Airport Entertainment

This is how people text-message these days. (Also, Sammi just finished English: Introduction to Poetry.)

Sammi: I'm at the airport chillin . . .

Rafter: and havin the room to myself is pretty illin' . . .

Sammi: I'd assume so, without all the space I was filling

Rafter: Still, the lonely nights ahead won't be very thrilling.

Sammi: You can come back to California any time if ur willin.

Rafter: That might not be in the cards, at the rate that the economy is spillin.

Sammi: Understandable, when its prb you they'd be billin'

Rafter: Yep. So for hockey tonight, any chance of tigers killin'?

Sammi: Not a clue, their win streak has been sorta stillin'

Rafter: Yeah, why is that? Perhaps too many drills they've been drillin? Too many pills they've been pillin? Or perhaps too many biddies' frills they've been frillin?

Sammi: All of the above.

Toasted to a crisp. (a.k.a. grillin')

Pop Up My Video

I've got Skype now, ma. Add me to your contacts.

Here's a picture of me at the beginning of the year with Ashleigh.

Also from a few months ago, Chelsea and me.

The theme was Sitcom Character Stereotypes. Freshman Megan (in the back) was "the bratty little sister."

Temperature

It's 5:50pm, 3° F outside. It wasn't windy, so I wrapped myself in scarves and had a nice run. Some snow on the ground, about as much as Portland right now.
I'm pretty sure I've never been anywhere this cold before, so this is a personal record.

For Sammi

Back in Orange County

I saw AnnaMaria, Kaitlin, Alex, and Karina last night.I
It's like I hadn't seen them for a year - not four (+).
Good to know that I can still make them laugh.

We nixed Twilight and saw Quantum of Solace. Glad we did.

It's been a long time; the last movie I saw in theaters was The Bourne Ultimatum.
Funny I mentioned those two together. It's really true how Bond's been re-vamped for the "Bourne generation."

Male Scent

P.O.L.L. (Philosophy or Life Lessons)
This is a new section where I expound, profess, express, profound, regress . . . all the usual. ^[1]

The Axe Effect


Axe/Tag body spray is a product with genius marketing strategy:
"Axe Deodorant Bodyspray is the all-over bodyspray with long-lasting fragrance and effective deodorant protection designed to seduce the ladies. If you spray it, they will come."



In real life, all girls know that Axe smells gross and has no drawing power. All females avoid the scent.
My friend Hannah says this is an example of how false advertising can make people buy anything.
But I say no - Axe is the result of some brilliant feminist infiltration!

Here's how it when down.
Woman A, after a bad experience with a d-bag, is talking to her friends about dating:
Woman A: "He seemed so nice. But then I came back from the bathroom and he was all over the waitress, and in public! I had to run home to wash the skeeze off me."
Friends: "Aww . . . "
Woman A: "There's a lot of strong, intelligent, respectable guys out there, but how in the world am I supposed to separate the good ones from the jerks?"
Woman B who happens to be a chemical engineer: "I know! If we could get them all to wear this anti-pheromone spray I just developed . . ."
Friends: "How do we get them to do that?"
Woman C who happens to be in advertising: "Well . . ."

And they came up with a campaign. They found a target demographic: the kind of young males inclined to believe that they could douse themselves in a $5 bottle of chemicals and therefore induce hordes of females to chase after them. They made it smell bad to girls, and okay to boys.

The avoidance success rate still hovers around 93%. Girls have been able to avoid encounters after sniffs from distances anywhere between 50 and 150 meters. "Nice guy" dates are up 34 percent.
Axe also causes girls to deepen their understanding and appreciation for regular boy smell.

So thank you, whoever is behind Axe.

A Serious Heart to Heart

Where do I see myself in the next 5 years? I really don't know.












Just kidding!

Seeing, not just Looking

Quick Interview

Facebook Style Questions

What celebrity do people say you look like?
Diana Taurasi, point guard in the WNBA.

My personal philosophy is...
to go to new places and do things that have never been done before. Also, it's better to burn out than to fade away.

Which sport is the best to watch?
Hockey, gymnastics.

What music should they play at your funeral?
3rd movement of Philip Glass's Symphony No.3, and Cat Stevens's "Peace Train"

I wouldn't mind being stuck in a closet with . . .
a hammock.

