It was a grand Mountain Day: D Becky & Heather, Dale & Miranda, Beth & Liz, a bunch of our Pearsons firsties, and myself, took three cars to Mount Holyoke (as in the actual mountain) for a hike. Reaching the top I had two popsicles that made my mouth blue. We overshot the trail on the way back and went by someone's barn with a sleigh in it. Beautiful cool sunny blue with puffy clouds fall day. Saw both Newton and Windy at the top with their respective owners. I was the one to lie across everyone's laps on the way home, I think I had the most comfortable spot, I nearly slept. Had a lovely Kobe walk in the evening, then read for a couple of hours in the library. Watched Queer Eye for the first time since I got here. Now I am exhausted. Buenas noches.

When I woke up at like 8 today I was like "why the hell isn't it MD?" Blue skies and sunny early in the morning, and me, tired and ready to get back in bed. Walking Newton, everything was dewy but fresh. We didn't walk for a full hour this time, and we didn't go near any ducks. I read some before my 11 o'clock Spanish class. That class bored the hell out of me, btw. I wanted to sleep. P. is the devil. Why couldn't I miss THAT class? Now MD will be tomorrow (or the weather forecast has not been viewed by our dear Jojo) when all my GOOD classes are that I will feel CHEATED if I miss.

I walked Kobe as it was overcast, we went down Woodbridge and onto "The Knolls" or some such oddly named side road. Seemed a little gothic-eery walking with the rain clouds and buzzing birds. Very still... could imagine either otherwordly things happening or early American philosophers/writers sitting about out in "the primordial forest." It started raining on the way home and I realized why it was not MD.

While reading the sky was better and better, and by 5 the patch out my window was blue and clear again. 15 minutes later as Dale and I tried to go to dinner it started pouring its wet heart out. We walked with our firsties to the Rockies in the thunder and pouring-ness, and I noted that towards the southwest it was blue and clear. Decided that at Smith it probably wasn't raining. "Why aren't we at SMITH?" (MHC is far superior, I just had a moment of angst. Maybe because they stole our MD last Weds...)

Mango: most frequently yummy. Had some at dinner.

Had a piercing and drinking conversation/advice session with the firsties, as three of our four ADs sat at the table next to us. Riiiiight...

Thought I missed the hall committee meeting, but I didn't. Uhm... we had a huge theft in my neighbors' room. Kelly of PS came over. That was odd. She was in my room... in her uniform...

Meeting was fun, usually are. MD had better be tomorrow. I'm staying up all late. Goodnight, now.

Monday sure as hell better be Mountain Day, because I'm getting to bed late tonight. Due in part to my not getting up till it was time to get ready for brunch (at the rockies, it was good. almost forgot my umbrella), I have been reading, well, all day. It also rained, all day. Discovered the amherst bus girl's name today while reading in the library. Watched the season premiere of The Practice. Wtf? Where's the original cast? Did I miss that much last spring?

Uhm... my Spanish prof es el diablo. I "skimmed" a story (that's a laugh, right? like how much did I understand while skimming an illegible copy of a story in Spanish?) and have called it a night. Buenas noches. Pray that I get a call at 5 in the morning to put up MD posters.

Good day. Emerged for good from bed at 11:30. Somehow got ready in under half an hour for "lunch" at the rockies. Dale gave Marilyn the checker woman chocolate & we ate some sketchy as hell cuisine. Back to home sweet dorm for laundry; wasted time looking for nonexistent articles on Huidobro's "Luna" or any short explanation not on the internet of el creacionismo. Oops. 3:30 settled down with the chocolate cookies and wrote a page and a half. Dinner in wilder, good (compared to earlier meal), a talk with D. Becky on massages and lingerie, another half a page written. Attended someone's senior thesis play, "Folding." We had mixed feelings on it. Luckily Heather remembered lines like "there's no exit!" and something else (that true to character I am forgetting now) that was right out of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. The script was pretty good, but the woman who wrote it tried too hard to be funny in introducing things. It was painful. Anyways, if it weren't for No Exit, R. & G. are Dead, and Endgame, it would have been more original. But it was an interesting contribution to my existentialist play experience.

Saw members of the opposite sex today while walking to and from library. Wow. Felt nervous and unsure of whether or not to make eye contact. Uhm. That's probably why no one ever asks me on a date, right?

Finished my paper after the play. Dale & I watched Empire Records with Miranda and another Pearsonite. That movie never gets boring. I wish in middle school I could have dressed up as Corey for Rex Manning Day.

In further news, I am now signing myself up for every catalog and mailing list I can find in hopes of always having mail in box number 2184. My last spree (during first year) has apparently worn off, as I get no junk mail.

