I Speak of Endings and Beginnings...
As most of you know, thanks to facebook or livejournal's e-mails, yesterday was my birthday. Once again, like I do every year, I refused to celebrate it. To me, it's just another day with a special title. I'm a year older...big deal ; )
Just bear with me tonight. Brain's fried after today, so this will be a simplistic entry...
Anyway, RIC had this adorable little welcome back cookout between the dorms which was hosted by WXIN, the campus radio station. It was a quiet and absolutely gorgeous day. I had the chance to spend time with a few people I haven't seen since last semester. Too bad Eva wasn't able to make it to the cookout, since she was volunteering outside New Hall, helping students move into their suites. Everyone else copped out on her, so she couldn't take a lunch break. I didn't mind grabbing her a hamburger when she asked me.
I also had the pleasure of Emily's company for a while. I'm glad to see she's been doing all right since the end of the spring semester. She's back to living on campus again. We went for a short casual walk before going to her dorm room in Weber. Speaking of Weber, everyone's living in that hall this year which makes visiting so much more convenient. Anyway, we spent short while catching up, filling each other in on our summer adventures.
It didn't take long before Eva got off duty. She said she was going to Riley's to continue painting and help her move into the new apartment. Emily and I offered to help, since we had nothing to do. I went to RIC for the BBQ just to get away from home for the day, and this ended up being a bonus. The trip was well worth it. Emily and Eva painted one of the bedrooms while Riley and I used the van to move all her belongings from the old apartment to this one. That took about 4 trips and 3 hours. We made amazing time, thanks to Andy and his unexpected help on the last run. After we were done moving the stuff in, I ended up making that kitchen sparkle while everyone else painted. Every little bit counts : )
Riley and Eva both felt bad that I was helping them on my birthday, but I had to keep insisting that I don't mind and remind them that my birthday's just another day to me. What I didn't know is that Riley, while on her food run, bought me a birthday cake. For some reason I get really embarrassed when people start randomly singing happy birthday to me and even more emarrassed when I can't seem to blow all the candles out. But, these weren't ordinary candles. The flames won't go out no matter how much effort you make! The just smoke and sparkle and crackle until they completely melt. Ugh, no fair! We had a great laugh over that one while drinking 1% milk from these classy champagne glasses. They didn't have to do that! Just seeing them smile and making their day easier was good enough of a present.
Then that night, Mandy and I went to Gallery for Sexy Sultry Sundays with the Dynamic Divas. (For those of you who don't know, this is basically drag karaoke night) Yay! More well spent time with a good friend and my favorite drag queens. I'm going to miss Viola sooooo much : ( Last night was her last night being MC. Now she's focusing on the Dynamic Divas' college tours. Hopefully we can get them to come back to RIC in April. They want to come back. I want them to come back. They may have some questionable routines, especially for a public venue, but they mean well and they're all such wonderful people at heart. If I could, I'd make Viola my drag godmother. I didn't hear them ask "if there were any other birthdays in the house" and I wondered why Mandy held my hand up high. I ended up receiving birthday wishes from the Divas.
Such a lovely way to end summer vacation and a week that was off to a horrible start : )
Today was my first day of the Fall semester. What a disaster. I've already swapped out one class with another. I might like the idea of a computer programming class, but not if it means injecting myself with morphene every Mon and Wed morning. I don't find a professor who walks back and forth at the chalkboard while speaking in what sounded like an incredibly long unbroken monotone sentence to be engaging in the slightest. Instead, I'm taking Greek Philosophy with Rawson. Luckily, someone dropped the class and I managed to grab the last seat. I've had him 2 times before and I'm looking forward to being his student again!
Gender and Language? No idea what's going on with this one. The course is new and has never been taught before. There's no textbook--only WebCT articles. Not to mention, I've never been in a class where there's only one straight student. Anyway, the principles behind the class are amazing, but it just creates one problem after another. There's no focus. The discussions were shallow and all over the place today. Somehow we started with domestic violence, which led to rape, and ended with hate crimes within a two minute span. Almost nothing to do with language! Honestly, I'm debating this class right now...I'll give it another day or two before I decide to swap it with another.
My last class today was an absolute bore. Crime and Crime Punishment in society...'nuff said. Granted the professor is an amazing woman (she works in law enforcement), she doesn't each very well. She's concerned with the specifics, going over everything in almost nitpicky detail before moving to another topic. She doesn't break up her routine. Just powerfully lectures the class all period without giving us a break or getting the students involved. She's there to teach the material and nothing more and to brag about her recent encounters with criminals. I'm sure I'd be willing to pay better attention if she could lighten up a bit. I'm already on total sensory overload by the time 15 minutes have passed. I'm stuck with this one...there aren't any available classes in the same time period. I'm just not looking forward to the 10 page paper she's assigned. Did I mention that this is an introductory class?
