Homework Party Part III

 

Homework Party Party II

 

Only God

Did I tell you about how Jack and Katelyn and I are making a list of extensions of God? First, we were just very certain that God is found in chocolate pudding. Then we realized that God is also certainly found in Oscar Wilde. Then Jack decided that God is Oscar Wilde made of chocolate pudding, but Jack's a little weird and also an atheist. Now we've been working on a list on Jack's facebook wall for a while, and the most huh-worthy contribution came from Frank (Jack's boyfriend, whom we all adore): "that numbness of the lips that you get after eating lots of oranges," which we are still trying to figure out. Any insight would be appreciated.

So what have I been up to? Well, on Tuesday, in addition to taking a bunch of pictures, I had no class. I met Sara at 10:25 and made sure she got her laundry started, then we went to the bridge for breakfast, then we moved her laundry to the dryer, then I did some serious syllabus-crunching (I have these amazing new time management skills and I'm not totally sure where they come from but I love them), then I had to get Sara and Jack on the bus at 12, then I met Katelyn for a fast lunch before she had to go to class, then I got Sara's laundry out of the dryer, then I started calling around looking for a work-study job, then I ran around filling out some applications, then I had an interview, and, no, I don't have a job yet, but I'm waiting to hear. Sometime after I finished all this, Katelyn finished her Spanish class and came by to hang out and then Jack and Sara got back from Mt Holyoke and Spanish and then the homework party started, and got interrupted for dinner, and continued until Katelyn and Jack had written their essays (Sara did join the homework party later, and I took pictures that I'll upload eventually), and there was some doing of other homework, but then certain people got distracted and we moved to Jack's room to work on our beloved gay signs. They are all printed now, and, as soon as we get some time, we will begin covering them with feathers and sequins and shiny things and hanging them around. I will take many pictures. After printing all the pictures, Jack kicked us out of his room and I went to waste time on the internet for hours until I fell asleep.
Of course I forgot to set my alarm early enough to meet Aaron (I blame Jack), but he's cool with it. Turned in our essays in wwwii, talked about the essays a bit, listened to awesome radio programming. Went to post office, Jack got 4! packages, but one of them is a present for me so I guess it's okay. Jack gets a whole lots of packages, though. Ate lunch, did homework, bought Jack a Rosh Hashanah present (this is a long and mildly interesting story. also I discovered that Rosh Hashanah is my birthday this year), went to sound patterns where we talked about vowels and then spanish where we had a dance party and played with plastic vegetables. Went to dinner, more homework until Jack and Sara couldn't take it any longer and decided to watch Queer as Folk. I was good for at least an hour and kept reading my Yiddish, but then I needed a break and so I went down to watch with them. Jack stole my boa and Sara yelled at him about getting feathers everywhere. Watched QaF until Sara kicked us out, came back and finished my Yiddish reading before 2 am. Slept.
Today's plan: shower, go get mail, meet Katelyn for lunch, go to Yiddish, go to knitting circle, dinner, go to storytelling, have wwwii reading party, perhaps decorate signs.

Homework Party

We're having a homework party, and I'm done with my essay (unlike a certain other two people), so I took some pictures.

Although you might think Katelyn is sleeping against my wall with a computer in her lap, I swear to you that she is working very hard on her essay. Harder than Jack, at least.

Imagine me slouching and typing and chewing on a knitting needle at the end of the bed, and you have exactly what our homework parties look like to an impartial observer. Exciting, huh?

I like how Jack looks really intent on what he's doing here. Especially since he was totally not.

Ah, the piece de resistance. I meant this picture to be of Jack's really awesome amazing attractive earrings that I love to play with, but then he scratched his nose. We had a hearty laugh and he insisted that I include this picture.

My Room, Part I

Now that Rose has posted a bunch of pictures of her room, I feel vaguely obligated to do the same. But I'll go that extra step and label things. Maybe I'll even get pictures of people taken sometime.