So tired. This morning I went at a decent hour to walk Kobe. It was sprinkling, but finally not pouring. Got some more liquids from Blanchard to hoard, and ate one of my frozen burritos. Scurried off to work at the mail center -- I stuffed envelopes, learned how to retrieve parcels for pick-up and process them coming in, and was taught the nifty computer stuff to make labels to forward the mail of those departed from MHC. Four hours of this. Saw the girl from the bus stop, she smiled and seemed friendly, again. I was shaking... but I felt, well, happy that we weren't like having some terse conversation...

Dinner, residents with questions, and finally three hours of floor activity! We made bubble tacks and magnets, thanks to Lindsey's brilliant craftiness! Everyone LOVED them, which is why we were there for three hours. All the tacks and magnet backs were used. Also tried out some magnetic poetry which turned out pretty damn cool.

Showered and did my yoga sun salutations, then decided to put off homework a bit longer. Watched Save the Last Dance with Jos, Dale, Miranda, Ramona... predicted the mother dies within about 20 seconds of the movie's start. But I loved watching Julia dance. Wow.

Oh! I finally did a BIT of work, writing about my sun salutation "experience" and on "what I learned" from the poetry reading on Weds. Uhm. Yeah. Anyway, I'm exhausted. I gorged on like three or four orgasmic chocolate chunk cookies (triple chocolate, that is).

For Mer: Mitchell Point, yes, straight up, straight down, straight up some more, watch out for the poison oak. Yay on the math test, you didn't do badly =) And I'll probably be dog sitting Windy around that date (oh, I've heard about the shelties like four separate times now, at the very, very least! Maybe more like five or six, Mom wrote about it in like two emails and in a letter, plus you told me... aaahhh! For those of you interested in Mer's life, her blog name is MuskratFan.

Signing off, have a pleasant tomorrow!

Art history quiz this morning: started with the Mona Lisa and remained manageable. The contrasting was between Donatello's bronze David and Michelangelo's marble David. Had lunch with Dale, Madalyn, Beth, Korisha, & Emily, then Dale and I walked Newton. Newton was showing off horribly and ended up choking himself going after ducks. Definitely tired him out. Will go for a shorter walk come Monday.

Dale & I took a ride to Chicopee for CVS, the Family Dollar, & Big Y. Family Dollar doesn't take credit cards, and I didn't have much cash on me, so that didn't work so well. But I did get more x-mas lights (my room is now completed in that department) and some toiletries and, of course, food. Splurged on chocolate chunk cookies (that are gooy and overwhelmingly sweet) and sparkling cider.

Dinner at Prospect: had a little scene with the dishes. I had my tray balanced on the window thingy when the dishwasher grabbed a plate off my tray. The entire tray was unbalanced and fell to my feet, shattering dishes and splattering food. Uhm, it was really NOT helpful to do that! Everything would have been perfectly fine if she would have just let me unload my tray myself!!

Anyway. I put up my x-mas lights this evening, did a little thinking about my Spanish essay (Nuria helped me find "floresta" -- it's a glade or grove, who knew?) and watched a Save by the Bell episode. Tomorrow I have work and a floor activity, maybe in the evening I'll get around to fun & studying.

Oh no! My once a day updates have become once every two day updates! Wow. So I haven't written about Tuesday's rain yet. That was intense, Chicken Little would have committed suicide, "the sky is falling!" Woke up to thick gray skies, pouring, at some point I had dreamed it was mountain day, but, obviously it couldn't have been, we would have gotten carried off the mountain in great rivers of rain. I got pretty damp, especially around the ankles, and sat through all my classes till 4 pm. Emerging from Clapp, the rain had recently stopped and the weather was acting all conciliatory-like. Clouds moving off and the first sunlight of the day. Dinner in Prospect with the deconstruction group, a good dinner finally! The grilled salmon/caesar salad thing. I had some happy dappy moments in the library getting derrida books and printing up posters for mountain day and our bubble magnet/tack floor activity. Stayed up late making little flashcards for art history.

This morning was also not mountain day. I finished up my applications for the Karen Snyder Sullivan Travel Memorial Award (woo, breathe). Had my meeting with the HP. Turned in the applications (YES!) and read Spanish. That class wasn't so dry today. Rushed from Blanchard as if I really had to get to class half an hour early. Our group went last, Kaitlyn did our "what is deconstructionism?" intro. We were all polished in our corner of the class. I was getting all nervous to talk, as always, but at least I didn't choke up totally, I managed to spit out words. There's one guy in our class now, sexual orientation not yet known.

After, had the poetry reading. Lukewarm poetry, nothing striking for me, really. Uhm. Some people are really into adopting foreign poem structures & stealing Shakespeare's rhyme schemes. Mary Jo seemed to like that stuff. Personally I would rather not write a poem with the same rhymes as sonnet number 20. Apparently there's some project of "20 poems ripping off sonnet number 20." I won't be reading those.