What's your favorite candy?
The vanilla sticks that come with Fun Dip.

People think that I'm . . .
really outgoing, but I'm not. I just aspire to be fearless.

What's your favorite 80's band?
Joy Division.

What are three ways you're making the world a better place?
I smile at strangers, I listen to problems, and I eat vegetarian.

What's your dream job?
Astronaut.

Do you sleep on your side, back, or stomach?
Stomach.
What's the first thing you do when you wake up?
Go back to sleep.

What's your favorite restaurant?
Salvador Molly's.

How old were you the last time you trick-or-treated?
19. I love Halloween.

I feel naked without my . . .
choreography journal.

What's your earliest memory?
Trying to eat carpet.

Quick! Write the last sentence of your biography.
Then she ascended into the heavens.

Ancestry

It's some kind of Heritage Week here at CC.

Mom and Dad, where are we from?
I'm Irish, Polish, French-Canadian, and Croatian. I want to know exactly where we come from.
Especially Croatia. You know, I would like to identify most strongly with my Croatian ancestry.

Poland
I have no idea.

Ireland
County Cork and County Mayo. But what towns?

Croatia
Cittavecchia, the Italian name for Stari Grad, a town on the island of Hvar in Dalmatia, Croatia.
Correct?


France/French Canada
Also no idea.

Whoa. Fullerton.

Two of Sammi's best friends from Orange County are visiting this weekend. They are Allison and Sandra. I know them slightly because they helped me with Sammi's birthday present^[1] over the summer. They came in late last night, and they're sleeping on our futon / floor pads.

I told them I was from Portland, Oregon, but I was originally from Fullerton, California. Allison said, "Me too!" She looked familiar, but probably only because I'd seen her picture on Sammi's Facebook page.

Everyone but me got to sleep in this morning. After my class, we met up back in the dorm room before lunch, and Allison asked if I had ever played soccer. Specifically, Fullerton Rangers Youth Soccer. She was unsure about why she kind of recognized me. But that was all I needed to go on.



We were on the same team when we were 12.



Intense.

Footnote:
[1] For Sammi's birthday, I handmade a book containing things that she loves.
I put in old Greek myths, poetry, quotations by her favorite writers (Dumas, Homer, Steinbeck, Whitman), the Coffee Psalm, her favorite short story: A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas, jokes, wordplays and puzzles, and Did You Know?s. I also contacted all of her best friends to ask them, "What is your favorite spoken word?" I put a list of those in the book. How did I find out who her best friends were? I used Sammi's Facebook. I looked to see who she designated as her "Top Friends," and who she conversed with the most in the digital world. Then I emailed those people behind Sammi's back. It was very sneaky

Block 3: Elementary Chinese

I know you all want to know how the class is going.

This is the quiz from Day 2:



I'm unofficial study buddies with Connor, my next-door-neighbor. His roommate George is fluent. We memorize characters for hours in my room, and bang on George's door for pronunciation help. Shan-Shan, my friend and Molly McGee's former roommate, is fluent, too, so she helps me with characters. However, she speaks with a southern accent, almost Cantonese, so I don't ask her for any help with pronunciation. For example, she pronounces her own name "San-San."
Across the hall is Rosie, who has rosy-colored hair. She's in the class.
Paul's in the class, too. He is the unicycle enthusiast from Maryland. My friend Joel is his R.A.

I love the teacher, Hong. She is really good, and patient, and we can understand her thick Chinese accent, and it's fun to say something to make her giggle.

There's 10 people in the class, 5 boys and 5 girls. Four are sophomores, the rest are freshmen. A few of them have been to China, but on the first day no one knew more than a few words. Now at the end of Week 1 we know a bunch of words. No one's too shy to ask questions. We meet every morning from 9 to noon, and on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays from 1 to 2pm. The afternoons help, and they're not nearly as long as science labs. The visiting student from China helps teach these. Her name is Lu.

To answer the question on how I'm doing: it's pretty fantastic. I'm never behind, and often ahead. The only person doing better than me is Rosie, and she has two adopted sisters from China.

Starting Monday, we aren't allowed to use our English names. Jiang Hong Laŏshī (Professor Hong Jiang) gave us names that sound similar to our given names. Kathryn Rafter is now Kaīlĭng Rèn. Since you put the surname first in China, it's really Rèn Kāilĭng.

