My Journal

After math went to Freshman Studies, discussed Chaung Tze a bit. The last thing we discussed was his parable of the philosopher Chuang Chou who dreamt he was a butterfly, and when he awoke could not remember who had been dreaming- a chinese philosopher dreaming he was a butterfly, or a butterfly now dreaming he was a chinese philosopher. The part that galled me was that as we were all leaving, Alyssa (trying to sound clever) mentioned that this reminded her of something in Hamlet. THIS IS WHAT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT, YOU SILLY GIRL! Ugh. Sometimes that girl just bothers me.

Last night I was in Mollie and Barb's room and Mollie said something about how all the flowers in their room were dead. So Barb told me to write an e-mail to her dad asking for more flowers. I wrote him a note telling him that they were kind of really dead and in smelly water and maybe if he sent some new ones Barb'd throw the dead ones out. I also put that it was a secret e-mail that Barb didn't know about so it could be a surprise. This afternoon, I get a call from Barb saying she got flowers and she thought she saw my name on the package list as having gotten some, too. So I went to her room and admired the ones she got (the card said "Happy Tuesday"- one of the reasons I had given him for sending her flowers instead of simply "Helen says you need new ones"). Then she escorted me downstairs (because I'm paranoid due to this assassins game) and sure enough, I had a package slip in my mailbox, which I redeemed at the desk for six lovely carnations and a couple ferns to fill out the vase. The card said, "Thanks for updating me on the status of Barb's flowers, Helen! -Barb's Dad" so I spent 15 minutes arranging them before I got it done to my satisfaction. Then I took a nap.

When I woke up just now, I actually started typing this. Dinner at 6, I think, with Ann and/or Mollie.

20:42 Had dinner alone at 6:30, and when I got to Plantz I figured I might as well go over to Union street and see if the person I was supposed to kill was at least there, maybe try something. So I walked in the front door and right back out the back door,

My hall is playing the game assassins... we have to "kill" people by touching them and saying they're dead. You only have one target, and once you kill them you get their card and kill whoever is on that card. Only problem is, you have to be completely alone in order for a kill to count.

Got up and went to math, got our homework back (10/10 again, yay!) and then talked about hypothesis testing. Interesting enough stuff. Then I went to Freshman Studies where we discussed the Book of Job some more and got our papers back. I got a B, which means I need to do a major rewrite, but that's okay, as long as I actually do it. And Professor Yatzeck wrote a lot of comments about what I needed to fix, so I should be good.

After class got out I went and had lunch with Tasha and Elena, and then went back to Plantz and took crap from Cole for almost half an hour before going off to Latin. I really need to work on my witty retorts. Latin was nothing special, we finished the new material in half an hour, and then rather than subjecting us to summaries of the Aenied from our textbook again, he gave us a comic strip about Ceasar in Latin. It was kind of interesting to read- much more so than the textbook, perhaps in part because it was illustrated.

After Latin I went to my room, logged on to AIM (cause I hadn't that morning) and then got some more music while waiting for 4:00 to come. When it did I left the room (just as Katja came in, incidentally) and went off to the library to meet with Adrienne. Unfortunately, she wasn't there, and when I called her house her dad said that she was working. So I left a message for her to call me and hung out in the Union until 5, so I didn't have to go back to my Katja-inhabited room.

When I did go back, she wasn't there, so I got some more music and then went down to the lobby for pizza. Birch and Jennifer came by and we sat and had pizza and talked for a bit, and I went up to my room around 7. At nine I went downstairs for the first annual Plantz Hall RLA auction. The entire hall ended up paying $250 to have President Warch tell bedtime stories to us through a botched auction attempt where one girl (a foreigner from Morrocco) bid $120 to get him, so almost everyone else joined together to outdo her, including using hall treasury money. I also got Katie to do 4 loads of laundry for me and 100 sit-ups, and four of us joined together to get Tammy to cook us dinner, paying $4 each, which is not bad at all. And it's going to be super-yummy Jamaican cooking, too!

The auction ran until after 10, so I skipped frisbee (again), did random stuff downstairs and then took a shower and went to bed.

The movie was... good, I think, as long as you've read the book. There wasn't much in the way of character development or linear plots, so those who hadn't seen it might have been disappointed or confused or I don't know what. But if you had read it and were just going to see it as sort of a visual enhancement of the book, I think it was great.

