My Journal

Got back around two today, spent three hours arranging my room and computer, went down to Allison's room to make spaghetti and ate it in the lounge along with about half the frisbee team (as if we hadn't seen enough of each other already). After a pleasant two hours down there we all dispersed, and I spent another one lounging just inside Sandi's room talking with her. She promised to awaken me for church tomorrow, yay happy. Came up here and arranged more, decided I needed laundry tokens and went downstairs to get some, ended up talking with Cole and Dana for far too long and managed to go on the Moby run with Cole. Had a donut while playing around on my computer (and got this weird IM from Kenny), went and brushed my teeth and while I was in the bathroom, BOTH people I was waiting for decided to IM me, and then not wait the ten or so minutes it took me to come back. Grrr. Ah well, shall speak with them tomorrow. Now, sleep.

Ugh. My nose is in the pre-peeling stage and it feels so nasty and scaly. Just thought I should share that.

Continuing with today, then yesterday's highlights, then back to Tuesday if I can even remember it. Got up, breakfasted and drove out. Managed to be in the same van for the third day in a row. I know this because we listened to the same tape on our way out there all three days. We got to the fields (the same ones as yesterday) with plenty of time to spare.

K, now I'm getting assaulted by little bits of shell, too. This is ridiculous. I'm going back. Also got to avoid Alex that way, and got to walk back with Ben besides. W00t!

After I came back from the beach I took a shower, then spent some quality time watching "Too Legit to Quit- The MC Hammer Story" with some others that had come back early. It was some quality mid-afternoon-with-nothing-better-to-do entertainment. When it was over at five I went and took a nap until almost 6:30. Got dressed and left for Savanah, which was a 45-minute drive to the city proper.

We were let loose to wander around for a while, and Al and Joyce went and looked at restaurants in the area that could accomodate a group our size that was also in most of our price ranges. I wandered around the river with Allison and Grace and a bunch of others, listened to some street jazz, met back at the designated square 20 minutes later and waited around talking for another 10 until Al and Joyce returned with our restaurant info. We at at a place on the river called Spanky's, because they could seat us immediately. I sat between Allison and Ben and across from Al and Joyce. While waiting for the meal to arrive, Al told us the great story of how the US beat the Japanese at the Frisbee Worlds. The Japanese embodied their culture by methodically and efficiently woking the disc up the field five feet at at time, right up to the endzone. Then the Americans would embody their culture by having a 6'5" guy lay out for the defensive play in the endzone and huck it deep to another 6'5" guy in THEIR endzone to score. It must have been really frustrating for the Japanese. Tee hee.

20:56 Dinner is over, and it was really good. Like, the quality of my dad's cooking good. It was a little heavy on the peanut butter, I thought, but everyone's tastes are different and it was certainly very good, regardless of preference. Certainly everyone seemed to like it. I was one of the first to eat, by virtue of "helping" at the end by setting out plates and forks. I did peel all the potatoes earlier, though.

Since I ate first I finished first, set my plate with two others to be washed by someone else later (I hope that was the setup- it was last night) and took advantage of the fact that I was done and almost no one else was by taking a shower. I had hot water, too, but I felt a little bad about it because I took a kind-of long shower so I could wash my hair twice. There was still hot water left when I got out, at least, so the next person definitely had at least a partially hot shower. That brings me up to date, so now I can backlog.

Got up even later than yesterday, threw on some clothes and had a few bites of breakfast. I wanted to go to the bathroom, but the upstairs bathroom didn't have any toilet paper, so I went downstairs. However, the person in there took like ten minutes, and meanwhile my breakfast was getting soggy. When I finally got in and went, the stupid thing wouldn't flush. So I had to go upstairs and grab a large bucket, fill that with water and dump it in to make it flush manually. By the time I was finally done in the bathroom I had about five minutes to get ready. That was okay, thought, because I had lain out all my clothes the night before (yay me, how clever!) I hurridly got dressed, grabbed my brush, stuck my other stuff in Monica's backpack and headed out the door. The ride was uneventful, other than to note that I was sitting in the very back of the van and brushed my hair about three times, but it still felt super-gross.

It's 9:30 now and I'm pretty tired. I wish I didn't feel obligated to write all this so a) I could remember it and b) all of you out there on the 'net that read this (all three of you) can do so. Anyway...

We got to the fields with (supposedly) ten minutes to warm up. We took about twenty, then played Haavaad. They at least seemed defendable, though really good. And we certainly made them work for most of the points they got. I was playing, if not out of my skull, at least out of my upper torso/ribcage area. In other words, it was up there. I made some good cuts and got some nice throws off, which was a good improvement for me. Oh, and I wrapped my heel/ankle in Allison's Ace bandage before the game so my blistered ankle wouldn't get any worse. It was a Good Thing. What else... oh yes, it wasn't until AFTER they beat us 13-0 that I learned that this team routinely goes to Nationals. And I had said they were defendable... heh. Shows our level of defense. Yay us!

