Things are Piling Up!

So I guess I am just crazy lucky or something, because somehow I also got the job to work on the teleprompter for The Gridiron Report!!  So now I've got two shows, and a steady Ithacan gig, which is currently stressing me out because I haven't gotten a response from the coach.  It's understandable, because they have a game today, but I really need to get going.  Today I'm going to contact the athletics coordinator and at least try to get a quote or two to start off, and also contact the assistant coach to cover my bases.  

Yesterday was a blast, I totally love the people in my dorm.  We had a dance-off and one of the girls is a nationally ranked Irish dancer, and one is a serious tap dancer.  Then we had them battle to reggaeton music, and it was amazing.  We also ordered the biggest Chinese food order in the history of ever, and, I guess, stimulated the local economy.  And we ate a lot of food.  

Today I'm trying to get a lot of work done, then I've got dining hall, and the Boot girls are trying to head down to the commons this evening.  I'm nervous about dining hall, but at this point, I'm so used to having crazy stuff I'm not used to thrown at me, and I've dealt with it fine.  

I really really really want this field hockey preview to be good, and I've already done crazy amounts of research on this history of the team and some key players.  I need that phone call/e-mail message back!!

College is ridiculous, by the way.  I can't believe the opportunities I'm getting.  It's great, even if it is a little stressful.  

I Got It!!

I GOT THE FIELD HOCKEY BEAT ASSIGNMENT!!

MY FIRST DEADLINE IS MONDAY

OH MY GOD

I am excited.  And terrified.  

Stay tuned to see if I get published!

I am too sleepy to think up a title

Okay people, here goes.  

Last night a new development came in Abby's campus commitments after post-time!  Just a few hours after the IC-TV rush, I got a call back from The Ithacan Inquirer, offering me a very awesome and very freshman-y position, which I have decided essentially means, "wire-carrier."  It's a great foot in the door and will also let me work with video equipment, which is experience I won't get in a classroom.  

There's a thought I keep in my head a lot, especially as a journalism major:  Build your resume.  And if I can build it while doing things that are as interesting and fun as working on a tv show like one I enjoy watching, that's great!  

Today I had my seminar, which adds and pulls textbooks by the hour, and it was really interesting.  The scary part was finding it.  I was beginning to think that Friends Hall really didn't exist, and even now I'm pretty sure it exists only in the form of Harry Potter's room of requirement, except twisted.  I'm thinking the random stairwell to the top of Textor Hall to friends hall only appears in you are sweating with nerves or you really have to pee.  

I suffered both symptoms.  

Later, I had Mass Media, which was pretty light today, but will get reading heavy really fast.  

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Okay, so finishing this post was delayed because my roommate figured out a way to get Barack Obama's speech to stream live off her computer.  So I'll finish it up right now!  

After mass media, I headed out to dinner with friends K, A, and another journalism student I hadn't met yet.  It's pretty cool, with college, you're meeting people every other second.  Then, we all headed down to radio rush night, which was to be followed by the Ithacan rush night.  I didn't sign up for radio, but I enjoyed the presentation anyway.  Then, at the next rush, I signed up for the sports department, and I hope to be assigned the field hockey beat job, which could help me get writing right away.  All new writers have to attend sort of a newspaper boot camp before we can write, and I'm pretty excited for that, coming up in September.  

Today all I have is still more anthropology reading (I've got the class at 2) and the meet and greet with David Geffen, the producer of the Saw movies and Park School graduate and benefactor.  

Free pizza! And then weekend!

First Day of Classes!

It was quite the busy day today.  It was the first day of classes, and I wanted to get right into a rhythm.  Also, because I am a crazy person, I decided to hit the gym before class, and I got there about 7:15, expecting a relatively empty center.  Not so! Apparently, Ithaca is full of crazy people that have way more stamina/strength than I do.  And they are probably physical education majors.  Or football players.  Or, chances are, both.  

Then it was off to breakfast at the cafe with fellow future journalist K, where I ate my first NY bagel and tasted absolutely no difference.  But I did get the best coffee ever.  We then headed over to my first collegiate class, Intro to Journalism, where I got so excited for my major.  The class is pretty writing intensive, and we're required to do field work.  Today we had to memorize and recite aloud the first amendment to the constitution each alone in front of the class, which is only about 10 people.  It's pretty sweet.  One of our future assignments in on November 4th, we must cover the election, write an extended coverage of it, and submit it on a very real deadline of 3 a.m.  Awesome.  

One of the great things about college is that you can do anything for lunch, and I had a little picnic on the commons with friends B and R, relishing in the fact that this picnic was not actually themed nor sponsored by the college.  Then it was off to Cultural Anthropology, where I actually found the class in the maze that is Williams Hall.  Success!  It sounds like a crazy interesting class, even if there is reading assignments that surpass Patricia Carballo-level even. Yay college! 

After smoothies and a bit of hanging out, most of the Boot girls (females residing in Boothroyd hall, obviously) decided to all get dinner together and it was a blast.  Then the Parkies among us, including myself, went to IC-TV Rush which was awesome.  I've signed up to work teleprompting and writing on The Gridiron Report, who's producers got to go to Beijing this year, and The Ithaca Inquirer, Ithaca's Colbert-esque political satire news show.  I really hope I get to work on them!  IC-TV is the oldest college tv-station in the world!  It's its fiftieth anniversary this year, and it's a big to-do.  

Now I've got some Anthropology reading to do.  Tomorrow, classes and the Ithacan rush.  

Oh, and I feel quite guilty because I decided not to do crew and didn't go to the info meeting.  Then the coach sent me an e-mail, telling me it's okay since you probably had something going on, come to the physical please, bring athletic clothes, etc.  

But I do like flattery!

