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.