My first name, Kāi Lĭng, means "open leader." The initial Kai-Ling that the professor came up with meant "graceful gentleness." Paul, Connor, and Rosie said it definitely did not describe me. No worries, because I found a better name by accident. During lab I put my name in the wrong pinyin on a document, and it generated different characters. Hong told me what they meant, and she said I should keep them.

The surname Rèn means assign, appoint, office, or responsibility. It's a somewhat common name.


I don't think Hong Laŏshī (Professor Hong) will call me Rèn, so I'll probably just get everyone to shorten Kāilĭng to Kāi.

Democracy!

Today I voted for the first time, ever. I didn't participate in any of the primaries because I'm a registered independent. It was super exciting. I only waited in line for 1.5 hours, and I made friends with a CC freshman, and we talked and played People Games. Someone played a guitar, and it seemed like everyone brought their kids.

It's cool seeing Colorado in the New York Times every day, because of our early voting. (CC puts a newsstand of free NYTs in every dorm.)
Colorado Springs Gazette: Early voting sets records. "More than a third of registered voters already have cast a ballot."

There were some amendments that were really hard to figure out, especially the oil business tax thing. I couldn't remember if I wanted to vote yes or no. It said something like "prohibiting allowing for credit against" and I thought about people who are barely literate trying to figure that out . . . . . . How much of our government is determined by confused people closing their eyes and picking a box?
But thanks to last block, Politics of the Legal Process, I was able to decipher the legalese and make a decision.

I voted here, right where that lady in the red coat is standing.

Oh, and I didn't have any problems. A new law let me use my CC ID as a valid form of identification, and I didn't get harassed or stopped. But there have been major problems right in this county. (The Colorado Independent: Election snafu roundup: Lots of tricks, some treats for voters.) Like that out-of-state registering scare.

"El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink recently made headlines for releasing false information a few months ago, stating that college students cannot register to vote in Colorado if parents living outside of Colorado claim the students as dependents on their income tax returns. Balink released a statement correcting his mistake." CC alumni involved in the 2004 election confirmed that Balink's office had "tried the stunt at least three times before and failed each time."
- C.C.'s Cipher magazine, Vol.XII, Issue II.

I got my electronic voting card with no problem, and everyone seemed to like my costume.


Here's me, dressed as Peter Pan, drinking chocolate milk from a champagne glass, riding to the El Paso County polls in a limo. I'm not making any of that up. Some advocacy group hired a party bus limo to escort CC students to the polls, probably to convince us to vote early.

They even let me take my plastic sword to the booth.

Mergency DJ

Here's my playlist. I keep the mp3 player on me at all times in case of emergency. Friends, peruse the list.

• "What You Waiting For?" by Gwen Stefani. The Jacques Lu Cont Mix for pre-party chill or the OrangeFuzz Mix for mid-dance-party energy.
• "Push" by Enrique Iglesias. A slower, sticky kind of song.
• "Waterman [Original Dub]" or "Like This" by Olav Basoski. Both fun party-starter songs.
  
• "They're Everywhere (Party People)" by Izza Kizza. This isn't even out on CD yet. Killer bass, intelligent rhythm.
  
• "Genesis" by Justice. Excellent electronics.
• "Go Baby" by Lupe Fiasco. Some very smooth throwback hip-hop.
• "Da Dip" by Freak Nasty. Real old school. I cannot find the remix that merges into belly dance music . . . wish I could.
  
• "B-Boyz" by will.i.am. Fun, funky, light stuff.
• "Bounce" by Timbaland. Turtle remix. Cause everybaaaaahhhdy likes Step Up 2.
• "Church (Ft. Teddy Verseti)" by T-Pain. Proof that all you need is one killer song to sell a CD.
• "I'mma Shine" by YoungBloodZ.
• "Sex N' Money" by Paul Oakenfold.
  
• "In the End" by Kate De Luna. Crunk'ed Oriental Remix by DJ Lello. Gotta throw the girly-girls a bone.
• "369 feat. B.O.B." by Cupid. Great for dancers into footwork.
  
• "Swing" by Savage. At least they aren't demanding "Low" anymore.
  
• "Ooh Wee" by Mark Ronson.
• "Comin' Back" by The Crystal Method. The Koma And Bones Remix.
• "Give It to Me" by Timbaland. Slower stuff for slower moments. It replaces "The Way I Are" on your old playlist.
  