Now it's all late... studied with our firsties for art history tomorrow. Argh. Mountain Day, please? If it is, I'll get woken up with a phone call at like 6 am so I can hang up the little signs I made to alert people to get back in bed. Actually I want it on a Monday so I can miss my dreaded Spanish class ... preferably this coming Monday when our papers are due.

Hmmm. Yesterday I had brunch in the Rockies for the second time ever. Read in the library. Went with Elise to pick up Dale in Springfield, high potential for getting lost. We got lost only after we found Dale, which was good, because we were late. Dinner was good company, bad food. Yay Jenn for reading my blog! =) Motivation to actually update!

Today I had to get up early (as in around 8) to turn in my poem. Uh... not my idea of a good reason to wake up when my first class isn't till 11. Well, I motivated myself to walk Newton before class which was good, since I had the old counseling appointment in the afternoon AND Kobe to walk. I inadvertently walked up to Yelling Girl by Wilder. We had, uhm, a conversation. She seemed really mild and friendly. Odd.

"So where's the dog from?"

"Oh, he's a professor's. He's pretty good, it's just he likes to get in the flower beds and once FM yelled at us... but it's fun..." [rambling or something, I don't know]

"Oh that's cool, so do you get paid?"

"Yeah, and it's something I can do, I'm not good at like clerical work... but dogs I can do..." [Newton pulls me off stage]

Ok, so you have no idea how long afterwards I was reanalyzing what I said for ways in which she could take it as an insult. Is Yelling Girl the dog or the FM man that yells at me?

Anyway. Kobe walked, well, a bit of a ways, it wasn't a very long walk, so luckily she unearthed a baseball from under some brush (I thought she was just playing around with the shrubbery) that we played fetch with. Cute girl, but likes to jump like a freaking kangaroo. She licked me in the mouth during one well planned jump.

Oh. So the poems are, uhm, really long that a lot of people wrote for Verse Writing class tomorrow. Loaded with sentimentalities and cliches...

Speaking of cliches, I ran into Corinne Demas while picking up said poems for class tomorrow. She was really enthusiastic in insisting that her short story seminar is mandatory for me. I told her I wanted to take it but wasn't sure I'd get in. Whoa. My life is already planned for next semester? On the way out I had a chat with Amy Martin about being an SA and running errands. Came out of all that trying not to smile like a goof. I love that professors actually remember us on this campus.

Dinner meeting was funny, we aren't buying that we were "randomly selected" as a group. Jenn & Megan had to endure our "plans" for Weds. Lindsay and Johanna joined Dale and Michelle and I after. Grilled salmon and caesar salad pairing (remember going there last spring with Kathleen and Lindsay! I think we have a picture of that). Hall committee meeting, gossipy. Or at least it felt that way.

Now I guess I should be doing my art history reading but I'm horribly unmotivated to crack open that huge textbook.

Ok, the dance was lots of fun. Miranda and I researched 80s looks online and then dug through our closets -- I wore this black lacy dress I've never worn before tonight, my lace see through off the shoulders blue top, fishnet stockings (thanks to Leah next door), a blue scarf with my to-the-side ponytail, & lots of bangles (also thanks to Leah). Miranda got the sock thing going, hot pink and black with purple stripes, with a polka dot skirt. Yes, we looked like we popped out of an 80s fashion spread. We were at the dance for about an hour when everyone else showed up, and Korisha and Beth started yelling with strange vampire guys... So how do dances break down at MHC? The guys stand in their own circles and are rarely welcomed into the circles of girls. Usually they'll pair up with single girls and start making out in the middle of everything. Definitely saw some walking STDs tonight. BUT, we were not involved with that, and had fun. Tainted Love, Material Girl, Billie Jean... it was a good night.

Yesterday I had things to say, but I fell asleep and didn't post. So, yesterday. I walked Kobe in the oscillating weather, I had crests of dry sunshine and troughs of tropical storm rain. Kobe seemed happy to walk today, strange as last time she wouldn't budge from the garage. Uhm, yeah. I haven't figured that creature out yet. Anyway, I was soaked, I could have jumped in a lake with all my clothes on and come out looking more dry. Took a couple more pictures of people on our floor, but then the memory card filled up so that quickly had to stop last night... I've been emailing Mom lots, a bear was poached near our house and Mer found the body... maybe legal action will be taken?

Anyway, more on yesterday. I ate lunch at Blanchard, Yelling Girl was there and seemed embarrassed -- she avoided me. I sat facing her table and when she walked by I looked her in the eye and smiled at her. She looked away. I saw Beth and Korisha right afterwards, they were not convinced that she is in any way reformed of her bullying ways.