 

My Room, Part II

 

I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow

Actually, I'm just going through a phase where I love both bluegrass and the word "man." More on that later.

First, I have to tell you about going to Amherst and the crazy free workers-communist bookstore where Jack and Katelyn had to buy books for their media class and there was the longest line in the world cause I guess Amherst or some college with departments sends a bunch of their students there to buy things. We spent most of our time in line looking at a book of drag queens, so it was not time wasted. Then we went to Ben & Jerry's and answered the question of the day (how many stomachs does a cow have?) and got a 10% discount and ate delicious ice cream. Then Jack complained for a long time about how there are not enough gay men around (we think he is crazy, but he comes from gay Mecca) and we got on the bus and came back to our darling Hampshire and we finished watching Ed Wood and got some dinner and the internet still didn't work so we decided to do homework instead. Jack and Katelyn went to read for their crazy media class and I sat down and wrote my essay that is not due until Wednesday but it's a pretty terrible essay and my goal was to be able to edit it, which is currently happening, but I am getting ahead of myself. After I finished my essay, Jack wandered by having just showered, and decided that he needed some tea, and that I should use my fancy new teapot and tea filter to make fancy relaxation tea (which is orange-cream flavored and so delicious thank you Mary I love you) and we relaxed and drank tea and then Jack went to bed cause he's a sucker with 9 am classes. I settled in with some Scrubs for a quiet evening, and then Sara dropped by and decided she wanted to learn to knit, so I taught her at 11:30 at night, and then she eventually headed to bed and I slept as well and I love sleep.
I slept in and was lazy this morning, until Jack called and said "Are you in your room? Good. Katelyn and I are coming to make some hot chocolate in your kettle. See you in a bit." So I put pants on and put the kettle on and washed mugs and they showed up and we had hot cocoa and continued the list of gay icons for our crazy gay signs until it was time to meet Sara for lunch between her classes. After lunch came more of the gay sign making party and these are going to be the best signs in the world and I am so excited about them. I suppose I will eventually post them for you to enjoy. I had to leave Jack and Katelyn with the signs while I went to Spanish, which was less scary than last time cause they got rid of the crazy people who already know Spanish. I met a girl from Mt Holyoke who was nice, and some other people, but I am somewhat saddened that I don't have buddies in there yet. We were pretty happy when we took a break and discovered the signers were having a Mexican food party, and we crashed it to enjoy their mini-burritos and fried bananas. After Spanish, I grabbed the trusty buddies I always grab and we had dinner and then Katelyn and Jack and I rushed off to the bus stop only to determine that we did not, in fact, need the bus we had rushed to, so we decided that the prefix man makes every word better and it only made sense if you were there. Let it be said only that we were going to get on that man-bus and go to Manherst to buy some man glitter for our man signs. Then Jack and I had a big pretend fight in which he stole my shoe and I chased him around and I ended up emptying his pockets and filling my own with his belongings. Then we got on the right bus and relied on a girl from my Yiddish class to make sure we got to the Hampshire Mall right
and then we found all sorts of amazing glitter and pom poms and ribbons and fun fun things at Target and Joanna's. And of course the buses to get back had to be completely inconvenient and we got stuck waiting outside at UMass for half an hour (as Jack froze because he is from Texas and an incredible pansy) but we finally got back to our beloved Hampshire and sent Jack to do his Spanish homework, which he totally procrastinated on forever while Katelyn and I hung out and drank tea and edited my essay for a while and Katelyn decorated my window and added some beautiful pictures of Whitman and Oscar and Bosie to my walls. At some point, Sara came up to help Jack with his Spanish and then she came to have me plan her morning for her (she has to get up at 9:30 so I can grab her at 10:30 to make sure she starts her laundry and then go to breakfast with her and she has to buy milk and I have to buy my Spanish book and Sara has to move her laundry to the dryer and get it out and be ready to get the bus at 12:30 to go to her Spanish class) and I think I am turning into everyone's mom and I'm not sure how or why cause I am hardly the most responsible person. I continued my mom-ness after sending Sara to bed when Katelyn and I sent Jack a note that he needed to be working on his homework and he replied that he was depressed so I took him some tea to make him feel better and then left him with space to finish his homework. Now Katelyn and I are sitting on my bed talking while Jack showers (he did finish his homework) and we're vaguely considering sleep but not really.

