Lists

I was obsessed with that list by the time I was nine years old. It was posted weekly, sometimes even more than that. I would stand there dripping, sometimes multiple times in a day, flipping through it. Counting seconds, calculating differences. Sometimes I would go back just to see my name at number one, or plot ways to get out of number two or three.

That list was the swim team top times list. Every event. Every age group. And I loved that list. By the time I was older and didn't fly to the top as easily, I checked it less frequently. But then I started using it to estimate our chances for the next week. I was a coach, and I was plotting ways to get us out of number six or five.

I have a new list. This one has highlighter. It will be changed every Wednesday. It will tell me where I stand. It will tell me if I have to re-do a test piece. It will tell me who I have to beat, and who I lost to last week. Yesterday I saw it for the first time and felt the same rush of seeing who I was above, and who I was below. I was especially excited to see that I'd done well enough to move on to the 5k test on Monday.

Monday is the first official day on the season. The insanity begins. I'm going to work hard, get stronger, and get faster.

And I am already obsessed with that list.

Rowing for Humanity

Many of you are already aware of this, but today was our joint Habitat for Humanity and Ithaca Crew fundraiser. The coaches set up 8 ergs in our student union and had them going all day. Everyone was required to row for 30 minutes.

Oh, but here was the catch: in those 30 minutes, you had to row at least 6500 kilometers to get a seat on the bus to spring training in Georgia. I think this pressure made it far more interesting for spectators, because it meant we were all DYING and sweating our butts off in public. My throat still hasn't fully recovered. I think I started inhaling knives halfway through instead of air.

But guess what? I'm going to Georgia! I rowed 6,759 kilometers and kept a 2:13 average split. And I got a little woozy. But I know I can do better. Next goal? Top 7k.

But there's some other people who helped me do it. Everyone who donated pretty much rocked my (and the crew team's, and Habitat for Humanity's) world, because I far exceeded the average and was one of the team's top earners. So, basically, all of you are amazing. And you'll be hearing from me.

In non-crew news, the epic saga of Abby-can't-control-her-facial-reactions-to-information-and-Professor-Arroyo-somehow-sees-EVERYTHING has two more chapters. Last Friday he reminded me again after class that he is extremely entertained by my facial reactions. TODAY when he was telling us about France's ridiculous insistence that there be a second and unnecessary European parliamentary office in Strasbourg, he said IN THE MIDDLE of the class "Miss Paulson, if you roll your eyes any harder you many in fact injure yourself."

Ugh. I blame the French.

Being Mitch McConnell

Don't you love a provocative title? Allow me to explain.

My Legislative Behavior basically functions as one long simulation and examination of the Senate. We take on the identity of a Senator and conduct class--reading discussions as well as policy debate--as the Senate would. Who am I? I'm Mitch McConnell. The Senate minority leader.

Yeah. Do you know how hard it is for me to be Mitch McConnell? I'm a crotchety old white man from Kentucky. I have to be everything I hate about government. My goal has to be rendering the Senate entirely powerless. In real life I'm friends with "Harry Reid." Now I have to make his in-class life a living nightmare.

So, fun. But it's an awesome structure for a class. My first paper is supposed to help me embody my Senator and learn the good, the bad, and the ugly about him. So, our assignment is essentially to write a memo to a real or fictional opponent on how to defeat/destroy Mitch McConnell. Which is awesome. And intimidating, seeing as no one has really been able to do it in a million years.

Anyway, back in my real life, I've been suffering from DC Snow-envy and getting through class. Sunday was all around excellent. I took the day easy, because from here on out my Sundays are sacrificed to Newswatch. I then watched a great Super Bowl game with my friends. I am going to miss football.

In unrelated news, it can be spring now. Thanks.

Information That's Not All That Interesting

I've received multiple requests to blog again, because it's been almost a week. And I have actually sat down to write a blog post multiple times this week but stopped because I actually had nothing interesting to say.

Basically I've spent this week wondering how the heck I'm going to get my average split down far enough to make second varsity, as is apparently now expected of me. I won't get into the technicalities of it all, but I'll just tell you I'm concerned it's not humanly possible. I don't know if I have enough time. I'm playing serious catch up and I'm basically a year behind. Heck, even people who've been doing this for longer than 1 year aren't hitting those numbers.

But I'll try. Because there's no point in giving up before I've really started the game. And I want it.

I spent most of today wondering why a guy in one of my politics class was wearing the exact sweater Claire bought when we went to the outlets over break. The one that was most definitely from the women's section. Very much so. Then again, I go to Ithaca. So, there's that.

Yesterday I became very popular because I got a huge package filled with snickerdoodles. Om nom is right.

Oh, and in other news, I'm a Newswatch AP again! I auditioned on Sunday, and nothing horrible happened, so, getting the position was a result of that.

Anndddd...for those of the family that are interested, my permanent WICB news casts for this semester are Monday and Thursday at 8:46 on WICB.org or at 8:28 on VICradio.org.

I'm That Kid Blogging in the Computer Lab

Not that I'm really taking up space or anything because it's 10 am and people are either in class or sleeping. And I've already been here two hours. Yeah.