I subbed for someone in the mail center, they didn't want me at parcel pick-up. Apparently I was not a legitimate substitute, the person who asked me should have gone through the mail center and found someone with some experience I think. But they put me to work anyway, I stuffed mail boxes for a couple of hours. The woman, Bernice, had to initiate me into the ways of the mail room. "I don't let my girls wear those [pointing at my flip flops] but you didn't know so it's ok." "The numbers wrap around from here, check that the name matches, that's the most important thing. And always, always put mail in under the name." Discovered that most all off campus mail is misdirected. Not a comforting thought. As I was leaving she invited me to come back next Friday at 12:30.

I had dinner with Liz and D. Becky at Wilder, it was better than average food. After walking to the Delles I had to lie down I was so full. I went to the comedy night and sat with someone from our dinner, she thought I was Jewish (a common misconception with me). Anyway, I saw her again today, we've made up. I suppose we bonded over the comedy. We had Jennifer Ann M something ski (a common misconception with her is that she's Polish, she's actually Irish), Jen Matos (MHC alum, teaching English at a nearby high school), a guy from Umass (lots of smoking jokes and cursing, very funny), and then, drumroll, Liz Braun's husband. Uhm, mistake? He imitated a coffee house clown. He put on a black beret and a red clown nose. He made balloon animals and popped them. He tried to act like a yuppy and it didn't work. It wasn't even funny that he thought he was actually being funny, it was just plain sad that he was so... not funny.

Anyway, back in the dorm. On duty was quiet again. Had a talk with one person on the floor, productive, very. No wild parties, thank you Pearson ladies. Yes, let's all go to the Rockies if we want to party...

Today... strange. Had a talk with Henry and continued with Sons and Lovers. Must keep reading. I will update later, I think. As long as this dance thing tonight proves worthy of noting.

Wow so it's been a little while. The weather was so nice I guess I didn't think to update? It's been a busy couple of days. Yesterday I had my seminar and then in the evening I went to a Spanish movie, a movie out of Chile, translates to "The Sentimental Teaser." Three stories in one, finding out some people were very disturbed by the second one about an incest case... uhm... yeah, it was kinda graphic, esp. for people with sexually violent pasts...

Saw the psycho girl at lunch today. No confrontations though. Had a bouncy walk with Newton, he was in an especially happy mood. He walks like he hasn't got a thought in his head (which is probably the case). This evening I went with D. Becky to the Diane Arbus lecture, which was good but a little too slow paced. But the speaker was too distinguished to complain about something like that... They had the excellent bar cookies there, the chocolate/cheesecake/raspberry layered chunks of divinity... I'm guessing about 400 calories per serving, but what the hell?

Got everyone to go down for the RAD event and then heard Chicago playing in Elise & Ashley's room so I joined them... great movie! Everyone else had already seen it multiple times... But D. Becky was in my room I found so tomorrow I'm going to keep better track of her and drag her to a comedy show!!

I called Merrie tonight (haha, hi Mer, as I know you'll be reading this!) since she's housesitting for the Fosters (without the meat chickens, thankfully). Got an email from Mum, she's adopted our nickname of "Shelley" pronounced Shell-ay. Ha! It's funny though, it could have been her legitimate nickname (richelle, shelley).

Must start doing more work this weekend. Wrote a new version of my travel statement of purpose... I took two naps today. The first was just resting really, the second I slept in earnest. Had a bad dream about trying to leave some evil haunted town.

On my way to yoga this morning the sky was still gray and cloudy, as I walked into the art building around 10:20 AM there were patches of blue behind the clouds to the west, but cloudy and stormy to the east still. By the time art history 100 was over, stepping outside was dazzling... the western sky won over. Verse writing was ok, that's going to be a class with a strange dynamic. People like to talk too much, and some people are way, way too defensive of what they wrote. We talked about 7 student produced poems in like freaking 2 hours. No offense, but our things aren't that good or that deep to spend that much time on. We need to get down to the criticism right away, tell people what sucked and then move on. Back home I relaxed with Dale's Cosmo, then had dinner at Blanchard. Came back to read over the 101 sexy things to do in Dale's new Cosmo, laughed quite a bit... uhm... some of that stuff was really skanky, but, whatever. No making out in bar restrooms for me!

Had a moment of "dear God what am I going to do now?" when Dale left. Curled up on bed, fell asleep. Woke up and started reading art history like mad. Had a conversation on IM, showered, just got done with reading... going to turn in a horrible reading response tomorrow, but... I didn't know what to write about. Upon rereading it I definitely wasn't impressed with myself. I'll have to be better about that next week, pick a topic, think on it for awhile, commit and write...