Lovesong

Nothing is sweeter than lying on the grass in the sunshine with my pretty Clara.

Yesterday was laundry day, and me, Katelyn, Jack, Madelaine and Tabitha descended to the basement to take over the 3 washers that were working (of 5) for hours and hours until all of our clothing was washed. I also did my phonetics homework, meaning that we had some great long discussions about whether there is a vowel at the end of theatrical, and what it might be, and the best way to pronounce beneficial and such. Somewhere in the middle of this, a fire alarm went off and we complained, but not as much as we did when it went off at 2 am. After our incredibly successful and widely acclaimed laundry party, we decided it was time for the highly anticipated gay sign making party and Tabitha went off to gather craft supplies and we made a list of essential gay icons for our signs and a list of people who will be receiving gay signs, i.e. people who live on our hall. Then we went to get food cause Jack was starving as always, and it was thunderstorming and beautiful and then we returned and my internet no longer worked, but neither did Jack's and neither did Katelyn's and we figured it was a building-wide issuem and decided to have a movie fest instead, starting with Ed Wood. Halfway through Ed, Heather showed up and we left Katelyn and Heather some space and Jack and I went to bother Sara and use her microwave to make the once-again-starving Jack some ramen and ended up watching Igby Goes Down and ordering pizza and hanging out until we went to bed.

Slept in this morning, discovered my internet still does not work, but Dulcey's does (she lives beside me) and Lianne's does (down the hall) and Dillon's does (across from Sara, so downstairs) and we're greatly confused. Grabbed Sara and Katelyn to go to library to get internet (Jack realized he had forgotten to wash his binder yesterday, so he was off to the laundry room again) and stayed there until Jack and I exchanged the following text messages:
me: I have your wallet.
him: Die Krappen!?
me: What are you trying to say, sweetie? Did you lose your mommy?
him: Damn you.
me: Kisses!
him: I need to get lunch before SAGA closes at 1!
me: I'm coming.
And so we went and ate for a while and then Jack finished his laundry and now we are relaxing on the grass in the sunshine and things are biting me and we are thinking about doing homework but we are so lazy. I have an essay to write for WWII and so do Jack and Katelyn and maybe we'll get to that today. Maybe the internet in our rooms will come back, too.

Always

Of course Saturday morning is the morning everyone decides to take a shower at the same time. Grr waiting hate.