When the game ended we made a cheer for them, and Joyce made a crack that we should make an extra-good cheer for them because they didn't look like they were having any fun. Poor dears. I don't remember what the cheer was, though.

We had about ten minutes, if that, to rest and run to the bathroom before the next game, against Steven's Point. We were fairly evenly matched and they only beat us 8-6. The reason we didn't play to 13 was that there was a time cap and each of the points took an incredibly long time. One of them (for which I was on the field) took what seemed like forever, even though it was only about 15 minutes. We called a timout in the middle of it so that we could all take a short rest and get some water. After the time-in, we played really hard and scored. We only played for another 15 minutes after that, and lost 8-6 because of the time limit. After that we had a short break and then played St. Olaf.

St. Olaf had a really good team, full of former track and/or soccer people, or so it seemed. We were just run into the ground, and by halftime the score was 7-1. We were all really tired by that time, and two of our girls were so injured that they didn't think they would be playing much at all. After the halftime break we pulled two really long opening throws which they dropped near the endzone, and on the first one Allison picked up, threw to me and I back to her in the endzone to score. (We were the only two that were down there when they dropped it, covering the handler and dump or something like that.)

I'm really sleepy, as I said, but it sounds like it'll be a while because others are using the bathroom to shower and I'll have to wait until they're done to wash my face and brush my teeth. Sigh.

So today I got up at 7:20 and got ready to go in about half an hour. We walked down to the street where the other two vans were parked, got in and drove off. It wasn't a terribly short ride, since we seem to be on the farthest island in a chain of three. However, it definitely wasn't the forty-odd we had been told to expect- more around the area of 25/30. We had some nice, energetic pump-up music going and it was generally a fun ride.

When the vans stopped, it turned out that we were at a park, not a campground like I had been anticipating, based on what everyone had said about this tournament from last year. It was a nice park, though, and definitely a great place- and a great day- to play. I did a warm-up lap with Grace, got some water and registered for the Hat Tournament. We all sign up and then the players from each school are distributed among 8 teams so that no more than a few people from each school are on any one team. From there it's a sort of round-robin tournament where your team plays the other three in your bracket, then you cross-play the other bracket (1st in A plays last in B, etc) for the semi-finals.

I was on the team A-2, who came up wtih no cute or clever nickname, unlike all the other teams in our bracket. I played a really great two games taht morning, making good, comitted cuts and taking my time on throws. We won our first game but lost the second. However, both times I played really well, so losing didn't sting at all.

After the third game (I didn't play super-well, but at least it was about at my normal level and not extra-poorly), we had a 45-minute break for eating and resting, though mostly eating. I went to a nearby health-food store and got a stuffed grape leaf and a strawberry smoothie. Then we all went back and played quarterfinals. My team won our game, but by the end of that I was really tired, and by the middle of the semifinal game I was just hoping we'd lose so I could stop. We did, and I got to.

When the game ended I went down the street to a grocery store and got a bottle of grape juice. On my way to the checkout counter I ran into Joyce, Katie, Christie and Monica. They had taken it upon themselves to get dinner for that night, and had brought the van to carry the groceries in. They offered me a ride, so I just rode the two blocks back to the park with them.

I half-watched part of the final game (which had already started) with Joyce and Christie (while drinking lots of white grape juice). I was really getting sick of all the little biting bugs by that time, so when someone offered to take a van back early, I hopped at that chance. Unfortunately, several others also hopped, and we ended up having 14 people in an 11-passenger van. It was still fun despite the crowding, though I was tired and didn't talk much.

Oooh, another thing- I learned Natalie Portman's real name today! It's Natalie Herschlog. Changing to Portman was a wise move, I think.

When I got back to the beach house the other vans had just arrived and were still being unloaded. I went inside and wandered around, then offered my help to Joyce and Christie who were making spaghetti. I helped when they needed me, and when they didn't, I sat on a stool in the corner of the kitchen and journaled. It was nice.

When enough bread and spaghetti and sauce had been made for 25 people, we ate and I sat in the TV/living room and ate while watching "Mad... World." I wrote for a bit after that, organized all the stuff in my duffel bag, brushed my teeth and washed my face. Oh, and the toiled plugged up on me once (upstairs) and wouldn't even flush for Monica (downstairs). Both times I had to deal with it, but managed to do so sucessfully both times. Having done all that, I went to bed. Unfortunately, I woke up at least three times that night, which sucked. Ah, well.

Woke up in Atlanta when we stopped at another gas station. One of our people went MIA so we were all sitting around doing nothing for the longest time. Eli took it into his head to steal the "United We Stand" stick-on decal from a fast food restaurant just next door. It was really funny for about a minute, until these two big important-looking black guys (the manager or something) came out and said something to Eli. He said something back that none of us could hear, they grinned and walked away, letting him keep the sign. Immediately we rolled down the shotgun-seat window and demanded that he tell us what he said. Eli is, by the way, an excellent bullshitter, so we should have been expecting something ridiculous. What he said was that we were on our way to Canada and wanted to support the US. We all thought it was hilarious that he had pulled something out of his ass like that on the spur of the moment, and such a ridiculous claim made it even funnier. Meh. We found our MIA person and drove off as quickly as we could anyway, making our way to a club team game in Atlanta. This is when I started journaling, so it's all in real-time voice now.

