Who has 5 calendars?!
Wow. It's been a long time, kiddos. I was reading my most recent real update, and I laughed at the whole "it's boring to be home" thing. I was actually extremely nervous coming back--I just had a bad feeling about this quarter, and when I usually have a bad feeling about something in the beginning of it, it turns out to be bad. But so far it has been wonderful--knock on wood.
Wait. I'm getting ahead of myself. Breathe, Francie, and start from Winter Break.
It was really fun going to Phoenix, especially seeing our friend Kendall, the weird hockey-playing lesbian (bi?) girl whose mood changes as drastically and suddenly as Dennis Rodman's hair color. She can be the sweetest, most caring friend in the world one minute, and in the next she's hating you and in a stony silence. She's practically the definition of irrational behavior. It's strange because the majority of my friends are a lot like me--the quiet, shy, intellectual, deeply caring types--but she is the exact opposite. Her actions make no sense to me. Like we went to the mall with her and she wanted to go into American Eagle Outfitters for new jeans and went straight to the display of men's jeans. That really creeped me out for some reason. And the only books she likes are the Chronicles of Narnia, which are good books, but not the only good books in the world by any means. She also hates her academic classes, and I know you are all thinking you do too, but really, she finds them boring and never wants to go. She doesn't seem to have any spark of intellectual curiousity in her whatsoever, which boggles my mind. There is so much to know in the world--how could you ever not be fascinated by the multitude of possibilities? She also is really into dirty jokes and makes all these inappropriate comments and hand movements that disgust me, and she is overly physical--always making us get into tickle fights or pushing our personal-space boundaries. I know, I know--I sound like Sarah Jessica Parker's character in "The Family Stone"--but seriously. It makes me wonder why Kelly and I are still friends with her. Maybe we've grown out of each other? Maybe.
But Phoenix was lovely. One day it was seriously 85 in the sunshine--I was perspiring in a t-shirt, capris and flip-flops! It made me realize how much I crave warmth. I really can deal with hot days--I sort of revel in the baking heat--but cold just shuts me down. All I can think about is how cold it is. Therefore, going to the desert was heaven on earth for me. I also love seeing the beautiful desert landscapes and buttes scattered throughout our car ride, a car ride I always associate with George Winston's "December," which is funny because he grew up in Montana so he thinks snow=winter, not the scrubby brush of Arizona.
Christmas was OK--I didn't get very many presents, which I know makes me sound like the greediest brat on the planet, but I was hoping for few more presents than I got. I was actually kind of relieved once Christmas is over, because you all know how much I hate Christmas. I prefer New Year's much more, even though many people think it is a big let down. Kelly and I did not have an eventful New Year's this year because we were both sick, so we stayed home and watched the 48-hour "Twilight Zone" marathon on the Sci Fi Channel. I love that show, especially when it surprises me, as it so often does. There is also such retro charm to the grainy, black-and-white film, and all the women with their overdone eyeliner that was so popular in the early 60's.
The big excitement this break was that my friend John came to stay at my house the last weekend before we went back to school. He lives in Wisconsin, so he had never been to Sacramento. It was so kind of him to come and act interested in my boring little life. I just love having out-of-town guests and escorting them around and pointing out landmarks of my childhood. We went to my high school, downtown Sacramento, the local mall, Old Town, the American River Parkway, Borders--everywhere cool. We also stayed up late playing Ouija and watching crappy movies (like "Short Circuit") and not-so-crappy movies (like "American Beauty," my favorite movie.) John also told me that he was looking at some of the Facebook groups I was in and found the one for Teen Girl Squad and has now become obsessed with it. I was so excited that I made someone as addicted to it as I am. (Em and Liz--"Three NOSES?!" "Aghh--brggh--he died somehow." "Eeww--uck--no. We will be called Kissy Boots!" "Stop saying words.") Then we took the train back on Monday (because they gave us the first Monday off, which is a little silly, since we have next Monday off too, but hey, I'm not complaining.) It was a really fun train ride--I thought we would get sick of each other because you know, that's how you get around people you spend every waking moment with for a number of days, but it totally wasn't that way. It's amazing how much there is to talk about in this world. Really.
The only part of the travelling that wasn't fun was switching trains and finding the right platforms and lugging baggage all around with you. I seriously have large bruises on my arm from where my tote bag was hanging and back pains because it was so heavy. Ugh. I need to scale down on my material posessions. Buddha would hate me.
I kept getting more and more nervous as I approached the campus, but I'm not really sure why. I guess I'm just always afraid that my friends will be too busy for me. Even in a college with 6000 people, it is easy to spend multiple days alone just because everyone is too wrapped up in their own lives to remember you. You can usually stave this off by being the initiator for social arrangements, but I am ALWAYS the initiator and I am a little tired of always having to work for human companionship.