• "Say Cheese" by Mims.
• "Ride the Pony" by F***pony. Sebastian Tellier remix.
  
• "Ain't No Stressin'" by Montana Tucker.
• "Hoodie" by Lady Sovereign. Basement Jaxx Remix is genius. That's why you should play Basement Jaxx's "Where's Your Head At?" . . . a shorter edit.
• "Let Me Think About It" by Ida Corr Vs Fedde Le Grand.
  
• "Lose Control" by Missy Elliot. DJ isyankar vs. Fatman Scoop remix. It's a minor remix, just one that ends better.
  
• "The Seed" by The Roots. Made really popular among Colorado campuses by the soundtrack for Collateral.
  
• "Galang" by M.I.A.
• Take the "Marina Gasolina (Peaches Remix)" of "Gasolina (Crookers Crunk Remix)" by Bonde do Rolê. Do you follow?
  
• "Brooklyn is Burning" by Head Automatica. Put this rock anywhere to cut up the hip-hop.
  
• "Mundian to Bach Ke (Beware of the Boys)" by Panjabi MC. You will recognize this song.
  
• "Walk it Out" by Unk. Fun, dumb stuff.
  

Fun Run

First we made some drastic hair changes.


Kate went reddish.


Louisa went ultra-red.


Chelsea went light.


Molly went dark.


I did not dye because I already cut all my hair off, and that was the most drastic change of all.


Then we (upperclassmans) took tha kids (freshmans) on a fun run in the dark. It was hilarious.

Itchy sweater ruins another photo.

Room

I totally trashed the room while Sammi was in Greece. I didn't feel like cleaning.

I felt like it over Block Break. Thankfully, there are no "before" pictures. Well . . .
"Before"


"After"

Now all we need are some chairs and we can have groups of people over for chats and studying.

I got the cloth in the mail, thanks Mom. It's lovely.


Oh right, I have a "Before before" picture from long ago. Remember? It's the same corner.

C.C. Hockey Takes Over At No. 1

YEAH!

Colorado College Takes Over At No. 1 In USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Poll

MINNEAPOLIS (Oct. 20) — Taking advantage of weekend losses by Boston College and Michigan, Colorado College took over the top position in the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Division I men’s poll, released Monday.

The Tigers swept Michigan Tech to stay perfect on the season, and garnered 39 of 50 first-place votes to climb to No. 1 in the season’s third poll. WCHA neighbor Denver moved up to No. 2 after sweeping Wisconsin, notching five first-place votes in the process.

Academic Calendar

November 19, Wed: End of Block III
November 24, Mon: Beginning of Block 4
November 27, Thurs - Nov. 30, Sun: Thanksgiving Break

It's all here.

Legal Question

Like half the class, I still can't come up with the legal question(s) for a case.
Like in our contract law section^[1], with the example of the poltergeist-real estate case Stambovsky v. Ackley. It was common knowledge that Ackley's house was haunted, and she sold it to Stambovsky, an out-of-towner. Plaintiff sought to rescind the contract and recover his down payment. What is the legal question here?^[2]

It says New York Supreme Court "reluctantly dismissed the complaint, holding that plaintiff has no remedy at law in this jurisdiction."
So the legal question is: "Does the New York State judicial system have jurisdiction over claims involving parapsychic activity?"

Er, no.

Footnotes:

^[1] in which we use Politics and the Law of Contracts, written by Lief Carter. For the ghost case he cites Shakespeare and Ghostbusters in the same paragraph.

^[2] He might appreciate, but not give credit for: "Who you gonna call?"

Things About Me that May Surprise You

These are things about me that may surprise you (you meaning my CC or JHS friends; I'm sure my family knows all.)

To begin.

Most everybody I know at C.C. has a talent that they mastered and took really far; then they got tired of it and stopped several years ago and never looked back.
Mine was tap dancing.

When I was thirteen I took a solo to Dance U.S.A. where I tapped for the first half, then sat down in the middle of it to take off my shoes so I could do jazz for the rest of it. My teacher, Shannon Steen, was a 5-year Laker girl/choreographer and professor of dance at Berkeley.


I was born in Fullerton, California on January 5th, 1989, the same day as the first lawsuit between Apple and Microsoft. As it so happens, my mother was the computer technology reporter for the Orange County Register, right at the birth of the Internet.