16:20 Currently watching the women's final game. Ozone (in red) from Atlanta vs. Backhoe (in gray) from North Carolina. This is the thrid Backhoe game I've watched, althought before I had always come by towards the end, and this I'm watching from the beginning. Both teams now are doing something I haven't seen women's teams doing much at all the rest of the day: they're both hucking it deep, jumping for discs and trying to sky each other. I've noticed a lot of mid-flight D's, especially blocks and hand D's, but that's been happening a lot all day. Red also has a really great dump setup, which is an extremely good idea.

Yet another deep huck, one red played jumped for it and was skied by two grays, tipped the disc and recaught it on a bid.
Nice.

I think my love of computers is preventing me from becoming totally obsessed with frisbee the way I sometimes feel I ought to be. But that's my call, and that's the way I want it to be.

17:00 I really want a Sprite right now. Something fizzy, sugary and clear. Yum. I also really want to wash my hair, bit I know I can't do anything about that until we get to the house. The Sprite, on the other hand, can be had on the way if I'm lucky.

17:17 Gray is using a cup (zone) against red. The first definite cup I've seen today, perhaps because the wind has only picked up in the final game and zones are only really useful in windy conditions.

18:12 Thermonuclear just beat Ring of Fire in the men's finals, and about five minutes prior to that Ozone beat Backhoe. Now we have a (potentially) four-hour drive to Savannah, plus stopping for food and gas and bathrooms. But that's a 4-hour drive in which nothing eventful should happen. However, at the moment...

As some guy was getting into his car, he dropped a shirt without realizing it. Peter (in my van) saw this and said, "If he doesn't grab that, I want to take it." But then Katie decided to get out and tell the guy about it, and everyone gave her crap for being nice. Plus when she finally got out and told the guy about it, he just shrugged and drove off. So Katie got back in the van and Peter got out and grabbed the shirt. It was some weird radio station t-shirt, and not a cool frisbee jersey like Peter had hoped. That's the interesting thing.

Van ride. I slept for half of it, then sat shotgun and talked about Germany with Matthew (the then-driver). That's all.

(Backlogging sux0r -ed)

Spent the rest of the ride through Indiana being groggy, but once we hit Kentucky (which has really pretty scenery in the north, and lots of horse-type fences like you see in photographs) I started perking up, and we told jokes and played puzzle-games in the backseat. It was me, Matthew, Sandi, Ben and Allison. Very good waste of two hours, unless it was a little more. Anyway, it was a fun and happy way to spend the van ride. Stopped for lunch in Tennessee just outside of Kentucky. I went to a KFC, but was all disappointed because it wasn't Kentucky-an KFC, so it wasn't quite the real thing. They did have a really nifty toy in the kid's meal I got, something where you get to learn braille. It was really cool, but over the course of the week I lost it. Sigh.

Got back in the van and listened to the Blues Brothers soundtrack (and other stuff, but that's the only interesting thing that I recall.)

Got lost looking for the Great Smoky Mountain park, and then had to suffer through the traffic of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinbug (ugh), then got lost again looking for our campsite, decided to have dinner before setting up camp (which took forever to come, because they had a small kitchen and weren't set up for 28 people storming them at once but at least it tasted really good), found our campsite after even more confusion and then set up tents in the dark. However, the only person I could find to set a tent up with me was Annoying Alex. Did NOT want to spend the night in a tent with him, plus tents in general and in the mountains sound cold and uncomfortable to me, so I decided to sleep in the van. Colin and (I think) Dan had the other two bench seats, and I spent a little while settling into my sleeping bag and talking with him about the anime club and what it's about and the meetings and trading vids and stuff, then fell asleep. I did wake up once, but not because I was cold. Rather, it was because I had to go to the bathroom. Woke up again as it was getting light out, and this time I really felt like I had to go pretty badly. Unfortunately it was cold outside my sleeping bag, so I just lay there and tried to ignore it and to sleep. It didn't work all that well. But oh well.

19:21 I love Cole, and hate my stupid computer. Cole took a look at it, fiddled with it for a few moments and said, "Something's wrong with your power cable. I have one downstairs that I can give you." I went and got it, hooked it up and it all worked perfectly. Yay! No more panic now.

So. My day so far, now that poinless wonderings have been had. And feel free to correct my grammar, Jenny or anyone that knows Fwench better than I. Got up at 8:40 and wrote the rest of my exam, while having a breakfast of two juice boxes (the little kind), two pink Peeps, several almond tarts and a peanut butter flavored granola bar. Listened to music while typing, too, though nothing particularily interesting. Finished by 11 and went to Barb's room to pick her up, then we both walked over to Briggs to hand our tests in. She talked with Prof. Alghren while I went and printed my test out in the computer lab, and then I joined both of them for a ten-minute chat.