I woke up at 6 and it was dark like 3 am. My bed canopy was tilted to one side so I thought to stand up and straighten it out, but I was wobbly and tripping up and felt faint. I realized that my stomach felt rather tempestuous. Went to the bathroom and stood over the toilet for a bit hoping to throw up. Didn't happen. Went back to bed. Almost overslept after continually plopping back into bed and curling up towards the wall. Felt rather weak and sick still. Felt esp. weak and sick when thinking about the sandwich I ate last night.That's gradually worn off though, just felt it again during dinner.

Kobe didn't want to go out once I led us back to the house in search of an umbrella (lightly raining). Finally with the formality of changing collars we were able to go out and fetch sticks. No pottying, however. The one time in the last 48 hours that I didn't have my umbrella it poured. I waited awhile, it died down. Took Kobe out hoping she'd potty. No such luck. Started raining harder, I waited it out. Set out in a slow rain, ended up at Pearson's in earnest rain and drenched hair. Realized looking in a mirror the situation wasn't as grotesque as I felt, but nearly so. Luckily some woman joked at me "At least it's cooled off now!" or I'd have been quite self conscious in my "drowned rat" state.

The fun continued after I ate something for lunch. Newton and I went out for a spin, he was very lively today but I had to plead with him to let me get to the garbage to throw out his potty bag without letting go the leash. His father was there, hope he didn't think I was too harsh with silly Newton. Dog became very active in anticipation of a treat. He's quite a bouncy fellow and always wagging his tale and his puppy eyes under all that mopish fur, really an endearing breed... People keep asking what type he is and get confused if I say PBGV, and are further confused when I try to say it out for them.

Dale & I took a short trip to the Big Y. I had to shower before because I was in a bad way with the hair and dampness. Hall committee meeting, finished A Portrait... and wrote a roughie reading response. Will need to redo my travel statement soon... Uhm... I'm about ready for bed. That's about it for me tonight.

What a strange day. I took a long nap after sleeping in, did some hall duties, did some reading... Uhm... hmmm. Nice dinner at Wilder & arrangements for evening entertainment. Had everyone over for a truly revealing game of BS, which was hillarious. I definitely didn't lose... but I didn't win, either. Ended up at Blanchard having a crush conversation. Did a little research, the crush-ee already has a girlfriend. Tomorrow I have an event with my little sisters (coolest firsties ever) & a hall meeting. Oh yeah, and reading.

Again, a short blog out of necessity. Damn it's late. Goodnight moon.

Started off the day with cereal and a Kobe walk with Dale. I really didn't, well, do too much today. I did get to have nice conversations with Karuna & with Henry. Dale & I were hungry early (lunch just wasn't too satisfying) so we ate dinner at Blanchard and then headed off to Wal Mart. We took a backroad way, it was interesting. Of course we knew we were close when we began to smell the dairy cow farm aroma.

We definitely found lots of room goods. Luckily I sold my rug in "fundraising" for this. I found a new smaller better rug, curtains, a lamp, and an umbrella. Glory Halleluja, let there be rain. I am prepared. No more camo 'brellas that I've partially broken.

Oh God I'm tired. First night on duty. Very quiet. Why am I still up?

Hmmm. Art History 100 was cancelled this morning, so after yoga I had, uhm, lots of free time. I went with Emily M. to Atkins for some random food stuffs, then spent my "lunch" money on for fun food at Blanchard. For some reason I feel a need to justify myself to the lunch checker out woman. "I'm going to regret this later, but I'm really thirsty right now!" For heaven's sake, just take the drinks and run! I had my little walk with Newton, I didn't exhaust him this time around. Mosquitoes were biting and I wanted to get home and eat something. I ended up taking a nap after opening the care package from Mum (which was a super duper happy thing with candy and breakfast stuffs in it). Upon waking I went to, I think her name is Hajira, well I went to her apartment to pick up the rolly chair advertised. Ok, so the rolly chair isn't exactly a wonderful huge cooshy thing, but it's rather nice and I like it better than my other chair. Plus she gave me a husband pillow thing for free. So now I have sitting room for like 7 or 8 people comfortably. Too bad I don't do parties... Had to rearrange my room for the new stuff. The chair at least I can store easily over the summer, and with any luck I'll find a first year to will all my room stuffs to when I'm a senior. Unless, of course, I for some reason want and am able to bring it home to Oregon.

