One Beat Ends, Another Begins

Okay, so my winter beat has been assigned.  Drum roll please...

Men's swimming and diving!

So that should be fun, and they only have like 4 home meets, on Saturdays.  So it should be a lighter load than field hockey was.  They are also swimming RPI this year.  

I have more to report, but not enough time to do so, so expect another update later! 

Big Winds and One Freaky Weather Forecast

Just about everyone on campus, including the really manly football players (okay, and the not-so-manly ones too) let out a really loud shriek every time they exited a building.  The winds were crazy, and it made low forties feel like it was a wet February night.  It is October.  It is supposed to snow lightly tonight.  

WHAT. 

My horror is so great that I am unable to inflect a question mark on that sentence.  Even non-verbally.  Imagine my eyes growing very wide, and staying that way for about 5 minutes.  There we have it.  That's how I feel.  Of course I know I signed up for this. That won't stop me from whining about it.  My feelings about the weather in Ithaca kind of compare to those of a former-Bush supporter.  But I don't think I screwed up that royally.  It's not really a screw up at all.  It's just cold.  And I'm just bitter that I can't wear flip flops. That's all.  

Today not much happened except I tripped on the crazy tiles outside of Textor Hall and pretty much ate concrete.  Luckily there was only like 2 other people because my class had gotten out early.  Still, I tore the knee of a pair of jeans a little, and that damages the glamorous aesthetic I have been maintaining throughout this college experience.  Sarcasm!  

Oh, except today I VOTED (!) for the first time ever in a general election.  I sent in my absentee ballot after doing some reading and filling everything out.  So that's settled.  I've officially participated in the democratic process!  

Some of my friends and I went to watch the Ithaca Idol competition today after dinner, and it was very entertaining. Ithaca's got a lot of music, voice majors, so there were some great acts.  There were some not so great ones too.  That made it so much better.  But of course everyone was very nice.  

Tomorrow? Nothing dramatic, just classes. 

My 18th Birthday So Far!

It's only noon and it has already been a fabulous birthday. 

I woke up to a door covered in birthday wishes, and got immediately attacked with birthday hugs while I was rubbing sleep out of my eyes and trudging to the bathroom.  My e-mail, facebook, and text inbox has been flooded with love!  It sounds cheesy, but amazing.  

Another cool thing about today, along with the impending cake party later tonight in my dorm, is that I was invited to be a guest on the "Bomber Nation" podcast.  For the first time I'm being interviewed, about the field hockey team.  Hey guys, I'm an expert analyst!  I'm the Adam Schefter of Bomber field hockey, minus the grating arrogance (maybe)!  So I'm taping that around 7:30 tonight with the host.  

The Redskins won as a birthday present to me, I'm sure.  The Cowboys also lost, to put icing on the cake.  LOVE IT!

Updates today are to be expected, so you can check back later!

*Maybe Chris Cooley was inspired by my haiku about last week's game, because he wrote a limerick on his blog about yesterday's game.  Great minds think (relatively) alike!

7:00 p.m.  I got the biggest cake ever delivered to my door with a balloon attached!  THEN my amazingly nice roomie made me a birthday cake! I'm heading to my interview soon but I'm mad happy right now.  I'll try to take pictures, if I remember. Oh and I also got lovely cards in the mail from my Uncle Judd, Michelle, and Grandma! Today has been so great. 

There's a cake party at 9 in the kitchen, we're going to try to demolish both cakes!

Rensselaer Adventure

It was one amazing fall break.  Let's go through it, shall we?  

I got up at 9 Thursday morning, showered and scurried over to the dining hall to stuff my face before my epic journey around the great state of New York.  I had a swim bag full of clothes, my iPod, and a book for the bus ride(s).  The cab I had arranged for was even a little bit early.  At first I was a bit confused because they sent a giant van to get me, maybe expecting more than one girl and a single bag.  They grabbed some other kid a minute later and we finally departed the IC campus.  It was gray and rainy, but I still loved winding through the town I'm still not too familiar with and staring at all the leaves and houses.  I enjoy looking at houses now.  They are like inviting dorms with their own bathrooms.  

Of course the bus station was in a slightly shift area, but I am from Wheaton, so I was largely unfazed because it was about 11:30 in the morning.  The bus station seemed to be built about 500 years ago, seriously, because everything was wooden and their bathroom stalls were obviously made for midgets.  It turned out that the bus I was taking to Albany required me to change buses in Binghamton with an hour layover.  At that point, I didn't even care.  The fact that I had a ticket in my hand and a definite time of departure was enough for me.  I waited for about 45 minutes and the Trailways bus rolled up.  I hopped on, and it was a pretty nice bus! Now perks, but it was clean and I had a seat all to myself.  I stared out the window for the two hours to Binghamton.  I ooohed and ahhhhed at all the leaves.  I'm good at entertaining myself.  

The Binghamton station was fine.  I entertained myself for the hour with vending machine and watching the CNN they had playing.  I considered trying out the "Deer Hunter Version IX" video game, but I wasn't in the mood for shooting crudely-animated deer at that moment.  

My next bus was probably constructed while The Partridge Family was all the rage.  That's all I'm saying.  This bus made a few more stops at the most random SUNYs in the world, most of which I had never heard of.  Finally I got off at Albany at the sketchiest station ever, and grabbed the first cab I found.  The guy wasn't exactly sure where RPI was (I know, WHAT?!) so it ended up costing me like 30 bucks.  Claire's lovely friends found me in the Union and took me to dinner.  They were a really awesome bunch.  Then, Claire came back from crew and I was ridiculously happy.  I went with her to meet some of her crew friends, who were pretty hilarious.  