At 11:30 Professor Alghren had to leave, so we bid him farewell and went off to Lucinda's. They had decent enough salmon, but nothing else was worth mentioning. We were joined by Dan and his cronies, and apparently Dan doesn't have a low-brow enough sense of humor to laugh at my random bad jokes. One of his friends thought the pirate joke Allen had told me (the one that almost made my dad spit diet coke out over the computer screen the first time he heard it) was awfully funny, since he couldn't seem to stop laughing. Maybe Dan's just too uptight to find things amusing, I don't know. Anyway, Barb and I left around noon and dispersed to our several rooms.

I mean that litterally, because almost as soon as I got to my room (329) I gathered up some stuff and went to Amanda's room, my new room (316). Woke her up, dropped off the stuff, grabbed a Fruit by the Foot from my closet and came back here to type this. Now I needs must go study math, much as it depresses me.

16:55 Took a nap on the (prompted) advice of Jenny, and got up at just about 4. Now I have pretty much no reason not to study until well toward three a.m. Went to tutor Lisa downstairs (I'm so clever for suggesting she come here to be tutored instead of in the library!), but since she only had a few questions she left me go by quarter to. Came up here and updated, and now it's Studymathtime. But this evening I get to have pizza!

17:51 I asked this senior math major I know if I could see his Math 28 test from when he took it. He said that was fine and showed it to me, and suddenly the test doesn't seem quite so hellish. I highly doubt that it will be anywhere near ideal, but from the looks of it the test will be mostly reciting proofs we've done in class. Not that I'm 100% confident of those, but it's far easier to deal with than some things I had feared. Such a relief.

22:23 Got back from the Bible study party. It was fun, although I always end up feeling a little left out because everyone else are seniors and English majors, so they all talk about people I don't really know about. But they're a good bunch of people, and there was pizza and Simpsons. At 7 we moved over to Joyce and Cassie's house because the VCR in Ed's room was needed to record something. I picked up my math notebook and text on the way over there, although I got a minimum of studying done. But a minimum is better than none. At Joyce's house we watched Jesus Christ Superstar, the lame 70's version, which is really super cheesy. I mean, I've had grilled cheese sandwiches that were less cheesy. Heck, I've had cheese spreads that were less cheesy! But anyway. It wasn't so distracting that I couldn't study some, which was nice, but it was kind of a waste of two hours and I wish it had ended sooner. When it was finally over, I came back here and sat down to study. However, I also promised myself that I will be IN BED by 2 a.m. Lucky me.

We actually ended up waiting almost an hour, however, since they were late. We packed my stuff into Luke's car, the three of us piled in and off we went. They both thought it was so cute that my dad not only came out to see me go and stayed to wave goodbye, but he blew me a kiss as we pulled out of the driveway. I don't know if I'd call it sweet, more like mildly embarassing, but oh well.

Enough writing while listening to Chinese rap music. I have an 8:30 final and still need a shower. So off I go.

Rolled out of bed at what my clock said was 9:37, though of course it was really a few minutes earlier than that because I had set my clock ahead by about three minutes. Fortunately, I hadn't been thinking about this when I looked at the clock so by giving myself "just two more minutes" after the very last warning alarm went off, I actually got up at the real time the warning alarm had been set for. Got ready in five minutes with no problem whatsoever because I had been clever and gotten everything ready the night before. So all I had to do was throw on clothes, brush my hair and teeth and I was set. Made it to econ with a couple minutes to spare, but Ann was there first so I had to sit next to Andy. She's right- he does smell kind of strongly. At first it was just the smell of his shaving cream or something, but then it just sort of devolved into an indeterminate not pleasant smell. And it really is pretty powerful. Sigh. Econ itself was uneventful, just took notes or didn't depending on how much hot air was being expelled from Professor Azzi's lungs by way of his vocal cords.

After econ I hurried upstairs to Freshman Studies. Our last class, yay. Professor Jordan didn't have our papers back for us, which is fine, but she didn't have candy for us either even though it was our last class. Maybe she'll do like in stats and bring some to the final. But I digress. She said she would have our papers for us on Monday, and then we talked about art for a while. I think I maybe went on a little too long trying to emphasize my points, which were not that great anyway, but no one else had much to say so it's not like I was dominating the conversation, at least. Mostly because there was none to dominate, but still. Besides, I could always use the extra talking time for participation points. Halfway through class we stopped talking about art and reviewed for the final, then filled out evaluations. Standard last day of class stuff.

When class ended I went into the lobby with Luke, who I'm getting a ride home with today. We had a two-person conga line for all of ten seconds before it got old. And no one joined in. Sigh. Then Ann arrived and she and Luke discussed transportation issues. I waited around, only to be reinformed that Ann wasn't going to lunch today since she was fasting. So there I was, ten minutes late and there would probably be a huge line of people waiting to get food since Downer is the only dining hall open on Fridays. Plus I still had to pick up some girl scout cookies I had ordered from some professor in Youngchild. So I went over there for the third day in a row, but luckily the guy was there today. I got my cookies and decided to skip lunch, so I went into the atrium and had cookies while looking at posters on globalization and international issues that some class had put on display. It was interesting and informative. Then I put the cookies away and came back to Briggs to type this, and that's my day so far. (OMG, I got through it all for once! That's amazing!)