So what have I been up to? Everything. Let me think. Thursday was a day for sleeping in and being lazy for a while... then it was Yiddish Lit, which I ADORE. I am one of 3 Gentiles in the class, and it's at the awesome awesome Yiddish Book Center which is FULL of super-old books that are all in Yiddish and I am pretty sure that if I just knew the Hebrew alphabet I would be able to read them pretty well cause Yiddish is just German with a funny accent. I don't even mind too much that it's a 3 hour class, cause Rachel (our prof) breaks it up pretty well and who doesn't love reading Yiddish stories that are hilarious and sad and sweet and perfect? Then I hung out with Monica for a bit and then it was off to Convocation, the official start of the school year. Bagpipes led us in what they called a processional, but since it's Hampshire, it was just a crowd of people walking toward RCC with some bagpipes ahead of us. Then there were a bunch of speeches, and Ralph ranted about Don't Ask Don't Tell for a while and Katelyn swears it related to something cause I guess she listened but I was really just there to get my Hampshire button and now I have my official button and Jack and Sara were all "oh we are going to take forever to come back from Mt Holyoke and miss Convocation and now we have no buttons" and I am all "hahahahaha." After Convo, there was a cook-out and we ate hamburgers and watermelon and sat on the grass like Hampshire students (Madelaine reports that Amherst students are waaaay too prissy to sit on the grass and it makes us laugh). Then Katelyn and Jack and I were good little students and retreated to our rooms to read Watch on the Rhine, a play from 1940 about how the US needed to enter WWII. We acted it out and had so much fun with it and you should have been there but you weren't. Katelyn told Aaron about it at her meeting with him yesterday and he said he wished he had been there, too. In between reading, I went to meet up with the storytellers, and we're planning a festival for the 22nd and I'll be telling and have to find a story soon! Also while I was in the meeting Jack made a very important impulse purchase completely without me and I am deeply offended that I was not there for that momentous occasion, but I will be certain to be around when the package arrives. Also we hung out and played lots of very loud very gay music cause we're awesome like that. Had World War II class on Monday and we talked about the play and the essays we have to write for Wednesday, and I made Jack and Katelyn like 2 minutes late and Jack glared at me and then he later drew on my foot while I was trying to say something in class and it tickled and I ignored it and it was very difficult. He didn't even draw anything pretty on my foot. I love this class cause Will and Aaron make us think and make us push our ideas and I feel like I am learning so much that has nothing to do with World War II. Then it was lunchtime, cause Jack had overslept and missed breakfast and was going to have some sort of fainting spell if we didn't feed him. Jack had no pockets in his pants, so I somehow inherited his keys and wallet, and of course took full advantage of this new power by not giving him his keys back when he wanted them and we had a nice long glorious pretend fight about it but now my big duckie is missing and we're going to have to get Phil off searching for it. And then I felt a little bad about accidently locking Jack's keys in my room while I went to Phonetics, but I felt less bad when he tried to send me angry text messages about it, except they didn't show up until 5 hours later, and so I had a good laugh about his terrible phone service (and probably mine too). After Phonetics class (which is 20 college students sitting around trying to make weird vowel sounds and it's awesome), Katelyn came by and made Jack vaccuum his rug (this makes sense if you have ever seen Jack's rug) and then we hung out for a while and got some dinner and waited for Katelyn's girlfriend Heather to come and take us to Northhampton, and then she was late, and there was hanging out on a bench and being tall, and leaf fights, and I decided that I need to poke Jack all the time and more leaf fights and then Heather finally came and we drove to Noho. Noho is full of awesome stores, as you know, and I bought a teapot and a tea filter and I am a happy girl. Then we stood in the longest line to get ice cream at Harrell's but it was amazing ice cream and made us really happy too. Then we got lost for a while trying to get back, with 4 people crammed in the back seat of Heather's car, and then we finally did get back and decided it was time for a Queer as Folk party and so we watched QaF for 3 hours in Katelyn's room and then I went to sleep and now it's half an hour after I first checked the showers, so I think I am going to go see if one is open now, or maybe venture to another hall to use their shower.

