It's Saturday Already?!

I haven't been posting during break, mainly because I directed most of my energy towards eating and being as relaxed as possible.  

I think I succeeded to a huge extent this week. I ate absurd amounts, lounged in front of the fire, and reunited with friends.  Now of course, the week is ending and tomorrow I'll head back with Amma to Ithaca, so it's back to reality. This was such a great break that I'm ready to head back, because I really miss everyone there a ton. Also, I'll be back for Christmas break in less than 3 weeks, so departing won't be too sad. 

Today I actually have to work on the anthropology paper and write up my article, two things I've been putting off all week.  Then, I hope to head over to the Einstein swim scrimmage against Whitman. It could be ugly. But I don't really care. 

The best part of this week? I finally can legitimately listen to Christmas music. I won't even get yelled at. 

Wow. I am Home!

The ride back from Ithaca was long, but largely uneventful.  Uneventful is pretty much what you want for a 6.5 hour car ride.  

This was pretty much what I did when I arrived at my lovely, lovely home:

1. Squealed with joy. 

2. Jumped out of the car and dropped all my stuff.

3. Scurried out of the cold into the back room that that an awesome fire going. Hugged parents. 

4. Scurried some more around the house I hadn't seen since August.

5. Contemplated why my bed and room seemed to have shrunk. 

6. Lounged on my favorite chair in the entire world. 

7. Died of happiness.

Then, of course, there was yesterday. If you ever come spend a weekend with the Paulson family, you will discover that my love of football is, in fact, genetic. Because you really spend the entire afternoon/evening watching football (with a little What Not to Wear thrown in) and no one will ever say, "Guys, this is our third game, can we, like, do something else?" Really. They won't. This is beyond excellent, because some times the best thing to do is nothing.  Sometimes it's just really fun to watch Texas Tech be absurdly embarrassed by Oklahoma State with your Dad. 

For the record, MoCo seems pretty much the same. Which, you know, I appreciate.  I relish the fact that I grew up in the weirdest place ever. I kind of want it to stay that way. Even if my own house is creepily clean.  This can be fixed, however. When Claire gets home, we will set things back to normal.  

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.