But then I got into my room and was so hot and sweaty after running around, making sure I didn't miss trains/buses, that I stripped down to my underwear and surfed the Internet while listening to the "Titanic" soundtrack, the first CD I ever owned. (I needed something calming and soothing.) Then I went to dinner with John and we decided to walk to Lake Lagunita (because it finally has water in it) and then to this old rock bridge we found once when climbing in the foothills. Unfortunately, the park where the bridge was has been heavily renovated, and the bridge has been moved from a copse of beautiful, canopying trees to the middle of this new planting field, so all the magic is lost, because we used to lie on our backs and look at the stars through the branches and talk about stuff, and now it's all open, not shielded from the elements in the least. I was quite sad, but I loved walking with John. We kept getting lost and laughing at ourselves. Then our sneakers were soaked because of the dew on the grass, so we took off our shoes and walked all the way back to his dorm with bare feet in the middle of the road in about 55-degree weather.
Today the only class I had was step aerobics from 11 to noon, which was fun because I took it in the winter and spring last year but didn't do it in autumn of this academic year, so it was nice to be back and hear the familiar Cher-like, upbeat techno music and have the teacher screaming, "Knee lifts! Basic step! V-step!" at all of us. There are really no classes you can repeat at Stanford other than PE classes, so I cherish the familiarity of it.
Then I came back and wasted 3 hours on the Internet (how do I do that?), took a shower, got a Strawberries Wild Jamba Juice with a Vita Boost, and took the bus into Palo Alto because I needed some stuff at the drugstore. Of course, Borders and the used bookstore called to me, so I ended up buying two books--"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien and "Angle of Repose" by Wallace Stegner--and a San Francisco calendar for half-price. Then the stationary store called to me and I bought another calendar (this one of London) and two Quotable Magnets (dear God, I love those things.) Of course, I had forgotten that I already had a "365 Days in Britain" calendar in my dorm room. All in all, I now have 5 calendars in my dorm room--San Francisco, London, 365 Days in Britain, Kisses (almost all of my posters in my room depict people kissing, so John got me that for Xmas) and one of kittens and puppies that my mom got for free at our local dry cleaner's. Oh well. At least I have pretty wall art now. And I'll never forget what day it is. :)
Then I came home, ate dinner, and watched "Gilmore Girls," which is quite unusual, because I never watch TV at college, but this nice girl that always sends out a GG e-mail to our dorm listserve reserving the TV at 8 made me want to go watch it. So I went there and there were actually about 6 other girls there, and I really enjoyed it. My family isn't the kind to laugh much during TV shows, but all the girls here kept cracking up, so it made me laugh more than I usually do. It was also a good episode, and to be honest, I miss the Gilmore girls. They are like friends I've reconnected with, as antisocial as that sounds. And an hour of TV a week won't hurt. I'm going to try to go back when I can.
Then I went back upstairs to upack and clean my room, and a miracle happened. I got an e-mail from one of the girls that was with me in Ashland about meeting at the Coffee House that night to catch up. This is a miracle because, as I said previously, I am ALWAYS the initiator in all my relationships, and it was nice for once to be the one whose presence was actually requested and think I had the power to turn her down. Of course, I didn't, but still. So after I finished with my room, I went and had a 2-hour chat with her. Right in the middle of it, these 4 guys who were a little tipsy asked us to sing Happy Birthday to their friend Kevin, who was turning 24, and offered us cups of beer, which I gladly took. Then we talked with them about how Kevin was going to be a pediatric oncologist and how the summer after his freshman year at college, they'd found a football-sized tumor in his chest that actually pushed his heart over to the other side of his chest. Yuck. But it was really interesting.
Then I came back here and took an online Jung personality test that everyone in my hall has been taking and posting their results on the whiteboard. I was surprised to find that other than one other guy, I am the only introvert on my entire hall. I think this has been how I have been able to make so many friends with the freshman--all of them are so confident and outgoing that it's been easy. Sometimes I really do think being an extrovert is such a blessing, and I curse my introvert ways. I yearn for their social-butterfly tendencies. But yes, I was a Introverted Intuitive Feeling Perceptor (INFP.) The description of it really sounded like me: extremely idealistic and loyal, deeply sensitive and caring, but shy and seen as cold by some people because of my quietness. They also say INFPs live in a fantasy world and are disappointed when the outside world doesn't live up to the one inside their head and think of it as something wrong with themselves. So true.
But yes, that is my exciting winter quarter so far. Tomorrow I will check out the bulk of my classes. It will be challenging--school from 10 to 6 with almost no breaks. It's practically high school! :)
Oh, and postscript: Somehow I missed the whole fanaticism over "Sugar, We're Goin' Down" and "Photograph," but I just discovered them and am loving them, especially SWGD. I have listened to it on repeat over 20 times today. There is a Fall Out Boy concert in San Jose on April 5 that I really want to go to. It would be my first concert!