My love affair with Claude Monet started when I was seven years old. I finally got to see his garden when I was seventeen.


When I was in 4th grade I was televised reciting the rosary at the Međugorje Peace Conference.

I babysat two Miss Californias: 2003 Miss California Jr. Pre-Teen, and 2005 Miss California Jr. Pre-Teen/2006 Miss California Pre-Teen.

I have legitimately pole vaulted 12 feet (which would have won me a state title). It was inside a basketball gym. My coach, Paul Wilson, was the first high schooler in the world to do 16 feet, and he held the world record for a year and four months in the sixties.

I hold the female record for JUGs (detentions) at my high school.

My dad was growing up in Alexandria, Virginia, during Remember the Titans.

1985-1986 my mother was working in Sweden, writing the English news. She quit, probably because it wasn't very exciting, right before February 28, when Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot dead on his way home from the cinema.

I'm a ChaCha guide.

I know more than 50 old-fashioned nursery rhymes by heart.

I have been in two (or three) major car accidents, and the airbags never deployed.

I can bellydance, wiggle my ears, and play the ocarina. That's about as far as my useless talents go.

Sixteen of my HS classmates got NCAA Division 1 scholarships.

I have broken all of my best race times during tempo runs.

My friend Allison's mom was the reporter in the "I Like Turtles" youtube vid.

Stupid Question Hall of Fame

Prompted by a couple stupid questions from last block -

Block 1, Group meeting
I'm reading aloud "Foreign aid to Bolivia" off Wikipedia, to help out Redhead Girl. This is after I've offered Redhead Girl about five times to switch topics with her, to no intelligible response.
Redhead Girl: [angrily] Why do you get to do the party politics of Bolivia when I have to do international intervention? I just don't get it. You obviously know so much more about the humanitarian issues than I do. World Bank? Evo Morales? All that stuff you just said? Tons! I don't know ANYTHING about foreign aid whatsoever and you do!
Me: . . . . . . .

I've been on CollegeHumor reading articles by this guy Streeter Seidell. He gets students to send in stupid questions. So I've been laughing, and crying, because I'm laughing so hard.

Examples

Pasadena City College
Professor shows a picture of a man sitting on a high throne with two servant boys kneeling before him...
Professor: ...and here, you'll see a picture of the Pope.
The Brilliance: Which one's the Pope?

University of Colorado
Professor, while discussing the characteristics of living organisms, was interrupted...
Sorority Girl: Wait, I'm so confused; are trees alive, because like they don't move, right?

College of Southern Nevada
While discussing the effect on farming during the great depression...
The Brain: Why do people need still farm if they could just go to the store?

Professor: Side note, there will be an eclipse tonight at approximately 8:30pm if any of you want to see it.
Lady Einstein: Is it a solar eclipse?
Professor: It's at night...

Drake University
Professor: So what are some environmental factors in a child's development?
The Brilliance: Climate?
Prof: Well, yes, I suppose that could have a minor effect.
The Brilliance Jr.: Landscape?
Prof: ...

University of Maryland
The teacher was talking about the smooth musket which allowed attackers to be about 100 feet away from the defenders without getting injured. Once at 100 yards the attackers could charge the defenders.
Valedictorian: Is this the origin of the 100 yard dash?

Professor: And marketers took the NASA invention "Tang" and made it a popular drink
Stephen Hawking: Who even likes Tang? Seriously, Orange flavored Milk?
Professor: I believe it's supposed to be mixed with water.
Stephen Hawking: Oh, I guess that really clears up a lot.

Fitchburg State College, Londonderry, New Hampshire
Professor: How do you think Abraham Lincoln was elected even though abolition wasn't the most popular idea of the time?
The Brilliance: Well, obviously all those slaves voted for him, right?

Marist College, Batavia, New York
Little Einstein: So if plants grow best in red and blue light, why are they grown in greenhouses?

Wright State, Columbus, Ohio
The professor was talking about equilateral triangle...
Genius: So what's it called if there are more than 3 equal sides?
Professior: A square.

Ohio State, Dayton, Ohio
Prof: . . . even transportation for the natives evolved as the Europeans showed them how bareback riding made traveling easier.
Dumb girl: Do we need to know what kind of bears they rode for the test?