Dan Holbrook's computer skillz have just increased a notch in my mind. He had written something on his webpage about using a cracked version of some program... props to him for getting it right. I've hardly ever met anyone that would use or even understand such terminology, especially here at Lawrence. (And yes, that was supposed to sound mildly derisive.)

(later) Got through math without thinking much at all, and when I got back to my room I was so tired I took a nap, and didn't wake up until 4:30. I felt bad about it, because I was supposed to go with Mollie at 4, but I slept through it. Anyway, I went as soon as I threw some clothes back on. They had a pinata and food of various sorts and mildly amusing games, plus a semi-interesting trivia contest. And free pop, which was always a good thing. Did random things until 5:15, when I left with Luke. We went back to Plantz and I threw some stuff together, then put it all in his car. We drove over to Trever and picked up Carrie and made it out of there by 5:45.

The ride home was pretty fun. I took a pretty short nap, but woke up when we stopped at 7 for a bathroom break. The rest of the way home we talked about random things, and mostly had a lot of fun. I got dropped of at my gradfather's, who lives just a little ways off 95 and 94. He and my dad were talking when I came in, and I had a cheeseburger that was sitting in a bag on the table. I felt a little bad afterwards because I realized that my dad had picked them up for my grandfather, but there were still three in there, and I hadn't had any dinner that day. Plus I'm sure that my dad brought a bunch of other food for him, because he always does. So we sat there talking while I ate, and then after I had finished as well. He told me the fun-fun story of how in 1946 he managed to be in a truck that was going downhill from Rabbit Pass (or something like that) to Steamboat Springs with no breaks or low gears or anything. They had to dodge some traffic on the way down the hill and certainly had to navigate a bunch of turns. As they came barrelling down the mountain on the outskirts of town they passed a filling station. Of course they had their horn blaring the entire way down to alert everyone that something was wrong, and as they passed this filling station the attendant there had the presence of mind to call the local police department. (My grandfather didn't know this at the time, of course, but found or figured it out later.) So when they actually reached downtown Steamboat Springs they discoved that all the lights were green for them, and that oncoming traffic was nonexistant. Turns out that the police department had set all the lights to green so that they could ride safely through town. Finally they came to a hill and managed to slow down by sheer inertia and gravity, and got the truck onto the shoulder of the road and stopped. But it was a nasty ride down, and traumatized him for a while.

That's the story my grandfather told, and then we talked about a few other things as well. We didn't end up leaving until 11, and I had gotten there at 10:15. Came home, had some food, called Mollie and played computer games until 1, then went to bed.

Stopped by Amanda's (and technically now my own) room today, and asked if I could "hang out" there to acclimate myself. Also wanted to move some things into the closet and possibly dreser, although I also want to rearrange the room somehow if that's possible. But I don't think I need to absolutely. I plan to approach this with a light heart and a good attitude, and hope that nothing drives me crazy. Just keep telling myself: As long as I have a quiet little corner with my computer, I'll be fine. As long as I have my computer, I'll be fine. As long....

25:05 Lessee.... took an extra-long shower and used the time to shave my legs (but you didn't need to know that), went to dinner which wasn't really eventful, moved some stuff into Amanda's room- last term's books, couple dresses and towels, stuff I won't need for a while, mostly. Went to the anime club meeting but there were no cords for the DVD player, so that was a no go. Left at 9:30 for the coffeehouse, where I sort of listened to the amusing singer, but Naomi and Suzanne were sitting next to each other on the couch and both are so nice and fun, so I mostly conversed with them. It's odd- for some reason I'm able to talk a lot more freely with girls than guys, or at least this one specific guy. But no, it's happened with a few other guys too, I think. Anyway. I had a really happy fun fun conversation with them, and then went to frisbee. I played decently, but neither as well nor as hard as yesterday. But yesterday was unique. Then I came back to Plantz and chatted with Cole and Kim and Tasha, and in the course of conversation Kim mentioned that she needed to hook her computer up to the network. I offered, and Cole agreed to let me do it and even endorsed my l33t hax0r skillz to Kim, saying something like I could probably manage it. And I did, even if it took me ten minutes extra to muddle through it because I wasn't 100% totally competent. But I did get it all done, which is the important thing. Then I came up here and typed a bit, and soon soon soon will go to bed because I'm oh-so-tired. Oh, and I also called Debi, my next door neighbor, then went and talked with her while still holding the reciever to my ear. Random silliness.

I have to be off- going to see the Gutherie's travelling show "Ah, Wilderness". Should be good.