After the movie was over we all piled back onto the busses and went back to Lawrence, where we were dropped off at the same place we left from. Fortunately, that was right in front of Downer, so most of us just went straight to dinner. I sat with Kelly and Sheshma and we talked about movies for the most part. Sigh. You'd think we could find something else to say, but I don't really know that much about either of them.

After dinner I came back to my room and am contemplating doing nothing all evening, though I might do something else at some point, but we shall see. Perhaps I'll even do the Latin homework I ought to... maybe.

Ended up spending the evening leeching music and listening to it until Katja came in at 11:30, wanting to sleep. I turned the music off but kept typing because I wasn't finished with that, and our agreement says that we don't have lights out and quiet time until midnight. I did try and be quiet and darkened the monitor, but at midnight- when I was planning to get off- she got up and left. So I relit the monitor and didn't bother to type quietly, but other than that didn't do anything in case she came back. But I logged off at one, took a shower and brushed my teeth and she still wasn't back when I climbed into bed at 1:30 or so.

I came back to my room and just as I walked in the door, the phone rang. I picked it up, but Katja (who must have gotten here between 9:30 and 10:30, because she wasn't here all last night) had already been awoken by it, light sleeper that she is, so she got up and left. It was the mother of some 12th grade Appleton girl who was having problems in calculus and wanted to know if I would tutor her daughter. She said that Adrienne, my tutoree, really liked how I was helping her (made me feel oh-so-good) and she was wondering if I had time to take on an extra student. She offered to pay me, but I told her that it was on a volunteer basis and she should contact the volunteer center here at Lawrence to set something up. I told her to go ahead and request me if she wanted to, but there might be other people that could tutor calculus that didn't have anyone yet, or that was more qualified, etc. But I told her to go ahead and request me and I'd talk to her soon.

When I hung up I started typing this, which was what I had intended to do when Professor Jordan said we could go early. Soon I shall go to a Freshman Studies lecture on the Book of Job given by a Religious Studies professor, and continue my day from there.

19:30 It's odd- I'm in a really weird mood right now and I have no idea of what I should do. It's like I'm bored but I don't want to go and do anything, like I want to be around people but don't want to talk, just listen. We shall see what I end up doing.

20:47 K, feeling better. Played some Harry Potter Mastermind for a bit and did Nothing Much. Anyway, back to earlier today....

The Freshman Studies lecture was less interesting than the last one, but more interesting than the first. I sat with Ann and Andy and sort of half-listened. After that we went to lunch, where Ann and I were joined by Barb and later Mollie. After lunch I went back to Planzt, talked a bit with Cole, Katie, Mollie and Barb, got my stuff for Latin and headed off to the Box Office. I got tickets to Anna Karenina for me, Mollie and Cole for tomorrow night, and it's supposed to be really good.

Went to Latin, learned about ablative of motion from and accusative of motion towards, and a couple of subsets of those. We also got our quizzes back, and I think he rescored them after he saw how badly we did, because I got a 20/25, which was FAR better than I had expected. After class I went back to my room and took a nap, played on the computer some and then went off to dinner with Ann and Mollie. Afterwards I came back here and- well, it's all here now, I'm up to date. Just played on the computer mostly. But tonight... heh heh heh heh heh.

Got out of bed at nine in order to finish my paper by 11. Then I went and turned it in and went to the library, found Ann and went to lunch with her. Lunch was... interesting. Tuna or chicken patties which The problem with toffee is that it's so bad for your teeth... Sigh.

14:43 Finished the crossword puzzle all by myself, I'm so proud of me! Anyway.... Got up at 1, got dressed and all set to go to math, I get there at 1:30 and... there are three people there. I asked one of the people if I'm late and then my hand flew to my mouth as I realized my error- it's actually at 12:30 class! I felt so foolish. So I asked one of the people what we did and they said not much, they told me what little we did do and then I went to Professor Jordan's office. I told her what had happened and she said it was no big deal, we had just done some data collection for later analysis, but I was welcome to come to the Thursday lab if I wanted to. So I shall be doing that.