Lectures and Exploration

This morning all freshman had to attend a panel discussion about our summer reading of Persepolis.  The main purpose of this seemed to be to remind new students that sometimes, college can be just as boring as high school.  Seriously.  It involved the history of comic books, about which I care less than I do about the life processes of mealworms, and one half an hour lecture as a criticism of the graphic novel.  It was quite eye-glaze worthy, and the kid next to me literally fell asleep.  Oh, the prospects of lectures at 10 a.m!  

One good part, however, is that we all broke up into our seminar classes afterward and I got a little, exciting taste of the class I'm most excited for.  It lived up to my expectations, so far, and I have a different Professor than I originally thought.  But he seems pretty awesome.  I met some new people, and it's pretty awesome how quickly you can bond together in college.  We had lunch together, in terraces, which feels like a restaurant in comparison to Campus Center.  I usually go to campus center, because I am actually way to lazy to walk up one giant hill to get to the Terraces Dining hall.  Really.  

Classes tomorrow! Yay!  Also, I've got rush for IC-TV, which I'll give a good look to, but I can't wait for Thursday's Ithacan rush.  I'm itching to start writing, or do whatever they ask me to.  I'm madly excited.  Tonight, I'm seeing a movie with some people and heading to another picnic.  Really, Ithaca is obsessed with them.  

Really.  Really.  

Move In Day

So the parents and I dragged ourselves out of the Ramada down to the swanky buffet as quickly as our sleep-deprived bodies would let us.  Then, we hopped in the car to head up South Hill to the lovely Ithaca College.  But of course, because we are Paulsons, we continued Dad's quest to find the most ineffective short cuts through the town of Ithaca on our way there.  

Move in was fairly quick, but extremely sweaty.  

I met my roommate Beth and her family, and I definitely picked a great roommate.  We're very alike in everything for our sleeping habits to our passion for bright colors.  The family and I made a few last runs to Target (and I think we will avoid these stores for a long while) and grabbed lunch on the go.  Then, was the "see you at Thanksgiving if not before" moment that you are supposed to remember in 30 years.  It was pretty nerve racking, and I was sad to see them go, but being here is so amazing and totally worth it.  

I went to dining hall training and the perks are mainly a free meal once a week, some pay, and oversized jean shirt and apron for uniform, and a really, really stupid looking hat that I will wear every Saturday.  Then there was an opening picnic, that involved inflatable volleyball (like playing beach volleyball on a moon-bounce) which was pretty awesome, yet dangerous for balance-challenged people like myself, and bingo.  There, I met up with some journalism orientation friends.  I've been meeting up with them for every meal since, which is great, and they also share my love of football.  It's even okay with me that they are Giants and Jets fans.  

Today was convocation, which was very dramatic, and then ANOTHER picnic (we do that a lot here) that was entirely sustainable and really really interesting.  We then went to hear Park School Dean Dianne Lynch speak, and she is amazing and she told us about the most amazing opportunities we'll have.  I'm definitely in the right place.  We then split up into majors, and we met all the journalism professors.  My political communications teacher was gone because he's at the DNC, and he's also the senior producer at MSNBC!  The head of journalism is from Nigeria and has taught at the universities of Sierra Leon, South Africa, and Bowie State in Maryland.  Go figure.  My advisor, I swear, was the Amsterdam correspondent for High Times magazine.  I am not kidding.  All my journalism professors are incredible.  

Then, football friends K, A, and tried to go visit Dean Lynch, but she was in a meeting.  We did get to chum it up with the other administrators.  We left and popped in at the Ithacan, and threw our names into the hat about sports and political journalism.  There are a lot of sports spots available, and they're looking for team beat writers to cover a single team for a season and write features, and get some footage of practices and such.  I'm going to try to get the swim and dive team, because I've already met a few great people in my dorm who are on the dive team.  

This is a long post, but I had a lot to catch up on!  Tonight?  Seeing a comedian and grabbing some dinner.  

Success!  And p.s., I took a shower today and the showers are awesome!  

I Love People!

Yesterday I tried to avoid extreme boredom, so much to the extent that I don't even remember how I spent much of my day.  I have been trying to drive as much as possible, largely because I like to torture myself.  I am actually starting to hate driving less.  Or at least I was, until last night.  I'll get to that later.  

I drove myself over to Giant to pick up apples and crab chips to bring as an offering to a little goodbye get together.  There were no problems, except I confused a lot of people in the parking lot because I could not decide on a parking spot to take.  Note: I am bringing a large bottle of Old Bay with me to college, so I can put it on everything and introduce New Yorkers to the wonders of this delicious sodium-bomb topping.  Then, I drove myself in rush hour to friend L's house, and the drive went perfectly.  This is not to say that I didn't take off two years of my life with my nerves.  Oh, and parent who is probably reading this and getting nervous about this description?  It's totally exaggerated.  I just like to whine.  

I love hanging with my friends L and S because I am so comfy with them.  We ate cheeseburgers and ice cream and chatted about heading out, ate some more, and then curled up in blankets because we were freezing our butts off outside.  Oh yes. Who needs blankets in late-August Maryland? We do.  Friend L and I will probably get our butts kicked by Providence and Ithaca weather.  That isn't to say we won't love it anyway.  

Then of course, we watched some Olympics and contemplated the magnitude of the egos of track runners, discussed the ages of the female Chinese gymnasts, and it was time for me to go. I go out to hop in the, as Claire calls it, the Mommy Mobile, I shut the door, and THUNK! Ohhhh no.  Some jerk sideswiped me and knocked the mirror out of the, well, mirror.  They didn't leave a note.  I love people!  

Luckily, it wasn't something that couldn't be cured by a hug or two from the parents, even though I was quite dramatic about the whole thing.  

This is my last day in Maryland!