24:52 Just got back from bible study for the nonbeliever. It's nice- Ed, the guy who leads it, always starts and ends with a prayer and takes suggestions, requests, etc. from everyone, not just the believers there. And every time we end the session, I just feel this nice calm, warm feeling. I wouldn't necessarily say it's because any kind of divine power or god is listening expressly when Ed speaks, it's more of a sense of calm and knowing that someone is thinking of me and wants this divine power which they most certainly do believe in to keep watch over me. Sort of like, even though I don't worship it, god loves me and will watch over me anyway. It's a nice feeling.

Getting back to earlier... After having dinner (leftover lasagne, which is great when I'm eating it but has this nasty aftertaste, perhaps from being so old regardless of having been frozen) and painting my nails, I wrote here the teensiest bit and read some articles on the Kyoto protocol. Ann came over at 7:15 and did the nicest thing- she gave me a pack of juice boxes. Apparently she and some friends had passed this grocery store on their walk today, and she remembered that I had run out of juice. I just thought that was really thoughtful of her, and wanted to say so. Thanks, Ann!

We left my room and went to Mollie's, but she wasn't there. I explained to Ann that she had been confused and thought it was at 8 and not 7:30 and might be late. So we left a message on her door and went to the play. During the first scene change Ann had me commit a horrible breach of politesse and leave to see if Mollie was waiting in the lobby. Which also meant that I had to come back IN afterwards, and it was even worse then because I didn't want to stand inside the first set of doors until the intermission. I did at least wait until a pause for laughter before slipping in, but I still felt really embarrassed. And the kicker? Mollie, realizing her tardiness, decided it wasn't even worth it to come. Sigh.

It was a really great play, but it was three hours long and so we didn't get out until 10:30, and I was late for frisbee because of that and grrr. But I just missed ALL the running drills, and was there for tossing practice and scrimmaging. I really think I'm improving at that, too, perhaps because I understand the stack better. I think that's a large part of it, at the very least. Then I went to bible study, then came back here and now am going to write up out last Freshman Studies lecture. Goodnight.

I have been on AIM for eight days, sixteen hours and thirty-six minutes. And the creepy thing? Those numbers are all divisible by eight! (I dare you...)

I came back to my room during lunch to work on my paper, and because I had been reminded of it as I was coming back here, I looked up one of my favorite poems. It was odd, though. This time when I read it I understood it in a completely different way, which changed the meaning for me completely. It's too bad, really, 'cause I liked my old interpretation better, even if it was incorrect (and yes, you can interpret a poem incorrectly.) Here it is:

20:08 Tonight I had one of the best meals that I've had all term. Four of us went over to one of the small houses behind Planzt where an RLA, Tammy, lived. She had mostly just cut and assembled food- French bread, cucumber slices with light dressing, fruit salad (storebought though no less tasty), but she had cooked chicken for us as well, and it was excellent. She also had Krispy Kremes and muffins for dessert. I had to leave at 6:30, unfortunately, but I grabbed a Krispy Kreme on the way out- I had never had them before. They are, if not as spectacular as people say, at least a damn fine donut.

I had to leave so early because there was a frisbee meeting for people going to Georgia. It turns out we had to pay $50 for the vans because the sports administration and coordination people hate the frisbee team for some odd reason, possibly because they don't consider it a legitimate sport but that's just speculation on my part. Anyway, I am now five percent of a G lighter (take THAT, Professor Azzi!) and still have to pay for the cost of food, but that isn't that much. They also went over some of the logistics, though not really. I still need an address/phone number to send back home JIC, but eh. That can be got. After the meeting I came back here and chilled in Mollie's room for a bit while she talked to other people. Then I came back here and tried to comprehend things, but things don't really want to be comprehended. And I set up an early morning meeting with Ann so that I arise early and can (with much luck) start on my paper early. *scoff*

(Now I'm going to write in German. I don't know why, only that I want to. I have to write an essay today on Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, and technically it should be done before 5:30, because Ann had said that she wanted to read it over. We'll see. So, I'm going to go do that directly... I just wanted to say that I was just at a piano concert, with an original composition by Nicole-that-lives-on-third-Plantz. Interesting, non? Anyway, I have to go.)

21:19 I feel so frustrated and sad and cryful, and I'm not even sure why. Not fair!

26:54 I don't see why, if I know I'm going to put my paper off until the last minute so that I end up writing it in the wee small hours of the morning, I don't just up and take a nap that afternoon. It would make so much more sense, and that way I'd at least get some sleep.

The disturbing thing is that while at lunch we started discussin Megan's relationship with someone, and how she felt like she was treading on someone's toes. But that got me to thinking... Said Person doesn't want _____, and mentions ______ rather a lot. And the whole English major thing.... Perhaps it's a hopeless cause and I should just give up right now. But no... I might as well just have fun as long as it's fun. And it's still fun.

I had a disturbing dream last night, which I wish I could pretend just didn't happen last night. But I can't, because I thought about it too much toward the end of the dream, so I remembered it. I also told Ann about it, which means that someone else in the world knows about it so it's real. But at least as it became more of a lucid dream towards the end I was able to subconsiously control my subconscious so that it turned out I wasn't, actually, I had just missed something for that period of time. Which pacifies me somewhat. It's just really odd the way almost everything I had been thinking about in the last 12 hours (except for Animal House) was incorporated into that dream. Strange.