Wait. I'm getting ahead of myself. Breathe, Francie, and start from Winter Break.
It was really fun going to Phoenix, especially seeing our friend Kendall, the weird hockey-playing lesbian (bi?) girl whose mood changes as drastically and suddenly as Dennis Rodman's hair color. She can be the sweetest, most caring friend in the world one minute, and in the next she's hating you and in a stony silence. She's practically the definition of irrational behavior. It's strange because the majority of my friends are a lot like me--the quiet, shy, intellectual, deeply caring types--but she is the exact opposite. Her actions make no sense to me. Like we went to the mall with her and she wanted to go into American Eagle Outfitters for new jeans and went straight to the display of men's jeans. That really creeped me out for some reason. And the only books she likes are the Chronicles of Narnia, which are good books, but not the only good books in the world by any means. She also hates her academic classes, and I know you are all thinking you do too, but really, she finds them boring and never wants to go. She doesn't seem to have any spark of intellectual curiousity in her whatsoever, which boggles my mind. There is so much to know in the world--how could you ever not be fascinated by the multitude of possibilities? She also is really into dirty jokes and makes all these inappropriate comments and hand movements that disgust me, and she is overly physical--always making us get into tickle fights or pushing our personal-space boundaries. I know, I know--I sound like Sarah Jessica Parker's character in "The Family Stone"--but seriously. It makes me wonder why Kelly and I are still friends with her. Maybe we've grown out of each other? Maybe.
But Phoenix was lovely. One day it was seriously 85 in the sunshine--I was perspiring in a t-shirt, capris and flip-flops! It made me realize how much I crave warmth. I really can deal with hot days--I sort of revel in the baking heat--but cold just shuts me down. All I can think about is how cold it is. Therefore, going to the desert was heaven on earth for me. I also love seeing the beautiful desert landscapes and buttes scattered throughout our car ride, a car ride I always associate with George Winston's "December," which is funny because he grew up in Montana so he thinks snow=winter, not the scrubby brush of Arizona.
Christmas was OK--I didn't get very many presents, which I know makes me sound like the greediest brat on the planet, but I was hoping for few more presents than I got. I was actually kind of relieved once Christmas is over, because you all know how much I hate Christmas. I prefer New Year's much more, even though many people think it is a big let down. Kelly and I did not have an eventful New Year's this year because we were both sick, so we stayed home and watched the 48-hour "Twilight Zone" marathon on the Sci Fi Channel. I love that show, especially when it surprises me, as it so often does. There is also such retro charm to the grainy, black-and-white film, and all the women with their overdone eyeliner that was so popular in the early 60's.
The big excitement this break was that my friend John came to stay at my house the last weekend before we went back to school. He lives in Wisconsin, so he had never been to Sacramento. It was so kind of him to come and act interested in my boring little life. I just love having out-of-town guests and escorting them around and pointing out landmarks of my childhood. We went to my high school, downtown Sacramento, the local mall, Old Town, the American River Parkway, Borders--everywhere cool. We also stayed up late playing Ouija and watching crappy movies (like "Short Circuit") and not-so-crappy movies (like "American Beauty," my favorite movie.) John also told me that he was looking at some of the Facebook groups I was in and found the one for Teen Girl Squad and has now become obsessed with it. I was so excited that I made someone as addicted to it as I am. (Em and Liz--"Three NOSES?!" "Aghh--brggh--he died somehow." "Eeww--uck--no. We will be called Kissy Boots!" "Stop saying words.") Then we took the train back on Monday (because they gave us the first Monday off, which is a little silly, since we have next Monday off too, but hey, I'm not complaining.) It was a really fun train ride--I thought we would get sick of each other because you know, that's how you get around people you spend every waking moment with for a number of days, but it totally wasn't that way. It's amazing how much there is to talk about in this world. Really.
The only part of the travelling that wasn't fun was switching trains and finding the right platforms and lugging baggage all around with you. I seriously have large bruises on my arm from where my tote bag was hanging and back pains because it was so heavy. Ugh. I need to scale down on my material posessions. Buddha would hate me.
I kept getting more and more nervous as I approached the campus, but I'm not really sure why. I guess I'm just always afraid that my friends will be too busy for me. Even in a college with 6000 people, it is easy to spend multiple days alone just because everyone is too wrapped up in their own lives to remember you. You can usually stave this off by being the initiator for social arrangements, but I am ALWAYS the initiator and I am a little tired of always having to work for human companionship.