Had a homework free evening, too. I ate dinner with Miranda at Ham & we talked English lit & Quillian. She recommended Stephen Kellogg, so after dinner we hurried over to Blanchard for a couple of hours of music. The opening act, Nini something or other, was good AND humorous. She did a cool loop instrumental thing. Then Stephen Kellogg and his crew came on. Very charismatic and flirtatious group. So of course we loved them. Especially the lead, very, very hot... unfortunately, very, very married. I stuck around and met up with Dale for the movie immediately following. The Best Man, great "chick flick" for a boring night. There's nothing quite like watching a movie like that with a roomful of women. I had some iced coffee AND chocolate cake, so I'm, uh, really awake right now.

Anyway. Tomorrow I get to do homework & hall committee stuff. Oh, a very exciting announcement coming up this Sunday, 9:30 PM, whole hall meeting, the dining room. Something that will warrant lots of hooting and clapping.

Ok. So my English seminar on Joyce, Lawrence, & Woolf is to die for. Kobe had to put up with a super short break during my lunch between classes. The Omar Sosa Octet was stimulating and relaxing at the same time. The hall committee meeting was definitely helpful, but long. Been nervous for classes, but I think I'll get over that soon. Spanish is always nerveracking though. Thelma was at the concert tonight, love that woman. Ok, this is really brief, as it must be. Tomorrow morning I have yoga, and I must get sleep to avoid going off to la-la land while we do the "relaxing" section.

Eep! So much reading! The Joyce is excellent, of course, but now I have to do the Spanish reading, and, uhm, it's in Spanish. I had my first verse writing class today. I think it'll be pretty damn cool, except there's a couple of girls with too much ego who are going to bother the hell out of me every day. They debated for like freaking 20 minutes over the meaning of the words "pure violence" at the end of Robert Francis's "Icicles." Then people started reading their own lives into the damn poem when it's ENTITLED "Icicles." NOT "My Insecurities as a Writer," nor "Projections of my Fears on Mortality." I remembered the advice of my beloved English Lit. teacher junior year in high school: "When you're reading a poem, pay attention to the title. Donne's "The Flea" is about a flea! It's not some huge metaphor for pregnancy!" Argh. They didn't even know what they were arguing about. Prof. Harold made me rather cynical last semester towards these sorts of discussions of lit. Who fights over whether the words "pure violence" imply a malicious intent or not, sometimes using a reader response theory, sometimes an intentionality of the author viewpoint? Sorry, private rant.

More news from Kathleen & Laura today, yay them!

Yoga was relaxing, a little too relaxing. I always start drifting off towards sleep when we lie down.

While picking up my wall tapestry thingy in the Rockies an SA there, Katie, gave me a half gallon of ice cream to distribute back here... I just left it with some firsties in the dining hall. Someone spelled out "MILK" with the dining hall chairs in protest of Milk & Cookies not including milk anymore. Dale just left for Michelle's room, but I'm in pjs so I can't go. Ahh... maybe this Sat. I'll get to take another break from this reading.

Oh my God I'm tired. Had Latin American Lit II today, my first Newton walk, a health center appointment, and a 7:30 "meeting" with Kobe. Working on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. It deserves to be slowly read and enjoyed, but I have to rather rush through it tired in the eyes and counting pages. Tomorrow looks busy so I am not going to write much tonight! Uhm... goodnight!

Wow. A lot has happened since last I wrote. I had a great time at Dale's, I got to meet her family (including her three adorable cuddly soft cats), and spend some time with Katie. We had a mid-afternoon nap, and helped make a pasta dinner. Katie came by in the evening and we took a walk, arm in arm. This morning Dale & I woke up fairly early and headed back up to MHC. This trip I was very awake & in charge of music selections. But, we did get rather lost in Chicopee, when we passed the South Hadley turn off & went about 15 minutes further along just trying to find a u-turn. Still had plenty of time to get a sack lunch at Blanchard.

Back in my room, I found a much wanted email waiting for me. I had to wait to reply though, as it was time for the Eric Carle museum floor activity. Uhmm... not many people went. But it was a great get-back-to-your-childhood & enjoy bright colors and funny looking animals event. The gift shop makes you want to have a hoard of small children to read to. Plus we had the opportunity to make our own "works of art" in the studio. Mine is more a study in how to make a collection of colors completely stressful looking, but, whatever.

Back in my room again, & Karuna called. It relaxed me just to hear her voice, and then I realized how much I miss her and Kathleen already. Matt of Matt, Jill, & Kobe called. Took a pilgrimage with Liz & Julia to our old rooms in N. Delle. Later returned with Dale. Now it's quite late. Oh yeah, and the floor meeting was tonight. That went ok I think, Miranda thought it was good... Ok I'm stopping now. This was a good day, a note worthy day of firsts.

Today was sunny. Dale & I celebrated by dressing up a bit & going to lunch together in Wilder. We met up with everyone there. I bought 99$ worth of Art History books. Tried a vanilla mocha at The Thirsty Mind. I was drowsy but the caffeine definitely helped...