Block 2: Politics of the Legal Process

This mindwarp is the most lawyery class that CC offers, according to my professor (and ex-advisor) Lief Carter. He says it's responsible for many students deciding not to be lawyers, ever.

The hard part is having to think all the time without using empiricism or emotion or just plain taking common knowledge for granted without talking it through. For example, Carter took $20 from the guy sitting next to me and we had to convince him to give it back by the end of class.

So I love it and I really hate it, too.

Finals

Block 1: Intro to International Relations

I gave a presentation with 5 other students on the situation in Bolivia. I took the last topic, Foreign relations: Diplomatic responses. Here's the outline.

Bolivia: involvement/impact on international community

1. Historical context: oppression of indigenous people
2. Composition of government: President Evo Morales and party politics
3. Economy: “liberalization”
exploitation of natural resources
- Bolivian Gas War
- Cochabamba water war
4. Illegal international trade: smuggling and drugs
5. UNACUR: South American relations
6. Foreign relations: Diplomatic responses to these issues
- course of foreign aid or intervention

It went well, and the follow-up is to write a paper on the country, with a focus on my topic.

Schedule Reconfiguration

I made an appointment with the course advisor, and got this year sorted out, so this is how it's going down. This post has been annotated post-modernist style. [a]

Old Sched
Block 2 - Basic Filmmaking [b]
Block 3 - Chemistry 107 [c]
Block 4 - French 305
Block 5 - Arabic I [d]
Block 6 - Arabic I
Block 7 - Intro to Comparative Politics
Block 8 - International Politics of Middle East and North Africa [e]

New Sched
Block 2 - Politics of the Legal Process [f]
Block 3 - French Civilization [g]
Block 4 - French Civilization
Block 5 - Arabic I [h]
Block 6 - Arabic I
Block 7 - American Politics and Government [i]
Block 8 - Dance and Digital Technology [j]

FOOTNOTES
[a] Speaking of annotations and postmodernism, I can't believe David Foster Wallace committed suicide. Mom told me he died, but I didn't imagine the worst. I loved his review of Terminator 2. Poop.
[b] Waitlisted #4 and probably never going to make it in. There were few Block 2 class choices that appealed to me. Really.
[c] "Kathryn, I feel like you're trying to prove something here."
[d] Not changing this. Nope.
[e] I want to take Int. Politics of Mid. East and N. Africa later on, and not during a Block 8.

[f] with Carter, my ex-advisor.[k] I'm gonna feel the burn in this class. He's a toughie. But I feel that it will be very beneficial to my overall education.
[g] This was the only "West in Time" requirement I could fit in. While the requirements at C.C. generally don't ask too much of us kids, I think of the "West in Time" requirement concept (and the very small choice of classes that fit it) as rather silly. The good news is: there's only 7 kids signed up for it. That's not including freshmen, though.
[h] Still keeping it.
[i] a Poli Sci major requirement. Yawn.
[j] Sweet! And there's no final live performance, because the projects are filmed and made into a movie which is then presented, so I won't miss track things.[l] And Patrizia will be so happy. [m] She asked me specifically to enroll. I'm continually surprised at how phenomenal the dance dept. at C.C. is.

[k] Something tells me that I should learn to play golf, so that I can get on his good side. Not that we would actually play golf, but we could talk about it.
[l] Also, there's no papers and I'll be able to get some sleep during track season and not get sick [n] and attend all those pole vault practices besides.
[m] Patrizia taught my beginning choreographer class, and she's brilliant.

[n] I haven't been sick all Block. I have been so healthy[o] that I deserve a medal. Not even a sniffle.

[o] immune system-wise. Taunt me not about running.

Adagio for Haircut No. 1: Variation

Yeah, it's hard to hear. I said, "the hair was getting kinda long, so I took some scissors and trimmed it. Looks okay."

Question for Lawyer Dad and Writer Mom

Today I got a letter in the mail from the International Library of Poetry saying I was a finalist in their Open Amateur poetry contest. I sent in one for laughs.
Now, I know the whole thing is a terrible scam. So what does one do with the offending documents?

Vegetarianism

I am officially a healthy vegetarian. My hemoglobin and hematocrit levels are excellent, so I'm going to keep it up. Must be the pound of tofu spinach salad I eat every night.

