I love it when a dance class comes together...

So, basically, I'm having a stellar evening (with only one tiny exception).

First of all, I was totally on top of it in African Dance tonight. No seriously, I hit all the right beats, I knew what to do with my feet, I knew what to do with my hands, I even got that weird moonwalk-y hopping step. I'm telling you: I rocked AND I rolled! And because I know that this was a bit of a freak occurrence and I'll probably have four weeks of classes that I do nothing but stumble around stupidly in, I'm enjoying my job-well-done while I can!

I also made all sorts of plans...I love accomplishing stuff! Tomorrow, I have three classes with two breaks (i.e. class, break, class, break, class). In the first break I'm going to renew my housing for next year and possibly take my CDs back to the Music Library. In my second break I'm catching a ride to a local fabric store where I can buy fabric for a lapa (kinda like a sarong...see the picture below) for African dance. This Saturday, I have a meeting about picking interview times for Devil's Advocates (student tour-leading group) and afterwards, I'm going to dash off in my "business casual" clothing with a sack-full of dance clothes at my side and catch a ride to downtown to take a master class with a famous dancer from the Congo. It's gonna be a long day!


At this point in my narrative comes the teensy unpleasant portion of the evening. I was sitting in the union after my wicked-awesome dance class and getting ready to dig into my delicious meal (nothing beats hot fries and chicken strips followed by a small piece of cheescake all from Chik-Fil-A after physical exertion. Nothing.) when one of the broadcast students came up. Basically, all these kids are selling magazine subscriptions to earn points to win money. It was bad. It was this guy named "Greg" and as much as I protested about not being interested...He...Kept....Going. It was like I was being verbally molested or something. Finally I snapped. I said, "Look, Greg, I know you want this money for 'books and beer' (*note: that is EXACTLY what he told me he wanted! Ugh!*) but I am not going to buy any subscriptions from you. I'm sorry." He stood up abruptly and said, "Yeah. I am too." By that point, my hot waffle fries and hot fresh chicken strips and cold cheesecake were all kind of lukewarm.

Boo to you Greg. You ruined a lovely young woman's meal. For shame.



I came back to my room and took a nice long shower (I even conditioned my hair!). Now, I'm sitting here writing (I plan to start on my Italian homework as soon as I'm done with this. I swear!) and I have the room to myself tonight. Soooo....I'm having a "me" night. I've got my zebra slippers and blue fuzzy sheep robe on, am listening to Garth Brooks, and enjoying a quiet evening alone.

I hope life is as lovely for you all.

Goooooooo Seahawks!

Congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks! I can't think of any time in my life when the Seahawks were anything but a colossal joke! The game last night was great and I now have a reason to watch the Super Bowl (two words? one? a hyphenate? I don't really know!) for the first time in several years. It was nice to have a little chunk of the Northwest to be proud of down here.

"I'm in a poor state and I'm not a painter."

Michelangelo wrote those words in a sonnet to a friend while he was working on the Sistine Chapel ceiling and I related.

Just a quick break in my studying to summarize the past week of classes. This weekend, I have had over two hundred pages of reading (not quite done yet) and a couple of small writing assignments. I feel like I've done little but study and read and work this whole week, but it's still far too early to tell if this is the result of my class load or just of the first week of classes (most professors build assignments into their syllabi for the first day so that students are behind before they even attend class for the first time!)

My classes seem to be going very well. With the exception of my lab units and Italian, I've attended every class at least twice. I have no plans to drop any (which is good, because today is the last day of drop/add). I'm taking 20 credit hours, dispersed over 6 classes, and I'm definitely pushing myself, but it feels good.

I absolutely adore the reading assignments/course materials for my Intro to Social/Cultural Anthropology class. Plus, I'm taking the class for honors credit so once a week all the honors students in the class (4 of us!) meet with the professor and talk about the readings more in-depth. We're also going to have a few extra assignments, such as an ethnographic description, kinship chart, and life history.