When I got back to my room, Katja was there... *shudder*. I just ignored her and went about my business- had my morning juice box, watered my plant, read my paper, put a few things away, that sort of thing. I also read through my e-mail and IMd Mollie and Vickie. While I was doing my crossword puzzle (which I finished, yay me) Ann called and asked if I could meet her to help with her calc homework, so I said I would from three till four, when I go to frisbee practice. I also said I'd wake Katja up at three, who is currently napping. Though I don't know how well she's sleeping because my typing might be too loud for her. Sigh. Ah, well, it's almost three- off I go!

So... got up and went to breakfast with Prachi and Jenny, then walked across the bridge to downtown. I got to see how many Sunday, November 11th
14:45 Woke up at 1, showered/rinsed hair dye out, read the comics, had some orange juice and just wandered around and now I shall go wake up Jenny so we can explore Boston.

21:38 Sailing was fun. We only went out for 5-10 minutes, but it was still cool and now I can say I've been sailing on the Charles.

Got off the plane at Logan and got my bag, then waited for Jenny who came in not even 10 minutes. Took the T back, got hair dye and then went to her dorm. Hung out and made sushi and then rice krispie bars, bleached my hair in streaks and then made more susi, this time with more sucess. Around 2, Jenny, Galen (Jenny's sort-of boyfriend) and I went hacking until 5, came back here and she dyed my hair blue. I went to bed at 7 and got up at 1.

Did Nothing Much for most of the day... stopped in at the Simpsons Marathon for a bit, did some laundry... I met Ann for dinner at 6, came back here and got dressed for the concert and then went over there with Ann, Mollie, Monica, Naomi and Meredith. When we got there we found that our seats had been taken up by sound equipment (they were in the third to last row) so we asked the usher what was up and they said that we got to sit halfway up instead because that's where the sound equipment had been placed before they moved it. So Fate gave us better seats. Yay Fate!

24:17 So, my roommate and I just got done putting up "quiet hours" which were set at the rediculous hour of midnight. Sigh. So much for my late-night caterwauling and carousing. Ah, well, I shall find ways to survive... Also printed out my e-ticket for tomorrow morning, and shall soon be getting my laundry, which shall be sorted through and the most suitable packed away for my trip this weekend.

Off to Boston tomorrow morning, to do fun hacking stuff at MIT!

After that went to lunch with Mollie, and we were joined halfway through by Dan, who's from Brainerd. The two of us kept making references to Stillwater and people or places that we knew about, and so Dan said that it seemed like almost everyone was from to high schools at Lawrence- either Stillwater or the one we went to. Mollie and I looked at each other and both said at the same time, "But we are from Stillwater." Then he made some crack about how we were like the pod people and were going to take over. Conversation progressed from there, went off on a different topic and eventually we left to go watch a movie in Mollie's room. Borrowed "Rain Man" from the front desk.

We watched that for the two hours and ten minutes it took, Dan left and I came back to my room. So far, so good. Soon I'll go down to watch the Simpsons- probably when Katja gets back.

23:48 I think part of the reason I want Katja to be miserable is that she gets so... so vocal and noisy when she's happy, and so I'd rather she not be.

24:51 Still dislike it, in part because I feel I have no "personal space." But then I grew up in a house with very clearly defined boundaries, with set ideas of "mine" and "someone else's." WSS. Problem is, with this reconfigured room I feel like I have my isolated little areas (with two small flat spaces) and all the rest, being "not mine" defaults to being Katja's. Which is maybe not so good. But as I said, I have to keep things this way for two weeks, so WSS.

Started by going to math class, learned math things and got the midterms back. Mine said 34/40, but the piece of paper I got said 35, so it's not like I want to bring that to her attention if it is... though that's most likely a data entry error, and I probably ought to anyway just to clear it up... Sigh. So I have a solid B on that, which is not so good. But there's more work added in, so it's not that bad and if I do well on the final I should have no problems.

After math I went to Freshman Studies where we read Act II in AMSND and I gave the book mummy got him to my teacher. Then I went to lunch with Mollie, Ann and Barb (I need to start hanging out more with other people). On my way back to the dorm to get my Latin stuff I saw Grace, Katie and Ned tossing a frisbee around, so I joined them for a few minutes before going off to get my stuff and heading to Latin.