Petruskas

The Petruskas are here. I walked right past Caitlin heating her back in the training room without recognizing her. But then I saw her family and they gave me cookies and I watched her team for a bit. (I didn't stick around to watch Whitman get demolished by CC.)
Between games I took Greg and Michele and the brother (I forgot his name already) to see my room in Slocum. If you guys - my real family - come to visit me this year, people are going to be really confused because Michele is blonde and they know I have a brother in high school. They'll be like, "Didn't your family already visit?"
We're going to dinner later tonight.

IT Band Woe

Yes, IT band woe. It's not a season-ruiner, but it means lots more time spent in the training room and doing extra physical therapy.

MONDAY UPDATE: My shoes got in and they're pretty fabulous.

I've been doing lots of swimming and getting super strong, arr! Dad, guess what - after I did a really hard interval workout in the pool, I did a 34 sec 50 meters.

The Freshpeople Race

The big kids did something special for their first race.

Ted was rather impressed with how well they did so early in the season.
Also, meets are quite fun, when you're just spectating.

News: CC [just the freshmen] take fourth at Rust Buster Invitational
9/8/2008
"The women’s cross country team finished fourth out of five teams at the CU-Colorado Springs Rust Buster Invitational on Saturday at Monument Valley Park despite competing with a lineup consisting of all first-year runners."

Headline News

The Room
We're in Slocum on the third floor again but not in the same hall. My RA's name is Jennie Vader

and she's nice. Sammi and I are getting along very well, as usual. We purposely arranged furniture in our room to leave a ton of space,

because we want to put in a table and a couch. This weekend we'll be perusing craiglist and/or garage sales for sub-$30 furniture.

This one looks good.

It seats 8. And it folds!

Send Me Things
Sammi's in Lit Theory this block, and reading Heart of Darkness, so please send my stack of DVDs, especially Apocalypse Now. I have a box of things I'm sending back (including some useless NCL care package things from last year, so don't falsely harangue me for buying a leopard-print wallet.)

Block One
Intro to Some International Relations
I made some contributions to the discussion today, which blows, because now the professor's going to expect me to have insights on future discussions. Sometimes I just don't have something to say on a particularly obvious topic, ya know?
I translated French for my class today (even though our class has a French major, who couldn't do it. heh)

Montesquieu: Une maladie nouvelle s'est répandue en Europe ; elle a saisi nos princes et leur fait entretenir un nombre désordonné de troupes. Elle a ses redoublements, et elle devient nécessairement contagieuse ; car sitôt qu'un Etat augmente ce qu'il appelle ses troupes, les autres, soudain, augmentent les leurs ; de façon qu'on ne gagne rien par là que la ruine commune. Chaque monarque tient sur pied toutes les armées qu'il pourrait avoir si ses peuples étaient en danger d'être exterminés, et l'on nomme paix cet état d'efforts de tous contre tous. Aussi l'Europe est-elle ruinée.

Visitors
When are the Petruskas coming over for volleyball?


2008 women's cross country preview
Future looks bright for young Tigers (ha ha)
My running is going really well. I adjusted to the altitude with no problem; start with daily doubles in the pool tomorrow morning. Just keep swimming . . .

Much Better

I hesitate to unpack boxes before Sammi arrives, because we'll be rearranging furniture. This year calls for a real living space - a pad - for entertaining several people at a time. We need a couch.
And man, do I have a lot of useless things for which I don't have room .

Back on Campus

I'm getting my room organized. The biggest box of stuff exploded right over the doorway into the room. It was quite a mess. Joel laughed for a good five minutes before helping me bulldozer it inside. Thankfully it didn't happen in the elevator or anything.
I texted Sammi and she's coming on Friday. We're missing a bureau but maintenance should arrive with one in a few minutes.
XC people will be here Wednesday. They miss me and say the freshmen are cool.
Everyone I've seen so far, especially Luke Parkhurst, loves the haircut. He (Luke) said that some people get "oh, you got a haircut" and some people get "oh, you got a good haircut" but Rafter gets "oh, you got a bombtastic work of art and you look amazing!" Very flattering.
Now to clean some more. Bye!

Do

I did Locks of Love today, finally. Location: the MAC


Last documentation


Cutting it off . . .


Gaaaahhh! Put it back! Put it back!!!






Jeremy did the cutting. He was very nice.


Finished.