It was so much fun reconnecting with Claire, I even ended up going with her to chemistry the next morning.  I played on her laptop and marveled at the 320 person lecture hall.  Claire snuck me into dining hall #3 (we never paid for a meal for me!) and we had lunch.  I wasn't too keen on sitting through biology, so I wandered around campus and headed back to her dorm, where mom and dad met me!  They came bearing many gifts including CHIPOTLE.  Oh yes, we have the most amazing parents in the world, ones who would buy burritos for their children and refrigerate them while they crossed multiple state lines.  We went shopping, watched Claire be honored with the Rensselaer medal (during which I established that yes, her school was awesome, but my acapella groups were better).  We then went out to dinner and ate even more good food, and enjoyed all being together again.  Mom, Dad, and I said goodbye to Claire and hopped in the car to return to Ithaca.  

The next day Amma and Pappa joined us for a tour of the gorgeous Ithaca campus, and they got to see the TV studio I work in.  We found another awesome restaurant, had lunch, and took in a little local culture at the friends of the library book sale.  It's so cool having Papa and Amma so close.  I'll be visiting them for the Buffalo game in just two weeks!  Afterwards, Mom, Dad and I paid 6 bucks to explore gorge trail, which we found out was kind of like the stairmaster from hell.  It was fun and pretty, even so.  We were all pretty tired, and like the enthusiastic explorers we are, we decided our next activity was lying on Mom and Dad's hotel bed with cheeseburgers watching the Penn State football game.  It was bliss.  

This morning we ate at the Ithaca Bakery and drove around lake Cayuga.  Mom and Dad then came and tricked out my room, giving me enough food to last me for years, lowering my bed, setting up my printer, mounting my mirror, trimming my bangs, and pretty much setting me up for life.  It's SO nice to have parents take care of you.  

The best part?  I'm reenergized to return to classes and studies, my room is awesome, and it's only a month until Thanksgiving break.  I miss my dormmates.  I want them to come back!  

Anyway, this was the longest post ever.  For an amazingly perfect break. 

So Close to Fall Break

Today was extremely boring.  Classes? Ugghhh.  I did just get back from filming a segment with the Inquirer crew, on which I got to work audio. The journalism major is learning some television tricks!  Last night I caught the game with some guys from my sports management class in a dorm that was closer to mine.  I watched cheerily as the Giants imploded.  A bunch of the fans left the room, and friend KM was like, "Okay, celebrate fast!" I'm not a closeted Redskins fan, but there were a lot of angry Giants fans in the room and we all know they can be dangerous.  

I got a 96% on my Sport Management exam.  YESSSSS

I also made a video today.  We'll see if it works! I'm so happy it's almost break!

I Did It!

What an absolutely absurd day.  Three exams.  Four hours.  Loads of studying, mind melting.  BUT I AM DONE! Let's run through it, shall we? It's not painful, because I'm all finished and can sit back a relax a bit, or daydream about not getting lost on the way to RPI on Thursday. 

I went to IC Square in the morning with my journalism notes, knowing I was prepared but intending to refresh my memory on significant court cases.  Sportscenter was on.  I had to maneuver myself away.  I got a coffee, bagel, and a banana.  Breakfast of champions, yes.  The journalism test was long. Lots of AP Style questions.  I think it went fine.  There were no choruses of angels following the test, but it was fine.  

I went and picked up a "grab and go" lunch and headed back to my dorm for an hour more of review on sports management and cultural anthropology.  I absorbed.  I contemplated shoving everything off my desk and learning via osmosis.  I chose to look at lecture notes instead. 

The sports management test was relatively short, I finished pretty early, and I was perfectly prepared.  I hope I'm not jinxing anything here.  Anyway, there was a back page where Professor Farrell said we could write how we felt about the class, or anything we wanted.  I wrote a haiku. I hope I get extra points. Which I doubt, because its relevance is questionable For your lovely enjoyment, here it is:

We lost to the Rams

Clinton Portis costumes are

not so good-looking

Deep, right?  I wrote it in 2 minutes.  Art. Expect more in the future.

Cultural anthropology was grueling, but again I was pretty well prepared.  Except, my professor is kind of torturous.  At the very beginning, he said, "I have graded your papers, and set them on this front table.  They are arranged from A to E across the table." This was totally stressful because it was a big paper, and all I could think about (as was his intention) was how everyone can tell your grade by where you get your paper.  Mean.  College.  Luckily, I finished my essays, trotted up to the front (I really had to pee. Trotting was necessary), turned them in, and found my paper.  95, baby! Right up front! So yay.  I ran to the bathroom, and as I did so my brain officially turned to mush.  

Now? A little reading.  A lot of being happy I have no more exams.  

Today I am Studying

First off, I've changed the template of the blog because I wanted it to lighten up a little. The blues were just a little too dark for me.  I like this one much better.

Yesterday I didn't get as much studying done as I would've liked.  This was mainly because I was ridiculously busy.  I ran from an Inquirer taping to a field hockey game (they won! 4-0!), to the gym, to not doing work, to an IC Voicestream concert (oh yes, IC has a million acapella groups. This one is co-ed, and awesome. They did a cover of Coldplay's Viva la Vida and it was amazing), to my computer to type up my game coverage.  I got some studying done after.  

One awesome development? It's looking like I'll be heading to RPI on Thursday to impose upon Claire's hospitality during my fall break.  It'll be a short visit, leaving Friday night, but it's nice that there will be a little family-reunion before Thanksgiving. Yay! Let's hope I can master this bus thing. I have only a middling faith in my ability to handle public transportation at long distances. I hope I won't have to transfer, which, according to the website, is a possibility.  

I'm sure there will be a very detailed account of my journey across the state.  Today will  be books, food, and Gridiron later.  Maybe a little football. Just a little.