Latin was kind of a sleepy class today, though not all of it. We learned about the periphrastic form today, which conveys obligation in the passive and something else in the indicative, which I don't feel like looking up right now. I was alright for the first half of class, but then I started to get bored and a little sleepy. I managed to pay attention and write down everything necessary, and by the time we got to the third drill problem I was alert again. We got our midterms back at the end of class, and I had a 94. Not too bad at all- an A, albiet a low one. So that was good. After class I walked to the nearby newsstand and got the New Yorker and National Geographic, which made me happy. When I got back, Adrienne, my calc tutoree called and said that she couldn't make it today, so I had an extra hour free, which I of course did not spend at fencing. Screwed off instead. Sunday, November 4th
15:37 Had a nice little chat with Cole (our second today) and he came up and saw our room and thinks that the division down the middle is indeed hostile and that it could be a lot better. So he asked me why I liked it this way and what was wrong with rearranging the room. Not quite sure myself, and not really something I can put into words, but I tried. It's like... I appreciate my privacy and I come to my room to be alone or shut myself away from the world if I want to, and with that division there I feel like Katja can't intrude. Perhaps I just have mental barriers up. Anyway, Cole proposed a way to salvage my pride, compromise a bit and try and see if that's what's bugging Katja. He said we should try and rearrange the room for two weeks with an agreement beforehand that if it wasn't working out we could change it back or work from there. The other thing is that if it's not the furniture (or just the furniture) that's problematic, we'll know that after two weeks and can try and figure something else out then. And Katja has also said that she's a light sleeper and when I turn on the lights or shut the door when I come in late at night it wakes her up, but that's not exactly something I can change (I mean, if I come in late at night I'll need to see and at the very least SHUT THE STUPID DOOR when I come in regardless of how anything works out.) And as my dad said, that's a part of communal living that she'll have to learn to live with because it's going to happen no matter who's doing it. But for now I suppose I shall be willing to at least try because I ought to and it'd be polite and this way it doesn't look like I'm caving. Which was very nice of Cole to point out.
That's all that's new on the roommate front. In other news...

Anyway, woke up at 8 to the sound of my alarm. As I was sitting up, Katja climbed out of bed and came over to my alarm and turned it off, then began feeling the back of it. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was unplugging it and then gave me a bitch-lecture on how my alarm always went off twenty times on weekends because I reset it every half hour intending to wake up then. Of course, when that happens I MEAN to wake up, though I don't. I ignored her lecture, as I have begun to ignore most things she says, and simply got up and plugged it back in, telling her that, oops, she picked a bad day to complain because that day I had set it with every intention of waking up then, as I was going to breakfast with my parents half an hour later. So her arguments were really invalid. Ha!

After dressing and brushing my teeth, I met my parents and we went to breakfast, then I gave them a brief tour of campus and the rec center before we met with my Freshman Studies professor. My parents seemed to enjoy that and he seemed none too bored, since we stayed for twenty minutes longer than either he or I had anticipated. We returned to the Union and got two shirts for me, then mom drove me to frisbee practice at Memorial Park. After practice (she just watched) we went to Downer with Ann Miller for lunch. (Dad had gone to a chemistry sem on LEDs, then met us for lunch). After lunch mom, dad and I went to the Fox River mall and I got tearaway pants and soccer shorts, as well as a book I had had but gave to Kaarina back in spring. So now I have a copy once again. When we came back from shopping we went back to the Union and got Lawrence shirts in various designs for the rest of my family, then came back to Plantz, met Ann and went out to dinner. We went to a very nice restaurant called The Willow, where I had pheasant that was quite good. After dinner we dropped dad off at the motel so he could watch Game 6 of the World Series and then mom, Ann and I went to the band concert in the Chapel. After that mom left and Ann and I hung out in Mollie's room. I also met with my RA and had a brief talk about what my roommate and I should do (because we have many many problems, not just the alarm thing), and then went to Mollie's. The series was on (Diamondbacks won!!!) and we just talked for a long time. Mollie left for a party and so Barb, Ann and I watched SNL, except that I was really the only one watching it. Meh. Ann went back to her room at around 11, and I went to mine at 11:30. I cleaned up a bit, and used the computer, and now I'm going to go take a shower and then go to bed.

24:30 So the Stupid Yankees play for 12 stupid innings and Stupid Chuck Knoblauch (who is a traitor besides) scored the winning run off of a hit by some other Stupid Yankee. So now the series is 3-2 Yankees, but they go to Arizona on Saturday, so the Diamondbacks will at least be on their home turf.

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