13:15 I'm not sure why, but I'm listening to all my low-key, slow, minor-key music. It started out by my just wanting to hear Aerosmith's "I don't want to miss a thing," which I had just gotten recently and hadn't yet had a good seguay into it. So I started out with that this time, and then decided that I should listen to "Something" by the Beatles, also a new song I hadn't yet reviewed. And from there it just seemed logical to listen to songs of a similar nature, so I did. Not that I feel really depressed, just that it's rare that I have a feeling where it makes sense to listen to them. And oddly, listening to that morose stuff cheered me up. Off to shower.

17:47 Mummy just called, saying she had gotten the e-mail I sent her about how the Thetas didn't want me. It makes me feel inordinately better to know that she was willing to write an angry letter to this chapter if she didn't think it would do more harm than good. She also wanted me to go through formal recruitment next year, but a) there's no point, if I'd only be a member for a year and a half and b) they've already said they don't want me, so I won't beg to join them next year. She was still willing to write them an angry letter, though. Such a nice mommy.

21:36 Half an hour in, and no one is here. And they said that if they were coming, they'd probably come early and leave early. Which makes me think that I shall just be left here all on my lonesome all night, but I can't justifiably leave for another 24 minutes. Which basically pins me in my room all night, because even though I could invite someone somewhere, it would already be 10 by that point, and even later when we actually arrived there. So all my excitement and preparations were in vain, and this time when I told Mollie I would sit in my room and cry (where I usually mean I'll just be in my room alone, doing fun and interesting things) I think I might actually sit here and really cry for a while. How sad.

21:44 Screw crying. I'm taking control of my life and inviting someone else to go play, if all the people I had invited are too "busy" writing "papers".

24:01 Damaris showed up shortly after I wrote that, so there was no point in inviting someone else since someone I had invited originally was here. We went down to Mollie's room, though, and ended up staying until almost midnight. That had me a little worried because Ann said she might stop over after the movie she and Jonas were watching was finished, and I hadn't left a message on my door. I didn't do anything about it, though, so all I can do is hope that she didn't stop by and not worry about it. I'm sure I'll hear about it if she did stop by, too. Anyway, doing stuff with Damaris and Mollie was fun, even if no one slept over.

24:38 The thing about being really smart is that sometimes you make jokes that are above everyone else without realizing it, because it's something you assume everyone would know and thus get. And by the time you've explained it, it's no longer funny.

13:18 Skimmed Dan's log just for the heck of it before I logged off, and discovered that he had happened upon my dearest darling friend jenhiver's webpage. For some reason, that pleased me greatly. Now I shall have happy things to ponder in math class.

15:35 Class went well. I didn't dwell overmuch on my rejection, except to realize that perhaps I should adopt Groucho Marx's criteria for joining organizations: I don't want to join any club that would have me as a member. Mostly I tried to comprehend how group theorems could be applied to rings, and it mostly made sense except that there are still a few concepts that I am shaky on. Professor Porciau also talked a little bit about Math 29, the class I'm taking next term. It was relieving to hear that it was calculus-based and not algebra-based as this one is.

22:13 Now the debate again: actual or not? Oh, the descisions. I could say that I've already acted in favor of actual twice today, so once now wouldn't hurt. But one of those descisions turned out well and the other did not, so it could be argued that they cancelled each other out. But I'm having fun in my own little world... Am I really, though? Then again, if I went and socialized in the way I'm considering socializing, would I really be having fun or would it be all stress? And it wouldn't even really be socialization, it would just be watching a movie I've seen ten times already. A funny movie, yes, but one I've seen.

Stressful person not home; point is moot. I stay here and cry.

24:24 Oooh, what a neat number! Non-palindromic, but still neat. Went to Mollie's room around 11 and watched most of Animal House with her- I guess Erin left or just never showed up. Still, it was kinda fun in the way that watching movies with someone is fun (unless it's stressful-fun), and like I said, the movie was funny. Then since I had the whim and extra time, I ran down to the computer lab and made a slumber party invitation for Mollie. Then I printed out four extras, but I can choose not to distribute them if I want. I'm not sure, because it would necessitate the use of sleeping bags, and I can't provide any, nor do I have carpet to sleep on. Also, it would require me to clean my room, but I'd have to do that anyway. And perhaps it would behoove me to get party supplies, but that would be done on the supposition that I could get to a grocery store somewhere. But now that I think about it a slumber party might be really fun. I think I'll go ahead with it.

11:08 And for some reason, I've had Martin Guerre music in my head all morning.

13:09 I got to class almost a full half hour early, so I decided I might as well write some stuff here. As I was walking toward the computer lab, though, I saw my math professor (with whom I am on rocky footing, at least in my mind, due to my poor grades and occasional late work). Naturally I didn't want him to think that I was wasting my time with something so foolish as playing on the computer, so I greeted him and walked just past the lab into the bathroom, in order that he might think I had some more valid purpose for not sitting in the classroom for half an hour. Which is of course silly- I really doubt he would have cared had he seen me playing Quake III five minutes before class, as long as I was there on time. But it made me feel slightly better (at the time, at least) to think that I was making him think I was doing something worthwhile. And I really did have to go to the bathroom, too, so it wasn't a totally pointless exercize. But you didn't need to know that.