My Intro to Physical Anthropology is fast-paced and challenging. So far, we've started reviewing a lot of the things I learned in life science and biology but adding to it as well. I'm afraid I'm in way over my head, but I'm loving it. It feels good to stretch my science legs, as it were. Plus, my textbook has a picture of a monkey and a giant DNA strand and from a distance it looks like the monkey's swinging on the DNA. That makes me happy!

Art history is just as wonderful as I remembered it. I'm glad I didn't take 101 and 102 concurrently last semester, I'm afraid I would've been entirely lost. We're starting out 102 with the Renaissance, so the information is coming quickly...lots of names, lots of dates, lots of pieces. I am still considering whether to do the class for optional honors credit again this semester (my Hellmouth paper last semester was to fulfill the honors contract) and it seems like it would be quite a challenge to squeeze it in with all my classes and other commitments, but, as my art prof told me, I think I made the decision to do it long ago. Pressure can be a good thing, right?

Italian's about the same, except I have a different professoressa this time. I miss my last professoressa (Antonella), but the new one seems just as much a sweetheart. My class partner can't take the class this semester (she's a film major and that's very demanding), so I need to find someone new to work with. I miss her terribly.

Human Event also has a new professor. I'm not sure how I feel about that class yet: something feels off, though. I don't know if it's the teacher or the other students or the material, but the class feels....dead. Last semester, even though I didn't like the competitiveness of some of my classmates, at least the discussions were lively. This time around, people seem to be pointing out the obvious. Hopefully things will pick up in there.

I am taking African Dance this semester and have the aching ab muscles to prove it! I love the class. Nota bene: that does NOT mean that I'm any good at it, but I have a good time. Several people from my drumming class are in there and it's great to see them again. I need to get over to a local fabric store or else buy from my teacher a lapa, which is kind of like a skirt. *sigh* SO many errands to run!

On top of all my classes, I'm planning to interview (and hopefully be accepted into! Cross your fingers for me!) for the student group Devil's Advocates. This group leads all the campus group tours (about 10 tours go out a week) for prospective students. When I first visited ASU with my mom, the tour was really one of the tipping points in my decision-making process to apply. Also, the group seems really tight-knit and friendly...if I'm accepted, I think it will end up being a great social outlet for me (although I won't be able to make the monthly meetings...I have one of those freaky schedules that prevents meeting times. I swear. This happened last semester too!) The interview is a week from Tuesday! I'll keep you informed!

Ok, back to the reading and writing. Think of me fondly as I sit and waste away under the weight of textbooks and binders!

On death's doorstep?

Ok, this is where I get to play the role of wise woman of experience and impart the knowledge I gained today on to you, my dear readers.

Beware caffeine sickness.

Remember that Saved by the Bell episode where the neurotic girl started taking caffeine pills and snapped and all her friends did that intervention kinda thing? Don't worry, that's not what I mean.

All I mean is that I had a coffee before my night class because I was kind of dragging. Not so bad right? Well, let's count up the factors working against me:
1) I almost never drink coffee. When I do, it is in tiny tiny amounts. This was a grande (the medium size).
2) I drank the coffee in the evening (about 6pm).
3) and most importantly...I haven't had any caffeine (at all! seriously!) since Saturday, 4 days ago.

I am soooo sick right now. My hands are shaking and I'm all out of sorts. Trust me, kids, it's NOT fun. I plan to be in bed no later than 10pm. I don't care if my room mate and her boyfriend come in and spend the night here...I'll be asleep! Ha ha!

Please, just learn from my mistakes!

Liam Binge

Sorry I haven't been posting lately...I'm back in the land of dial-up (the land before time?) and I have only been doing the most necessary of Internet tasks. I go back to high-speed in one week and once classes start and interesting stuff occurs (I hope the two coincide!) I'll post some more.

I just came off a wonderful Liam Neeson/sleepover/good friends binge and am quite worn out, but I have many miles to go before I sleep...well, 16 until I'm home plus however many Mom and I cover in our grocery shopping trip.

Thusly, good night and good luck.