Big Disco Ball

Ah, Wednesday. My day of full classes. (Further investigation has revealed I have no Spanish on Fridays, so Wednesday is my only crazy day.) Woke up early-ish, chilled until I met Sara and Katelyn to walk over to our tutorials, found out that Jack has Acting before WWWII, which he didn't bother to tell me, enjoy having a history class where I understand what is going on again yay for English. Wandered to Post Office, Central Records, ate lunch before Sara had to go to her next class, headed back to Dakin, where I discovered that my ethernet cable reaches my doorway, meaning I can sit in my door and yell at Jack while we each check our e-mail. Went to Phonetics class, taught by an awesome bioacoustician named Mark Feinstein, and I'm excited about this class. Went to Spanish, taught by an awesome Columbian lady named Nubia, who promises weekly parties where we will eat food (such as Columbian food and Argentinian food) and dance and sing songs. Also there are waaaay too many people in my class who have already had Spanish, which angers me because they should probably be in some higher class to allow true beginners the option to truly begin. Grrr. Laughed a lot in that class cause Nubia is a funny lady who makes us laugh. Ran to dinner while on the phone with a neurotic Jack who always thinks we will be late, ate quickly, still got to showing of Modern Times early, gave Jack a hard time. Watched Modern Times and laughed at Charlie Chaplain for being a funny, funny man. Came back to Dakin, retreated to Katelyn's room to read Charles Lindbergh biography, apparently written by out-of-work trashy romance novelist, since half was about Charles's escapades in Florida with his wife (using thinly veiled metaphors about mangroves and ibises) and the other half was about Lindy being some sort of anti-Semite isolationist who maybe hated Jews but maybe just didn't really care about Jews but certainly singled the Jews out many times and there's this one picture where it looks like he's Sieg Heiling, but he's really doing the Pledge of Allegiance and gosh he was friends with lots of idealistic young college men. Also people in the 1940s had really, really funny names, and also Katelyn kept having to say "ovation," Jack and I had an argument about my ability to pronounce "tribune" affecting his ability to pronounce "tribune," and by the end of the night half of Jack's clothes were scattered across Katelyn's bed and we have no idea why. We have a 3-page Lindberg speech to read still, and also a play, and Jack's off-campus for Spanish tomorrow, and it's Convocation and various other early-evening activities. While reading aloud may be a whole lot more fun (and it really is), it also takes a whole lot longer. Le sigh.

Fun fact: Katelyn lives on an all-female hall (although, unlike sub-free, males are allowed to come on the halls (sub-free means no substances on the hall ever even in your body) and also apparently chill in a girl's dorm and sit on the bed with a girl and randomly peel articles of clothing off while reading Jack is really strange and I adore run-ons) and they have a cutesy sign on the bathroom that you have to turn when there's a boy in there.



Addendum: and then the fire alarm went off at 1 o'clock in the totally friggin' morning. The rumor I heard was that it was our detested lounge dwellers, who probably are chuckle-headed enough to do such a thing. Sleep now angry grrrr.

I've Got You Under My Skin

Silly blog, I feel compelled to tell you my every move when I really want to sleep. It's only 11:31, but I had to get up early. I can sleep much later tomorrow.

Tonight was wonderfully chill. After heading over to Jackson's mod to hang out and watch Margaret Cho and also watch Jackson's modmates stock their fridge, I came back and grabbed Jack and Sara for dinner, and then Jack and I decided it was time to do our homework. Earlier in the afternoon, Jack was chilling in my room, unsure what to do with himself, and I suggested he read the assignment while I knit. Then I suggested that he read it outloud so we could both benefit, and he laughed and took it as the joke I intended it. Only at dinner did we realize the genius of this concept, and we locked ourselves in Jack's room shortly thereafter and proceeded to read the entire 45 pages aloud to each other (I took even pages and he took odd. We stopped mid-sentence when the page stopped mid-sentence), having far more fun than we should have as our ability to pronounce the big silly words the author loves broke down (your word of the day is "desiderata." Jack's is "proferred" and mine is "indefatigable," cause we each had to say those words frequently and never could) and Sara occasionally stopped by and told us we were very cute. I also learned that Jack can't say numbers when he is reading out loud, for which I teased him mercilessly. And he teased me mercilessly for always changing the pronounciation of place names when I read them aloud. I am pretty sure all future readings for this class will be accomplished this way. Our reading was interrupted by the all-important hall meeting, in which Phil shared his 7 pound bag of candy (I love Phil) and talked about hall stuff and confirmed our queer status and we decided that we need to get together and make a big sparkly gay sign to make the other halls jealous. And we set quiet hours on weekends until 11 in the morning, which makes me happy. Then Jack and I kept reading, then we finished our reading and sat on his bed and talked until Sara came back from hanging out with her Mt Holyoke friend Karina, and then the three of us talked a bit but realized we are all super-tired, and it is sleep time.