After dinner Dale wanted to get off campus, so we went with Lindsay to "guy watch." Well, really we mainly just wanted to get off campus. We went to Amherst & needed to find a restroom, so we went into the library first. All of us had the giggles, and we felt embarrassed walking right out after just using the bathroom. So instead we took the elevator down, then up, then walked across the stacks and took a different elevator to the ground floor. We managed to exit the building, and then linked arms and stumbled about toward town & lights. Lindsay made noises while we passed someone that reminded her of a tennis player (hehe). We walked up and down the main street in town and then went back to MHC with some loud music. That satisfied us quite well enough, and now we are tired.

I'm getting up early in the morning to accompany Dale home for Saturday night. Will be back Sunday around noon for floor activities and meetings.

Raining yet another day. Continental breakfast is as bad as we thought it would be. I got into yoga (yay!) & Elizabeth & Emily are in my class (yay again!) I went to Art History 100 & want to take it, but I'm still going to try out the Greek Philosophy class, just in case... This afternoon I'm also trying out a class, American Lit 1. At least to see what all is covered in the course so in case I don't take it, I can kind of follow along later on my own.

Yelling Girl was at lunch today. I was at the salad bar when I saw her. Here's how it went:

"Hi, do you remember me?"

"Yes..."

"Are you scared of me?"

Pause. "No...? I just don't think you like me very much."

and etc. Can this be solved in some way so I'm not feeling like she hates me? I don't want to walk around my little happy school worried about her for no good reason. Ahh!

Have my Spanish books now, too. Ack?

Oh well, that's it for now. Just had to vent.

Another gloomy sorta day... It was cloudy & finally rained after dinner. I was definitely on the verge of crying at many different points of the day, without really a clear reason... Checking in with Dale, this was a common thing. I should have just let loose at some point but I didn't. Just been quite down in the dumps with this nasty weather. Convocation was, well, much tamer than usual. Jo Jo gave a reprimand to the seniors about drinking... "Convocation used to be held in the evenings, then in the afternoon, then last year after the picnic, now this year we're doing it before the picnic, and the way things are going next year we'll have it before breakfast."

Got my ticket for the Omar Sosa Octet today, & Dale helped me move stuff from Abbey's trunk room to our trunk room. Talked to D. Becky & did back massage services again. Maybe that'll be my back up plan in case I can't find a job when I get out of college... Dinner at Wilder with Lindsay (hadn't seen her in quite some time!) & our North Delle group (now mostly a Pearsons group, although D Becky is in a more centrally located place). We had lots of sweets & shirley temples.

This evening I did laundry while at the Honor Code Ceremony... the laundry, all wet, was taken and put on a table top. I hope things didn't fall on the floor. The ceremony was, er, nice... The Glee Club was relaxing to listen to. They had catered bar cookies, unfortunately I didn't get a chocolate raspberry one. I had a pecan something or other. Poor me! Always in search of those things. Floor activity fare?

Walking home with hot chocolate in the drizzle & the dark & the headlights reflected in puddles, I got rather sad again. It's lonely here even when I'm surrounded by people. Bad new feeling.

I am selling the huge rug, and with the money from it I am going to buy a rolly chair & a small rug so I can still enjoy the hardwood floors.

Got Mum's postcard today, much appreciated. It is up on a bulletin board now.

Classes start tomorrow, I'm getting up early to try to get into the 8 am yoga class. We'll see how that goes. Must go! I've been quite bad and haven't even done all my reading for Quillian's first class!

Today was kind of tough. Maybe that's because I'm at the end of it and it's late and I get sentimental when it's late... Anyway. I woke up with a sore throat again & it was drizzling and bleak outside, and on top of that I had to emerge early and go to another Orientation gathering. I didn't even go to these when I was a first year, for heaven's sake. I read "our poem" in front of the whole auditorium and people actually said I read well (ha! never would have guessed I could do that when I was in middle school). So see, a high point. Well, here's the scary point of the day. Julia & I were taking the bus to Amherst to meet up with everyone for dinner, and we had, uhm, an encounter with a she-devil. Here it is, so next time someone asks us what happened, we can direct him/her here:

So we're sitting toward the back of the bus, talking about Hampshire college & Jimmy Fallon & Queer Eye & etc etc, when we pull up to the Hampshire College bus stop. Some gals we talked to at the bus stop are in front of us, and some others to our left in front of us, too. One of the girls from the latter group (you'll see why I say "girl" instead of "woman" in a few minutes) stands up & says quite loudly (basically yells) "Oh, there's Yasmine, I LOVE Yasmine! I'm SO glad she's getting on the bus!" So Julia says "wow" quietly and we have a little laugh. To "distract" said yelling girl, I point at some flotation devices in Hampshire's gym thingy and make some silly comment about them looking funny there (Katie accurately pointed out later when I told her this story, that my comment really was about as laugh worthy as the yelling girl's exclamations).

