A Short Update

It's now the weekend, and since there is much fun to be had, I'm a bit pressed for time.  But I decided to squeeze in an update.  Here's the main points.

1.  The profile feature is going well.  I met with, well, the subject today and got to do my first real extensive interview.  She was really nice, and talkative, which is helpful.

2. It is raining and will all weekend.  Which is gross.  But it means I have an excuse to wear sweatpants for an extended period of time.

3. My roommate is heading home for the weekend.  I am mainly going to just revel in the amount of space and freedom this gives me.  I am also going to stay up very late doing nothing, being happy I have a room to myself, that is not pitch black.

4.  I plan on watching much football this weekend. 

5.  We are ordering chinese tonight.  Lots and lots of chinese.  

6. I like college.  

That's about it.  

We're getting there!

This was one of those mornings when I smacked the alarm and wondered if it was actually safe to get out of bed.  It just felt like one of those days.  It started off that way, with stubbed toes and the mess up on my field hockey headline on theithacan.org.  We don't write the headlines for our pieces, obviously, and I was very surprised to see that the Bombers had defeated Skidmore yesterday, rather than Brockport.  Luckily, it got fixed pretty fast.  

Dining hall was entertaining, because I was working salad bar and it actually keeps me busy.  You wouldn't believe how many people can stomach salads with ceasar dressing and lots and lots of peppers at 10 a.m.  The point is, the time flew and I could book it to class right when the lunch rush was hitting insanity-level.    

I also found out I have a feature due Sunday, which of course is a blessing and a curse.  It means I get published on paper again (yay!) but practically get an ulcer over the weekend (eep!).  I mean, getting published early is why I signed up for the beat job.  Because it's a lot of time and a lot of words for a freshman.  I just have to remind myself of that when I'd much rather, you know, not work.  

When I feel sorry for myself sometimes it helps to call up Claire and then I feel very very pleased with the six to seven hours of sleep I'm getting.  I love that she is a hard-working, crew-doing bio major, and I am also very glad I'm taking political communication instead of chemistry.  

I'm going to try to get in on club water polo, because I really couldn't do club field hockey because of my beat assignments.  We'll see.  

Tonight I've got a sports section meeting, and, of course, homework.  

Yay. 

I really really really don't feel like working

So it was a really long day, as was expected, and it's not over.  It went really well.  But that doesn't mean I feel like writing up my article. And/or reading about the George McGovern's campaign.  

Things pretty much went my way today!  Let's walk through it.  First was Intro to Journalism, which is the type of class that will give you an upset stomach depending on the day.  Luckily, I had actually skimmed the Washington Post headlines that morning, so Professor Loop's fury that no one else could come up with a current news topic was not directed at me.  I also had quite the IB history-student background on Kim Jung Il to pull out.  Us IB kids?  We can come up with anything on the spot. 

Phew.  I'm learning a bunch in that class.  

Then, I did some reading and had lunch with friend AP, who, I have just realized, has the same initials as me. 

I love, love, LOVE Intro to Sports Management.  There will be some random capitalization in the post, along with some bad grammar.  I am tired.  Anyway, my teacher is hilarious.  Which I have said a million times before.  But still.  She is. 

Then it was off to Cultural Anthropology, which I also enjoy because Professor Turkon likes me.  Why?  Because, again, I can come up with anything on the spot.  Really.  I should be in PR. It's also neat because when in high school would the presentation be about your teacher's hands-on research about the HIV/AIDS crisis and industry of death in Lesotho?  College is awesome. 

Earlier in the day I had stopped by The Ithacan office to do a little chatting with people I didn't know about tape recorders.  There was some debate and a bit of discussion and I was pointed in the right direction.  In the bookstore, they had just about a million different tape recorders.  I got a microcassette recorder, it's supposed to be good.  I used it today, and it picked up sound crazily well, and so I am very pleased with my purchase.  

After buying the recorder I headed back to the dorm for a few minutes, which were entirely spent trying to get the recorder out of the packaging.  I am pretty sure it was packaged in a manner that would allow it to survive a nuclear holocaust.  Just in case the roaches want to maintain their journalistic integrity or something.  I'm not sure.  I resorted to randomly and violently stabbing at the plastic for about 10 minutes, probably scaring my roommate and her parents, because she was on the phone at the time, and I was kind of loud.  

Then, to the field hockey game, and they won again!  Four to one!  Loving it.  They played amazingly well and the other team only scored off a stroke penalty, which is pretty much a gimme anyway.  So I got to interview happy people. The biggest problem was I had to pee like I had been in the car for nine hours or something.  So the game ended and I booked it to the coach, who knows me by now (which does not mean to say she's much nicer, but hey) and she says, "Well, just for future reference, in other games I may not be this happy, and you're gonna have to wait a few minutes for me to...digest."  I hope that never happens.  I used my sweet recorder, got a few quotes, invaded some of the players' privacy a little (they actually like the interviews and are totally sweet about it, so that's good), and booked it to a bathroom. 

Then, dinner with the girls and I have to attend a speaker for my seminar tonight at nine.  Yay. Closer and closer to the weekend.  Closer and closer.  