As for earlier today... after econ I printed my paper here in the lab (yay happy) and then went to Freshman Studies. We talked about the value of women in the Ibo society and whether or not they were seen as equals or property and if they had some sort of intrinsic value or not. Parts of the discussion were good, but it dragged on for far too long, and on top of that I participated fairly minimally, which means that my participation grade might be dropping from an A- to a B(something). That worries me because I can't afford to lose any more of my grade than I have, and each percentage point I lose in participation is a fifth of a point off my total grade. Eeep!

After Freshman Studies, from which we were released late on account of the extent of our discussion, I went to lunch. Unfortunately, because we were let out so late there was already an extensive line at Lucinda's, so I left, deciding to have lunch and R&R time in my room. However, as I was walking away from Coleman I saw Peter Iverson, who told me not to look so forlorn. I explained to him that the reason I looked so sad was because I had to go eat in my room, and so he kindly offered to "sneak me in" around the line, since he was working there that day. So I got to see the back kitchen as well as bypass the line, which meant that I actually had time to eat. I sat with Mollie and Co. and had a fun lunch (beef stew with biscuits, yum) and nice conversation. I left when Mollie and Barb did, though, which is why I arrived at class so early. That explains why I had time to type this, but now I need to return to class.

20:15 So after math class (in which we just took inconsequential notes) I went back to my room, only to discover that Mollie had sent me a link to Sputnik 7, which has some anime videos that you can watch free. So I watched one of the stand-alone videos they had called "Psychic Wars"- not very good storyline, pixelated graphics (though I think that has somewhat to do with the way the video was formatted and uploaded) and no musical score to speak of. It alsod didn't help that I saw it in 15-minute bursts over three hours, due to my having other comittments.

Those other commitments- first I went to my advisor's office to ask where almost half of my credits had gone, and upon my return immediately began my weekly tutoring session with Lisa. After that I shared a funny story with Mollie, Annie, Erin and Sarah, then returned to my room and watched some more of the video. Dinner at 5:30 with Ann and Mollie, though I recall being mildy upset during it. Don't remember why, though. After that they went off to church and I went back and finished the movie.

When that movie was over (and thank goodness when it was!) I started another. Called "Revelation Tokyo" or some such. It was a lot better than the first, although it was still low-quality video. But the storyline was much better, and I'm sure that in the original format the drawings were much better. After that I posted some and did random internet things, and went to bed.

I can do that later, though, can't I? Right now I'd like to say that I'm pretty tired and don't know how much I'll be adding, but I shouldn't be adding a whole lot because it's not good for me to stay up so late. And Allen had me up until 2 last night helping him compile songs for Katie, so I don't want to repeat that. It's odd- I spent a lot of time today napping, but I was still tired when I got back to my room tonight. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I went to frisbee tonight for the first time in a week (and was still coughing like mad afterwards- curse this cold!) and then went straight to Bible Study. I enjoyed it tonight, though (which is not to say that I usually don't, because I always do). It was very intellectual and made me glad that I can just sit there quietly and listen to the wisdom dropping from the mouths of seniors. I was also reminded that I want to attend Al's Midnight Poetry Group one evening. Possibly this Saturday.

Also held the inaugural meeting of the anime club. There were a lot of people there, which pleased me, but the subject of going to Cons came up, and more frightening, these people wanted to cosplay at said Cons. That, coupled with their extensive knowledge, led me to believe that there are no few Otaku amongst this group. Which, now that this group has been started, kind of makes me feel like Dan: "I think I'm frightened off for good, though I'll probably duck in for their movies." That pretty much does it for me, but then, that's what I wanted to get from this group anyway.

So yeah, it's now 1:25 am and I still have a lecture summary to write. More when I get to it, which is probably going to be never. Three things before I close, though: I need more juice boxes, since I had my last one this morning. That makes me sad. Another is that Ann, Dan and Mollie ALL read this page, but none of them have yet signed my guestbook. I'm disappointed. Finally, jenhiver has taken down EVERYTHING and this miffs us. We shall have words with her about that when she's on IM, though.

16:22 Ann's on the phone with me and had to correct something I wrote earlier. I can understand her point, but it seems kinda silly that something like one person's webpage would ever be important enough to matter to anyone. I dunno.

23:03 Went to the coffeehouse this eveing with Mollie and Erin. The LU Jazz Singers were singing, and the house was packed. Came back after an hour 'cause I had lots o'homework, though. :( Did some of that, and at some point I might go to bed. Maybe take a shower, too. In fact, that might be a good thing to do now to wake me up. Off I go.

Dan Holbrook is a filthy slut whore

---

Read the Elf's Dreambook Sign the Elf's Dreambook

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? E-mail me!