I am so happy about my schedule, and happy that classes start tomorrow.

My Schedule

Just got back from meeting with Aaron, my advisor (also Dean of Faculty), and we got my schedule all fixed up and pretty. Just look at it:

Yep, no classes on Tuesday, just Spanish on Monday evenings, a little busier Wednesday and Friday, but overall lots of nice sleeping in and free time. Free time which I suppose I will be using for doing a lot of reading and writing for my tutorial. Got the syllabus today and bought my books (3 big thick huge things and a play for this one class) and the first essay is due the 13th. I'm gonna read for a bit now until Jack gets back from meeting with Will (our other prof and his advisor), and then I might bother him until we go and grab Sara from the library to get some lunch. I've got a meeting about work-study at 1, and a hall meeting at 8 (where we will hopefully deal with the loudness and find out once and for all if we are in fact the queer hall), and Sara's friend from Smith (or is it Mt Holyoke?) is coming by this evening. Classes start tomorrow! 

Black Hole Sun

(Yes, I am just clicking on iTunes and making it pick a random song to name my posts. I am feeling uninspired).


Woke up with a sore throat this morning, which is definitely Jack's fault. Glad he made me take my kettle last night cause I needed tea. Two cups in the hour before I left my room, during which I read e-mail and then talked to Jack and Jackson who wandered by, and then realized at 9:33 that I had to meet my orientation group at 9:30, and so I threw clothes on and threw the boys out and went off to find that the group had not left me, and we took a nice big walking tour of campus to figure out where stuff is. Then we took a nice long walk to Flavors, the awesome ice cream place where the cows that produce the milk are literally in the field behind the ice cream stand. It was wonderful. Came back, knitted for a while, met the dean who leads the knitting circle, talked about knitting circle, generally hung out with fingers covered in yarn. Now I am going to go grab Sara and we are going to venture to the post office cause I haven't checked my box yet. As a reminder, here is where you should send me stuff:
Kari Collins
Hampshire College Box 354
Amherst, MA 01002
USA
Please send me things I like mail.

We are pretty sure that we have confirmed the rumors that F2 is the queer hall.

After post office adventures came dinner and then wandering around and some plant-related harassing of Alex by Jack and then Jack by me and then all of us by Alex and probably some other combinations maybe, and then we played cards until it was time for Kate Bornstein's lecture. She was AMAZING. I won't go into details since this is a family blog, but she talked about gender and sex and identity and desire and power and God and gave us all "get out of hell free" cards and was generally one of the most awesome ladies I have ever met, inasmuch as she is a lady. Then we went to watch Velvet Goldmine cause Jack's packages arrived today and that means all his movies are here and we only just finished and I have class at 9 tomorrow, so I think I will sleep.

