Thursday, March 31, 2005

Philosophically, Oops

We got back our Philosophy midterms yesterday, but not until after he told us all what a horrible job we did, how he expected more of us, and that now that we knew what we were doing, he would grade the final and paper more harshly.

I knew I hadn't done a great job on the midterm, but I was not in an academic mood the evening we had to do it. There were other issues influencing my state of mind and I had just spent a few days writing a 10+ page journal for him. So I thought what I did, more than 7 pages in itself, would be enough to satisfactorily answer 5 questions, obviously not with full credit, because that is impossible. He already told us the highest would be an 18/20 for each question.

I should have remembered that this guy really likes substance in his answers, but I tried as much as I could in the circumstances. I guess I'll have to read his comments carefully to see exactly where I went wrong, but first I'll have to wait until I hang the test outside for a few days, until the smell of cigar has gone away.

And yes, I'll work harder to try to avoid another number which he says we can just look at as something out of a 10. Well, we can, but that is ten full points of the grade, of which I just lost four.

As Adam says, sometimes taking his tests is like "sticking a fork in an electrical outlet and seeing how long you can hold on".

Monday, March 28, 2005

Yet Another Adventure

On Saturday, we went to Princeton.
Or rather, we drove past while looking for a parking space. After making a couple random circles and some swearing from Sarah at the "idiots" on the road, we found a spot on the street right in front of a really cool looking building. Ok, so all the buildings are really cool looking. It was pretty awesome. We wandered into the library, as far as they would let us, the campus center, and into a big church that looked kind of like our cathedral, pre-renovation, as I have not seen it since.
Anyway, I took lots of pictures of things like ivy covered buildings and a blue door. I tried to get a picture of a squirrel, but it was moving too fast. We even got mistaken for Princeton students and were asked where the gym could be found. I was tempted to make something up, but they stopped me.
Sarah had to play her tourist role and stop a student and some guy on a bike where to find the Thomas Sweet shop. I will admit they had very good ice cream, even though I don't like M & M's.
We all fell in love with the campus and decided to transfer there next year. Sadly, there haven't been any transfer students accepted there for a number of years, so it might take some doing.

Friday, March 25, 2005

Adventures in Wonderland (I mean, the City)

On Tuesday, we went to NYC on the train. We only got lost once on the way to the train station. About an hour later, we were safely in downtown Manhattan and trying to find the way to Chinatown. First, we bought tickets for the wrong rail system, had to go up and down numerous tunnels, and eventually found our way to the right terminal, where we purchased some more tickets. We rode the subway for awhile and ended up, amazingly, right where we wanted to be. We wandered up and down streets, trying to find the cheapest t-shirts, and then some food.

After a very filling meal, we went into Little Italy and got lost while trying to find an entrance to the subway. We asked a nice looking traffic cop, who gave some confusing and potentially misleading directions. We tried to follow them, but had to ask a street vendor where to go next. He got us as far as the next corner, where there was a little park and we took a little break to attempt to decipher the map. Unsuccessfully. I thought we were going the right direction, but the nice officer on the steps of the court building told us exactly where to find the subway. (He told pity on us cuz we had someone from Idaho with us.)

So we finally made it down the subway and found the one going to Central Park. We got off at 76th, or something like that, and miraculously found the Guggenheim, which we had been talking about only that morning. We took pictures outside of it to prove that we were there, then crossed the street to get to the reservoir. More pretty pictures. Then we wandered up to the Great Lawn, which is closed for the season. Across the field, I saw a pretty castle, so we went that way. The Turtle Pond was closed, too, so we sat and tried to warm our frozen extremeties while pondering which way to go next. We came across a statue of a Polish king on a creepy looking horse and took pictures of him, too.

It was getting pretty dark by this time, and Sarah got ahold of her dad on the cell phone. He was supposed to meet us somewhere for dinner. We settled on Penn Station and going back to New Jersey to find a restuarant. So that left us walking the few blocks (over 5th and Madison Aves.) back to the subway, riding to some unknown place, switching trains and getting lost again, and finally arriving at Penn Station at least half and hour later. But where in Penn Station were we to meet her dad? In the main part. But where was that? The guy from the newspaper stand, a nice man on the train, and a security guard later, we found him where he had been waiting for the last 50 minutes. Oops. We made it on the next train back to NJ and had a 50 minute nap.