Anyway, this "Yasmine" character gets on the bus and goes up with the little group to our left. Yelling girl retells what has happened at length, obviously looking for a confrontation. "Yeah, I was really happy to see you Yasmine, I was like, 'Look, there's Yasmine!' and these girls laughed like I was retarded or something..." blah blah blah, blah blah blah... Uhm... So we're sitting there trying to act natural and talk about anything but yelling girl & "Yasmine," as we pull into Amherst College's bus stop. Yelling girl and her crew get off at the same stop (I think they'd have gotten off wherever we got off). J. & I de-bus at the back door & are walking past yelling girl as she says "Yeah, you're going to make a lot of friends that way, have a nice day, a real nice day." I'm like... thanks... yeah... We get past them and she's still talking to our backs "But you know what really bothers me is that you can't even face me and look me in the eyes. What's the matter?" So we turn around, and she gets right up in our faces.

The dialogue at this point is really out of control. Yelling girl's obviously got some anger management issues & is demanding apologies & nastily commenting on any attempt to diffuse the tension a little and explain ourselves. I'm having a bubble moment, only not a good one. It's more a bubble moment of the "Oh sh*t, this is really happening, and I have no idea what to do" variety. My plan? Try to cry. I'm giving her the serious sad looks & stuttering over everything but I can't really get worked up enough to get waterworks (I know, letting her win, but hell, she could have kicked my butt). Meanwhile she's jumping around like a freaking boxer demanding an apology and giving us the crazed "I'm a rabid dog and I want to attack" looks. We eventually mutter out a sorry and just flee the scene. Plan for next time: Run like hell. Much more funny & graceful way to escape the situation.

So there you go, that is The Story of Yelling Girl.

Uhm, on to the rest of the day. Dinner was great, and the place adorable & fun. Dancing in the car I need practice on, but I tried... Back on campus I had the roommate starter kit things to do with the first years, and then planning for the hall committee on-duty schedule. Then I headed over to Blanchard for food (free so of course I went, must take advantage of board plan). After, I went to D. Becky's room to try to heal her back with my amateur back massaging skills. That was good, I felt much more relaxed after talking with her & seeing that she was, you know, not in a body cast or anything.

Back in the dorm some random Chicopee guy Imed me and I got sucked into a little, er, conversation. Even from my naive view I think I can safely say he just wanted sex. So I took a shower very disillusioned & lonely feeling. No tengo ninguno principe azul. Pienso que sere sola por... siempre! Por siempre siempre? It's kind of silly. I have wonderful friends around me & all sorts of great people, but a couple of bad encounters just left me feeling... bad. Hard transition to single life. This is really the first time I've been single in my adult life and it's, well, scary. What if I don't meet anyone? Am I going to end up with like 50 cats & a sleeping pill habit? Sorry, I was trying to give things a comical twist but, well, it IS lonely. I guess I just need to wait till school starts and I don't have a free moment to remember that it's lonely. Heck, I should be reading right now. Ok, enough blog for tonight, I had to record The Story of Yelling Girl quickly though before I forgot anything essential.

I woke up with a sore throat & went back to sleep. Around 11 I dragged myself out of bed & drank a lot of water. I've taken lots of vitamin c and tried to stay warm. I just told some girls to shut their door, and then I babbled because I feel bad being this noise enforcer... anyway, must refine that so that people aren't offended & actually want to comply with noise control habits... uhm... thing to bring up at floor meeting: cell phones in hallways.

I helped a little bit with Dale's moving in process, but she did so much, and their room looks awesome. Her roommate is lucky, she'll be walking in on a nice furnished room instead of the furniture-heavy space that Dale found... Anyway. Meeting tomorrow at 10 so I need to sleep. Then some stuff at 7 in the evening. Oh! Dale also cheered me up with a little flexible smiley man, kind of like gumby only yellow and with a round head. He's currently hanging from my lamp & beaming at me. The one man that will always be happy with me? Dale's decided to get me out & learning how to be social at parties & such, since that whole area has been neglected since I was like, 15. Brilliant idea I had for a floor activity: belly dancing. Just have to find someone who can teach us some moves (Erin may be able to help on that front).

Quillian wrote with our first assignment already. I want to finish The Dubliners even though that seems not so essential. Uhm... and then I have to start A Portrait... right away. Righty-o!

Sweet dreams. Send sunny thoughts, the dreary weather combined with symptoms of an imminent sickness are making me more prone to moping about.