Thursday, November 30, 2006
first snow of the season
I think my snowexcitement comes from the fact that I spent 18 years living in Lubbock and have experienced 5 times as many duststorms as snowstorms. I've been talking and thinking about snow all day, and several issues have come up:
My favorite sound is snow crunching under boots.
I am supremely grateful for my boots. It is incredibly satisfying to be able to walk through a never-ending puddle instead of prancing around the edges.
I am disappointed that ice-skating was cancelled this evening.
Lorelei Gilmore worships snow and I really enjoy that show. At least until after Rory and Logan stole that boat. Now I can't stand the fact that -- to paraphrase Stephanie -- the new Rory gets excited about a Berken bag while the old Rory would be too busy reading to care.
Nathan streaked across campus today. In this weather. Yup, true story.
Tomorrow is the Carol of Lights. The C of L is the best thing I will carry away with me from my time spent at this university. While that was much more dramatic than sincere, I still look forward to it each year. As I explained to Stephanie last year, I love Christmas carols, even the Jesus ones. With this weather, it will feel more Carol-of-Lights-y, unlike last year when I insisted on wearing my coat and scarf and was hot the whole time.
Dr. Conrad was talking about when he went to the Univeristy of Iowa and how this would just be normal winter weather for them - no biggie. In his 6 years there, class was only cancelled once. Iowa and Michigan are my top two grad programs of choice, and this somehow seems like a good omen.
Or a bad one, because I apparently can't drive in this weather. Or walk upright.
My favorite sound is snow crunching under boots.
I am supremely grateful for my boots. It is incredibly satisfying to be able to walk through a never-ending puddle instead of prancing around the edges.
I am disappointed that ice-skating was cancelled this evening.
Lorelei Gilmore worships snow and I really enjoy that show. At least until after Rory and Logan stole that boat. Now I can't stand the fact that -- to paraphrase Stephanie -- the new Rory gets excited about a Berken bag while the old Rory would be too busy reading to care.
Nathan streaked across campus today. In this weather. Yup, true story.
Tomorrow is the Carol of Lights. The C of L is the best thing I will carry away with me from my time spent at this university. While that was much more dramatic than sincere, I still look forward to it each year. As I explained to Stephanie last year, I love Christmas carols, even the Jesus ones. With this weather, it will feel more Carol-of-Lights-y, unlike last year when I insisted on wearing my coat and scarf and was hot the whole time.
Dr. Conrad was talking about when he went to the Univeristy of Iowa and how this would just be normal winter weather for them - no biggie. In his 6 years there, class was only cancelled once. Iowa and Michigan are my top two grad programs of choice, and this somehow seems like a good omen.
Or a bad one, because I apparently can't drive in this weather. Or walk upright.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
I am willing to overpay for coffee when I don't have to make it.
I went to Starbucks and ordered a Peppermint Mocha. It was as fulfilling as I had remembered from last year. The red sprinkles and holiday theme gets me every time.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Hearts! Stars! and Horseshoes!
I absolutely should not take naps. They make me disoriented and my dreams are incredibly surreal. Today I dreamed that I "downloaded" a necklace from my computer, which would actually be pretty nifty if it worked that way, arriving through your printer (I think it was an owl charm... or a bat... or a mouse). Then my old roomate and my current roomate were cooking in the kitchen, but I couldn't go out there because I was still looking for pants. Then when I looked in the mirror, I realized that both of my tattoos had turned into hearts. Hearts. I do not like hearts. That has to be the scariest ending possible.
The rest of November is going to be pretty horrid, I think. I have to finish all eight thousand of my projects, write the first two chapters of my thesis, and apply to grad schools. My goal is to be done with all of the grad school business by my birthday so I can celebrate in peace. I knew last spring that this semester might physcially kill me, but if I can just get through a few more weeks, then it's smooth sailing.
Next semester: Diet & Exercise (the description said it was "concept-based," which I hope means we just do worksheets rather than pretend to go upstairs and work-out then go to the trouble of sneaking back to the parking lot); Senior Seminar (with Conrad, love this guy, going to be amazing); Studies in James Joyce (with Shelton, who I've never had, but I hear she's a pretty unreasonable feminazi, we shall see); South American Archaeology (I don't really want to take this, nothing against archaeologists, but I would rather talk about other things than rocks and pottery fragments for a whole semester -- my mom would be so disappointed to hear me say that); and another individual study (with Frangos, best prof ever).
My dream really reminded me that things are pretty well. Worst case scenerio, I wait until the last minute to finish anything, which I've done before and it's worked out pretty well. My papers aren't great, but they work. I don't get all my apps in, but really only two of them have deadlines in December, most of them are in January or February. My thesis just plain doesn't get written. I have an extra spot next semester to take something less demanding.
In the end, I like my tattoos and they are the only permanent things in this discussion.
The rest of November is going to be pretty horrid, I think. I have to finish all eight thousand of my projects, write the first two chapters of my thesis, and apply to grad schools. My goal is to be done with all of the grad school business by my birthday so I can celebrate in peace. I knew last spring that this semester might physcially kill me, but if I can just get through a few more weeks, then it's smooth sailing.
Next semester: Diet & Exercise (the description said it was "concept-based," which I hope means we just do worksheets rather than pretend to go upstairs and work-out then go to the trouble of sneaking back to the parking lot); Senior Seminar (with Conrad, love this guy, going to be amazing); Studies in James Joyce (with Shelton, who I've never had, but I hear she's a pretty unreasonable feminazi, we shall see); South American Archaeology (I don't really want to take this, nothing against archaeologists, but I would rather talk about other things than rocks and pottery fragments for a whole semester -- my mom would be so disappointed to hear me say that); and another individual study (with Frangos, best prof ever).
My dream really reminded me that things are pretty well. Worst case scenerio, I wait until the last minute to finish anything, which I've done before and it's worked out pretty well. My papers aren't great, but they work. I don't get all my apps in, but really only two of them have deadlines in December, most of them are in January or February. My thesis just plain doesn't get written. I have an extra spot next semester to take something less demanding.
In the end, I like my tattoos and they are the only permanent things in this discussion.