See, I don't have class until 10:50 today, but I get up at 6:30 anyway because I obviously hate myself and enjoy lifting heavy things and running around an old building at ungodly hours. I totally have to do this, however, because I realized that despite many years of swimming and athletic activity, I am totally weak. Like, I bench press the BAR and die. And this needs to be fixed.

After that I grabbed the necessary caffeine and carbs, inhaled them, and came here to do work in the computer lab that I'm apparently unable to do in my room because I get distracted. By things like blogging.

Crap.

But I was actually super productive while I've been in here, so no worries. This is my present to myself. I LIKE blogging, and it helps me sort out my thoughts and sarcasm, all of which are extremely crazy during the beginning of the semester and you sometimes want to curl up in a ball and sleep for months but instead you complete your assigned cardio units and set up stupid interviews for pointless class assignments that you hate. And then after that you read (okay...by the end, you're totally skimming) one hundred pages for a single class in one night. College.

You can probably tell by this post that I've been in one of those moods. So last night I called my parents and they made me feel totally better about my life and imparted copious amounts of wisdom while I whined at them. Then I called my sister and she made me laugh. It all works out eventually.

On a completely unrelated note, how about that State of the Union address? I am a political junkie and everything, but I was about to throw something through Ashley's television (hence my restraint) because of the excessive clapping and standing up. I kind of wonder what Robert Byrd does. How do the ancient Senators handle all that up and down cheering?

Anddddd, now my mind is fried, and I've got to recover if I'm going to understand anything my professor says in my next class. Deciphering the accent's quite the job.

Okay, So TODAY

I don't know what it is about second semester but I am kind of over it already. I mean, I am still not sure I've fully recovered from high school senioritis. It's going to be a while until I shake this whole "But I just relaxed and enjoyed myself for weeks!" thing.

So I was up before dawn to go die lifting weights. Becky decided I should now do the varsity workout, and my body protested profusely. I may attempt to go the entire day tomorrow without lifting my arms or bending over. It is unlikely that I will succeed, especially since I have practice. And classes. And a life.

Then I finally took care of business I was supposed to when I first got here, like annoy student financial services and ask them to give me my scholarship already. They were actually super nice and fixed everything in approximately two seconds. It was impressive.

My first class was my Environmental Policy: The USSR fake science credit class. But here's the shocker: it may actually be useful. First off, my professor is at Ithaca on a Fulbright Scholarship from Ukraine, and was 25 when the Soviet Union fell, so she knows what the heck she's talking about. Even if I can't always totally understand what she's talking about. It's the first class she's taught in english. However, the way she presented the class, I totally dug it. It's all about politics! And how politics can ruin the planet! I was pleasantly surprised.

My second class was my Legislative Behavior class, which is apparently some legendary amazing class that everyone in the politics major wants to take. And it sounds awesome. Extremely time consuming and taxing, but ridiculously cool. I will explain what makes it that way once I get over having to spend more money on books for it. Lame.

Then I came back here and read about the philosophy of ideology ( I KNOW. Seriously) and avoided reading about confederalist theory and the European Union. Oh, is it good to be back or what?

I also took a political compass test for a politics assignment and discovered I am more socially and economically liberal than Gandhi.

I think I'll just end the post with that.

First Day of Classes

If you follow my life at all, you'd know that today is the first day of classes for second semester. This is what went down. I'm a little too tired to make any of it actually interesting.

First I woke up to my alarm, which first sounded like it was in my dream, and wondered what was happening. "Am I on fire? Where am I? Why is it dark?" I thought. "Oh crap."

I got to News II extremely early, because that happens on the first day when I'm paranoid. There are only like eight people in that class. This is does not mean that it will be a better learning experience or anything. It's News II so it means I won't get to make nearly as pained facial expressions without being noticed. Basically it is the same class as News I--the bane of my existence--but meaner. Fun.

Then it was off to "Ideas and Ideologies" and the only real impression it made was that I was entirely surrounded by freshmen. It's a foundation class for the politics major and I spent most of it feeling falsely superior and inexplicably irritated.

Then finally I went to my Special Topics: The European Union class, and the jury is still out on that one. It could be fantastic and informative and useful. Or it could be insanely boring. Stay tuned. It's in an old lecture hall and the seats on our little flip out desk-y things are really low and cushy, so I feel oddly small and have to look up to see my professor. In a weird coincidence, my environmental class is in the same classroom tomorrow. Because I have a politics class in the Center for National Sciences.

Of course I do.

We had our beginning of the semester meeting for crew, and as usual it was the least annoying part of my day. We learned our schedule for the rest of winter training all the way up to spring break, and got fitted for our uniforms. I nearly passed out from excitement. We also filled out documents for the sports information people, which will eventually go on the Bombers website. I used them all the time for writing articles, and now I'll have one! Now I too can have a little descriptive sentence saying, "Abby, daughter of Kirsten and Mark, is awesome. She swam and played field hockey at Albert Einstein. She was even a captain of the swim team, which makes her sound extremely accomplished. See how upstanding and well-rounded Ithaca College students are?"

Or something like that. Maybe.

Tomorrow, I have my fake science class and Legislative Behavior. And lifting at 7am. Which is totally cool and everything, because I don't have class until 10:50. Oh, but I will be there anyway. For funsies.

And THAT was my first day of class.