My Lady's House

I don't actually have a lady, but if I did, her house would be Dakin, because Dakin is the best house. Today, in bullet-list form (I love bullet lists- if you don't, I don't care)
-meant to sleep in, but everyone else on the hall got up and was opening and closing our dorm's loud doors, and I got up at 8:30 anyway. Ate my chocolate crossaint while talking to Jack (and making him jealous of my crossaint), wandered through the rain to meet orientation group at 10. (by the way, Kace, we don't call it o-week. your school is weird.)
-drew a picture and painted a flowerpot
-went back to room, met Sara for lunch, ran into Jack, found pudding, had much happiness
-met up with orientation group again to walk to Eric Carle museum of picture book art. Love this museum. Looked at all the pretty pictures (they have a Wizard of Oz exhibit right now!!), bought giant rubber duckie for $4, saw more kids in an art museum than ever before.
-toured dorms with orientation group in effort to discover where we all live. still think dakin is awesome and merrill is twisted and confusing and hopeless.
-went to explore the basement of dakin with Sara, found laundry room and rec room, went back to Sara's room and chilled until dinner
-ran into Alex in dinner line, determined that we must stick together so I could trade my short ethernet cable for his super-long ethernet cable (as agreed yesterday but then we lost each other), ate dinner with Sara and Alex and Morgan, decided to have a big Queer as Folk party with Sara's dvds after dinner. Called Jack to come to QaF party. Had popsicle battle with Alex (that I won no matter what he says), presaging continued attempts of Alex and I to prove that one of us was in some way superior to the other. I am superior.
-went back to Dakin while Alex went to grab his ethernet cable, made the trade, grabbed supplies for QaF party, put Sara's pudding in Jack's fridge
-went to basement, watched wonderful beautiful beloved cheesy funny Queer as Folk (also fought with the dvd player for a bit cause not a single remote had batteries)
-returned upstairs, ambivilated between my room and Jack's, settled on his, listened to music and talked and ate pudding and drank tea
-Alex and Morgan decided to return to Merrill, claiming "lateness." the three remaining settled in to chill, complain about the bass down the hall
-at 11:03 (quiet hours start at 11 on weeknights), wonderful beloved awesome beloved intern Phil came up and told the bass party people to shut up, we told Phil we loved him
-at 11:23, the bass started again
-at 11:30, Phil returned, party people claimed they forgot, bass stopped for good. tonight at least.
-talked, learned to play hearts, did semi-okay at hearts, taught Jack to play capitalism, remained in 2nd throughout capitalism
-decided we were tired and broke off, asked Jack if I could just retrieve my mugs later meaning all stuff I had in his room, he said sure meaning just the mugs, drug my kettle and tea bags back across the hall and teased Jack about being silly
-wrote blog from bed using power of new super-long ethernet cable for which Alex gets much love
-sleep

The Way Things Work

To give you a sense of Hampshire life, or at least the sense that I have of it, I am going to list the things I have done the past few days in general order, without excess commentary. Assume that there is much meeting of awesome people and making of friends going on during all of this. (Not listing all of the awesome people, much as I love you all, 'cause I'll leave someone out and feel bad. Also I keep forgetting names.)

