Monday, October 27, 2008

Bringing my little fangirl heart back to life

I am watching Heroes right now, and I have NO IDEA what is going on.

I LOVE IT!

(Up until tonight, Heroes has been annoying and hard to follow. While I'm slightly confused, it is nothing compared to the past few weeks. I have been yelling at the TV in a good way. YES!!!)

Friday, October 24, 2008

In which I babble and lack a point

It is grey and dreary outside. I have one window in my room, which is filled with my air conditioner, so all I can see is a flat, bluish-grey from the upper half my window.

I know in a few weeks, I will hate this weather. I will call it names and shake my fist at it and wish for spring. Right now I am feeling particularly generous to the weather, though, because this weather, this awful, dreary weather? This weather means that it is late October and my quarter will be finished soon. This weather means winter break and reading books that I get to choose and not having to stay up until 3 a.m. to finish my homework. 

I am going home for the weekend, to watch movies and hang out and get away from the craziness that is my dorm. I have some really great stories to share about my dorm life, especially the time one of my floormates decided it was a better idea to get me instead of an RA. Just so you know, dear readers, if we ever live in the same building, if you decide to get me instead of the person paid to resolve the various situations that pop up in dorm life?

I will be very, very grumpy. 

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Tales of ye olde universitee

Today, I went to the student health center to make an appointment to finally deal with some issues I've been having. 

Hudson used to be open Monday through Friday only; budget constraints meant that the university could not afford to have Hudson open anymore than that, despite the overwhelming consensus that it needed to be open more. Amazingly, students need medical attention on the weekends! Because, apparently, we still get infections and have unprotected sex and punch walls while drunk on the weekend. So the bigwigs on campus put their heads together and, after realizing that they couldn't build a better facility or really do anything to improve our health care, decided that the solution was a $40 fee! The fee, they said, would mean they could afford to be open four hours on Sunday and could hire another doctor, among other things.

If a student decided not to pay the fee, he or she now has to pay for x-rays, visiting the campus psychiatrists, and being told that he or she does, in fact, have a massive sinus infection that is slowly making his or her head implode. 

For me, the fee means I can go see a doctor, which makes me okay with part of my loans and what not going into the program. I thought, 'hey, Hudson will be open on the weekends! I will be able to get any help I need!'

Because it turns out that I need help. But that is another post for another day.

I met my mom and brother for coffee this morning, then sat outside of Hudson until it opened at one. I walked inside, waited for my eyes to re-focus (it was really bright outside and I am very tired), and found the elevator. No one on staff noticed me - at least five other people walked in with me. Not many workers had shown up while I was sitting outside, so I had my doubts about whether or not the elevator would even come. In most buildings on campus, they shut off the elevator when the rest of the building is closed. But the elevator doors immediately slid open, I stepped inside, and pressed the third floor button.

It reached the third floor, the doors slid open and... I was greeted by near complete darkness. The only light on the third floor was coming from the sun filtering in. 

I went back downstairs and found out that only the emergency care bit of the building is functioning during Sundays. I didn't bother pointing out that the third floor was accessible and that I could have spent the day doing my homework up there, presumably without them finding me. I'll let them find that out on their own.

Friday, October 10, 2008

The first thing I do

The problem with Athens is that the weather is unpredictable. Even if it is predictable, the temperature varies so much that my options suck when I get dressed in the morning. It is 45 degrees and foggy at 8 in the morning, then it is 75 and balmy by 1. It sucks.

Today, I was wearing jeans and a tee shirt, with a sweater thrown on for good measure. It was 45 degrees when I ran out the door (I turned off my alarm when it went off, and I do not remember doing this, but I did and did not wake up until twenty minutes before I had to be out the door). At 3, when my parents picked me up so I could get some groceries from Wal-Mart, it was 80. I was boiling in my jeans.

When it is hot and disgusting, I try to avoid wearing anything that is denim. I just canNOT stand to have jeans touching my skin when it is hot. They make me feel like I am suffocating.

So the first thing I did when I got back to my dorm was dig a pair of pajama bottoms out of my dresser and rip off my jeans. I wanted to cuddle my pajama bottoms to my chest and sing a happy little song about how wonderful they were when I grabbed them from my dresser.

Turns out it takes very, very little to make me happy.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

My exhaustion runneth over

I have spent the entire day attempting to not fall asleep in class. The ENTIRE DAY. The only time I've not found myself struggling to not nod off has been at work or while I was writing a story for my news writing class. I find this absolutely arbitrary, because I actually fell asleep relatively early and didn't wake up until after seven a.m. 

Anyway, of all of my classes this quarter, my favorite class is news writing followed by oceanography. I love news writing because it is actual journalism, instead of information about the history of journalism or an unhappy education in the area of independent and dependent clauses. I also love that class because there is no homework. The most effort I put into that class is going over my assignments and AP style quizzes and figuring out what I did wrong so that I do not repeat that mistake. As much as I loved telling people I wrote an obit for a Finnish man with 22 grandchildren, as gleefully as I reported this fact to people because it made me giggle, it is the (lack of) homework that has won me over. I often have a laundry list of things competing for my time, a list that never, ever gets shorter. I am caught up for perhaps 2.1 seconds before I realize that I can't remember when I last showered or that my dishes are all dirty or that there is a third component to my Chinese homework. 

It is insanity, this college life, make no mistake.

But I love it. I am good at this education thing. I have been struggling this quarter, really struggling under the amount of homework and class hours and work hours and the fact that I really love spending time with my family, boyfriend and friends, to find a balance. What takes a priority on a day-to-day basis? Usually my schoolwork sucks up all of my attention until at least eleven at night, then I talk to Jon, then I sleep or keep doing homework. I am trying to find some time for myself - time to just sit and breathe, to not worry about stuff. But even with all of this, I love the things I am learning, I love having to push myself, even.

What was it that I was saying the other day about crazy flakes?

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Suddenly reminded how permanently my foot resides in my mouth

I've been on the pill since September of 2006. My family doctor, back when we had insurance, felt that it was a good idea, and, well, I felt like it was a good idea. It has been nice having control over something that can sometimes be very, very inconvenient and knowing that I don't really need to worry about having babies until I am ready for babies.

I take it on time most days or at least close enough to on time that I should be fine. So I was really very pissed when I used the restroom yesterday and found that my pill had utterly failed for the first time in over two years. 

When talking to Jon last night, I said, "Yeah, and add to that the fact that my birth control failed and... ugh!" 

The silence was beyond quiet as it dawned on me what I just said and how bad it must sound. 

It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't happen on a regular basis, this foot in mouth thing. I'm lucky that I've not killed Jon with these mis-speaking at this point.