Sundown Rundown

Hi.

I know - Where have I been? I've been a little busy, truthfully. Nothing overly complicated, just the usual four classes, three labs, one seminar, and a student newspaper to print every two weeks. A student newspaper that kicked ass this issue - 24 pages, instead of our usual 20 - and our editor had a hard time defining which article would be the one to set campus on fire, as it was that packed. There's stuff in there on the Sexual Grievances Council (which I didn't even know existed); an article on how the excess fund has gone way down; how the Republicans tried to redefine rape (can they not figure out that no means no, and it really is as simple as that), as well as staff personal ads because Monday is Valentine's Day.

Which, by the way, I'm not looking forward to. We suggest slasher films, but I'm more of an action/adventure type of movie person, not to mention I have four classes and, technically speaking, two labs and while I'll be hoping the guys that have been eying me are going to actually do something about it, I'm not holding my breath. Otherwise I'd pass out and we'd have to call campus EMS.

On that note, I probably need more coffee and, as I ate lunch in our campus center today, I'll most likely be gnawing on a bagel and leftover mac and cheese for dinner tonight in my little room under the stairs.

Which leads me to the conclusion that if I'm here tomorrow when housekeeping comes through, I'm politely going to ask them if they could take it a little easy on the stairs as I can hear the little bits of ceiling and whatnot falling on the floor when they do whatever it is that they do. Also, a general note to my second-floor housemates might not be a bad idea because, while you don't think you're making too much noise in your boots, I beg to differ.

Pardon me now while I go start the coffee pot.

And since I've returned from starting said coffee pot, this sentence is the first I've written in about twenty minutes of sitting back down. I'm good, aren't I?

I'm not sure where to go with this, so I'll start at the top and work my way down.

Quantum Mechanics - It's an interesting concept with an even more interesting professor taught and a very interesting time in the morning (9:05-10:00) and directly follows the physics side of the same topic. We're interested in the chem side. We're interested in the stuff that's cool, but kind of wacky. Like, how one moment someone can be standing on one side of my doorway, and the next moment, they're in my room, and at no time in between have they ever actually gone through the door. (Only, do this with an electron in a vacuum, but I figured if I tried to explain that, I'd lose half my followers out of sheer boredom.) I see my professor in his office hours, I do my reading on a nightly basis, and it's all under control.

Solid Earth - Let me just say my professor painted his toenail today so that we can see (roughly) how long it takes tectonic plates to shift apart a year.

Mineralogy - A whole lotta complicated. Pretty to look at, but kind of complicated.

Shakespearean Performance - Well, when you piss off the professor, that's grounds for him to temporarily treat your THTR 386 course like THTR 178 and, it's been eighteen days, therefore you should have eighteen lines of your monologue memorized. Pick a number, number one now get up there and recite your monologue. Talk about a kick in the ass. (Me? I'm sitting at sixteen lines with a clear understanding of the reasoning behind my monologue because this English stuff? Fascinating.)

Curriculum and Instruction - Is going to drive me crazy. And that's all there is to it.

And, like usual, between moments of clarity, there are moments of a downright spastic nature. These usually involve martini, boys, hair days (good or bad, take your pick), and trying to keep my Adventuring Focus more or less on track. On rare occasions (okay, maybe not so rare), I talk to Henry, the giant spider plant. It's not so much communing with nature, but more like talking to the plant that's been with me since the Academic Opening dinner first year. I'm a bit worried, though, because he's got a lot of brown tips, and I think that's because his water basin isn't big enough for the pot he's now in. Which might require a trip to Wal-Mart.

What I'm going to do over Spring Break just became a valid question.

HWS is really cool in that they offer something called Alternative Spring Break - community service both in and outside of Geneva. We send a group to Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, and Nicaragua, respectively, and this year, because I don't need to worry about racking up teaching hours this semester, I applied for and was accepted into the Virginia program. My Spring Break will now consist of doing community service for a week in Pocahontas State Park in Virginia. I'm really excited because I like to volunteer, and I like to travel. This gives me both. I'm now going to have to figure out something to do with Henry for the week.

Then again, in true Louise fashion, I just might figure that out when I get there.

In terms of upcoming events and such - Monday is Valentine's Day and, like I said earlier, I'm not holding my breath that something will happen. I'm shit at reading signs (if the signs are even there at all) and, honestly, I'm not overly optimistic about this (which, if you know me, I'm an optimist to my core). What happens happens, that much I know and can't change.

Also coming up? The spring blood drive in which I can actually give, since it's been over a year since my touch ups. I'm very excited.

And I think that's all the rundown you guys needed to catch up on this slightly crazy, always Wandering Sagittarius.