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Once again there has been a long haitus between updates to these pages. I finally threw myself into my work, and I've been swimming through it ever since. As the semester starts to wind up for a grand finale I thought I take a crack at summarizing the past month or so.My sister and I had a great thanksgiving down in D.C. visiting our Aunt, although the trip down there left a lot to be desired - I would strongly recommend never traveling Amtrak during a holiday. We had the prerequisite _huge_ dinner on thursday at 1pm with my Aunt and Uncle and my cousin and her husband. Then my Aunt, Diana and I rented The Wedding Singer and Object of My Affection, which was fun and relaxing. On friday I went shopping from 9am-11am with my Aunt - an avid shopper to complement my usual reluctance and frustration with the ordeal of the mall - and bought the first non-jeans pair of pants I've owned since sometime around 8th grade. That evening Diana and I went to the movies to see... THE EPISODE 1 TRAILER!!!! The excitement is already building and opening night is still six months away... The trailer has given birth to endless conversations among many of my friends and we're already Planning opening night.
We had Movie Night this past friday and it was awesome! After much debate we finally decided to show "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and everyone seemed to have a good time, so I consider it a success. Diana and I even managed to have all the food cooked and ready at 10pm on the nose, without leaving a messy kitchen, a first in the realm of Movie Night experience. We also had almost no left-over food, even though I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, a batch of oatmeal cookies, a batch of brownies, peanuts in the shell, blueberries, raspberries and pineapple with whipped crem (the real stuff), baby carrots, two kinds of juice, hot spiced cider and cold cider, and popcorn! We are starting to think about what movie to choose for next semester now, because it will be the be all and end (sniff!) all of Movie Night...
My update has been out of commission for a month because of a couple of things that have made my life a bit more complicated lately. The main one is that on the October 3rd I broke my right ankle playing soccer. Although I didn't need the surgery my sister had when she did this to her left ankle two years ago, I have a cast and I can't put weight on it, which makes my arms and wrists tired and everything take longer than usual. I was very depressed about this at first, because it means the end of my soccer career at Swarthmore, among other things, but I think I've adjusted to being only a bit sad when I watch the games.The week after I broke my ankle I flew to Vermont to be a bridesmaid in my older sister's wedding, which was incredibly beautiful. All the leaves were turned amazing shades of red, orange and gold, making the hills glow like some kind of incredible painting. It rained a bit, and the mist added its own touch to the unrealness of the color. My sister looked beautiful and happy, and the whole family was together for the first time in a while. I managed to make it all the way down the aisle on crutches without falling, carrying my bouquet, and even danced at the reception (although it is really tiring to dance on one foot. It was really good to see my aunts and uncles and cousins as well - I think I really need to spend more time in Vermont so I can see them more often.
The second weekend of break I went to NYC to visit my best friend Mia and Julianna ('97). We all ate at a delicious Thai restaurant and then had dessert at Vienero's, this great little Italian pastry place that has awesome desserts for very cheap. We visited the Museum of Television and Radio on saturday, where I watched an episode of Mork and Mindy (ha!) and parts of a Star Wars special from 1977 (some of it I'd never seen, although a lot has since been pieced together in other specials on the film). We spent saturday night with Julianna, and she made us stir fry and we went to see "What Dreams May Come", which was a pretty good movie (I say matinee or renter).
Alright, I guess it's time for me to get down to doing some work before I head off to brunch. I like this gaining an hour thing!
I just registered of the GRE online! It feels like such a strange thing to be doing, especially because I have not yet decided if I'll be going to graduate school. In that spirit I'm only taking the general test now, and holding off on the subject test until the spring. It's time for that trip to Border's to look at GRE books and think about my future...Courses are going well so far, although I don't think my brain has settled into work mode - I keep forgeting assignments or quizes until the last minute, and as a result I don't feel like I'm really working very efficiently. Hopefully when I get my new day planner I'll be able to write everything down in one place and get this all straight. If the company will send the planner I ordered, that is...
In less serious news, my friend Julianna came down from New York City to visit this weekend and we had a good time hanging out and chatting - we even played an exciting game of Star Wars Trivial Pursuit! Very little work was completed by yours truly, but it was a lot of fun.
The first full week of classes of my last fall semester at Swarthmore has begun, and I'm already procrastinating work by updating this site! This semester I'm taking Marine Biology, Physics 3 (Mechanics), Senior Comprehensives for Biology, and Intensive First Year Spanish, fulfilling my last little requirements for my biology major and having a little fun with languages too. So far my difficulty is with Spanish because I want to respond to everything in french! I'm also planning on working in lab for Liz Vallen and doing a bit of Cornell desk sitting, plus the usual stuff as a WA (I'm WAing Animal Physiology this semester), so I should be very busy. Fall semester is always rather frantic until soccer season is over in any case.After an intense preseason of double practices, during which my life was reduced to eating, sleeping and playing soccer (yeah!) the season started last thursday with a scrimmage we easily won 7-0 over Immaculata. This past weekend my parents were down from Michigan to watch the Swat Kick Classic tournament, where we won 8-0 over Alvernia on saturday (and this was merciful since we stopped scoring intentionally) and then lost 3-0 to Beaver on sunday in a game we could have played better. I haven't been playing very much (I sat out all of sunday), so my current goal is to convince the coach I should be playing...