But then I got into my room and was so hot and sweaty after running around, making sure I didn't miss trains/buses, that I stripped down to my underwear and surfed the Internet while listening to the "Titanic" soundtrack, the first CD I ever owned. (I needed something calming and soothing.) Then I went to dinner with John and we decided to walk to Lake Lagunita (because it finally has water in it) and then to this old rock bridge we found once when climbing in the foothills. Unfortunately, the park where the bridge was has been heavily renovated, and the bridge has been moved from a copse of beautiful, canopying trees to the middle of this new planting field, so all the magic is lost, because we used to lie on our backs and look at the stars through the branches and talk about stuff, and now it's all open, not shielded from the elements in the least. I was quite sad, but I loved walking with John. We kept getting lost and laughing at ourselves. Then our sneakers were soaked because of the dew on the grass, so we took off our shoes and walked all the way back to his dorm with bare feet in the middle of the road in about 55-degree weather.
Today the only class I had was step aerobics from 11 to noon, which was fun because I took it in the winter and spring last year but didn't do it in autumn of this academic year, so it was nice to be back and hear the familiar Cher-like, upbeat techno music and have the teacher screaming, "Knee lifts! Basic step! V-step!" at all of us. There are really no classes you can repeat at Stanford other than PE classes, so I cherish the familiarity of it.
Then I came back and wasted 3 hours on the Internet (how do I do that?), took a shower, got a Strawberries Wild Jamba Juice with a Vita Boost, and took the bus into Palo Alto because I needed some stuff at the drugstore. Of course, Borders and the used bookstore called to me, so I ended up buying two books--"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien and "Angle of Repose" by Wallace Stegner--and a San Francisco calendar for half-price. Then the stationary store called to me and I bought another calendar (this one of London) and two Quotable Magnets (dear God, I love those things.) Of course, I had forgotten that I already had a "365 Days in Britain" calendar in my dorm room. All in all, I now have 5 calendars in my dorm room--San Francisco, London, 365 Days in Britain, Kisses (almost all of my posters in my room depict people kissing, so John got me that for Xmas) and one of kittens and puppies that my mom got for free at our local dry cleaner's. Oh well. At least I have pretty wall art now. And I'll never forget what day it is. :)
Then I came home, ate dinner, and watched "Gilmore Girls," which is quite unusual, because I never watch TV at college, but this nice girl that always sends out a GG e-mail to our dorm listserve reserving the TV at 8 made me want to go watch it. So I went there and there were actually about 6 other girls there, and I really enjoyed it. My family isn't the kind to laugh much during TV shows, but all the girls here kept cracking up, so it made me laugh more than I usually do. It was also a good episode, and to be honest, I miss the Gilmore girls. They are like friends I've reconnected with, as antisocial as that sounds. And an hour of TV a week won't hurt. I'm going to try to go back when I can.
Then I went back upstairs to upack and clean my room, and a miracle happened. I got an e-mail from one of the girls that was with me in Ashland about meeting at the Coffee House that night to catch up. This is a miracle because, as I said previously, I am ALWAYS the initiator in all my relationships, and it was nice for once to be the one whose presence was actually requested and think I had the power to turn her down. Of course, I didn't, but still. So after I finished with my room, I went and had a 2-hour chat with her. Right in the middle of it, these 4 guys who were a little tipsy asked us to sing Happy Birthday to their friend Kevin, who was turning 24, and offered us cups of beer, which I gladly took. Then we talked with them about how Kevin was going to be a pediatric oncologist and how the summer after his freshman year at college, they'd found a football-sized tumor in his chest that actually pushed his heart over to the other side of his chest. Yuck. But it was really interesting.
Then I came back here and took an online Jung personality test that everyone in my hall has been taking and posting their results on the whiteboard. I was surprised to find that other than one other guy, I am the only introvert on my entire hall. I think this has been how I have been able to make so many friends with the freshman--all of them are so confident and outgoing that it's been easy. Sometimes I really do think being an extrovert is such a blessing, and I curse my introvert ways. I yearn for their social-butterfly tendencies. But yes, I was a Introverted Intuitive Feeling Perceptor (INFP.) The description of it really sounded like me: extremely idealistic and loyal, deeply sensitive and caring, but shy and seen as cold by some people because of my quietness. They also say INFPs live in a fantasy world and are disappointed when the outside world doesn't live up to the one inside their head and think of it as something wrong with themselves. So true.
But yes, that is my exciting winter quarter so far. Tomorrow I will check out the bulk of my classes. It will be challenging--school from 10 to 6 with almost no breaks. It's practically high school! :)
Oh, and postscript: Somehow I missed the whole fanaticism over "Sugar, We're Goin' Down" and "Photograph," but I just discovered them and am loving them, especially SWGD. I have listened to it on repeat over 20 times today. There is a Fall Out Boy concert in San Jose on April 5 that I really want to go to. It would be my first concert!