The restaurant he chose was close to the train station and had a racing theme. We all had calzones and frozen citris fruits filled with sorbet for dessert. We stayed till closing time, and then walked the wrong direction away from the restaurant, so we had to retrace our steps to find the car we had left on the roof of the parking garage almost 12 hours earlier. So yeah, NYC was fun. And we only got lost, what, 11 or 12 times?

Friday, March 18, 2005

Connections Where You Don't Expect 'Em

So I am working on this project for philosophy in which I have to present something on some aspect of existentialism and I do a google search for popular culture, such as art, movies, or music, and I come across this page.

http://www.butseriously.com/br_feline.htm

Yeah, it is about feline existentialism, and not only does it make perfect sense to me, even though I have never owned a cat, but it also relates to Child Development, where we talk about children in terms of cats. (Actually, we talk about children in terms of a lot of strange things in that class, such as "tubes with appendages", "critters", "moving aliens", "sacks of flour", and "the great preparation".) But in any case, it seems that cats connect to almost any area of anything. Cool.

Which brings me to the last point about cats that I heard about recently, which is most disturbing. Apparently there are people who consider it an art form to stick newborn kittens in funny shaped bottles and let them grow that way. Poor kitties...Just so you know what to avoid, these tortured creatures are known as Bonsai Kittens.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Why I Want to Learn Spanish

So that I can understand what my roommate is saying about me on the telephone. I know enough to know when she is talking about me. She called me 'the girl she lives with', in spanish of course, and said she couldn't say something because I was there. For once she actually considered the fact that I didn't want to hear what she was going to say. Not that it usually stops her...

Sunday, March 13, 2005

Today just wasn't my day

It had potential. It really did. But somehow, it didn't turn out the way I hoped it would.

We caught the bus outside Giant this morning around 10, made the right connection at the main station, and even managed to get off at the right place. There were lots of good stores to explore, Barnes and Noble, Ross, Target, Payless, etc., but despite the selection, I was unable to find a single thing that I both wanted and was affordable, with the exception of my tuna sub for lunch. We even made it back on time, right to our front door, practically, and this cute little kid fell asleep leaning against me. Oh yeah, and there were lots of babies and children to watch, especically with the appearance of the Easter Bunny for photo opportunities.

Dinner was, to say the least, disappointing, although the walk there was pretty. It was precipitating, a mix between rain and snow. It was weird, cuz it was warm, and it just looked very interesting. I ended up with a bowl of cereal, a slice of bread with peanut butter, and a glass of ginger ale/orange juice. Which means I got hungry again sooner than usual.

After dinner, a search for the others, and the presenting of a t-shirt, we continued on to the rec room for our pool ritual. Everything was going fine until I managed to scrap a layer of skin off my finger, which also was fine until I got soap in it.

M and I went to the Winter Concert to watch Brian, a co-worker, and some other friends perform their musical selections. They were very good, but it was kind of long, and I saw someone who I really didn't want to see. And we couldn't find a pen, and so did not turn in our cards to receive Experience credit for attending (but is no big deal).

The vans to take us to the movies came at 9:30, give or take a few minutes. There were two of them, and we were all set to go when they came and told three people to get out because it was unsafe to have 12 people in the 12-person van. Right. But anyways, we actually made it there on time, even though the van that was for the movie that started five minutes before ours left half and hour earlier. Whatever.

Sarah and I watched the movie Hitch, starring Will Smith. It was cute, but not really what I wanted to see right now Sarah started out by laughing hysterically, fortunately along with everyone else, but decided it was getting too boring before the end and actually started to walk out before the credits. We did make it to the van on time, and the ride back was mostly uneventful.

Back at the dorm, the fun was not over yet. Before we made it to the second flooor, we could heard loud voices and bodies moving about in the lounge. Getting closer, we could tell that, oh yeah, one of those voices was that of my roommate. Nice. So we tiptoed up to the third floor balcony to eavesdrop, but were unable to hear any more than the shouting of curse words. We sent a PE to sort things out, then snuck in and down the hall to Jess's room.

