy and getting through class. Sunday was all around excellent. I took the day easy, because from here on out my Sundays are sacrificed to Newswatch. I then watched a great Super Bowl game with my friends. I am going to miss football.

In unrelated news, it can be spring now. Thanks.

Information That's Not All That Interesting

I've received multiple requests to blog again, because it's been almost a week. And I have actually sat down to write a blog post multiple times this week but stopped because I actually had nothing interesting to say.

Basically I've spent this week wondering how the heck I'm going to get my average split down far enough to make second varsity, as is apparently now expected of me. I won't get into the technicalities of it all, but I'll just tell you I'm concerned it's not humanly possible. I don't know if I have enough time. I'm playing serious catch up and I'm basically a year behind. Heck, even people who've been doing this for longer than 1 year aren't hitting those numbers.

But I'll try. Because there's no point in giving up before I've really started the game. And I want it.

I spent most of today wondering why a guy in one of my politics class was wearing the exact sweater Claire bought when we went to the outlets over break. The one that was most definitely from the women's section. Very much so. Then again, I go to Ithaca. So, there's that.

Yesterday I became very popular because I got a huge package filled with snickerdoodles. Om nom is right.

Oh, and in other news, I'm a Newswatch AP again! I auditioned on Sunday, and nothing horrible happened, so, getting the position was a result of that.

Anndddd...for those of the family that are interested, my permanent WICB news casts for this semester are Monday and Thursday at 8:46 on WICB.org or at 8:28 on VICradio.org.