Wednesday should be a much better day...and I'm looking forward to it.
Just bear with me tonight. Brain's fried after today, so this will be a simplistic entry...
Anyway, RIC had this adorable little welcome back cookout between the dorms which was hosted by WXIN, the campus radio station. It was a quiet and absolutely gorgeous day. I had the chance to spend time with a few people I haven't seen since last semester. Too bad Eva wasn't able to make it to the cookout, since she was volunteering outside New Hall, helping students move into their suites. Everyone else copped out on her, so she couldn't take a lunch break. I didn't mind grabbing her a hamburger when she asked me.
I also had the pleasure of Emily's company for a while. I'm glad to see she's been doing all right since the end of the spring semester. She's back to living on campus again. We went for a short casual walk before going to her dorm room in Weber. Speaking of Weber, everyone's living in that hall this year which makes visiting so much more convenient. Anyway, we spent short while catching up, filling each other in on our summer adventures.
It didn't take long before Eva got off duty. She said she was going to Riley's to continue painting and help her move into the new apartment. Emily and I offered to help, since we had nothing to do. I went to RIC for the BBQ just to get away from home for the day, and this ended up being a bonus. The trip was well worth it. Emily and Eva painted one of the bedrooms while Riley and I used the van to move all her belongings from the old apartment to this one. That took about 4 trips and 3 hours. We made amazing time, thanks to Andy and his unexpected help on the last run. After we were done moving the stuff in, I ended up making that kitchen sparkle while everyone else painted. Every little bit counts : )
Riley and Eva both felt bad that I was helping them on my birthday, but I had to keep insisting that I don't mind and remind them that my birthday's just another day to me. What I didn't know is that Riley, while on her food run, bought me a birthday cake. For some reason I get really embarrassed when people start randomly singing happy birthday to me and even more emarrassed when I can't seem to blow all the candles out. But, these weren't ordinary candles. The flames won't go out no matter how much effort you make! The just smoke and sparkle and crackle until they completely melt. Ugh, no fair! We had a great laugh over that one while drinking 1% milk from these classy champagne glasses. They didn't have to do that! Just seeing them smile and making their day easier was good enough of a present.
Then that night, Mandy and I went to Gallery for Sexy Sultry Sundays with the Dynamic Divas. (For those of you who don't know, this is basically drag karaoke night) Yay! More well spent time with a good friend and my favorite drag queens. I'm going to miss Viola sooooo much : ( Last night was her last night being MC. Now she's focusing on the Dynamic Divas' college tours. Hopefully we can get them to come back to RIC in April. They want to come back. I want them to come back. They may have some questionable routines, especially for a public venue, but they mean well and they're all such wonderful people at heart. If I could, I'd make Viola my drag godmother. I didn't hear them ask "if there were any other birthdays in the house" and I wondered why Mandy held my hand up high. I ended up receiving birthday wishes from the Divas.
Such a lovely way to end summer vacation and a week that was off to a horrible start : )
Today was my first day of the Fall semester. What a disaster. I've already swapped out one class with another. I might like the idea of a computer programming class, but not if it means injecting myself with morphene every Mon and Wed morning. I don't find a professor who walks back and forth at the chalkboard while speaking in what sounded like an incredibly long unbroken monotone sentence to be engaging in the slightest. Instead, I'm taking Greek Philosophy with Rawson. Luckily, someone dropped the class and I managed to grab the last seat. I've had him 2 times before and I'm looking forward to being his student again!
Gender and Language? No idea what's going on with this one. The course is new and has never been taught before. There's no textbook--only WebCT articles. Not to mention, I've never been in a class where there's only one straight student. Anyway, the principles behind the class are amazing, but it just creates one problem after another. There's no focus. The discussions were shallow and all over the place today. Somehow we started with domestic violence, which led to rape, and ended with hate crimes within a two minute span. Almost nothing to do with language! Honestly, I'm debating this class right now...I'll give it another day or two before I decide to swap it with another.
My last class today was an absolute bore. Crime and Crime Punishment in society...'nuff said. Granted the professor is an amazing woman (she works in law enforcement), she doesn't each very well. She's concerned with the specifics, going over everything in almost nitpicky detail before moving to another topic. She doesn't break up her routine. Just powerfully lectures the class all period without giving us a break or getting the students involved. She's there to teach the material and nothing more and to brag about her recent encounters with criminals. I'm sure I'd be willing to pay better attention if she could lighten up a bit. I'm already on total sensory overload by the time 15 minutes have passed. I'm stuck with this one...there aren't any available classes in the same time period. I'm just not looking forward to the 10 page paper she's assigned. Did I mention that this is an introductory class?
Wednesday should be a much better day...and I'm looking forward to it.