I guess that's the end of the day, for me. I hope. My roommate hasn't come back in yet, but I can hear her out in the hall, talking on her cell phone. Last night she didn't come back in until almost 3. But really, what else can she do? Ok, so I've learned not to ask that question.

I'm hoping for a better day tomorrow, but as I have to finish a Philosophy journal (more than 10 pages) and study for a Spanish test, we'll see how well that goes.

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

An altercation

So Sarah is upset with me because I said that it was "not worth it" to spend $35 on a ticket to a Broadway show for which her dad was going to pay the other $30. Apparently there is something invaluable which I can get out of the experience, an experience which I won't be able to repeat often in the future, or something to that effect. And she took major offense when I suggested an alternate activity in NYC, such as going to the Central Park Zoo. Now, if she really knew me, she would know that I am obsessed with zoos and it would fulfill a major goal of mine to be able to go there. But instead, she sees it as an affront that I would prefer to go to such a place than to spend her father's money on a ticket to the theatre. I am perfectly willing for her father to pay for the tickets to the zoo...
And my other reasons for not wanting to pay that much to go to Broadway is that we are going with the school the following week for only $15, and additionally, I am so near-sighted that I can barely see anything that happens on stage anyway and would almost rather just listen to the soundtrack. I guess there are some things you just can't explain properly...
Throughout this, I am trying to remain cool and open-minded. But I really do not appreciate being hung up on...

Monday, March 07, 2005

An unrelated opening leading into a description of my living situation

I love spring and spring-like weather.

What I do not like is waking up to hear my roommate slam her head into the ceiling. I guess she forgot that she lofted it... And if that was not bad enough, she decided to hit the snooze button on her alarm, allowing it to go off every five minutes for the next hour and a half. Oh how I love the sound of alarm clocks...

She did, however, ask me if I like the way the room was arranged when she returned yesterday, and even let me back in the room after she locked me out while I was in the bathroom.

Unfortunately, she has picked up the habit of smoking again. And leaving trails of footwear and clothing across the floor.

I do have control of the air temperature now, though, and do not have to look at any more of her posters.

So I guess overall, our relationship is at a high point. I only hope that it can remain this way for a while longer...

(On further consideration, this is definitely not working. I know they say it is darkest before the dawn, but in this case, it was lightest before it took a definite turn for the worse. We had housing selection today and my new home is Mohn 117, but sadly we don't get to move there for another five months...)

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Pool Sharks

Over the past few weeks, we have become addicted to pool. After dinner, or even lunch, especially on the weekends, we head down to the rec room. We aren't professionals by any means, going as far in the opposite direction as to offer "handicap" shots and redo-s. And even though it only costs fifty cents a game, we have developed a new strategy that allows us to play more often. We send Sarah around to various tables at dinner and have her ask if anybody will give her a quarter. And, amazingly, it works. And nobody asks what she wants it for...

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Another day in the life...

The "highlights" of the day. I'll let you make your own conclusions...
-library employees going to such extremes as to cover up items thrown in the garbage with sheets of paper towel to keep other employees from discovering that such things were thrown away
-meeting a girl who aspires to become "just like Willie the Bum, plus a leg" instead of some more successful position such as a doctor or a teacher
-exchanging my first words with my roommate since I've been back , which consisted of her informing me that she was going to dramatically rearrange our room (which only occured because we ran into each other in the hall, not because she wanted to get my permission first)
- a fraternity auctioning off their members at lunch today, with final prices going up to $90

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

An Unconnected Series of Thoughts

They have begun the deconstruction phase of our new stadium and for days, while walking around campus, I keep hearing this strange sound, and all I could think of was that it sounded like the chain on a roller coaster.

There was a sign on the door when we came back from dinner tonight saying, "Meet the Dean. Where? Follow the smell of popcorn." And sure enough, it did smell like popcorn, and when we followed it, and it led to the ground floor lounge, where a kid was sitting and staring at the popcorn machine.

When I returned to my room last night, or maybe the night before, I noticed that the pile of dirty dishes (belonging to my roommate) sitting on the microwave had a post-it note on them which read, "Wash me." Looking around, I noticed that a bottle of what appeared to be some type of pills on her dresser said, "Take me." So I added my own sign on my dresser to a cup full of candy. It says, "Help yourself."