Friday
-sat in some assembly about hampshire academics that I honestly do not remember
-broke off into tutorials, met my awesome two profs of said tutorial (which is just one of my four classes that has a different name because the prof is my advisor so QUIT ASKING ME) and discussed that book that we were all supposed to read and most people at least skimmed parts of and determined that none of us, including the profs, understands it but had a really cool discussion anyway that was really a discussion and not those high school things where the teacher tries to drag any sort of comment out of anyone while looking at the answers in front of her.
-stood in a long line to get lunch
-went to take a "student survey" for which I will be paid $50 and which consisted of me evaluating social dilemmas or something but it was multiple choice and I knew I was at Hampshire when the faculty dude giving us the survey was reading the required instructions and said "remain inside the ovals. I know this is Hampshire and that goes against our 'it's okay to go outside the lines' policy, but this is the last time you have to stay inside the lines. After this, you can go wherever you want."
-went to a program about sexual assualt that actually had really powerful amazing speakers and included actual discussion within an auditorium of over 400 students. got fodder for many future jokes about the word "consent"
-stood in a very long line for dinner then sat with some random folks to meet new people
-thought about going to the 80s dance being offered, until Jack from across the hall came by with a cold and I made him tea, and then Dulcey from next door said something about watching Harold and Maude, and the next thing I knew I was in some dude's room (still not sure who it was) watching Harold and Maude with a bunch of people, of whom I knew about half their names, and laughing and laughing. We were in the dude's room cause he had a double and we all had singles, so he had space for all of us.
-slept until my alarm went off and then it was
SATURDAY
-avoided the breakfast line by being late and sat with some random folks to meet new people
-met up with the orientation group to go watch PSAs made by the house interns to tell us about the rules and issues that might come up living in the dorms and whatnot. People who know what the DYC Rules Video at Blackstone was will have an idea of what was going on. Dakin House had the best video, I must say, but perhaps I'm biased.
-listened to "high on hampshire" presentation, which was about the use of substances at Hampshire
-sat in a circle on some sort of platform in the middle of a field with a random group of first years and older students to discuss something that happened last night that upset us in an angry fashion, not a scared or sad fashion, although there was a bit of sadness. Noticed how amazingly the older students discussed these things, had one of those "wow I am at Hampshire things are so different here" moments
-stood in the longest line yet for lunch
-decided not to go to the talk by the author of the book we had to read that we all at least skimmed but none of us liked, instead went to Jackson's mod with Jack and Sarah to watch queer movies and hang out and laugh a lot
-went to dinner early, circumventing most of the line and discovering the dual joys of having a wide selection of tables and discovering that there are sometimes pies for dessert. mourned lack of pudding, which was at lunch yesterday and we have failed to find again, although Jack and I make relgious pudding runs. laughed and laughed at truly offensive jokes.
-met some of orientation group to walk across cornfield and buy half-off pastries. not sure which part of that activity was better. plan to eat pastries for breakfast and thus avoid the long line and waking up before 9 associated with SAGA (the dining hall)
-went to hear Elaine Brown lecture. fell in love with Elaine Brown, figuratively. knew I was at Hampshire when things that would be considered incredibly liberal at home were the conservative things here, felt inspired for activism but totally overwhelmed. love my school more than you can imagine.
-returned to room, checked facebook, realized that a girl I had not yet met said she had a present for me. wandered over to merrill, discovered merrill is really twisted and confusing and impossible to navigate, found her room anyway, she gave me tea and we talked about kettles for a bit. love this school so very much.
-am now sitting in my own room, glad that the bass-blaring folks down the hall are quiet, cause I'm exhausted and might sleep when I finish typing this. ADORE my school.
-update 1:14 am: the bass-blarers didn't exactly stay quiet, but they were at least intermittent. Jack showed up for tea, and we talked for what I guess was 3 hours. Tea and talking is good, even when it's late at night and you're braindead.

Caring Is Creepy

Moved in to my beloved Hampshire yesterday, am in the process of meeting many fine and awesome people, doing all these orientation things, some sillier than others. Impatient cause I want classes to start, hungry. Going to correct that last one by getting some breakfast now.

Winding Road

Boston is a pretty great city, but it's raining, so I'm in the hotel room looking outside, wishing it were prettier. Got in yesterday (after grueling terrible terrible car ride that made me miserable), ate food, knit (all that's left on my first mitten is the thumb... still have to make the second mitten, of course), slept. Woke up today, went and looked at Tufts for Travis, got superiority complex when they talked about "majors" and "requirements," went into downtown Boston, walked in rain, looked at gravestones, looked at buildings, decided it was too wet, came back to hotel, went to lunch, returned to hotel, internet.

A List of Books I Read This Summer, Just Because:
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Gangster We Are All Looking for by le thi diem thuy
That last one's my summer reading assignment and in progress, the 3 before it rank among the best things I have read. Ever. Up there with the Color Purple and Dorian Gray and the Talented Mr Ripley. I wanted to read more, but I got distracted by other things.

A Good Flying Bird

I'm now in New Jersey, I hate cars more with each passing day, I'm sleepy. Lexi's developed a strange love for repeating songs, I have nothing interesting to say.

A Hundred Miles of Bad Road

Guess what? The Maryland Welcome Center has wi-fi! So you get a very very exciting update to say "I'm in Maryland now, on my way to New Jersey, which is a stop along the week-long expedition to Hampshire-land."


Trains are still way better than cars. I'd rather be having a cup of Earl Grey and some chocolate cake than mineral water and a granola bar right now, let me tell you.

I Cut All My Hair Off

Pictures forthcoming.