Football at Ithaca

So I am a little less sad about Tom Brady.  A little.  I mean, there are a lot of very happy Jets fans around here.  Friend A said it best, "Okay, so as a Jets fan, I'm psyched.  As a football fan, I think Brady's one of the best ever, and seeing as he may never be the same, I'm really bummed."  I had a nice talk with Amma yesterday, and I guess Cassel get his first chance to start...since high school.

Classes were good yesterday, and that night I had a Society of Professional Journalists meeting, and I joined.  Then I headed over to the dorm that gets cable, and watched the first Monday Night Football game.  It was a good one.  Aaron Rogers was pretty exciting.  Here's the thing about watching football with guys that play fantasy football religiously: it is scary.  They know just about everything about every player, even the random ones no one ever really talks about.  But it's also fun, because I learn, and I know enough to not look like an idiot.  I also can't really announce that I think Adrian Peterson is attractive, in this setting, which is something I would normally proclaim very loudly while watching at home.  

I am totally rooting for Rogers.  When SI asked about the Lambeau leap he performed after scoring on a sneak, he said, "I've been dreaming about that for four years, to be honest."

That's pretty sweet. 

There's a comic tonight that I'm going to go see, and for once I actually have no meetings to attend today.  Just classes.  Tomorrow will be insanely busy with four classes, a field hockey game, and a speaker I am required to see for my seminar class, all back to back.

Eeep!

This just makes me happy

I was shifting around some of my files, and I found this. 

It makes me laugh!

Friday night and the whole of saturday was quite nice.  On friday the dorm headed down to the Commons and celebrated Lauren's birthday at Benchwarmers, my new favorite restaurant.  Hilarity and dancing ensued.  We returned to IC and danced in the hallways, because it is something that is very fun to do.  Then all the girls grabbed blankets and we laid outside just chatting, and sometimes shrieking at random noises.  College is a little like summer camp.  

Yesterday morning I dragged myself out of bed for an early taping of The Inquirer, and I learned a bunch of tech-y things and got to be part of a studio audience, in a way.  Then I had a brunch with the Boothroyd girls, and they headed off to the football game and I grabbed my notebook and trekked down to Yavitz field for my first home-game coverage of Ithaca field hockey.  It was an exciting game, and we won 6-5.  I dread the day when I have to interview the coach and players after a loss.  That will be massively un-fun. The Bombers have an extremely productive offense, but their defense is very young, which leads to such high scoring matches.  My next game coverage is wednesday.  Then I met up with some football buddies for awhile, and was pressured into learning how to play Guitar Hero.  I am not very good at it, to say the least.  Back at Boothroyd I watched some Gossip Girl (a t.v. show) with some friends.  It's pretty soapy and extremely addictive, which lead to me getting to bed at a late hour.  

There's a collective agreement that today's a quiet day where everyone's mainly just going to study.  I'm going to find some football to watch.  Now, with the NFL back, I expect sundays to be characterized by a little homesickness, because right now I just want to lounge on a couch and watch way too much football all day and eat nachos.  

But I do love it here!

Working for the weekend!

Well, some of us thought it would never get here, but it is friday, and classes are finished!  Floormate L had her birthday and we're heading down to the Commons to celebrate.  I have a little bit of time to write, though, and I thought I'd update.  

Yesterday was a great day for me, actually.  I headed down to another dorm to watch an early-starting NFL kick-off, where I met some zealous Giants fans and a few Patriots fans who had decided to be Redskins fans for the day.  It's funny, up here, if you're a Redskins fan no one questions your affection for football.  Because you're obviously NOT bandwagoning.  That's for sure.  I was glad I was introduced by Jets fan K to the boys who had the t.v, because since they are very serious about football watching, they had actually purchased digital, high-def t.v.  Really.  They also have very overprotective mothers and therefore lots and lots of food.  Often, it works that way in college.  

Anyway, I had to leave early to head down to a sports section meeting, where my day was officially made.  We went through the issue that had come out that day, article by article.  My editor said the best things I could hear.  Really.  He said it was a great article and really clean, and it made things really easy for them because I got it in at such a great time and there wasn't much editing to be done. I'm learning.  Yay!  Then, to top things off, our faculty advisor came in to tell us all that based on this issue, the sports section is the strongest of the paper.  I practically died.  I'll have a lot of publishing online, which is where game reporting goes.  Now, the print sports section only publishes features, and I am scheduled to write one around mid-season after I pick up a good story and get to know the team better.  So I will be relishing this victory for a while.  The girls in my dorm cut out one of the copies and posted it on my door and wrote congrats all over the whiteboard.  So sweet!  

Classes are great.  My sports management teacher is hilarious and amazing.  She gets so into her lectures and debates, and she keeps everyone on his or her toes.  No one will EVER fall asleep in that class, I guarantee you.  

Weekend, but rain is supposed to come in tomorrow.  I hope there's not torrential rain while I'm sitting taking notes at the field hockey game.  That would be just fabulous.  

Why is it so hot here?  Isn't this why I came up North?  Hopefully the rain will bring a front in.   COLD one.